Christmas Season 2013/2014 - Odds and Ends 4

I've been collecting mercury glass ornaments over the years. I love the colors.

Christmas Season 2013/2014 - Odds and Ends 3

My Secret Santa gave me this dishtowel with a black lab on it as a nod to Athena. Thanks Rachel!

New Year's Eve 2013 - Ellis

To keep their son Ellis busy while entertaining, Alyn and Chris put him to work cutting out animal pictures (and for a 5-year old he cut quite well) from some old wall calendars. He then gluied them on paper. He picked out the lion cub for me and the blue jay for Dale.

New Year's Eve 2013

We went to the house of our friends Alyn and Chris for New Year's Eve. Our mutual friend Eric was there with his new beau, John. Chris made beef stew for dinner which was quite tasty. Eric brought tirimisu for dessert and we brought the champagne. We had a great time and left around 10:30 so they could get their son, Ellis, to bed.

Top right: Alyn lines their front walk with luminary bags. Quite festive.

Middle: Chris built a lovely fire in their fire place. Very cozy.

Bottom right: Champagne.

Left: We were home from Alyn and Chris's house by about 11:00. It's been a few years since Dale and I have stayed up until midnight. We weren't planning on it this year but as we all know, sometimes even the best laid plans...

Below: Eric's tirimisu.

New Year's Eve 2013 Part 1

We're going to the house of our friends Alyn and Chris tonight. Another friend, Eric, and his new beau will be there as well. Alyn and Chris asked Eric to bring dessert and he posted the above picture on Facebook stating that he'd be bringing tirimisu. We're bringing the champagne (okay, sparkling wine). Hopefully three bottles will be enough.

Christmas Season 2013/2014 - Noel's Annual Holiday Fete

The whole crew was present for Noel's Annual Holiday Fete: Caroline, Stephen, Noel, Dale and I. Noel served chicken and beef skewers along with a nice salad. Caroline and Stephen brought a nice fruit salad and Dale and I brought a lovely chocolate cake made by Mrs. Kowalski. Noel also had her famous pecan crisps (which most other people in the world call Russian tea cakes). Noel's cat Ginger attacked the tree at one point although she was well behaved otherwise. Her other cat Rosie kept a low profile. I only saw her once. Noel and I each told a creepy enough ghost story but Stephen told a super creepy one about a ghost trying to get into a house he was in back in the 1980s. It all reminded me of the line from the song It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year that goes "There'll be scary ghost stories and tales of the glories of Christmases long, long ago."

Christmas Day 2013 - Dale, Mom, and Joe

Dale, Mom, Joe

Christmas 2013

Christmas Day 2013 - The Bishop's Wife

We watched The Bishop's Wife earlier today. It's a more recent entry in our Christmas movie canon and I like it more and more every year. This year I actually got teary. The scene where the old woman's hard frozen heart is melted with the help of the angel Dudley depicts a beautiful and touching transformation of a human being.

Christmas Day 2013 - Dinner

Mom came over at about 3:30 p.m. and we ate around 5. In addition to the beef bourguignon we had a salad of field greens with grape tomatoes, walnuts, feta cheese, and Annie's mango poppyseed dressing.  Dale did some oven baked Brussels sprouts. For dessert we had a lovely chocolate cake from Kowalski's.

Christmas Day 2013 - Imbibing

Top left - Morning shot of pumpkin pie flavored liquour. 
Top right - Lunchtime martini. For lunch we made Hawaiian pizza.
Bottom left - Sample of the wine Dale used for the beef bourguignon. Amazing.
Bottom right - After dinner Bailey's Irish Cream

Christmas Day 2013 - Beef Bourguignon

Dale and I had originally planned to make Julia Child's beef bourginoine recipe for this year's Christmas Day dinner. That would have meant spending a good chunk of Christmas Eve day preparing it and with having to sing for two Christmas Eve services we decided that there wouldn't be quite enough time without making the day overly stressful. Instead we combined the bourginoin recipe with out crock pot beef stroganoff recipe which cut the total prep and cooking time by more than half.

First Dale sauted garlic and green onion and then the mushrooms. Next he browned the meat on the stove and then put it in the oven for about a half hour. After that he added wine and mustard and then cooked it in the over for about three hours. Before serving he added sour cream. We served it over egg noodles. The result was heaven.

Christmas Day 2013 - Oatmeal

I had every intention of making a Christmas porridge this morning. The recipe calls for short grain rice but when we went shopping yesterday morning, I was disappointed to find out the grocery store was out of it. I was in no mood to attempt more grocery shopping on Christmas Eve so I decided we'd have oatmeal instead. We loaded it up with brown sugar but the butter really helped make it divine. Porridge will have to wait for New Year's Day...

Christmas Day 2013 - Merry Christmas

Christmas Eve 2013 - The Television Yule Log

After midnight Mass Dale and I stayed up for a while watching the yule log on tv. What a wonderful Christmas Eve. It was full of beauty, sentimentality, and, with the snow, even a little magic. 

Christmas Eve 2013 - Siri

As Dale and I drove home from the late Christmas Eve service in the very magical snowfall, I checked my phone to see if it was Christmas Day yet.  Siri chimed in to tell me she hadn't heard what I said. She often does this when I haven't said anything to her. Anyway, I wished her a Merry Christmas and shown above is her response. Bless her.

Christmas Eve 2013 - Joe & Dale

Dale and I both sang with the traditional choir for the 10:00 pm Christmas Eve service.  Here we are after the service looking very angelic in our choir robes.

Christmas Eve 2013 - Magical Christmas Eve Snow

A very magical looking Christmas Eve snow occurred tonight. Dale took this photo of the house. I can be seen being a camera hog in the center window.

Christmas Eve 2013 - Gift

I sing with Gethsemane's contemporary music ensemble. Our director, Cindi, gave us this lovely gift as a thank you for our work this year.

Christmas Eve 2013 - This & That

Lots of hustle and bustle on Christmas Eve.

Top (left to right) 1) Stopped at Kowalski's for food shopping and South Lyndale Liquors for booze early Christmas Eve day. I was all a fairly sane shopping experience.  2) Only part of what we brought home. Two more very full grocery bags didn't even make it into the photo.  3) Quick workout at the gym around noon.

Middle (left to right)  1) Shopping for Athena. No, she didn't get a stuffed toy. She got some doggie Cheeze Whiz which can be seen in the lower right hand corner of the picture.  2 & 3) Stopped for a cocktail and a late lunch at the Longfellow Grill. A Tanqueray martini was the cocktail.  Gingerbread pancakes with cranberries and a side of ham was the lunch. Dale and I both though the pancakes were DIVINE.

Bottom (left to right)  1) Our neighbor Jim delivered some cookies that his wife Megan baked for us (peanut butter cookies with Hershey's kisses on top - yum).  2) I sang Joseph's Song by Michael Card as a solo at the 5pm Christmas Eve service at Gethsemane. It went fairly well.  3) Manger scene at church.

Holiday Season 2013 - Choir Rehearsal

Tonight Dale and I had rehearsal for tomorrow's midnight mass. Actually carols will start at 10:00 p.m. and the service will start at 10:30. The above photo was taken from the high altar at Gethsemane Episcopal Church and shows the view looking out into the sanctuary.