Our friends, the Rabners, invited us over for Christmas dinner. They do something really out of the box and special for Christmas every year (last year they roasted a goose!). This year they ordered a whole pig to roast! They decided against cooking it in a pit, because they were concerned it wouldn't cook all the way because of their inexperience, so they hacked it apart (seriously- I saw pictures!) and smoked some, roasted some and even cooked the head. As you can see, it was a huge hit with the kids :)
Baby Lily even volunteered to kiss "Charlotte". Note- This pic is as far as she got. I think she got close and realized "What am I doing!?!?"
Aside from The Pig, the food was amazing! You can't beat having friends who own a smoker :) There were also awesome sweet potatoes with pecans (and I don't even LIKE sweet sweet potatoes!) fondue, salad, and Vietnamese spring rolls (our contribution, naturally). Laugh all you want about the spring rolls- they were a huge hit and everyone gobbled them up!
Naturally, given the availability of pig brains, we had to try them (and dare others to try it- including talking one of the elders into it!). Another friend said it was like sucking a crawdad head and it was supposed to be the best part of the pig. We smeared a bit on a cracker and it was OK. The texture was nice and creamy, but the taste was very iron-y and organ-y. Like liver patte, apparently. DMP went back for seconds (!) and another woman at the party who likes liver had some more, too. So I guess if you like liver (or don't think it is gross...) you will enjoy some pig brain.
I did find out that just after Christmas, my Dad offered to pay the grandkids $5 each to eat a bbq mealworm. He had to pay out a lot of dough! I wish I had called him before I ate pig brains for free. I wonder how much that would be worth?!?
Between dinner and dessert (crepes! So yummy and easy for a party!) we played a Rabner Christmas game called the Reindeer Race. Each person picks a reindeer name and then they "race" against each other to see who can tear through a 2-3 in. strip of newspaper the fastest without going off the edge of the paper (i.e. it has to be torn completely from top to bottom without veering off on a diagonal). It was surprisingly fun for such a simple concept! I think we'll add it to our Christmas fun in the future!
After the reindeer games we participated in a Philips family tradition: Acting out the Christmas story. Everyone, including adults, dresses up and participates in the retelling. It isn't very reverent, but it was a lot of fun.
Baby Lily played the part of Jesus' nanny this year. She is very into her baby dolls and did NOT want Mary to hold, touch, or move baby Jesus. It was so funny! The best part is that when we were driving home, EJ said "I don't remember in the scriptures where it says Jesus had a nanny...." Nothing like some good false doctrine with our Christmas!
Here is our fabulous cast of party goers (not pictured: DMP, the narrator). We had so much fun with our friends and we feel so blessed that we have such great people to celebrate with!
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