Okay, so you'd think I'd have posted before this, right? But no, that didn't happen. Thinking about posting happened, but not posting. A case where it's the thought that counts doesn't really. C'est la vie, and c'est la time for my 2011 Xmas story.
Friday 12/23 am--"So, what do your next few days look like?" a non Christmas celebrating friend asks.
"Today, a few Christmas shopping things, then home to bake cookies. Pinwheels, pfefferneuse, snow balls, and rum balls. Make dinner for all 6 of us at my house, maybe wrap presents.....
Friday reality: Spent over an hour driving around touring hardware stores and heating and plumbing supply stores looking for a rope gasket for the wood furnace door. The old one was done. Done done,
and removed from the door without a replacement in house. After all, "How hard can it be to find a gasket?" The scene at one h & p place 2 days before Christmas--walk in, are met with the smell of cold cuts and mustard. The sources of the smell on a folding table, clearly already indulged in. Several people sitting around drinking beer and scratching lottery tickets. Staff party underway. "Hey, hi, do you have rope for a furnace door gasket?" We hold out the sample. Comments while scratching tickets--"Whoa, damn, that's big!" "I just won $25!" "What happened to the one you had?" "It's toast. Take a look." "Whoa, ain't never seen one that big. Try the hardware."
Merry Christmas!
Onward.
Tiring of the tour, getting later and later, and running out of places we buy several too small rope gaskets. We will double or triple them.
Inexplicably, errands take over 2 more hours. The grocery store is packed. We go anyway, because I will not embarrass my family with a repeat of Thanksgiving, when we were shopping for Thanksgiving dinner at noon on Thanksgiving. Yeah. I am ahead of the proverbial curve this time.
Go home. Make and eat dinner. Done at 9. Sit down to read, think about watching a movie, close eyes for a short rest. Plenty of time for cookies tomorrow.
.....And on Saturday I will go shopping for a few things, I always go shopping on Christmas eve, even if I don't buy anything. Then I'll go home, steam the geese for Christmas to get them started, make our dinner of hors d'oeuvresey kinds of things that we always have on Christmas eve, wrap presents and hang out. That's about it.....
Christmas eve reality: Wake up at 9:30. Drink coffee. Feed animals. More coffee. Leave to go shopping. Buy maple sugar candy. Look at things. Walk around. Talk to a few people. Go home. Now 2 pm. Take shower. Go to friend's house for tea and fab carrot cake. Back home. Somehow making dinner, eating dinner, cleaning kitchen, feeding animals (again) all takes until about 10. Sit down to read, think about watching a movie, close eyes for a short rest. Hear someone ask when I am making cookies. "Later, I'm taking a short rest."
Voice: "Didn't see that coming."
Wake up at 1:30 am. Time to make cookies! Bake 10 dozen (I counted)--pinwheels and pfefferneuse. Think it's got to be about 4, I'll read a little and then sleep. Check watch. Ooops. It is 6. Still dark, fortunately. Skip reading. Dog and I go to sleep.
...Then on Christmas we get up, have breakfast, eggs, sausage--the organic no corn really great maple ones--bagels and lox. Open presents. Then I'll make the dinner. Stuff and roast the geese I steamed on Sat., maybe make a pie. We'll see about that. Christmas dinner. And that, in short, is pretty much it."
Christmas reality: Wake up at 9:30, well, maybe 10. Drink coffee. Drink another cup of coffee. People are eating cookies. Get dressed. Start cooking sausages and eggs, people set the table, get bagels, lox, cream cheese, more coffee. Eat breakfast. Now about noon. Open presents. Now about 2. Call some people. Get geese. No rack for the roasting pan. Sons get bolt cutters and modify a cookie cooling rack for its new purpose in life as a roasting rack. Now around 3, 3:30. Season geese, cover and start steaming. Start making stuffing. Time passes. Everyone is playing Agricola. I jump in sporadically. Geese are steaming, wild rice is cooking. "What time are we looking at for dinner?" "A couple hours," (it is now about 6) "maybe 8/ 8:30." Bets are taken. Estimates cluster around 9, youngest child (19) bets 9:30 and goes to a friend's house "for a while" at 8. Rum balls--gone child's favorite cookies--get underway, geese now stuffed and roasting. Child returns to set table, steamed brussles sprouts, cooked sweet potatoes (that we forgot at Thanksgiving), cooked geese, wine ready to be poured. 9:30. He wins the wager. Christmas dinner, good conversation and comfortable family companionship. Done at 11. Geese were great. Dinner enjoyed by all, even dogs who got got goose bit treats.
Snippet of dinner conversation: "So, were you surprised the cookies were done this morning? Did you think I would just sleep?"
"No. We knew we'd have cookies, that you'd wake up and stay up all night to bake them. Why wouldn't you?"
Now that is faith. Or Santa. Maybe those are one and the same. In any case, may Santa and faith be with you through all your nights and days, those that are clear and cold, bright and warm, grey and bleak, and those of subliming snow and freezing fog. All are miraculous.
In short, Merry Christmas to all, both those who celebrate it and those who don't.
Friday 12/23 am--"So, what do your next few days look like?" a non Christmas celebrating friend asks.
"Today, a few Christmas shopping things, then home to bake cookies. Pinwheels, pfefferneuse, snow balls, and rum balls. Make dinner for all 6 of us at my house, maybe wrap presents.....
Friday reality: Spent over an hour driving around touring hardware stores and heating and plumbing supply stores looking for a rope gasket for the wood furnace door. The old one was done. Done done,
and removed from the door without a replacement in house. After all, "How hard can it be to find a gasket?" The scene at one h & p place 2 days before Christmas--walk in, are met with the smell of cold cuts and mustard. The sources of the smell on a folding table, clearly already indulged in. Several people sitting around drinking beer and scratching lottery tickets. Staff party underway. "Hey, hi, do you have rope for a furnace door gasket?" We hold out the sample. Comments while scratching tickets--"Whoa, damn, that's big!" "I just won $25!" "What happened to the one you had?" "It's toast. Take a look." "Whoa, ain't never seen one that big. Try the hardware."
Merry Christmas!
Onward.
Tiring of the tour, getting later and later, and running out of places we buy several too small rope gaskets. We will double or triple them.
Inexplicably, errands take over 2 more hours. The grocery store is packed. We go anyway, because I will not embarrass my family with a repeat of Thanksgiving, when we were shopping for Thanksgiving dinner at noon on Thanksgiving. Yeah. I am ahead of the proverbial curve this time.
Go home. Make and eat dinner. Done at 9. Sit down to read, think about watching a movie, close eyes for a short rest. Plenty of time for cookies tomorrow.
.....And on Saturday I will go shopping for a few things, I always go shopping on Christmas eve, even if I don't buy anything. Then I'll go home, steam the geese for Christmas to get them started, make our dinner of hors d'oeuvresey kinds of things that we always have on Christmas eve, wrap presents and hang out. That's about it.....
Christmas eve reality: Wake up at 9:30. Drink coffee. Feed animals. More coffee. Leave to go shopping. Buy maple sugar candy. Look at things. Walk around. Talk to a few people. Go home. Now 2 pm. Take shower. Go to friend's house for tea and fab carrot cake. Back home. Somehow making dinner, eating dinner, cleaning kitchen, feeding animals (again) all takes until about 10. Sit down to read, think about watching a movie, close eyes for a short rest. Hear someone ask when I am making cookies. "Later, I'm taking a short rest."
Voice: "Didn't see that coming."
Wake up at 1:30 am. Time to make cookies! Bake 10 dozen (I counted)--pinwheels and pfefferneuse. Think it's got to be about 4, I'll read a little and then sleep. Check watch. Ooops. It is 6. Still dark, fortunately. Skip reading. Dog and I go to sleep.
...Then on Christmas we get up, have breakfast, eggs, sausage--the organic no corn really great maple ones--bagels and lox. Open presents. Then I'll make the dinner. Stuff and roast the geese I steamed on Sat., maybe make a pie. We'll see about that. Christmas dinner. And that, in short, is pretty much it."
Christmas reality: Wake up at 9:30, well, maybe 10. Drink coffee. Drink another cup of coffee. People are eating cookies. Get dressed. Start cooking sausages and eggs, people set the table, get bagels, lox, cream cheese, more coffee. Eat breakfast. Now about noon. Open presents. Now about 2. Call some people. Get geese. No rack for the roasting pan. Sons get bolt cutters and modify a cookie cooling rack for its new purpose in life as a roasting rack. Now around 3, 3:30. Season geese, cover and start steaming. Start making stuffing. Time passes. Everyone is playing Agricola. I jump in sporadically. Geese are steaming, wild rice is cooking. "What time are we looking at for dinner?" "A couple hours," (it is now about 6) "maybe 8/ 8:30." Bets are taken. Estimates cluster around 9, youngest child (19) bets 9:30 and goes to a friend's house "for a while" at 8. Rum balls--gone child's favorite cookies--get underway, geese now stuffed and roasting. Child returns to set table, steamed brussles sprouts, cooked sweet potatoes (that we forgot at Thanksgiving), cooked geese, wine ready to be poured. 9:30. He wins the wager. Christmas dinner, good conversation and comfortable family companionship. Done at 11. Geese were great. Dinner enjoyed by all, even dogs who got got goose bit treats.
Snippet of dinner conversation: "So, were you surprised the cookies were done this morning? Did you think I would just sleep?"
"No. We knew we'd have cookies, that you'd wake up and stay up all night to bake them. Why wouldn't you?"
Now that is faith. Or Santa. Maybe those are one and the same. In any case, may Santa and faith be with you through all your nights and days, those that are clear and cold, bright and warm, grey and bleak, and those of subliming snow and freezing fog. All are miraculous.
In short, Merry Christmas to all, both those who celebrate it and those who don't.
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