Christmas Season 2024/2025: The Twelfh Day of Christmas & Twelfth Night

 Sunday, January. 5, 2025

Haven't been to church since Advent due to travel and illness. Finally made it during the Christmas season for the Second Sunday of Christmas. Sang lots of good hymns including Once In Royal David's City, Gabriel's Message, What Child Is This, In the Bleak Midwinter, and The First Noel.  Good to be back. 

                        

Dale and I had brunch at The Howe afterward. 

We headed to the grocery store and then home. I had a cigar and Dale went to the gym. 

Listened to music. 

We’re celebrating 12th Night tonight.

We lit lots of candles.

We made a chicken pot pie and it was delicious.

Watched Big Bang Theory and ate gingerbread cookies for dessert. 

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. 

Illness, Recovery, Vaccinations, Recovery, and Looking to Thanksgiving

Sunday, November 21, 2021

This past week as been a doozie. A week ago Friday (Nov. 12) I felt quite worn down. I chalked it up to a long week. The next morning I woke up not feeling well at all. I cancelled my plans with Noel and stayed in bed all day. Sunday was more of the same. I felt so awful I had Dale take me to the airport's Covid testing site and I called in sick for Monday. Monday afternoon I got word my Covid test was negative but still took Tuesday off. I was feeling a bit better Tuesday afternoon and went to work on Wednesday feeling pretty much back to normal. I had my second shingles vaccination shot scheduled for Friday. When I got to the clinic they convinced me to get my Covid booster shot as well. I had a strong reaction overnight and was knocked on my ass by Saturday morning. Cancelled my plans with Noel again and stayed in bed all day. 

I'm feeling much better today. Dale and I went to Pittsburg Blue at the Galleria for brunch and did some shopping at Barnes and Noble afterward. Dale got a book and I got a bunch of magazines for the trip Mom and are taking Wednesday to go out and see Pete and family out in Virginia. 

I also picked up some Christmas cards. 

Oh yeah, and we had a chicken pot pie for dinner. 

MLK Weekend 2021 - Acknowledging the Message of Winter

Saturday, January 16, 2021

Dale and I are both exhausted. The heightened tension nationally from the insurrection a week and a half ago has taken a toll not to mention the cumulative effects of the pandemic and the past four years of the current presidency. We've really taken some time these past couple weekends to really take care of ourselves and regroup even more than what we're getting used to. I'm trying to keep in mind my belief that the biggest message winter has for us is to look to nature for the clues to slow down. 

Last weekend we made a chicken pot pie. 

It's one of our favorite winter meals.

I'm doing a dry January so I had Bubly for cocktail hour. Dale had his usual red wine. 

We listened to the album Like Someone In Love by Ella Fitzgerald. It's awesome and Dale mentioned that he especially liked it. 

For dinner we prepared a salmon quiche. Another one of our wintertime favorites. 

And for dessert we had our ever-lovin' Oh Ho roulade from Kowalski's. 

We watched some of our favorite episodes of The IT Crowd. The last few years we've watched this on the evening of Christmas Day after dinner with Mom. She loves the show and finds it hysterical. We didn't get to it this year.

Holiday Season 2018: Martinmas Day - The Coziness of Home Part 3

Sunday, November 11, 2018

Goose was not available to us for Martinmas so we settled on hen for the pot pie we made tonight. It was nothing short of divine. 

We watched Murder At the Gallop starring Margaret Rutherford. It's an old favorite of both of us. 

For dessert we had ice cream.

Tillamook of course. 

Christmas Season 2017/2018 - New Year's Eve

Sunday, December 31, 2017

As I write this I'm sitting on my couch in my cozy living room with Dale sitting next to me reading the paper. Athena is lying peacefully across from me on her doggie bed beneath the television. It's bitterly cold outside. It was -15 degrees this morning and is currently -7 at 5p.m.

Cocktail hour is in full swing so my Beefeater martini is at my side and I'm listening to Ultra Lounge Christmas Cocktails Vol. 4 which  is a very worthy collection of xmas tunes. The red and white lights of the Christmas tree are casting a lovely warm glow over everything. There's no place I'd rather be right now than here. 

I made a chicken pot pie tonight for dinner. The gravy was made by Mrs. Kowalski which is sooo much better than the bottled stuff. 

My martini, sitting near me on our kitchen counter while I put the pot pie together, was accidentally knocked by Dale to the floor where it shattered into a million little pieces. Thank God I didn't have any drinking buddies in the glass. They would have been traumatized.

While Dale worked on stir frying the broccoli I made myself a new martini. We're listening to Abba: The Album which is so 1977.

During dinner we watched When Harry Met Sally which has a very significant New Year's Eve scene. Dale's never seen the movie, only certain parts. Although I've suggested watching it the past few new years, he's never had a real interest in seeing it. This year he agreed and admitted it was much better than he thought it would be.  I think it's a classic that really holds up. 

For dessert I had some of the left-over chocolate torte from Noel's gathering. Dale didn't partake. 

Christmas Eve 2017 - Getting the Holiday Started

Dale and I tried to get brunch at the Normandy Kitchen, but, alas, it was closed. We were able to get into Bank,  down the street. Dale got the Cobb Salad and I got the chicken pot pie (which was awesome by the way).

After we got home Dale took Athena for a walk. We got a light dusting of snow so I swept and then took a picture of Hedgehog Hollow.