We had all sorts of plans for today. I had pondered getting up and trying to get to the farmer’s market, since we haven’t made it out there in weeks. This afternoon we were supposed to have people over to play Munchkin. And this evening we were supposed to go out to my parents’ house for a post-Christmas family gathering.

But we lazed around until it was too late to go to the farmer’s market. And half the group who was supposed to game came down sick, leaving us with too few to play. Illness also was the cause for cancellation of tonight’s dinner plans as well, since my dad’s been fielding some kind of winter bug, and my older sister was also starting to feel off.

So…today has been rather quiet. We did a little (much-needed) tidying and cleaning. We watched some mindless shows on HGTV and the Food Network. I did a bunch of knitting and Richard did a bunch of writing. Nothing today was quite what we’d had planned. But it was a lovely lazy day anyway and it turned out just fine.

Tis the season for Holidailies!

Last year for Richard’s birthday his parents gave him (or rather, us) membership to the Academy of Sciences in San Francisco. We have been, ever since, pondering when to get down there, except that they’ve been in process of doing a massive building project, actually replacing the previous building with a bright and shiny new one, chock full of all sorts of sustainable design features that I have been following (mainly because that is part of my job) as it’s been built.

So as the year has been creeping to a close we decided that we had better get down there if we were going to at all, now that the bright shiny new building is open. Naturally, we picked the Saturday after Christmas. Even better, as we managed to score one of the last parking spots in the little underground parking garage for the nearby museums, and hoofed it across the central plaza, so did most everyone else in the greater San Francisco area.

I did not take any pictures of the lines, although I should have because they were just that impressive. The line for the regular ticket holders stretched out past the building and trailed down the street as far as we could see, and they started giving regular announcements saying that they would actually stop selling tickets at 11:30 because it was that crowded. By the time we arrived (having gotten a slightly late start due to final piece for stairs FINALLY coming in, so contractor came by to install, yay), they were at capacity inside the building, so would only let people in once people inside had left.

Luckily for us, the line for membership holders was significantly shorter, so we were only in line about half an hour before we were finally able to get inside. And then once inside we realized that we had better stay and see every single thing possible because if we left, there was no going back.

We had fun, despite the insanity of the crowds everywhere. We wandered around the aquarium. We read all about all the green parts of the new building (and that amused me, mainly because having Educational Outreach is one of the points a project can earn in order to reach LEED certification). We went up to the roof and looked out over all the solar panels and the green roof full of skylights and growing things. We shuffled our way up the circular ramp all the way to the top of the rainforest dome and then took the elevator down to the bottom and walked through a tube made of glass, while huge fish swam lazily in circles overhead. We ate lunch at a rather nice little restaurant buried in the basement, where all the food was organic, or locally grown, and absolutely delicious. And of course I took a bunch of pictures.

Tis the season for Holidailies!

I got up at 5:30 this morning, for the sole purpose of shopping. At no other time throughout the year would I ever, ever do this, but the day after Christmas is an annual tradition with the women in my family, and this year I had a very good reason to go. We were finally out of Christmas cards.

Years ago I stocked up on cards every after-Christmas sale, to the point where I had accumulated a sizable pile, and for a number of years I had to refrain from buying any cards at all. But this year we actually had to go out and buy more cards *before* Christmas because, miracle of miracles, we finally *ran out*. Hoorah, back to stocking up on cards again.

I headed off to Vacaville while it was still pitch black outside and cold enough that I had to scrape ice off the windows in order to be able to see well enough to drive. I arrived with enough time to zip off to a nearby Starbucks and purchase a cup of life-sustaining coffee in pumpkin spice latte form, then took my place in the line forming outside the door to Target, since there were only a few minutes until the doors opened. My older sister and my mom eventually joined me, and we stood and chatted for a bit, but once the doors were opened, it was every shopper for themselves.

I picked up two more 25 foot lengths of lighted garland for our outdoor decorations for next year, and several boxes of cards (of course). I also found gift bags that are the perfect size for one or two jars of homemade jelly, jam, or preserves, so I’ll be all set for next year. My mom and my older sister and I would pass each other occasionally in the aisles, pointing out cute things, offering to go pick up something for each other, and so on. One of the reasons we usually hit Target first is that the early morning shoppers there always end up being the polite sort. Everyone’s aiming for bargains, of course, but people say ‘excuse me’ when they need to get past instead of ramming their cart into the back of your ankles, and there are smiles and friendly nods, and offers to hand things from lower shelves up to those who might have difficulty in bending from whoever happens to be closest and in reach.

We took a short break for my mom to get some food, since she hadn’t had a chance to get breakfast before heading out, and then set off to our next destination – Joann Fabrics. I wanted to pick up a selection of cotton for upcoming birthday projects, and my mom and older sister like to stock up on various small gift items for coworkers and students for the following year, so between the two stores, I think we all found most of what we were looking for.

After the second store, I was pretty much shopped out. So we took a break at a little bagel place and had a snack and some coffee and chatted for a while, before heading off to our respective homes. However, I wasn’t quite done with shopping overall; it’s just that the next place on my list was in Rocklin, not Vacaville. I swung by home long enough to drop everything off and pick up Richard, and then we were off to Filati’s, which is a yarn store that was having a fabulous sale. I have been very good this past year with not buying yarn because I have really been working on knitting mostly out of my stash, but I fully intend to start on next year’s Christmas presents early, and my existing stash simply does not have what I need. So off we went to the store, where I picked up three skeins of exactly what I was looking for, plus a little extra to make something pink and fluffy for the niece, and after that, and getting lunch, we were done.

I have spent most of the rest of the day either camped out on the sofa, knitting, or occasionally stirring the lemon peels, which had to simmer for three hours in their sugar solution before being laid out carefully, one at a time, on racks to cool and dry overnight. Richard went off to have coffee with a friend, so by the time he came back I was done with all my lemon peels, and most of my knitting. We had another of the little apple pies for dinner, just for fun, and watched “Snakes on a Plane” while eating, which was a whole lot of fun. The movie is quite formulaic, which we expected, but anything involving Samuel L. Jackson and a whole lot of CGI snakes is bound to be fun.

Tis the season for Holidailies

It has been a rather odd sort of Christmas, this year. It’s the first time for either of us that we’ve spent Christmas just the two of us, with nowhere that we had to be, and nothing that we had to do. Normally we’d be off at some sort of family gathering, but this year, it was just the two of us. On the one hand, it meant we had an entire day of (potential) sloth to look forward to; on the other, it meant that all the traditional stuff just wasn’t going to happen.

The day started, as a nontraditional sort of Christmas should, with apple pie for breakfast. This past fall, while up at Apple Hill, we picked up a quartet of fat little apple pies from one of the farms. Technically they’re supposed to be single serving pies, but they’re so huge that we normally split them, and even then they’re a bit much. So when talking about what we wanted to do for Christmas, we remembered about the apple pies in the freezer, and…pie it was.

While the pie was baking, we opened our stockings. I’ve got a short stack of new books to read, and a little bag of dark chocolate squares to savor, and the Cute Overload page-a-day calendar to bring in to work to look at every time I need a bit of cheer. And I scored major wife points by tucking tickets to a Jonathon Coulton concert into Richard’s stocking.

The cats, of course, could not care less about what day it is, or whether there is an sort of holiday to celebrate. However, Christmas is a great excuse to toss tissue paper on the floor, sprinkle it liberally with catnip, and then sit back and laugh hysterically at the chaos that ensues. There’s going to be a nightmare of a mess of shredded tissue paper and catnip to clean up later, but right now, the house full of doped up, happy cats makes it all worth it.

I did a little bit of reading of one of my new books, but then I decided to knit, and I’ve been toying with the idea of making us some kitchen towels because all our existing kitchen towels are old and faded and getting a bit ragged. So I poked around online until I found a promising pattern, and dug a stack of chocolate brown cotton out of the stash, and then settled myself onto the sofa with my yarn and my needles and a handful of cats, and commenced with the knitting. Three hours later, the first kitchen towel was done. Sometimes there are perks to being a really fast knitter.

This afternoon Richard helped me pick all the remaining lemons off the tree in the back yard, as well as more than half a dozen of the ruby red grapefruit, since I think they might finally be ripe (I’m really not quite sure how to tell without cutting them open). I made grilled cheese sandwiches for lunch, and we snacked on the veggie tray I made sure to pick up at the grocery store Tuesday afternoon on the way home from the office. We watched a sequel to Frosty the Snowman (one of Richard’s stocking stuffers from his family) which was truly horrible in its badness until we decided to come up with our own dark ending, and nefarious motive for all the characters. We went to the next door neighbor’s open house gathering, and spent some time chatting and laughing with various people from our street. I even went to the coffee shop because there had been some other knitters who were making noises about coming out for our weekly Thursday knitting group, even on Christmas, but finally left early because it turned out I was the only one who showed. And when I came home I juiced all the lemons and boiled all the peels in preparation for making another (massive) batch of candied lemon peel, before sitting back down on the sofa, yarn and needles in hand and cats in lap, to finish up the second kitchen towel, just because I was on a roll.

So overall, even though it’s been a very nontraditional sort of Christmas, with not a single traditional food eaten (or even, for that matter, prepared), and even though it didn’t exactly end up being a complete day of sloth as planned (I blame this on the fact that I am still having way too much fun cooking in my shiny new kitchen of joy), it’s still been a lovely sort of Christmas to have, just this once.

Tis the season for Holidailies

This morning I got up at my usual time, since brain/cats/weather/cost of eggs in darkest Peru all continue to conspire against me ever being able to sleep late again, but it was for the best because we had to get ready to head out early anyway. I assembled yet another batch of lemon curd shortbread bars to bring along (because this year is all about the lemon bars), and we gathered up all the presents in a big box, and then we piled everything into the car and set off to spend the day in Campbell, with Richard’s family, for their traditional Christmas Eve gathering. There was a brief detour through Starbucks to get breakfast and then another one through a gas station because the ’empty’ light was flashing, so we got a bit later start than we’d intended, but somehow we managed to get there on time nonetheless.

It was a rather laid back day, in all. Both of Richard’s sisters were there, and his aunt called and everyone took turns passing the phone around to say hello. We ate lunch, and then spent the rest of the afternoon grazing through an assortment of fudge, peppermint bark, sugar cookies, and lemon bars. We opened all the goofy stocking stuffers, and it is a toss-up as to which was the best stocking stuffpresent this year – the pair of awesome slipper socks Richard’s cousin gave his mom, or the pickle bandaids. The slippers had big puffy cats on them, which not only made them a bit disconcerting to look at, but also thoroughly confused one of the dogs, who simply did not know how to deal with socks with big puffy things on them, while the bandaids were shaped just like tiny little pickles, and the box came complete with a small plastic, rather nervous looking pickle with huge eyes and an inexplicable hole through its head. Next up was the present exchange, and I got a wonderful little red mp3 player and this amazing dragon made of wrought iron and glass.

Richard’s mom is still recovering from surgery earlier this month, so we all left early, to try to give her time to rest before their dinner reservations later in the evening. Richard and I were initially kind of excited to be actually driving home on Christmas Eve during daylight hours, until we hit the freeway and remembered that just because *we* took the day off, didn’t mean that everyone else did, and oh by the way, rush hour traffic in the Bay area really, really sucks. So eventually we gave up, pulled off the freeway, and found somewhere to go for dinner. While this didn’t enable us to avoid all the traffic, we at least avoided most of it, which was the goal.

Tis the season for Holidailies!

Today was my last day at work for the rest of the year, so naturally it was busy. The morning was full of last minute data extracts and finishing up reports, and chasing down email bounce errors, and a whole slew of phone calls related to all of the above. And then the afternoon was full of more phone calls and ‘oh by the ways’, like ‘oh by the way when we get back we’re going to redesign the intranet again’ (eek) and setting various and sundry away messages on my email and my voicemail. I had fully intended to tackle the rest of a large data tracking project I’ve been trying to finish, but either the network, the intranet, my computer, or a combination thereof, was conspiring against me. So shortly after my boss came in to let me know that as far as he could figure, there was nothing else he needed me to finish for the rest of the year, I decided that my computer’s stubborn insistence on freezing up every time I tried to do this one last thing I wanted to do was a sign, and that was it for the year. Woo hoo!

We had pizza for dinner, and we dragged out all the wrapping paper and tape and scissors and had ourselves a little wrapping party on the dining room table. I washed and pinned out my latest finished knitted object. I spent a little time on the phone and online with my dad, helping to get their Christmas present functioning correctly, and chatted briefly with my little sister, but otherwise it’s been a pretty low key sort of evening, sitting here in front of my computer with two cats on my lap, playing Majong, just because I can.

And as an early Christmas present, and also because I feel that when one has discovered a truly delicious high calorie treat, it is incumbent upon one to immediately share that treat with as many people as possible, I give to you the recipe for those amazing lemon curd and shortbread bars I’ve been making practically nonstop all month (recipe includes link to the recipe for lemon curd as well). Enjoy.

Tis the season for Holidailies!

Dear Santa,

I realize that once again, I am putting this letter off until the last minute. But I hope you’ll forgive me when you realize that the only reason I’m writing you is that this year, I’m letting you off the hook.

With the way the economy has been going these past few months, I have found myself more and more realizing just how truly lucky I am. I have a good job, that I enjoy, and coworkers that I like. I have a house I adore, and a beautiful new kitchen that is more than I ever dreamed. The cats are all healthy and happy; even the ones with issues seem to be improving year by year (case in point – this morning I trimmed Checkers’ claws and for the first time since we adopted her not only was there no screeching and a minimum of flailing, there was also no bloodshed, on the part of either of us. Does this count as a Christmas miracle?I think it does!).

And so there is really nothing much that I want from you this year. I’ve already received some of the best sorts of presents already. A week in Seattle with my whole family for Thanksgiving. An evening singing Christmas carols (deliberately, badly, off key) over videochat with my little sister and my niece. Reuniting, through the power of the internet, with dear friends from years past. Time spent with family and with friends. How do you top any of that with something wrapped in paper and sparkly bows, placed under the tree?

So this year, Santa, go ahead and focus on bringing things to other people who really need them, like jobs, and refinanced mortgages, and an eternal supply of empty pens in the White House (at least for the next few weeks) so that this horrible administration can not sign into law any more damage before they are finally, thankfully replaced. This year, I’m quite content with what I have.

Sincerely,

Jenipurr

(P.S. Of course, if you do happen to run across a spare small, housebroken, fire breathing dragon that is in need of a home, well, I certainly wouldn’t say no.)

Tis the season for Holidailies!

Every year, when we put up the tree, we make sure that any ornaments put on the bottom branches are the type that can handle being batted wildly, yanked off the tree, carried around in toothy mouths, or chewed on; in other words, any ornaments hung within paw reach have to be able to stand up to cats. The working theory behind this is that if the cats can easily get to the stuff that is soft, nonbreakable, and, most important of all, have minimal sentimental value. And every year, considering that the only ornaments that ‘escape’ the tree (with feline help) or get a little shredded, fit this category nicely.

This morning, as I walked past the tree, I discovered the first casualty of this holiday season. One of the ornaments we hung on the tree this year was a little teddy bear, made of pom poms and soft fuzzy stuff. Not only had it been removed from the tree and played with, it had been shredded almost beyond recognition. Naturally, once I stopped laughing, I had to show Richard the fluffy pom pom carnage, before I scooped up the mess and threw it away. Some cat (and I strongly suspect a certain portly tortie known for her skills in shredding) had one heck of a lot of fun last night.

This afternoon I packed up my knitting and headed off to Vacaville for one of my monthly knitting groups. There was a smaller crowd of this this month, I suspect due to the fact that the bulk of the group is probably spending all weekend doing frantic last minute Christmas preparations. I started and ripped out two separate projects several times before finally settling on a cute little lace snowflake, which I was able to whip up by the time the gathering was done. Then it was off to a friend’s house to ooh and aah over all the gorgeous work she’s been doing on her house since I last saw it, and then off to Davis, to meet up with my parents for dinner and the swapping of presents. Richard spent pretty much all day on his computer, grumbling at a work thing, but luckily he finished in time to join us for dinner. We sat around the table and ate Mexican food and chatted and caught up on absent family members, and then presents were exchanged and opened. One of the things I wanted, now that we’ve got a shiny new kitchen, was a wok, so my parents got one for me, along with the necessary utensils. I’m looking forward to trying it out (although likely that won’t happen until after Christmas, when things calm down and we can make the necessary grocery run to stock up on ingredients.

Back home, we finally got the annual Christmas letter finished and printed, and then Richard and I sat in the living room and folded and signed and stuffed the first batch of Christmas cards. I realize, of course, that the chances of any of these cards actually arriving *before* Christmas are pretty much nil, but if we can at least get them postmarked before Christmas, I’ll consider it a win.

Tis the season for Holidailies!

Yesterday was (mostly) a pretty good day. I had the day off, so sat at home and poked around on my computer, and did a bunch of knitting. I finally changed out of my pajamas around lunchtime, only because I had to run off to buy an ornament for the office gift exchange that evening. It was a lovely, lazy sort of day.

Yesterday evening was my office’s holiday dinner, and we all went out to Morton’s Steakhouse. It was a delicious dinner – tons of food (it was Morton’s after all) – and we all sat around the table and chatted; or did our best to chat, since the restaurant was a bit too noisy for conversation with people more than one or two away from you down the table. While waiting for desserts to arrive we did the usual office gift exchange – another White Elephant swap, with nice gifts. Richard and I ended up with a gorgeous pewter serving bowl and tray, and the tower of treats in a series of nested boxes shaped like a tree that I brought went over well too.

So overall, yesterday went really, really well. Until shortly before we were ready to leave the restaurant, and I started feeling a little queasy. I figured it was likely just due to the fact that we’d eaten so much, but….then we got home, and that’s when the fun began. I spent the next six hours alternating between throwing up (or worse, and I will not go into specifics there), or curled up under the covers with horrible stomach cramps; cramps which did not fully subside until late afternoon today. I’m not sure if it was something I ate during dinner, or whether I just picked up some little bug and the timing was simply coincidental, but I admit it’s made me not want to eat at Morton’s again any time soon (ha, as if we would be anyway – that place is expensive).

Today, therefore, has been a fairly quiet day. Richard has spent most of it on his computer, taking care of some work-related issues, so with him busy and me still feeling off, it was good we didn’t have anything major planned. We got the last batch of gifts wrapped and in the mail, and we made a (very short) run to Ikea to pick up some cute little containers for other presents. But otherwise, we’ve just been staying quietly at home, him working, me knitting or napping, and the cats doing what cats always do (whining, randomly skittering, but mostly sleeping).

Tis the season for Holidailies!

After last night’s knitting group gift swap, I came home with a bag of holiday goodies, including a mix for gingerbread pancakes, a little sampler of different types of maple syrup, and a mix for peppermint chocolate scones. I like peppermint, and I like chocolate, and we are big fans of scones, considering how often I bake them, but the combination of peppermint and scone seemed a little, well, odd.

Nevertheless, this morning I decided to give them a try. So I stirred up the mix and popped them into the oven, and when they were done we sat down at the kitchen island, with coffee and the scones, and each took a bit.

I am not going to be craving these, I will admit. The peppermint flavor is not overpowering, but it is definitely there, and it’s not something I would do again for a bread product. Peppermint in cake, definitely. But peppermint, I think, does not belong in a scone. However, they’re not *bad*, and I can overlook the peppermint for the stronger flavor of the scone, so I didn’t mind them.

Richard, on the other hand, thought they were completely foul. He took one bite, and then his entire face screwed up in horror. He tried to wash away the taste with coffee but peppermint has this tendency to stay around for a while. So then he decided he’d have cereal for breakfast. While I nibbled the rest of my scone, he poured himself some cereal and then started to pour the milk, and I knew, even before it started to come out, just by the way it sounded in the carton, that this was going to be a bad idea. Alas, even as I yelled ‘Wait!’, it was too late. That milk had turned completely, to the point where what he poured out onto his cereal was closer to the consistency of yogurt than liquid. So much for his having cereal.

I tried to be sympathetic but it is very hard to be sympathetic when one is in danger of falling off one’s chair because one is laughing so hard. Poor Richard. He eventually ended up making himself oatmeal and that came out just fine. But I suspect I’m going to be giggling about this all day, and probably for a long time after.

Tis the season for Holidailies!