Santa says, "Yo Ho Ho!"

[dwgm]

I am so sated with Christmas Cheer that it is very difficult to get myself to form and write coherant thoughts. However, in the interest of recording the days' activities for posterity I will make the attempt.

Monday I finished writing my Secret Santa fic for normadesmond, who wanted J/E or J/A. Can't post it off the list until January 1st, but she and some of the others seemed to like it. Everyone else's fics were fun reading, too, some of them "Reccing Ball" worthy.

Tuesday I wrote a J/A "Wishkiss" for gryphons_lair, Under the Mistletoe, then went out to lunch at Kohrinoor in Thousand Oaks with Suzanne the Librarian, always An Event. Food and company were utterly delicous. Then spent the rest of the day putting up Christmas Decorations.

Wednesday I finished putting up decorations. I can't remember when I've been so late with this. But the place did look wonderful when it was done. Mom & I went out to dinner (Sunset Terrace in Moorpark--excellent food, service, and atmosphere!), but then just went home instead of Shopping. I lit a fire and we just enjoyed the clean house and decorations.

Thursday morning I wrote out all my Christmas cards. It is not unprecedented that I'd send them this late, unfortunately. Hopefully the local ones arrived the next day. Got dressed and went and mailed them, then did nearly all my Christmas Gift and Food Shopping within a few hours, at Mervyn's and at Albertson's, with a short break to get my nails done. Lugged everything home & put it away, then put together "Le Paté de Madame R." This takes 3.5 hours to bake, so I was up until 1:30 waiting for it, but it turned out to be so worth it. A new holiday tradition has been born.

Slept in some on Christmas Eve, but then got up and went straight to work cooking. I prepared (not necessarily in this order) Cherry Cola Salad (an amazingly delicious, old-fashioned jello salad, recipe from a Church-Lady cookbook via Suzanne the Librarian); sliced cantalope; sliced tomatoes with fresh basil and chives in a white balsamic vinegrette; Grandma's Butter Crisps (the epitome of cut-out cookies--Mom & weemonkey6 and I had fun decorating them); twice-baked potatoes with bacon, chives, parsley, sour cream and cheddar cheese; Yorkshire Pudding; fabu's Chocolate Dipped Shortbread Wedges; baked butternut squash with butter and brown sugar; green beans with spaetzel and bacon (frozen, Birdseye--no, I do not entirely eschew modern convenience); and Roast Beast: a 16 pound Prime Rib. (I will post the recipes for all these on prettygoodfood shortly.) Also wrapped quite a few gifts, and managed to check emails and LJ flist occasionally by way of short breaks. ladymora and dr_mrow arrived in the early evening, weemonkey6 got home from visiting friends, shockwavesix joined us, and, last but certainly not least, gingersnapps arrived, truly the guest of honor as this is the first time in many years The Mouse has given her Christmas off. Good music (all the Winter Solstice Mp3's) played all day, amazingly delicious and abundant food was consumed, and Christmas Cheer flowed in the traditional manner. After opening some gifts, we went off to Midnight Mass, which was nice, although not the SRO Carnival it used to be--there are three earlier Masses on Christmas Eve and most people with kids attend one of those. The decorations were a bit more subdued this year, too, oddly, but the choir and the new organ and brass accompaniment were excellent. Got home betimes, put on new Mary Englebreit pajamas and slippers, and cuddled up with a hot Eggnog with Brandy under my new CAPTAIN JACK SPARROW BLANKET!

Yes, this gift had everyone laughing. weemonkey6 found it at Hot Topic months ago and couldn't resist buying it for me, the sweetie. I had no inkling one could buy such a thing. It's great! And I did need a "blankie" to replace the beautiful one I left in Carmel two years ago (heartbreaking--that one was soft and deep blue with a bright Indian pattern on it--another gift from weemonkey6). This one is that soft tapestry-looking stuff, with that pic that erinrua likes, Jack looking contemplative, standing at the wheel of his ship. weemonkey6 also had given me an "I <3 Captain Jack Sparrow" bumper sticker awhile back, an early gift to cheer me up on a day I needed it. And then, gingersnapps gave me an 8x10 framed portrait of Jack, and avingail gave me Tortuga brand Rum Flavored Chocolates, so, with those and my prized skull & crossbones air freshener from doolabug, I am now replete with piratey accessories. Yo Ho Ho, indeed!

Other gifts:

Journal with a Laurel Burch graphic on the cover and ladymora's words of wisdom on the first page
Purfume Bottle, pale green glass trimmed with gold and peridots -- gorgeous!
Mervyn's Gift Card
Brass and Red Glass candle holder
Reindeer camdle holder
Cup warmer that plugs into the USB port
Jimminy Cricket travel mug
Disney Build-a-Pin with "I <3 [Stitch]" on it
Steamboat Willie and Minnie Key Chains
Godiva Chocolates
Mary Englebreit Pocket Calendar
Pewter Santa Candy Dish
Mary Englebreit Cherries Cup
Book: The Five People You Meet In Heaven
Margarita Man drink mixes
Christmas Scene ornament (very cute, and there wasn't a tag :(
Snowman Candle Holder
Snowman Pin
Snowman Ornament
Snowman "Lamp" Candle Holder
Celebration Cookies mix
Fudge Mix w/ Measuring Spoons
Pumpkin Bread

Raked up, as you can see. Many "Thank You" notes to write.

We didn't get to bed until 3:00 A.M., so we all slept very late. Finally got around to preparing brunch and opening remaining gifts around noon, and didn't finish brunch until about 3:00 P.M. Brunch was excellent: Monkey Bread, Peet's Coffee, Orange Juice, Scrambled Eggs w/ Chives and Cheddar (except for dr_mrow, for whom I made a Cheddar Omelet), tiny Hillshire Farms sausages, and sliced cantalope, and Cherry Cola Salad leftover from last night. Also many cookies were consumed (ladymora had brought the Pecan Balls to add to our Grandma's Butter Crisps and Chocolate Dipped Shortbread Wedges--a far cry from the past when we'd have 8 or 10 different kinds, but I'm just not into baking like I used to be. What we have are excellent, though).

Took a nap after the kids left for their Aunt's house for dinner, and now am relaxing and (sort of) watching a movie on HBO--"Mooseport" with Gene Hackman.

Had a lovely time reading everyone else's posts about their Christmas celebrations--great fun to see how they are the same, yet different, the world around. Particularly enjoyed spican's post from Norway on Christmas Eve, wherein she describes their Christmas feast (fascinatingly different!) and the reactions of her offspring to all the wonder of the season.

Unbelievably, I am hungry again, and will now go in search of Roast Beast Sandwich, etc.

I hope everyone reading this had a spectacularly wonderful Christmas.

I love you all.

Comments

[porridgebird.livejournal.com]

WOW! What a Christmas you had! I'm hungry now just reading about the food, and I'm jealous, you have Captain Jack keeping you warm :))

Happy, happy!

[geekmama.livejournal.com]

Re: Food - was excellent. I forget, sometimes, how much I enjoy cooking. Had a lot of fun yesterday. I'll post the recipes tomorrow though--too tired now.

Re: Captain Jack - Mmmmmmmmmmmmmm!

Wishing you Christmas joy, too. (I loved that poor Santa you posted earlier--LOL!)

[hereswith.livejournal.com]

Catching up (been away for a few days without Internet access). It sounds like you had a perfectly wonderful time, what with Captain Jack and all that good food :-)

[geekmama.livejournal.com]

Oh, yes. Had very nice Christmas. Hope yours was the same. :)

[hereswith.livejournal.com]

Yes, thanks :-) Good food, good company and lots of snow! And I got a fun book about dragons, which was nice. I like dragons...