A good feasting...
Dec. 25th, 2004 11:37 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
jayThis morning... patgreene and I heard the kids up around 6am, but chose to roll over and pretend to ignore it as long as we could, until they actually came in to try to wake us (around 7:30am). I held out until 8... then we insisted that they had to wait until after the turkey was stuffed and in the oven (had to get it going early, it was 24 lbs) and after making and eating breakfast before opening any gifts. Then I distributed...
After they opened one gift each in successive rounds, the delighted cackles and shrieks faded into excited descriptions...
I went to work then on dinner, getting yeast rolls going, then sweet potato souffle (zoned with toppings of marshmallows and/or pecan halves), gravy, the rest of the stuffing, cranberry sauce, and then Pat made fruit salad including some tangerines from our backyard tree. The turkey came out around 1pm, shortly aftertenacious_snail arrived... thanks to having two functional ovens, we were ready 20 minutes early, before our planned 2pm dinnertime.
The turkey was perfect -- moist breast, dark meat very slightly pink still. Nice balance to the sweet potatoes. The cornbread stuffing was good, perhaps could have used just a tad more sage. My rolls turned out very well this time (better yeast than last year's attempt) and drew compliments. Two dozen disappeared. And the tiny purple container near Les is cranberry-orange sauce fromdawnd (that I'd been hoarding since Thanksgiving ;)... hours and dishes and a 1+ mile walk later, there were chocolate-mint-frosted brownies and pumpkin pie for dessert. Followed by telephone calls to my mom and dad, and from Pat's relatives.
We sat and chatted and watched the kids play with their new toys and video games, and played a new historical trivia board game of Pat's ("Reminisce") while boiling down the stripped turkey bones for stock... Pat took the boys out for a drive tonight, to look at Christmas house lights.
Gift-wise... I was blessed with an abundance this year. Abundance in friends, in love, in family (both born and chosen), in opportunities and intense moments and in health and material goodies. Of the latter, a few new things arrived today in commemoration of the holiday... workout sneakers (good thing, after all of the food!) from the boys, an RF audio transmitter and new Casio watch frompatgreene, a new wallet from James, several gift cards, Oban 14-yr from suspira20, a manicure kit. "A History of Almost Everything" from geekchick (who has excellent taste :), a deposit on a HAI Level 2 from tenacious_snail (hopefully in late February), and a Sirius satellite radio receiver for the minivan (from my parents, shared with Pat... James was dismayed "now we'll have to listen for hours to Broadway showtunes! Augh!").
patgreene and I heard the kids up around 6am, but chose to roll over and pretend to ignore it as long as we could, until they actually came in to try to wake us (around 7:30am). I held out until 8... then we insisted that they had to wait until after the turkey was stuffed and in the oven (had to get it going early, it was 24 lbs) and after making and eating breakfast before opening any gifts. Then I distributed... After they opened one gift each in successive rounds, the delighted cackles and shrieks faded into excited descriptions...
I went to work then on dinner, getting yeast rolls going, then sweet potato souffle (zoned with toppings of marshmallows and/or pecan halves), gravy, the rest of the stuffing, cranberry sauce, and then Pat made fruit salad including some tangerines from our backyard tree. The turkey came out around 1pm, shortly after
tenacious_snail arrived... thanks to having two functional ovens, we were ready 20 minutes early, before our planned 2pm dinnertime. The turkey was perfect -- moist breast, dark meat very slightly pink still. Nice balance to the sweet potatoes. The cornbread stuffing was good, perhaps could have used just a tad more sage. My rolls turned out very well this time (better yeast than last year's attempt) and drew compliments. Two dozen disappeared. And the tiny purple container near Les is cranberry-orange sauce from
dawnd (that I'd been hoarding since Thanksgiving ;)... hours and dishes and a 1+ mile walk later, there were chocolate-mint-frosted brownies and pumpkin pie for dessert. Followed by telephone calls to my mom and dad, and from Pat's relatives.We sat and chatted and watched the kids play with their new toys and video games, and played a new historical trivia board game of Pat's ("Reminisce") while boiling down the stripped turkey bones for stock... Pat took the boys out for a drive tonight, to look at Christmas house lights.
Gift-wise... I was blessed with an abundance this year. Abundance in friends, in love, in family (both born and chosen), in opportunities and intense moments and in health and material goodies. Of the latter, a few new things arrived today in commemoration of the holiday... workout sneakers (good thing, after all of the food!) from the boys, an RF audio transmitter and new Casio watch from
patgreene, a new wallet from James, several gift cards, Oban 14-yr from suspira20, a manicure kit. "A History of Almost Everything" from geekchick (who has excellent taste :), a deposit on a HAI Level 2 from tenacious_snail (hopefully in late February), and a Sirius satellite radio receiver for the minivan (from my parents, shared with Pat... James was dismayed "now we'll have to listen for hours to Broadway showtunes! Augh!").
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no subject
Date: 2004-12-26 08:11 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-12-26 08:21 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-12-26 08:12 am (UTC)Actually, I don't much care for dark chocolate except in very tiny doses with mint. *grin* I know y'all like it though, and so couldn't resist picking up all the swanky chocolate I could find at Williams Sonoma. ;)
Hope you enjoy the book; I had the audiobook and have listened to it a couple of times. I really enjoyed it.
no subject
Date: 2004-12-26 08:20 pm (UTC)The only problem with the book is that
no subject
Date: 2004-12-26 09:01 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-12-27 11:47 pm (UTC)*grin* I tried to find something along those lines again this year, but no luck other than this, which I thought y'all had in the office already.
no subject
Date: 2004-12-27 05:02 am (UTC)