If you are what you eat...

Old folks know how to celebrate--start early in case you fade. We did lunch with Cullen today at O'Donnell's in Kentlands. It's heavy on seafood and good service. We were part of the early crowd but there long enough to see the head greeter change into a tux. Tom and I shared this for dessert: Cullen had this: Enough said.

Yorkshire pudding, pie, small dogs

We've settled into the post dinner slump. You all probably had your tree up and decorated days ago, but we waited until Bridget and Cullen could do the heavy work. Only a little tension over the number of lights. Bridget says more. Cullen and Tom voted for fewer. Next year she wins. We made it to Mark and Carol's yesterday in time to learn something about sauerkraut. That's sauerkraut in the bowl on the left, and saukerkraut between the two layers of dough on the right. She also does the same thing with an apple filling and a mashed potato filling. Frying and then baking finish the process. For the next few days we're in charge of walking and feeding Ruby and Syn, both of whom are smaller than Henry and Eli, and not terribly used to walking. The pudgy pomeranian plants his feet and refuses to move, but at least with these dogs we are in charge. Wednesday and Thursday we take care of Tweety, the next door cat. It's good for a neighborhood to have some stodgy old folks hanging around. And for the record, we had a great Yorkshire pudding today, made by Cullen.Pretty soon Tom and I won't have to do anything but fill our plates.

Sometimes you win...

When St. Rose sells raffle tickets, I buy raffle tickets. The list of things I have not won is long. There are about five quilts that I didn't win, numerous digital cameras that I didn't win, music systems, computers, weekends in the Shenandoahs...you name it, I didn't win it. Until this Sunday. Six tickets on a hand-painted porcelain nativity set. I bought them on Sunday, the last day of the Christmas shop/tree sale at St. Rose. By that evening I had the small refrigerator size box with 15 pieces. To give you some perspective, the angel is 13 inches tall. The camel is 14 inches tall and 16 inches from tail to nose. The big worry was the cats, but so far so good, except for the straw under the infant. That piece is in the cupboard. No infant until the 25th, and then only with supervision.

white elephants

Any excuse to have more cookies. There are 14 people in my department. Despite the impending ice storm, on Thursday everyone brought a wrapped gift and finger food: lemon bars, homemade hot pepper cheese crackers (it's a Southern thing--flour, butter, cheese, cayenne pepper, rolled in rice krispies and baked), cucumber sandwiches, brie, grapes, baklava, shortbread cookies...

But it's the white elephants that make the party. Simple rules. Draw a number. Number 1 goes first, and anyone who follows can take your gift or one that is wrapped. Not complicated. The tackier the gift the better, with the occasional tasteful, appropriate relapse. The gift I brought went first to a librarian and then to a science writer. I escaped the orange plastic Florida Marlin's night light and came home with a cookie jar that I bet no one in my family would ever think to give me. I see the beginning of a collection.
Recipe from another party. Take a cheeseball. Layer it with cream cheese and score it to look like bricks. The penguins are two olives each. Split the bottom olive and fill it with cream cheese for the stomach. Slices of carrots for the feet and a sliver of carrot for the nose. There were women struck speechless when they saw this.
No silly hats for this cat.

boxes, hats with flowers

Lots of success this weekend. We avoided the malls and went out early enough to stay out of the heaviest traffic. It helps having at least one person (Tom) who can be decisive, so you can all blame him.

Delivered to the post office this morning. Two packages are going to Olean. I ran out of boxes, so I hope you all make it to Little Valley over the holiday.

No snowboarding for us this weekend, but we did go to a concert at Strathmore Hall Saturday night--the Messiah as arranged by Quincy Jones for a symphony orchestra, jazz band, and gospel choir. It worked. Lots of strong women with great voices. I think the director was about 18 years old. The audience was filled with women who know how to wear interesting clothes--red suits, hats with flowers, long minks, and a fair amount of jewelry. I went as a subdued suburbanite.

snow, lunch, bargains

Snow on Monday, but the best kind of storm. Very little snow, and it disappeared quickly.

Tom came in to our holiday lunch at headquarters today (I think there's a law against mentioning the place where one works by name). Tenderloin beef, spiced shrimp, rockfish, asparagus that was tender but not mushy, mashed potatoes with garlic, squash, some kind of vegetable mix that looked like potatoes but was spicier, steamed dumplings, salad with pecans and sliced pears...things I am leaving out, and then a dessert buffet--creme brulet, chocolate cake with raspberry filling, an espresso bar, wine, flowers, and then we closed for the day.

So I went shopping, with the intention of making some progress on Christmas gifts, especially those for siblings. I went to Target and bought a clock radio for a church donation, went to Costco and checked out every aisle, but bought nothing, went to Pier 1 and checked out ornaments and place mats, but bought nothing, went to Staples and checked out paper shredders but didn't buy, and went to Michael's and checked out all the possibilities (how many different ways are there to do a scrapbook?) and bought nothing. By that time I was getting depressed, so I stopped in at a consignment store right near us and spent $8.

They probably aren't worth much, but they're not plastic.

According to the weather report, we may have snow, sleet and ice after midnight. We're ready. We had the snow tires put on the car today.

Henry's Happy

I'm hearing that Olivia doesn't look like the happiest animal. Not that a cat can smile either, but Henry does a pretty good imitation of being content, probably because he never gets dragged outdoors, never follows orders, and pretty much has the ambition of a hot water bottle.



Lots of mud around the construction site at St. Rose, but word is we will be in the new church by Easter. And lots of turmoil unassociated with the construction. We now have a Monsignor as a pastor, and he's having a hard time learning how to communicate. At least the larger church is solving problems...limbo will be looked at.

Sweet Olivia

By 7:30 am most mornings Olivia and I are within 1/4 mile of home, which for her is a real issue. For the first 35 minutes that we are out, she walks on my left and bounces along like a real trooper. But for the last 5 minutes, she puts her 35 pounds into letting me know she wants home. The only thing I have going for me is that she is trained to sit. No matter what else is going on, she will sit. She's afraid of school buses, garbage trucks, people who walk funny, bicycle riders, kids with backbacks, and Oriental men who wear knit caps. But no dog can beat her at sitting.