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Friday, January 04, 2008

Christmas Dinner at Half the Price - Celebrating the Spirit of Christmas Need Not Be Expensive

Christmas eve has been a time for us to celebrate with my maid's family and some friends who we know will not be able to return the favor to us. Each year I manage to spend a larger amount than I have budgeted for the dinner that we serve our guests while we end up having more food in the ref than we originally started what with the mounds of chow that come from other friends and family members. This year I thought I would have to be wiser - make other people happy but without spending and wasting so much.
The secret really is to share your blessings. I mean literally share it. My menu consisted of Ham, fried chicken, pork in garlic and olive oil, spaghetti, fruit salad, bread and some pastries. Boyet brought home a basket of goodies for making spaghetti and fruit salad. We had some pastries given to us by different people which I served in a platter to make and decorated it with a small christmas figurine. Some of the fruits which we got too were mixed with the fruit salad. The ham was from Boyet's office too which I sliced and served with bread and some syrup. I had to buy the bread, chicken and pork and the coke drinks but that's all.
For the gifts, I recycled some of those given to us the previous year. Some were from the box that my mom sent us from the US. I didn't have to run out of gifts to give even when the crisp money from the bank did. Not bad. We had a really good time and everyone, both children and adults, had something to take home. At least now we did have everything that we wanted.

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