An Italian Christmas

We've started several Christmas traditions, and one of them is having an Italian meal on Christmas Day. We enjoy the ham, turkey, stuffing and other side items at Thanksgiving, but we like to do something different for Christmas.

This year we made seafood lasagna rolls-ups stuffed with asparagus and topped with a creamy vodka tomato sauce. Besides looking like Christmas colors of red, green and white, they were delicious. We prepare everything on Christmas Eve, so all we need to do on Christmas Day is bake everything.

Our Christmas Eve meal carries over from my parent's tradition of having ham sandwiches, sausage balls and chips and dip. We bought Boar's Head deli meat from Kroger, and they have some great selections. We decided on the Salsalito turkey and rosemary and sundried tomato ham with Havarti dill and Asiago cheese slices. We eat the sandwiches on onion rolls, and this year, we tried a new brand we found at Meijer stores, Aunt Millie's. They were better than ones we've had in the past.

This meal would not be complete without David's favorite chip ever, Cool Ranch Doritos.

We also make sausage balls each year, and David is holding the giant sausage ball before I rolled about 50 individual ones. This year, I used the sage pork sausage and Bisquick and added some Gruyere cheese along with extra sharp cheddar, garlic salt and red pepper flakes.

OK, back to the seafood lasagna meal. We used crab, lobster and bay scallops for the filling. David sauteed the crab in a dab of olive oil, and then cooked the lobster in Sherry cream.

He then mixed in some minced garlic while he cooked the scallops in garlic butter.

Next, he combined all the seafood and garlic with ricotta cheese and two eggs.

Here is what the filling looks like before it's rolled into the cooked lasagna noodles.

We steamed the asparagus and set it aside.

It's time to put everything together.

Start with a lasagna noodle.

Add some seafood and ricotta cheese mixture.

Cut the asparagus into smaller pieces and add it.

Almost ready to roll it up!

Let's roll!

The first one in the pan.

They keep multiplying.

Finally finished rolling.

For the sauce, we used a jar of Vodka sauce, a jar of light Alfredo sauce, a can of Italian style diced tomatoes, Italian seasoning, and some garlic cloves.

We poured the sauce on top and covered the dish for baking on Christmas Day.

A Christmas meal wouldn't be complete without Herman rolls.

We also had an Italian side salad with mixed greens, tomatoes, black olives, carrots, green peppers, banana peppers, green onions and grated Parmesan cheese.

Here is the main course hot out of the oven and topped with Pecorino Romano cheese.

It was a delicious meal!

Hope you had a Merry Christmas!

Finally Updated: Twelve Days of Christmas Top TV Specials

I apologize for not posting a daily update with a different Christmas TV special, but the holidays happened, and I got a little busy. So, I'm listing the remaining top ones on my personal list here. I already mentioned The Brady Bunch, Frosty the Snowman, Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, How the Grinch Stole Christmas, and Grandma Got Run Over by a Reindeer

Next on the list is a favorite of so many generations—Charlie Brown Christmas. It first aired in 1965.



I have seen this one many times, and I have it on VHS and DVD, but there is still something magical about watching it live each year when it airs on ABC. It used to only air once per season, but now ABC airs it twice during the holidays.

Switching to Christmas movies, I have a couple of favorites. I still enjoy watching the original Home Alone made in 1990.



I can't believe it's 20 years old this year. I remember seeing it in the theater with my mom and brother after Christmas and on the Sunday before school started again Monday.

Another favorite movie that I love watching every year on TV is National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation made in 1989.



I have many favorite scenes in the movie, but my favorite is the singing of the National Anthem near the end.



A new favorite from this year is Glee's Christmas episode on TV. Only in its second season, this show has soared in the ratings.



I am a huge fan of The Golden Girls, and I've probably seen every episode multiple times. There were a couple of Christmas shows, and I like "Twas the Nightmare Before Christmas," in which Rose is working at a counseling center, and a man dressed as Santa Claus comes in on Christmas Eve and holds Rose, Blanche and Dorothy hostage since he wants to spend Christmas with others and not alone. The girls are trying to make it the airport in time for their flights to visit family members, and in classic Sophia fashion, she walks into the counseling center after waiting in the car for a while and takes the gun out of the man's hands since it was a toy gun.

Thinking the day is saved, the women rush to the airport just in time to make their flights, but due to a storm, all the flights out of Miami are canceled, so they end up at a diner, eating their favorite dessert, cheesecake. To make it a great Christmas episode, it starts snowing in Miami during the last scene of the episode.



I've also seen every episode of the original Beverly Hills 90210, and in this Christmas episode, Brenda brings home a Santa Claus who she thinks is homeless to spend Christmas Eve with the gang.



Thanks for reading until the end. My all-time favorite Christmas TV special/movie is The Best Christmas Pageant Ever based on a book. It's a great story of the unruly Herdman children who show up to a church service in early December because they think there are free snacks, and end up taking over most of the parts in the annual Christmas pageant. The TV special was made in 1986, and I have a copy on VHS that I watch every Christmas. It's still the best!



Hope you enjoyed reading this list and watching all of these Christmas specials and others on television. Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas!

We have a white Christmas in Lexington this year. It started snowing around 10 p.m. Christmas Eve and continued through the early morning hours.

We woke up to several inches of the white fluffy stuff on the ground, and it's a gorgeous sight on Christmas Day. According to the weather folks, this is only the 12th white Christmas in Lexington since 1872.

In honor of the holiday, Sammie and Cash put on their Christmas hats.

Sammie was less than thrilled and told Cash he had to wear all of them.

Cash the elf

Cash Kringle

Santa Cash

How do you like my beard?

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas from Sammie Claus and Cash Kringle!

Hello, everyone! It’s Sammie Ann Beutke DeVito, the feline daughter of David and Allyson, writing again this year. We hope you’re doing well, staying warm and enjoying the holiday season. I have lots of exciting news to share about our lives in 2010 and in 2011!

I prefer the warmth and comfort of my winter blanket than playing outside in the snow.

First, we’re now living in the Bluegrass—Lexington, Kentucky. I don’t know why they call it the blue grass since the grass isn’t blue, but I digress. My super smart dad accepted a full-time chemistry lecturer position at Eastern Kentucky University (EKU) in Richmond, Kentucky, about 20 miles south of Lexington. Ironically, his luck started to change in August when he received a phone call from the chemistry department head on Friday the 13^th, and a little more than a week later, he started teaching three chemistry lecture courses and two labs. 

The view from my dad's office at Eastern Kentucky University.

My mom already signed up to teach at UT-Knoxville, so the fall was a bit of transition, but luckily they found a house for us in Lexington and we moved on the weekends during September.

The front of our rental house in Lexington with some fall decorations.

For the first few weeks, my dad had to live in an apartment until our rental house was ready. The apartment smelled like a combination of cigarette smoke, animal urine and mold, but it had gorgeous hard wood floors. Lucky him! 

The smelly apartment my dad lived in, but look at those gorgeous wood floors!

We really like our new house in Lexington since Cash and I now have stairs to run up and down. My mom says it's funny how folks ask about us and want to make sure we like the new place. They seem more concerned about us than my parents. That’s so sweet of you. 

This is a view from the top of the stairs. Note the ledge that goes across. Cash loves to run up the stairs and then jump onto the ledge and walk from end to end. It makes my mom a nervous wreck!

A lot of the streets up here are named after famous racehorses, such as Man O’ War Boulevard, Star Shoot Parkway and Sir Barton Way, since Lexington is the horse capital of the world. I think Sammie Sleeps A Lot would be a good name for a horse.

My dad is teaching five classes again in the spring, and he really likes the campus and all the people, including most of his students. Several of them nominated him to attend a faculty appreciation dinner this fall. 

Dad wore a tie to his appreciation dinner, and Cash insisted on trying it on for size.

Anyway, he’s still getting crazy excuses from students about why they can’t attend class because someone in the their family had a bizarre accident and/or near-death experience each week of the semester. While some of them sound outrageous, one of his students did have to go home because her grandmother was arrested for driving under the influence and smoking marijuana, and she had to bail her out of jail. True story!

My mom taught her final class at UT and will teach at EKU in the spring. During October and November, she commuted from Lexington back to Knoxville one or two days a week to teach. It was a beautiful two and half hour drive each way with the fall leaves changing. She said the worst part was the other drivers who try to pass in the left lane but still drive the same speed as the cars and trucks in the right line. As part of a completely unscientific study, she observed that the drivers who most often commit this offense and don’t know how to drive at all have Ohio license plates. Coming in second, Michigan drivers!

While this photo doesn't contain any Ohio drivers, my mom saw a lot of them trying to drive.

My parents made a short trip to Florida in September to meet my new human cousin, Judson Beutke, who was born to Kristen and Jason on September 14. 

Judson with his dad, Jason, and a Gator outfit my parents got him. He's only a couple days old here.

I’ve seen photos, and he’s a cutie pie with chubby cheeks, and some of his facial expressions remind me of Grandpa Amos.

Everyone loves this photo of three generations, Grandpa Amos, Uncle Jason and Cousin Judson.

Grandpa Amos took this photo of Judson, and it's one of my mom's favorites. Wonder what he's thinking about?

What a happy family! Judson is wearing the Santa Pooh Bear/Baby's 1st Christmas outfit my parents bought for him.

He already weighs more than Cash and I combined! I found a t-shirt online (WARNING: This link has some offensive t-shirts on it!) I thought about ordering for him. On the front, it says: “I’ve accomplished more than Obama!”

In other exciting baby news, my parents are finally ready to share their big baby news—we now have three new fish and are hoping for babies soon! Cash is still a great help with feeding them each night. 

They are hard to see in this photo since they are rather small, but our new fish seem to love their new home.

The first visitor to our house, besides the plumber and the gas man, was Grandpa Sam. He drove up again this year for Thanksgiving. We set him down in front of the gas fireplace since he was cold in Knoxville last year. I also sat on his lap while he watched The History Channel over and over and over again.

Notice the remote control in his hand and the blanket and me on his lap.

For New Year’s, we’re expecting a visit from Grandma Betty, Grandpa Jean-Paul, Aunt Allison and Uncle Matt, and our canine cousin, Toby! Maybe I can convince Toby that he needs a brother, and they’ll take Cash home with them. A girl can dream, can’t she!

I got this photo from Aunt Allison's Facebook page. Toby was a hot dog for Halloween. Isn't he cute!!!

We’re hoping Grandma Sharon and Grandpa Amos visit us soon. I’ve got some word jumbles I can’t solve, and she’s so good at them. Some of you might have heard that Grandma Sharon was diagnosed with the earliest form of breast cancer in September. She underwent surgery and then seven weeks of radiation and is doing great. She appreciates all your thoughts and prayers and reminds you to have a yearly mammogram since early detection is so important. Save the Ta-Tas!

Doesn't Grandma Sharon look great! I wonder why she isn't working on a word jumble in this photo.

Oh, I completely forgot to share the biggest and most life-changing event that will happen in August 2011 for our family. After much praying and planning, I know a lot of you have been waiting for the special official announcement: My dad has been accepted to the University of Kentucky’s College of Dentistry. That’s right…he’s going to be a dentist. The man loves school more than Sarah Palin loves Alaska! I can’t imagine sticking my paws in someone else’s mouth, but he’s quite excited about it. I did make him promise that he’ll never try to clean my teeth though. Did you know Kentucky has the most number of people with few or no teeth? They really love to drink Mountain Dew up here. We’re very happy for him since it just confirms what Cash and I have known all along—cats, especially wildcats, make the best college mascots! 

The dental program at UK in Lexington is four years long, so we’ll live here for a while. My mom will always be a Gator and a Volunteer, but she and I are quite excited to eliminate orange from her wardrobe. She says the color orange is for the fruit, not the person. Kentucky’s colors are blue and white, which match my gorgeous blue eyes and snow white underbelly perfectly. Coincidence? I think not. In case you haven’t figured out my parent’s pattern, they just move from SEC to SEC to SEC school. I’m hoping this is the last stop, and we don’t move farther north, especially to a place like Ohio. I mean their mascot is a nut, the buckeye. I’m sure they chose it because they’re nutty drivers. (If you don’t get this joke, please refer to paragraph nine of this letter.)

My mom made my dad a blue and white Kentucky Christmas tree once he found out about his acceptance to UK's College of Dentistry.

We’ve already had more snow in Lexington than we did all last winter in Knoxville. It snowed 4 to 6 inches the first and second weekends in December. 

Look at the poor dog who has to go outside and use the bathroom in this weather. I'm so thankful for our indoor litter box!

Highs barely make it out of the 20s and lows have been in the single digits with wind chills below zero.

We had a wintry mix of ice and snow Dec. 16, and a 1/4 inch of ice covered the several inches of snow already on the ground. There is still ice on our back porch more than a week later on Christmas Eve.

The weather folks said Lexington usually gets about 16 inches of snow each winter, but we’ve already had half of that, so I’m just hoping the groundhog doesn’t see his shadow on February 2, and winter will be over. Do you ever wonder how a groundhog can predict the weather? Couldn’t a cat have the same magical powers? Maybe I’ll stick Cash in a hole in the ground that day, and we’ll see if he comes out and sees his shadow or not.

My mom took Cash outside in the snow to play, but there was so much that he just sank down in it and couldn't really walk.

We hope that when you think of all the Christmas cards you get each year, you remember mine, I mean ours, as your favorite. I had writer’s block for a while this holiday season. It takes a lot to be this creative and still find time to nap 20 hours a day. I wonder how members of Congress maintain the same schedule. 

We love naps!

Merry Christmas! Happy New Year! Please come visit us! Have your pets spayed or neutered!

                                                                       

Love,

Sammie, Cash, David, and Allyson DeVito (dmdevito@gmail.com or allydevito@gmail.com)

***My parents no longer have a home phone…something Grandpa Amos, who worked for the telephone company for almost 40 years, still can’t comprehend!

P.S. I know the Gator Nation had a rough football season, and Urban Meyer has said he’s stepping down again. At least the new coach has a winning name. Coach Muschamp must be a champ! Get it! Have a wonderful 2011 and Go Wildcats! Go Gators! Go Volunteers!