Christmas Eve dinner at my mother-in-law's was the usual holday feast: salad, angel hair in garlic and oil, lobster tail and shrimp scampi. Plenty of homemade desserts and wine.

Christmas dinner at my parents' was also delicious. We had shrimp cocktail, a spiral sliced ham, chicken strips in a wine and butter sauce, mashed potatoes, glazed carrots, eggplant and rolls. Again there were assorted desserts.

I hit the cookies hard this holiday.

My brother in law also catered a dinner party on the 24th, and gave me a tray of linguine in white clam sauce and a lobster tail to take home. It's in the fridge now and I have plans to dig into it at lunch time.