It was quiet, sweet, and simple. If you did anything special that day, I hope yours was joyous as well.
On christmas eve we went to Albany Bulb for our usual dog walking adventure with Ruth and Piccolo. From there we decided to attempt a visit to the Tokyo Fish Market which we had been wanting to check out. Luckily they were open and it was great fun exploring all the packages of goodies that were total mysteries. Together we conspired and made a decision to purchase half a pound of shrimp and half a pound of halibut, some veggies - all set!
TGF had decided in advance that breakfast would be biscuits with sausage gravy, a particular favorite of hers. We had not really decided about dinner but a few days before she had mentioned "seafood" as possibility, in part because she knows I think there is entirely too much meat eating going on around here, and also because it was her tradition to have beef stroganoff on christmas day thus she wanted something that was ours. Since I was quite hungry I voted for breakfast first, then presents! As the present unveiling took awhile I was very happy with the order of events.
TGF already covered her haul a few days ago. Though I have no idea how to use one of these things I am delighted nonetheless with this adorable teeny tiny SanDisk MP3 player that she got me. It also works as a voice recorder and a jump drive - how cool is that! In a continuation of themes from last year she got me the 2007 version of Knitting - A Pattern A Day calendar.
Also I got Romantic Knitting, the cover photo drew her in because she thought I would look good in the cover outfit. Isn't she sweet? I am so not waiflike thus the dress would look, well, quite different on me! Sweetheart that she is, she included the receipt in case I think a different book would be more to my liking. It's like she read that article in the Chronicle that I giggled over the day before our present exchange.
Again, just like she read something, cruising my way is a ball winder! I am terribly excited as I could really use this, though my skill at creating center pull balls with no equipment other than my hands has grown tremendously.
TGF has proved she has excellent taste on many occasions but truly a telling of her talents is that she was able to purchase a handbag for me. Yes, of course it's black -don't be silly- but it takes more than that to please this woman! I haven't had anything close to professional (read not a backpack or hippy tote thingy) to use for interviews or work since Wyatt chewed the strap of my last great find of such an article when he was a baby. This lovely little number is large enough to hold my wallet, phone, lipstick, dayrunner, and a small knitting project (like socks perhaps?). How perfect is that? I ask you.
Oh and dinner? Sauteed shrimp with garlic butter, roasted vegetables (shiitake mushrooms, red pepper, japanese eggplant, and red onion), brown rice, and halibut poached with lemongrass from our garden with some garlic and ginger. It was all so good. I had somehow never roasted shiitake mushrooms before - OMG so good, meaty (ha!) texture and smoky flavor, wow. Breakfast today was some of the rice and veggies, two days later still really good.
Yeah, it was a good day.
Last night we created another tradition, celebrating hannukah with Ruth, Piccolo's mom. Before heading to Albany Bulb I had the sufganiyot dough rising in a bowl on the stove, having used my tried and true recipe from The Book of Jewish Food by Claudia Roden. My potatoes were prepped and draining in the colander, and the chicken had been rinsed, air drying in the refrigerator (a trick I was trying from Cooks Illustrated's thoughts on how to get a crispy skin on turkey).
It was the perfect time to get to the Bulb yesterday, immediately I regretted not grabbing the camera. The sky had this beautiful variegation of blues into pinks, with an incredible mirror image on the water's surface. San Francisco's skyline etched beautifully with the buildings a soft dove gray. The air was gentle, the softest of winds caressing our skin.
Coming back the house was warm and welcoming as we all piled in. I took to the kitchen to finish prepping the meal, music playing, dogs carousing, conversation flowing - definitely a very modern Norman Rockwell evening. In between meal prep and sitting down to dinner a gift break was decreed by TGF. There was a lavender theme to our gifts from Ruth - a calming lavender bandanna for Wyatt, a large lavender heating pad thing for TGF (for her shoulder), and lavender booties for me and my bad feet. Very sweet of her.
All the food was wonderful and we all ate from beyond full. There was much lolling about after dinner and talk of doing this again next year.
Tomorrow, actually in about 12-14 hours we get to tear into this! I am getting very excited. Earlier this evening I was trying to remember the last time I had "a christmas morning" but I have no recollection. It would have to be at least 5 years? Certainly it has never been an every year event. I am feeling a bit like a kid, contemplating if I could ask TGF if I could open just one tonight, or at midnight.
What ever you do during this season, one holiday, none, or many I wish you joy and hope for the new year.
Today (well technically yesterday as it's now after midnight -how did that happen!?!?) was to be our lighting party but due to two families needing to cancel, and as it turned out the third would have never pulled it off, and one of the gracious hostesses being sick yesterday, the gathering was canceled although dates are being bandied about for next year. Nothing like a little advanced planning.
While still a bit less than what I like to call well, I was feeling better today but rather grateful that I did not have a party to prep for as the day crept on. Rainy and a bit gloomy TGF and I nonetheless bravely walked about a block to this great paper discount place to do some holiday shopping. This place has been a lifesaver for many events at Casa de Cedar. Finally we have wrapping paper which is handy as TGF's gift are piling up and I cannot wait to make them pretty and pile them under the tree. I still have a bit more shopping to do and am awaiting another delivery.
We finally bought holiday cards which will go out after "the holiday" but are perfect for the new year so that satisfies the requirement of not specifying "christmas", nor having santa or other clear symbols of that holiday but also does not sport a menorah, and makes seem like we intended all along to send a "new years" card (which is really my preference given the wide variety of friend's affiliations). Whew.
In a slight twist on jewish customs I reconstituted Chinese food leftovers with a few additions into a yummy single dish. While watching Rudolph the Red-nosed Reindeer (hey, I never said I was totally consistent on this stuff. I have a serious soft spot for the holiday specials of my childhood) TGF and I decorated our tree compliments of Ruthie's beautiful ornament cast-offs. Each of us had been concerned that there would be enough baubles and TGF moaned that we had forgotten to get candy canes while out grocery shopping earlier, but in reality our tree looks positively festive! The bottom few inches do not have anything but the pre-strung lights because there are six cats and a dog living here and one needs to be practical. Hopefully by late afternoon Friday there will be some gifts under there and I am going to pray that none of the animal crush the packages.
In a blizzard of disappointment it looks like our Lighting Party won't be happening. I suppose it is not the worst thing as I apparently have the flu - one day before the dang thing.
Seriously I have felt like crap all day but I was totally ready, unless I felt much the same or -horrors- worse, to shop, clean and cook my meant for birthing babies eastern european hips off (this is my way letting the new readers know I am not some petite, fragile flower). I am still wanting laktes and sufganiot so maybe Friday or Saturday I'll get busy in the kitchen. Yeah I know the holiday is technically over on Friday but so what? I mean it's potatoes and grease there's always time for that in my book. I just found a recipe for apple fritters which is making my mouth water just a bit.
I have already looked up the dates for the holiday for next year and proposed a date. I figure a year's notice might work. What do you think? Yeah, me too, we make plans and the universe laughs.
Well I'm going to go get a big glass of sad and wallow for a bit and start fresh tomorrow.
Friday night, after a lovely albeit noisy dinner with some friends, TGF and I came home and lit the menorah. Technically one of the, um, 5? menorahs we have. Okay double technically, I own, but whatever you know? They are in our household. Of course first I had to clean out the wax that was filling on the little holder part thingy. Love having skewers in the house for such tasks.
The menorah was lit and safely atop our enameled top dining table, to keep it safe from our Pyro Kitty, We then proceeded to unpack our new to us artificial tree. It really is quite a nice tree and was very easy to put together. Though we had said we would exchange gifts on christmas day this year, I just had to give TGF one thing that night, in honour of our tree. I had found a C*ke Cola ornament that appears to be slightly vintage so despite her protests she received the gift. Last year we did small gifts for each other every night, and considered a "house" gift our christmas gift to each other but that didn't work very well for her as she felt a bit hollow not having a distinct celebratory act on the that day.
We are trying something different this year as we continue to sift through different ways to celebrate holidays together. We then dug though our "holiday" bin to find our ornaments only to realize that we had no hooks! Of course we only have about 7 ornaments total in the bin. A friend saw mention of the pitiful state of our decorations and offered her spares which I picked up today so our tree will not remain quite so bare.
Right now I am feeling very blessed and happy in our mingled confused path to forging traditions. Thursday will be our second annual Lighting Party, as I write that I realize that I wrote about that event a year ago on this blog. A year has past, the same members of our family of choice will be attending and that feels just so sweet. Also it feels so different from anything I have ever done, having a tradition. Not just a thought of forging one, but the actual repetition of an annual gathering. Yes we had a harvest blessing this year and last, but all hallows eve does not carry the same weight of meaning, commercials and movies demanding you pay attention to the holiday, the implications of family gatherings. It feels fragile still, appropriately so, given the newness but so lovely.
TGF already covered her haul a few days ago. Though I have no idea how to use one of these things I am delighted nonetheless with this adorable teeny tiny SanDisk MP3 player that she got me. It also works as a voice recorder and a jump drive - how cool is that! In a continuation of themes from last year she got me the 2007 version of Knitting - A Pattern A Day calendar.
Also I got Romantic Knitting, the cover photo drew her in because she thought I would look good in the cover outfit. Isn't she sweet? I am so not waiflike thus the dress would look, well, quite different on me! Sweetheart that she is, she included the receipt in case I think a different book would be more to my liking. It's like she read that article in the Chronicle that I giggled over the day before our present exchange.
