It has been a very nice Christmas, all around. We slept in late, and had homemade pumpkin cornmeal pancakes for breakfast with pumpkin spice coffee, and then eventually made our way over to my parents’ house, to ooh and aah over my niece’s new toys. Richard and I actually opened our presents to each other on Saturday (because I am all about stretching out the present-fest as long as possible), we did the present exchange with his family yesterday, and today was the third day of present giving/getting, this time with my family. and among other things, he got me an absolutely lovely soprano recorder (I’ve been borrowing one of my dad’s). On Christmas day, there was also a tenor recorder under the tree from my parents, so now I am all set with my own instruments, and no longer have to keep my dad’s on permanent loan.

I finished the shawl for my little sister on Saturday night, and pinned it out to block on Sunday morning, so there was no early-morning frantic ironing of still-damp lace items, like there was last year. It turned out quite nice, and my sister seemed to really like it, which was what I was hoping for.

Not to say that there was not any hasty Christmas knitting at all, because while the shawl was done in plenty of time, the slippers for the kids were not. I managed to get the pink and blue striped slippers finished for my niece in time to stuff them into a gift bag and bring them over this morning (she thanked me by drawing a picture of her new slippers, which is very cute), but the boys’ slippers were not even started until today. Luckily, these slippers are to be felted (shrunk to fit), which means they knit up quick on larger needles, so throughout the day, when I wasn’t opening presents or taking pictures of other people opening their presents, or playing Rat-a-Tat Cat with the family, or eating, or watching small people tear madly around in the front yard, I knit. And before we left my parents house this evening, I was done.

Tis the season for Holidailies

Because Christmas falls on a Monday this year, that means Christmas Eve falls on a Sunday, and it just happens to fall on the fourth Sunday of the month – the same Sunday on which the recorder group traditionally plays. I asked the rest of the group, and talked to the minister to see if there was a better time to play, but it appeared that Christmas Eve was still the best option, especially since all the other Sundays of the month were taken with things like the cantata and the pageant. So I worked up an arrangement of “He Is Born” and figured that we would all practice directly before the service, then play, and then I would duck out directly after we were done so we could continue on with the rest of our regularly scheduled Christmas Eve festivities.

However, Richard somehow thought I was acting as the full accompanist for Christmas Eve, and agreed to be liturgist, meaning we would have to be there the full service, and not be able to get down to his parents’ house until another hour and a half later, to the great consternation of everyone involved. So yesterday while we were wandering the zoo I got ahold of my knitting mom, who is also in the recorder group, and she graciously agreed to act as substitute liturgist. Phew.

The recorder group sounded wonderful, and I was pretty pleased with how my first ever song arrangement worked out (usually I just transcribe music directly from the hymnal into the appropriate parts, but this time I did a few things extra, including writing in a descant). It was even more fun because my little sister decided to play with us, and she picked up the alto recorder – after not playing it for who knows how many years, and managed to do an amazing job with the part.

As soon as we were done playing I dashed out (quietly and unobtrusively, of course) and zipped home to pick up Richard, who had remained at home to finish getting all our stuff together. He met me at the door with a box full of all the presents we were taking, and then we were off to his parents’ house for the day.

There was the usual decorating of sugar cookies, turning the normal holiday shapes into bizarre and colorful creatures. Lunch was buffet style, since the rest of the family had to come and go at different times throughout the afternoon. We opened presents and emptied stockings and played with dogs and cat, but mostly, we just relaxed and enjoyed each others’ company.

My little sister and I were supposed to sing a duet for the 11pm service, but she’s been sick, and had pretty much no voice by the time I got home, so I sang it as a solo instead, and have thus ended this year singing as a tenor, alto, and now soprano. The only reason I will likely never complete the set is because my voice simply refuses to budge low enough to sing bass.

Tis the season for Holidailies

After a few years of discussing it, and debating whether or not it would be worth it, today Richard and I finally decided to join the zoo. The San Francisco zoo, to be precise. Because even if we only go two more times in the next twelve months, we’ll have pretty much paid for our membership – especially when you throw in the complementary free parking passes they gave us.

We joined the zoo today because it seemed like a good idea, seeing as how we were already there. I’d had an idea that the kids would probably really enjoy going to the SF zoo, and so this morning we picked up my little sister and my niece, and we met my older sister and her family at the front gate, and we spent most of the day at the zoo.

The kids had a blast – and we adults had fun too, both in wandering around the zoo, but even more in watching the kids get so excited about everything. My little sister hadn’t been sure how long my niece would last, since they’ve all had colds in the past few days, but we adults were tiring out long before the kids showed any signs of wanting to go home. In fact, at one point, the two older ones acquired maps, so that they could see immediately all the sections we had yet to go see, and direct us there post haste, in case we were in danger of forgetting to make our way there. One or both of them made sure to read every sign near each animal exhibit to each other, and there was a trio of excited squealing every time they saw something extra cute – like the incubator of tiny baby quail, or the meercats and the prairie dogs. And, it being the weekend before Christmas, the kids also were quite excited to be able to meet four of Santa’s reindeer (or rather, four of us ‘back-up’ reindeer) and to meet Santa himself, even though they were oblivious to the fact that Santa was being played by a young man who looked as if he could barely keep himself awake.

Tis the season for Holidailies

I was supposed to do a platelet donation this morning. In preparation, I got up nearly an hour early (wince) so I would be sure to get to the blood center on time. I made sure to drink lots of water so they could find my veins easily. And I tracked down a book to bring with me so I would have somethign to keep me entertained during the hour or so process.

But when I got there and they ran my tests, I was deferred. Seems the iron score has to be at least 38 and mine came in at 37, and despite the fact that I have donated successfully for years, by law they cannot let me do it if it’s even one point under the official limit. So they thanked me for coming and gave me some information on how to increase the iron in my blood and I scheduled a new donation appointment for the same time next week, with thoughts of making sure to eat something high in iron the night before. And then I looked at the clock and even though it was early yet, it made no sense for me to go home first, so I just headed off to work early instead.

Luckily this is the last day before Christmas, which means there was a distinct lack of urgency in the office. So I held off until lunchtime, but then I decided that that was enough, and I waved goodbye to the few remaining coworkers (half had already left ahead of me) and fired off a few last emails, and that was it – the last time I will be in that office until the new year.

I swung by two stores on the way home and finally managed to find the last Christmas present I wanted to get for Richard, and then promptly gave it to him when I got home, not even wrapped up first, because I knew it would make him laugh (I am never good about waiting to give presents – or to get them, for that matter). And then, while he kept on working for the rest of the afternoon, I sat down with my litlte sister’s lace shawl and started the edging, and lo, the angels sang and the stars shone, because the edging is not going to take nearly as long as I was afraid it would, and I think there is a pretty good chance I will have this thing done in plenty of time for Christmas.

A friend came by with presents for us, which gave us the perfect opportunity to pass on his (very belated) birthday present, and also gave us a chance to sit around and chat for a bit, until Richard and I had to send him on his way because we were expected at my parents’ house for dinner. And there, we were greeted at the door by a grinning six-year-old niece, down from Seattle with her parents for Christmas, and there was dinner and stories were read to us by the six-year-old, who is not only a very good reader, but also knows enough to put in all the inflections and exclamations as she is reading, so that it is always highly entertaining to watch.

Tis the season for Holidailies

It has felt like it should be Friday all day. But then that makes sense, considering that the real Friday is bound to be a very short day, and also today marked the beginning of the holiday celebratory festivities. It started with a card on my desk when I got to work, holding a cute card and a gift certificate for a nice restaurant in Sacramento, continued with the pile of homemade chocolate chip cookies brought in by another coworker, and continued on with our office holiday dinner this evening, which was the very best part of the day.

As I mentioned earlier, we’re a small office, so going out together for dinner is always a lot of fun, because it isn’t too huge a crowd. And this year, even though we are now up to six in the office instead of five, was no exception. There were twelve of us, total, at dinner, which was held at the Slocum House in Fair Oaks – a location a lot further away than most of us had realized (made even further away by the fact that traffic on the few evenings left before Christmas in that direction was nasty). It was raining, so we all came into the restaurant a little damp, hastily wiping water off our gifts and our jackets. But then they ushered us into a room in the back and the rain and the traffic and the time it took to get there just didn’t matter any more.

The food was delicious, and there was a lot of it, but the staff spaced everything out so well that my fear of not having any room left for the main course didn’t come to pass. The room was just big enough for the twelve of us and secluded enough that we could all hear each other, even at the other end of the table, without shouting. We did a sort of white elephant gift exchange, although there wasn’t a single swap or steal because all of us were quite happy with what we ended up with. In fact, amusingly enough, several presents seemed to end up with just the perfect person, as if they were selected for that recipient instead of a gift swap. There were jokes about how it was the most boring white elephant gift exchange ever, but I don’t think anyone minded.

And best of all, the entire evening was fun. I am continually aware of how lucky I am to work where I work, and to work with the people i work with, and this dinner was just one more big reminder of that. We were laughing so much our faces hurt by the end of the night. There were hugs goodbye and wishes of Merry Christmas and laughter about driving home in the rain, and it was wonderful.

Tis the season for Holidailies

First, because it amuses me so, Richard has created a Sci Fi Movie Generator. Now you, too, can create your very own scripts worthy of the high quality production of the Sci Fi channel movies. You are welcome.

It’s been just another day – a little cold, a little grey and dreary. You know, the usual. I went to work and picked up a bag of cat food on the way home because we ran out a few days ago and all the bowls were down to crumbs. Worse yet, you could actually *see* the bottom in some of them, which in the mind of cats constitutes a full scale emergency, requiring waking me up at all hours of the night to holler about it. I also swung through Costco to pick up a gift for the gift exchange we’ll be doing at the office dinner tomorrow night, and stopped by a few other places since I was in the area, looking for one more thing for Richard (alas, I did not find it). Then I went home and filled up the bowls before the cats trampled me and ripped open the bag themselves (the fact that there was still kibble in the bowls, albeit a small amount, is irrelevant to the fact that they were STARVING).

While at CostCo I saw a kit to make a gingerbread house, and since I remember that my niece had so much fun doing the Halloween one when we visited them back in October, I had to buy the Christmas one for her too. I dropped it off at my parents’ house, along with the recorder music, picked up the music that my sister and I are going to be singing for the late service on Christmas Eve, and then eventually made it back home in time to wolf down dinner and get busy with the knitting, which is going slower than I’d hoped, but which I still have every intention of finishing on time. We will not speak of the fact that the edging is going to take a millenium to complete. Leave me my delusions.

Anyway. In the spirit of sharing, and also because the regular place I post recipes appears to be broken (the existing files are visible, but I cannot edit any of them, nor can I apparently post anything new. Grumble), I give you my recipe for Chocolate Peanut Butter Fudge. I have no idea where I got this recipe, or when – it was in the book where I scribble down recipes to keep for later, but it’s far from the last recipe in the Desserts section, so it could have lurked there for years.

Chocolate Peanut Butter Fudge

Ingredients
1 (14 oz) can sweetened condensed milk
1 (12 oz) semisweet chocolate chips
1/3 cup peanut butter
1 Tbsp light corn syrup
1 tsp vanilla extract

Directions
Combine milk, chips, peanut butter and corn syrup in saucepan. Cook over medium heat until chocolate is melted.

Remove from heat. Stir in vanilla. Pour into well-greased 8″x8″ pan.

Chill until firm. Cut into squares (I do 64 pieces because this stuff is rich). Store in fridge.

Tis the season for Holidailies

Because our office is very small, our holiday event each year is a dinner out, just us and our various spouses or dates, at someplace nice. We’ve also, in years past, tried to schedule some kind of lunch thing as well, just to keep the festive spirit going. Actually, the lunch plan has less to do with the holiday season and more to do with the fact that we all like having lunch together, but hey, any excuse works.

We’d tossed around the idea of doing a potluck, which we’ve done in the past, but this close to Christmas we were all tired and the appeal of trying to actually cook something has been diminishing at a rate inversely proportional to the amount of holiday baking some of us have been doing lately. So instead, today we did a do-your-own-sandwich lunch. One person brought a selection of breads, another brought a whole plateful of cheeses, I picked up an assortment of meats at the deli, and there was also salad and drinks and dessert. It was quick and it was easy, and no one had to go out and brave the frigid temperatures to start up our tiny little office grill, and aside from the fact that we have now determined that we need to invest in both a decent bread knife, and a cutting board, for the office, it worked out perfectly. I suspect next time we consider doing a potluck at the office, we’ll do this instead.

********

A few days ago, while watching some program or another, we saw previews for a made-for-TV movie called “Dead and Deader”. Considering it was made for the Sci Fi channel, we knew immediately that it was going to be very, very bad. But sometimes the very, very bad can also translate into ‘funny as hell’, so Richard set the DVR to record it (all hail the DVR), and we watched it tonight.

It was bad. And I mean, really bad. We were snickering and mocking it from the very first opening shots, and by the end of the movie, Richard was having so much fun with the mocking that he was inspired to write up this. I suspect that anyone who has ever watched more than one ‘Sci Fi original movie’ will agree that he pretty much nailed it.

Tis the season for Holidailies

I brought a plate of the chocolate peanut butter fudge in to work today, and sent a plate in with Richard as well. This was done in order to share the holiday joy with our coworkers, but also, and perhaps more importantly, as a wa to remove temptation from the house so that I do not end up eating the entire pan by myself. This was critical because this truly is the best fudge ever, and if my coworkers and Richard’s are any indication, I am not the only one who feels that way, and I am sadly weak in the face of things that include dark chocolate and peanut butter all mixed together in one tiny delicious square of bliss.

Of course, bringing fudge in to work means looking at it every time I went into the kitchen to get coffee or heat up my lunch. Still, eating a few pieces is still preferable to eating an entire pan. And we will not speak of the box of teacakes sitting at home, of which I am trying to limit myself to only one or two a night. It is good that most of those will be going in to work with Richard on Wednesday, or there might be powdered sugar-covered carnage very, very soon.

In consolation for having deprived myself of a whole pan of fudge (ha), we had pizza for dinner, and watched the remaining two episodes of Wallace and Grommit (one of which involved collaborative sheep; the other which included an evil, scheming penguin). Then I went off to my knitting group and Richard went off to Borders to do some writing, and why it did not occur to either of us to carpool since we were going to places within two blocks of each other I have no idea, but Richard won major good husband points by being willing to pick up the “love” issue of one of the most horridly tacky knitting magazines ever possibly published, simply because it includes a pattern that I had been dreading trying to design by myself, and I am willing to purchase horribly tacky magazines if it means that I do not have to do all that calculating myself.

Tis the season for Holidailies

The cantata is finally done, and with it, the last of the big holiday responsibilites. I feel like I can finally heave a huge sigh of relief and focus on nothing more complicated than finishing the gift knitting, mailing out the last of the Christmas cards, and looking forward to Christmas and time off and family and fun.

This afternoon, in between cantata in the morning and cantata at night, I went to the knitting group at the bakery. It was a small group there, but that was actually preferrable, since we were all working furiously on holiday knitting and appreciated the distinct lack of noise and crazy that sometimes happens when it’s a much larger crowd.

The recorder group practiced this morning, before cantata rehearsal, and even though it was kind of messy, I am remaining optimistic that it will sound far better by next Sunday. The cantata rehearsal wasn’t nearly as fumbly as yesterday, and the performance during the morning service went surprisingly well; better, in fact, than the evening performance, at least as far as I could tell. By this evening I was exhausted and struggling for the low notes, and the other tenor was also tired and struggling for the high notes, so luckily between the two of us we covered the range, but still, it sounded as if a number of the other singers and musicians were feeling the same way. I think I am not the only one who is very, very glad it is over.

Tis the season for Holidailies

We had rehearsal this morning, for the cantata, so I woke up early enough beforehand to get a load of laundry through the wash, and make a Pumpkin Apple Gingerbread cake for breakfast. I woke Richard in time for him to make coffee (have I mentioned lately how much we love the new coffee maker?) and we ate breakfast with just enough time to do it leisurely before we had to head off to the church to sing. The cake, by the way, is tasty, but tastes nothing at all like gingerbread, and was time consuming enough that I am not sure if I will bother making it again, but it somehow seemed appropriate to the season, and with the apples and the pumpkin, one small slice is *extremely* filling.

After rehearsal we came back home and I spent some time on my knitting. Eventually Richard headed off to Borders to do a little bit of writing, so I zipped off to the grocery store to pick up flour and chocolate chips and sweetened condensed milk and butter, and then came home and did a little Christmas baking. I made a batch of Russian Teacakes (they have a lot of other different names, but basically they involve a little flour, a lot of butter, and some crushed walnuts, and when they are cooled they are rolled in powdered sugar and they are like a little explosion of sweet buttery joy in your mouth when you eat them). While the dough for those was chilling, I stirred up some Chocolate Peanut Butter Fudge, which is basically chocolate chips and sweetened condensed milk and butter and just enough peanut butter to add a rich flavor, all melted together and poured in a pan to cool, and by the time Richard came back home, I was stirring up the dough for spritz cookies. We are all out of green food coloring, so instead of trying to mix up my own green, I decided to just make them all blue. Except I added a bit more blue color than I’d anticipated, and they turned out very, very blue – sort of the color blue you might expect if you made cookies out of a Smurf.

We watched an old Wallace and Grommit cartoon during dinner, and then I rolled out the teacakes and put them in the oven to bake, and my timing could not have been better, because all the cookies were just cool enough to store in tins by the time my parents came to pick us up.

My parents have been looking for a local production of Ahmal and the Night Visitors for some time now, so when they finally found one – in Sacramento – they invited us to go along. This particular production was quite well done, for being performed by amateurs, and was especially fun because the actual acting during the performance was ‘done’ by puppets.

Tis the season for Holidailies