Wednesday Dec 24, 2008 -- Our family went to our friends, the McGoverns, for Christmas Eve dinner. Bonnie and I (mostly Bonnie) had spent the previous couple days collecting the ingredients and starting the preparation for two of our traditional Christmas Eve dishes, ,potato rolls and coconut beer-battered shrimp, to take to the dinner.

The shrimp are best eaten minutes after they are prepared and they are deep-fried three at a time which means I cook while others eat. Every year this drives Bonnie a little crazy, but I don’t cook nearly as often as she does so I don’t mind. It has become part of the tradition! This year, since it was raining, I set up the fryer in the McGoverns’ garage to keep the smell out of the house. It turned out that a large part of the party ended up in the garage with me! Everyone was talking and eating the shrimp as soon as they were ready. I probably made 40 shrimp before any were carried inside.