Christmas Season 2017/2018 - Half Off

Saturday, December 30, 2017

Much to Dale's consternation I did a little mor post Christmas shopping. The green Santa cloche above and the red ornaments below were ALL half off. How could I say no?

Christmas Day 2017 - The Bishop's Wife

Monday, December 25, 2017

After dinner we watched The Bishop's Wife and ate pumpkin pie. 

Christmas Day 2017 - White Christmas

Monday, December 25, 2017

Dale and I finished watching White Christmas before Mom arrived. We had actually started  it yesterday but nodded off. 

Christmas Day 2017 - Merry Kiltmas

Monday, December 25, 2017

I wore my kilt for Christmas Day dinner,

So nice to spend the day with Mom and Dale.

Mom brought over chocolate covered cherries which were always one of Dad'a favorites.

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.

Christmas Day 2017 - Good Morning

Monday, December 25, 2017

This is not how it actually played out. Dale was up first so I didn't need to wake him up by jumping on him. I thought it was a cute Bitmoji picture and it illustrates that my exuberance around Christmas is more than Dale's.

I put Mary and Joseph in the manger scene yesterday but added Baby Jesus this morning.

Dale posted the following on his blog this morning:

I haven’t felt very Christmassy this year, but trying to get into the spirit today. I like watching college choirs on PBS - this one is Gustavus Adolphus - because choral music is kind of my jam.

Athena took one look at the forecast for this week and promptly curled up in our bed. This dog likes long walks but this week, we will have to take her on several short walks because she steadfastly refuses to let us put booties on her which would protect her sensitive little paws from the cold. But no. Five minute walks they shall be. Too bad too. She would look boss in the vibram sole booties we have.

Now to cleaning the house and preparing to host Joe’s mom and who knows who else for Christmas dinner (boeuf bourguignon!)

Merry Christmas to all who celebrate!

Christmas Eve 2017 - Goodnight

Sunday, December 24, 2017

What a lovely day this Christmas Eve was. Time for bed though...

Christmas Eve 2017 - Greetings to Sam and Pete

Sunday, December 24, 2017

Shortly before Dale and I headed of to the Christmas Eve service I texted Sam and Pete the above picture. Sam texted back the following... 

...with the message that they ended up with a white Christmas. I texted back that that's pretty good for Kansas. Pete texted that they're doing cheese fondue at their house.

Christmas Eve 2017 - White Christmas

Sunday, December 24, 2017

Just after our church service ended I checked my phone and noticed Mike had texted me the above picture. He's in Arizona visiting Charisse's family and I took it to mean they're watching White Christmas. When Dale and I got home from church we put together a grazing tray of pickled herring, crackers, apples, pears, ham, swiss cheese and French onion dip.  We also put in White Christmas and I texted the following picture to Mike:

I also texted this one:

...with the message "I'll be Danny Kaye to your Bing Crosby." He's such a good sport to put up with me.

Dale and I started falling asleep on the couch before the movie ended (just as Rosie Clooney gets dropped off at the train station by the general after he misunderstanding with Bing). We decided to go to bed but I got a brief second wind and ended up reading The Polar Express before I settled in for my long winter nap. I find the story magical. It's copyrighted 1985 so I didn't grow up with it but I encountered it in the early nineties when I began teaching. It touched me when I first read it as it made me think about what it means to believe.