I hope you all had a Cool Yule

[thewayne]

or whatever in the form that you care to celebrate it in.

We got back from the observatory about half an hour ago. Had an excellent dinner, I made orange-flavored green beans, cheesy mashed potatoes, Parmesan crisps, and a pistachio/herb rubbed turkey breast. We also had goose, two kinds of stuffing, gravy for the goose, and some excellent cider. And WAAAY too many people! One of Russet's minions got married, so he brought his wife and stepkids to the observatory for Christmas and the snow (they're from El Paso, snow is a bit of a foreign concept for them). Then his wife's sister and hubby were in town.... and momma wasn't doing anything.... etcetera.

There were something like 20 people at the observatory, with a significant number under the age of 20. Quite a bit of bedlam. Fortunately I was in a dormitory kitchen doing all my cooking and avoided a lot of it.


So, loot! I gave Russ a copy of In & Out with Kevin Kline, featuring a 10-15 second open-mouth kiss between Kline and Tom Selleck. Russ had never seen it before, so we watched it very early this AM after having watched Monsters Inc. last night, another film she'd never seen. I also gave her a Waylin' Jenny's CD, they've been on Prairie Home Companion many times and Russ likes 'em. And I bought three CDs for both of us, a John Roberts/Tony Barrand, a Ditty Bops, and a Stan Rogers disc. Russ gave me a copy of Alton Brown's baking cookbook and a wonderful pair of house shoes from Brookstone. Marvelously warm shoes!


I guess that's about it. We're watching Hellboy on DVD, I picked it up while we were in Phoenix, yet another film that Russet hasn't seen. I'm looking forward to sleeping in for a couple of days and doing very little, though I will have to do some kitchen work tomorrow and finish cleaning all the stuff I dirtied prepping stuff to go to the observatory for final assembly. And we've got friends coming in at the end of the week, I've got to get the place a bit more decent for them.


Oh, and we got a little snow last night! Just enough of a dusting to make everything whiter. The storm that clobbered Denver moved away from us last Wednesday and we didn't really get anything after the initial dump. So we had a fresh, white Christmas up here.

Have fun!

Comments

[deborak]

We don't really "do" Christmas with all the presents and food, but it sounds like you guys had a good time with yours. Our 12/25 consisted of Bill playing Imperialism all day while I played CivCity Rome. Then we watched X-Men 3 (which neither of us had gotten around to seeing last summer) through the cable tv's on-demand. Finished up watching about half of the late night Venture Brothers marathon on Adult Swim.

Oh, I did make almond cookies yesterday, but the blame for that lies with CivRome and not Christmas. :-)

Our weather has been incredibly warm, in the sixties. A week ago Sunday it was 78 degrees! We spent 12/24 doing yardwork because it was so nice out.

[magic-rat.livejournal.com]

I was very happy about the Venture Brothers marathon, as I finally got to see the one second season episode that I had missed. It wasn't the best episode, but I now know where Dr. Orpheus' triad came from. Ah, sweet closure!

[thewayne.livejournal.com]

Had I known of it, I probably would have watched it. Oh, well. I think I might possibly survive having missed it.

[magic-rat.livejournal.com]

Snow isn't quite so foreign to El Paso as it is to Phoenix. Having spent eleven years of my childhood there, I remember that snow would fall about two to four times per winter. Once or twice a year, it would accumulate enough to cover the roads and school would be closed for the day. Of course, even at its worst, the snow would be mostly melted by late afternoon so it was nothing compared to the snow in Cloudcroft (where my family would drive to so that we could play in the snow). But foreign? Not quite. Unfamiliar would be a more appropriate descriptive.

[ateji.livejournal.com]

Sounds like you had a great holiday. :) I'm jealous of your Alton Brown cookbook. ;)

[thewayne.livejournal.com]

I now have THREE! AB cookbooks! I'm going to give the oldest one to my Mom.

I HIGHLY recommend them. And I was very happy when my wife gave them to me, she knows how much of a junkie I am.

[ateji.livejournal.com]

Once I have access to a kitchen of my own...watch out, nearby stomachs! ;)

[thewayne.livejournal.com]

Having your own kitchen does help. LOL

[ateji.livejournal.com]

And things will be put away properly! No more of this crazy measuring cups on top of plates stuff! :P