Dinner with my colleague

[stanthedevil]

I'm a musician, so Christmas Eve is going to be a looooooooooooooong day.  There is a break between Masses from about 11:30am until 3:00pm.  I invited my colleague who is also technically my boss* over for lunch during the break.  However, I'm really fretting about the menu.  He isn't a picky eater and doesn't have any dietary restrictions.

*We're really equals, but I needed internship credit to finish my degree, so he was my supervisor.  Now that my internship is over, I contract independently with him on special occasions like Christmas.  We're also getting to be pretty good friends, so the whole professional/personal line has been crossed and we're both comfortable with it.

I'm torn between two menu ideas:

1) Chicken and Rice Soup (Thick heavy soup, some people make it in a casserole dish instead)
    Sauteed Vegetable Medley
    Pumpkin Pie

2) Meatloaf
    Cheesy Bacon Baked Potatoes
    Vegetable Medley
    Pumpkin Pie

They could both use a little tweaking and I was hoping that all of you wonderful hostesses could help me out.  Any ideas?

[Gileswench]

All I can say is I'd be delighted with either of those menus. Is one of them easier for you to put together? If so, that's the one I'd probably go with, just because it's going to be a very long day for you. Finding ways to cut down the effort will help you keep going all day.

[TaylorMade]

It sounds like a really busy day!  Since that it the case I would go with the item that you can make the day before, and then just heat up for lunch.

If you do that I would go with the soup.  Soup always tastes better the next day, because it has a chance to soak up all the flavors!