Countdown to Greek Christmas

 It’s about 10:30 p.m. and I’ve just gotten back from the UofM where I handed in my last paper of the semester (o.k. I made a stop at Canadian Tire to eye their holiday decorations and pick up a toy Spiderman car for my son). 

So you’d think I’d be relieved, looking forward to some much needed relaxation, getting ready to catch up on some zzzs.

Not likely.  The first thought that popped into my head as I pulled up into that frigid Canadian Tire parking lot late this evening was:  I’M HOSTING CHRISTMAS!!!

Yeah, and this is no regular Christmas I’m hosting; this is Greek Christmas.  So this weekend, my husband and I are off to buy a stand up freezer for our furnace room so I can get an early start making Mousaka, pork meatballs and rice filled grape leaves for about two dozen of our closest family members.

And when our kitchen gets completed, I’ll need to quickly start furnishing it with roasting pans and hot plates to accommodate the twenty –some high-fat-high-prep-time dishes Greek Christmases entail.

And this is not a joke by the way.  I’m soon to turn into someone that no one is going to want to be around in the evenings as I use Greek tunnel vision to hammer out the ethnic menu and furnish my house with ridiculous looking ornaments.

If I’m smart, I’ll start pre-addressing the 100 holiday photo cards that I ordered last week (the ones where I dressed my kids up like candy canes and made them sit on a rocking horse and say "Santa").   The lady at the photo studio cautiously asked me why I needed so many cards.  I told her I was Greek and she nodded with understanding.  I’m assuming my friend Mary Ellen was in earlier.

So there you have it folks.  Starting tomorrow, I’ll be counting down the days until I plop that 25 pound oregano-basted turkey onto our newly refurbished kitchen island.  If you’re looking for me, I’ll be baking, decorating, crafting and - you guessed it- slowly turning into my mother...

Oh, and I should mention that, in the next couple of weeks, I’ll be featuring great family oriented holiday events in my Parents and the City column that appears every Saturday in the Free Press Entertainment section.  If you have any suggestions for me, please pass them on. 

Happy December everyone!