The tradition in my family, a tradition that goes back as far as I can remember, was that at Thanksgiving we prepared turkey, dressing (cornbread dressing, not that bread stuffing or anything with oysters or sausage in it), sweet potatoes (not yams), mashed potatoes, giblet gravy and a few special family recipes. And then, we did it all over again at Christmas.
Being the renegade of my family, I broke with that tradition about three years ago. I started grilling steaks outdoors and serving salad, baked potatoes (sweet and russet) and maybe a steamed or roasted vegetable.
We still have the traditional desserts, cherry cream pie, sweet potato pie and plenty of peanut butter cookies, but no more turkey.
This actually was easier to do than I had anticipated. Mainly because the gathering consists of, rather than an extended family, my son, my parents (88 and 83) maybe a friend or two and sometimes my former wife, who also happens to be my good friend. Everyone seemed to like the idea of quicker prep time and much easier cleanup.
And who doesn't like a good filet? My older brother and his wife have come from Georgia for the holiday for the first time in about 10 years. I know they like steak, I just hope they like it at Christmas.
I also started grilling baby back ribs on New Year's Day a few years ago. That has been popular, too. To be honest, my 22-year-old son, Sam, does the grilling now. He took over when he decided he could do it better than I do. I put up a slight, mostly perfunctory, fight and then turned the flipper over to him. Scotch seems to taste better when you're filling the role of kibitzer rather than doing the actual cooking.
Traditions are made to be broken. And traditions are meant to be made.
Merry Christmas to you all. Hope you have a great Christmas dinner, no matter what it is.
