Traditional Christmas Eve Dinner

We just finished eating our traditional delicious Christmas Eve dinner and it was tender and absolutely delicious!

I encrusted the rib roast with fresh minced garlic, thyme, parsley, salt, pepper and olive oil.  I seared it on the grill and then slow roasted it in the oven...  

Although it appears to be rather small in this photo, below, it is a 5 lb rib roast.  This is how it looked when I took it out of the oven...

The roast was unbelievably tender and tasted great.  I made some mashed potatoes with sauteed onions.  Our side dish was carrots with a sauce of butter, brown sugar and maple syrup.  Of course, I made gravy too but I didn't add it to the dish until after the photos...  the gravy covers what I'm attempting to photograph so I shot the photos first...

And, lastly, I made some Yorkshire Pudding which was also delicious!  The last two times I have made this, however, they have stuck in the muffin pan so I think we need a new pan.  They lost most of their puffiness as I was trying to unstick them from the pan but they were still delicious...  

We had invited some friends over but they couldn't make it.  We had also invited Sheila's dad but we cancelled his visit yesterday due to me being sick with some sort of cold or virus.  We didn't want him getting sick too.  I was feeling better today (not perfect, but better than yesterday so we figured I'm no longer contagious) but Sheila isn't feeling all that great now.  Regardless, we re-invited him this evening so he wouldn't be sitting home alone but, understandably, he declined.  I assume this was due to us being sick.  I'd avoid us too!  

On the positive side, dinner was delicious!  Now...  if Sheila is done with the dishes, we might open some Christmas gifts...