We ate our big turkey dinner on Christmas Eve, leaving lots of leftovers for Christmas Day.

We chose that night so we could share dinner with our Helper and have her assist us too. I made dinner, while she took the kids out to play.

We had everything that reminded us of a Canadian Christmas: turkey, mashed potatoes, green bean, peas and corn, and pork stuffing. We bought the turkey pre-cooked that day, but made all the side dishes ourselves at home. I baked the stuffing separate in the oven according to Jonathan's mom's instructions (except I use gluten-free bread). I dug out the one package of Turkey Gravy Mix that I saved from the ones my Mom brought me last Christmas from Canada. Hazel took over the mashing of the potatoes when they girls got back from the playground, and they were as smooth as any restaurant potatoes I've eaten. Our mashed potatoes were made with lots of Dairy-free butter, and the tiniest bit of chicken broth to get the right consistency. If we didn't have food allergies, we easily could have ordered a full turkey dinner with all the trimmings delivered to our house.

I pulled out my vintage glass punch bowl, which I bought for a few dollars at an Estate Sale when I was a newly wed. It's very similar to, or possibly the same model as, the one my Granny always had out at Christmas. The Cranberry Punch in fancy glasses was MsI's favorite part of dinner, although she made a good effort to eat a giant Turkey Leg.

We had homemade dairy free shortbread. We have really good fake butter or this wouldn't have worked. We also had peanut butter cookies (naturally dairy and gluten free). I also had gluten free shortbread from Marks and Spencers. I ate those frozen, the way I like them best, just like how I used to eat Mom's Christmas baking right out of the deep freeze.

By the time everyone ate their fill of Christmas cookies, the kids were a bit wild for the upcoming presents, so our Helper and the girls exchanged presents.

MsC, Jonathan, and I each read a Christmas story to the girls in their new Christmas PJs and then it was off to bed. Finally all snug in their beds and asleep at about 10 pm, I then discovered Jonathan snoring away.Thankfully he woke up when I opened the bedroom door, because I really needed his help to sneak the presents out of MsI's bedroom.

Ever attempt to get large boxes of lego off the top shelf of the closet silently? I was on a ladder, in the dark, in the same room as a sleeping 3 year old, handing packages to Jonathan. We felt like Ninjas once we finally had everything out and closed the bedroom door without waking MsI up.

We also basically ran out of wrapping paper and tape, like every year. I had ordered 3 rolls of tape a few days before Christmas, but only one arrived through Amazon Delivery. The mall had been out of wrapping paper for days, but I bought some horrible stuff off the neighbours at the last minute. Our condo's Facebook social page is pretty helpful with stuff like that. Last year lots of people left their unused rolls in their Lobbies around the condo too.

The last of our Christmas Eve wrapping took longer than we anticipated, but we got it all done in time, and there were no "Wakers" despite both of the big girls swearing they were going to try to catch Santa.