Martinmas 2023

Saturday, November 11, 2023

Martinmas snuck up on me this year as it often does. Woke up not feeling well this morning so I cancelled with Noel. Sat around all day which worked out just fine since I don't have the bandwidth to do much more. Work has just been exhausting which is probably why I'm not feeling well. 

Spent time looking through a new Christmas book I picked up last weekend while out shopping with Noel. It's simply titled The Christmas Book and it's published by Phaidon. The book contains more than 200 images of paintings, books, prints, sculptures, textiles, ceramics, and photography, and covers topics such as Advent; the Christmas tree and holiday decorations; gift giving and carol singing; and classic Christmas films and music. It's a delightful publication. 

Checked out some of this blog's previous Martinmas posts where I acknowledge the loss of our beloved black lab, Athena. Had an Old Fashioned tonight in her honor and used a lab themed lowball glass I picked up a few years ago. I still miss her greatly. She reminds me that disparate emotions can coexist within us - the joy of living with her and the pain of losing her. Cheers, Athena, I won't forget you. 

I believe loss can make us cherish even more what we currently hold dear. Sylvester came to us just under two months after we lost Athena. He too is an angel and I'm grateful for his presence. 

Chicken is a traditional Martinmas food. Dale and I decided to make a chicken pot pie for dinner. We use chicken thighs for the dish and the dark meat makes it especially rich. 

We watched Meet Me in St. Louis during dinner tonight. It's a great movie for November as two major parts of the movie cover Halloween and Christmas which this month bridges. The movie is just shy of being 80 years old and I believe only one member of the main cast is still living. Margaret O'Brien, born on January 15, 1937, is 86 years old. She's one of the last surviving stars of the golden age of Hollywood.

June Lockhart, another of the last surviving members of Hollywood's golden age is still with us at 98 years old. As a kid I absolutely loved her in the tv program Lost In Space. 

Some music Dale and I listened to during cocktail hour this afternoon. 

Christmastide 2020: Christmas Day - The First Day of Christmas: Sleep Well

Friday, December 25, 2020

It all comes and goes so quickly. Sleep well. 

Christmastide 2020: Christmas Day - The First Day of Christmas: Good Night

Friday, December 25, 2020

Happy Christmas to all and to all a good night!

Christmastide 2020: Christmas Day - The First Day of Christmas: Pumpkin Pie

Friday, December 25, 2020

Mom wasn't up for dessert. Dale and I indulged after she left. Pumpkin. Pie.

Christmastide 2020: Christmas Day - The First Day of Christmas: Getting Dinner Ready

Friday, December 25, 2020

Made a Bloody Mary.

Got the balls on the tree. Decided to go simple and not ornament-pack it this year. It's a lot easier. 

Played sous chef to Dale and helped get the beef bourguingnon going. 

And listened to some Ella. 

Christmastide 2020: Christmas Day - The First Day of Christmas

Friday, December 25, 2020

Merry Christmas! Like yesterday, today is turning out to be a glorious sun-shiny day!

Christmas Day 2019 - Merry Kiltmas

Wednesday, December 25, 2019

It's that time of the year again. I wanted to be all fancified for my hosting duties so I went with a blue velvet blazer. 

Post Christmas Season 2017/2018 - Christmas Carol

Saturday, December 13, 2018

I had the opportunity today to visit with a former colleague who's dying of cancer. I began teaching with Carol M. almost 30 years ago. She was a veteran teacher who acted as a mentor for me for the nine years I was at the school where we taught together. Another former colleague emailed me to let me know she was going in for tests at the Mayo Clinic in late November. Carol had cancer once before shortly after I was done teaching at the school where we taught together. I believe I visited her once or twice after she recovered. Another former colleague emailed me to let me know that cancer had returned and that she was going in for tests at the Mayo Clinic in late November.  They were going to try to determine what kind of cancer. It turns out it's a very rare kind that has been recorded in American adults only 8 times before. Slightly more common in children, it usually appears in their arms or legs and can be easily removed. Unfortunately for Carol what they found was near her eye and had already spread to her brain and is moving down her neck. 

I visited her today with about 5 other former colleagues. It was wonderful to see everyone and I can't believe how natural it felt to be together after 20 years. Carol is doing incredibly well and is sustained by her strong faith. Her acceptance and bravery reminds me of my Dad's when he died almost 11 years ago. 

Carol and I taught in a school where Christmas could be recognized. It was always so much fun getting ready with the kids. Even though the time leading up to Christmas vacation was during Advent it was so meaningful to get ready with the kids doing Christmas/winter themed writing, projects, and decorating. We would decorate a tree in the classroom so on the last day of school before vacation many students would give me Christmas tree ornaments. I still have all of them to this day.

Carol told a few stories about Christmas on the farm where she grew up. The one I remember most is how her family's tree would go up on Christmas Eve and her mother would keep it up and the house decorated until Candlemas on February 2. The idea of leaving everything up until the beginning of February always intrigued me. I'd often remind Dale of Carol's family's tradition whenever he gets on me about leaving our house decorated into January. Although I always have 95% of it cleaned up before the end of the month, Carol's story always bought me a little extra time. 

Christmas Day 2017 - Beef

Monday, December 25, 2017

Dale decided he wanted to make Julia Child's beef bourginon recipe for Christmas dinner. I helped and was more involved in the production I think since the first time we made it years ago.

To start, my job was to slice the onion.

Dale got the meat dried off with paper towels.

I also took care of getting the carrots sliced. The recipe calls for one carrot. We had baby carrots so I used about 7 of them and sliced them into quarter rounds.

Dale got the stove set up.

I cut six (they're doubled up in the photo) good sized slices of bacon into thirds.

Dale had the brilliant idea of each of us frying the  bacon off at the same time. I used the skillet and he used the casserole. 

Then we did the same thing with the meat, searing it on all sides. I'm surprised one of us hadn't thought of this before since it made it go twice as fast.

We then fried the vegetables and then added the bacon and the beef and put it in the oven for about 4 minutes, took it out and tossed it, and then put it back in for 4 more minutes.

When it came back out we added garlic,

thyme,

the wine,

chicken stock,

and about a tablespoon+ of tomato paste,

brought it to a simmer and then put it in the oven for about 2 and a 1/2 hours.

As it got closer to the time to take it out, Dale fried off the mushrooms.

When it came out of the oven,

we drained off the broth,

put what was left back in the casserole,

and added the fried-off mushrooms to the casserole.

Dale needed to boil down the approximately 3 and a 1/2 cups of broth we had down to 2 and a 1/2 cups. He said it probably started out as 5 and a 1/2 cups when we put  the whole casserole in the oven and reduced to  the 3 and a 1/2 we had when we took it out.

After the broth was reduced, Dale skimmed off the fat although there wasn't much since the beef was pretty lean to begin with. We added the broth back to the casserole and waited for it to rest a bit. The smell was insanely divine.

Mom came over for Christmas dinner. She got here at 3:00 p.m. and watched The Bishop's Wife serving appetizers of smoked gouda, pears, and crackers.

We ate at 5 p.m. with the beef served over egg noodles. Dale made oven roasted brussels sprouts. Pumpkin pie for dessert.