Month: December 2009

  • Worn Out

    Beth and I were worn out with all our Christmas company. We went to bed at 11:OO last night, and we didn’t wake up until 10:00 this morning. We had wonderful fun, but it was exhausting.

    ED

  • The Decade

    I guess I didn’t realize it, but 2009 ends the first decade of the 21st Century.  Newsweek Magazine has put together a 7 minute video about events of the decade, and it’s extremely interesting.  Ironically, I remember everything in the video, but it’s nice to have your memory refreshed.  Here’s the link: click here.  Can you believe we’re already a full decade into the “new millennium”?  I can’t.

    ED

  • Christmas Day

    We had a fantastic and very busy day yesterday on Christmas.  It started around ten o’clock with brunch for eight.  Beth made a breakfast casserole with ham, eggs, cheese, and bread that was delicious.  We had a fruit salad, too, and biscuits and scones.  We ate a lot, of course.  The cast included Beth and me; Susan and Sean; Catherine, Mike, and Liza; and Grandma Jane, Beth’s mother.  Savannah, the yellow Lab, was also here, but she wasn’t at the table, obviously.

    After brunch we opened presents.  That took about two and a half hours, and it was a lot of fun.  Grandma Jane’s gift of cash surprised us and brought tears to the eyes of several people.

    After presents Cat and her family, and Grandma Jane, went home to rest up for Christmas night.  Several of us at headquarters took naps, and Liza got in a good nap at her house.

    Around 6:00 PM everybody reassembled at headquarters for a big dinner party.  The friends and extended family came in, and there were 19 here for drinks, red beans and rice, pork roast, and Caesar salad.  We put out all the desserts we had accumulated, and we had a grand time.  Everybody was gone by 10:30, and we all more or less collapsed.  Liza spent the night with us (Cat and Mike have to work today), and Liza slept in the bed with Beth and me for the first time ever.

    Over the 2-day holiday, Beth served a total of 41 meals: 14 for dinner Christmas Eve night, 8 for brunch Christmas morning, and 19 for dinner Christmas night.  I have no idea how many bottles of wine were consumed, but I know it was more than a couple.  A very good time was had by all.

    ED   

  • Christmas Eve

    Tonight we had fourteen people for dinner,and it was a wonderful occasion for our exended family.  Our children were here, as was Beth’s mother, and Liza was here, too, of course.  Other of Liza’s aunts and uncles were here, too.  Beth cooked a splendid roast tenderloin of beef, and she served delicious mashed potatoes, and we started off with a delicious creame of aspiragus soup.  Everything was delicious.

    Last night Cat and Mike went to a birthday party for the wife of a girl I taught and whose parents we knew independently.  Cat said it was the birthday party of Melanie’s wife without so much as a blink.  Catherine has a husband; Melanie has a wife. That stuff doesn’t matter to me, and it obviously doesn’t matter to my kids.  I suspect that my grandchild won’t even know it was once an issue.

    ED

  • Trash Santa

    Today a friend posted on Facebook what happened to her children’s Christmas toys.

    They travelled from Atlanta to New Smyrna Beach in Florida to her husband’s family.  Like so many of us, they alternate between families.

    They packed the kids’ toys in black plastic garbage bags so the kids wouldn’t see them.  When they got to New Smyrna Beach, somebody thought those black plastic bags were trash, so they put them on the curb for the garbage men.  The sanitation workers picked them up, and the toys were gone.  Today some special Elves had to hustle around town to replace the kids’ toys.  My friends can afford to do that, but isn’t this whole thing ironic?

    Another thing that’s ironic is that Ali, Kriss, and those kids should be at our house Christmas night so the kids can play with Liza and their other cousins.  Next year.  For sure.

    ED

  • Christmas Night

    We’ve had a big “family” gathering at our house on Christmas night for about 33 years or so.  I might be off by a year or two, but I don’t think so.  We missed a few years ago when we went to Colorado and Virginia for Christmas a couple of years to be with our kids at their houses, but this gathering has been pretty continuous except for that couple of years.

    This year we’re expecting 19 people. It’s going to be red beans and rice and ham, I think, judging from the huge ham Beth brought home from the gorcery store today.  The ham was in a net plastic bag, and the bag had handles on it.  It was a serious piece of meat.

    The reason I’m concerned about numbers is 1.) I have to set the table, and 2.) I have to account for the “correct” number of Holiday china plates and silverware.  We have quite a large amount of china and silver, but we don’t have enough china for 19 people.  I know I can borrow china from friends because I’ve done it before.  The irony?  Maybe we shoulden’t invite so many people. But, ironically, how can we not?  Family is family, plus we’ll serve the three kids cheese pizza on paper plates, and they won’t know the difference for several years to come.

    ED

  • Nothing Today

    No irony worthy of public posting today.  Plenty of private irony.

    Liza’s parents were going to take her to Pensacola today to see Mike’s sister (“Uncle” Kelly) and Kelly’s daughter, Mary, but Liza had a fever this morning, so they didn’t go.  Instead, Mike and Catherine had the day off at home with Liza, and that was like a gift from the gods for them.

    ED

  • Snow

    We’re not having any snow, although we did one year around this time.  It stayed on the ground for several days, and we actually had a white Christmas.  Our kids were too little to really appreciate it, and it pissed me off because it killed a hedge I had planted (Virburnum).

    Tonight at a dinner party I was in the “guy room” with three men who grew up in the North.  I had always heard about snow chains and snow tires, and tonight I learned about the differences between them.  The guys tonight (Boston, Philadelphia, and Detroit) all favored snow chains.  They said they’re a pain to put on, but they also said they’re way better than snow tires.

    Since I’ve had no experience with either, I couldn’t comment.  But all their talk about snow and its perils got me wondering why the southern part of this country wasn’t more highly settled than the North was.  We almost never have snow, and when we do it’s a welcomed novelty for a day or two.  That’s only happened three times in the 36 years I’ve lived here.  It’s true we have hurricanes, but we haven’t had one of those in four or five years.  Plus, snowy weather is cold.  We get temperatures in the 30′s, as we will tomorrow morning, but it’ll be in the 50′s by mid day.

    I don’t know why more people don’t move to the South, especially the coastal South.

    ED

  • Liza’s Blessing

    Liza’s spending the night with us tonight, and that’s always great fun for her and for us.

    Tonight at dinner we said the blessing before we ate.  We said the traditional Catholic blessing, and I had heard Liza say it before.  I knew she knew it.  She didn’t say anything during that prayer tonight.  When we were done, though, she said, “And God bless everybody in the world, without exception.  Bon Appetite.”  Imagine?  A four year old saying that!  Beth and I burst into laughter.  “God bless everybody in the world without exception!”  And ”Bon appetite.”  I figure that’s something her parents must say or they say in school, although the Bon appetite part sounds like her restauratur parents.  But it’s a pretty nice sentiment, regardless of where she got it.

    Putting Liza to bed is my job, and tonight she called me five or six times.  She needed the potty and water, and we took care of both those needs.  When I told her, again, that she really had to go to sleep, she did.  When I told her good night for the last time, she told me, “Good night, Grandpa, and Merry Christmas.”  How funny is that?  Beth says Liza is the perfect age for Christmas this year, and I think Beth’s right.

    ED

  • Slow Thursday

    I spent most of my day reading blogs and other internet material, and I read part of a novel, too.

    I taught my compter class at the Council on Aging this afternoon, and it was a challenge.  I’m actually seeing some progress, though.  Two ladies (ages 60 and 65) are getting pretty good with the mouse, and the 82 year old lady got to the point by the end of the class that she was able to use the mouse to move cards in Solitaire.  Halfway through the class one of the other students suggested she take the biggest monitor we have.  Once she could actually see what was on the screen, she did okay.  The 82 year old has a wonderful sense of humor.  We were originally going to go for 2 hours, but an hour an 45 minutes into it they all declared they were brain dead.  I was brain dead and physicaly exhausted (from having to move between three computers constantly), so we called it quits.  We’ll have some more classes in January.

    In other news, tonight I invented a new snack.  I was desperate around nine o’clock, so I searched through our refrigerator.  I found a package of grated sharp cheddar cheese and a tub of bacon and horseradish dip.  I put the cheese on Ritz crackers, and I put a dollop of that dip on each one.  I ran them through the microwave for ten seconds, and the result was a delicious savory snack.  We have a ton of sweet stuff, as one accumulates around Christmas, and I ate my share of that, too.  But then I wanted savory, and the cheese and dip snack hit the spot.  Try it.  You might like it.  It might make a decent hors d’oeuvres, too, but you have to nuke the stuff on a paper plate and transfer it to a serving plate so you don’t have the mess the melted cheese and dip make.  Don’t throw the paper plate away, though.  When the guests are gone, run it through the microwave again and lick the goodness from the plate in private.

    Frugal Hostess: If you use this, make sure you give credit.  Call it an old family recipe that has been passed down for generations.  Never mind that bacaon and horseradish dip was probaby a creation of the 1970′s.  The Frugal Hostess is my daughter, Susan, and she truly does have some wonderful ideas and recipes on her website.  Plus, she’s a brilliant writer, and she’s funny as hell.  Check out her blog.  She and her husband are both gourmet cooks, and they’re both into the locally grown, organic food thing. 

    Her husband, Sean, is in town right now doing carpenter-type work for various family members.  He called me today to tell me he was passing our neighborhood on the highway and he’d just call to say hi.  I didn’t have time to talk to him because I was literally walking out of the house to go to my computer class when he called on the house phone.  He has one of the best senses of humor of anyone I have ever known, and I wish I had had time to talk to him.  They’ll be here for Christmas, though, and I have a surprise for him.  It’s not a Christmas present in the sense he’ll be able to take it home, but it will always be here for him when he visits.  I won this surprise in an auction on November 7th, and I bid on it for you, Sean.  I didn’t get Mike anything special.  Yet.

    ED