I'm not dead :)

I haven't updated my blog in a very long time so I thought I'd give it a go today.

First of all, a belated Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all. I had a great Christmas break.....

Dec 23 - Valerie's birthday dinner. I took the day off work to prepare for hosting 2 feasts on the 24th and 25th so it was great to go out that night and have someone bring food to me :)

Valerie's birthday is, in my mind, the real kick-off to Christmas. I'm usually done work by then and it's the first in a series of family gatherings. At this particular supper I sat between Ben and Scott... both of whom have new iPhones so I spent much of the meal being jealous of them as I looked sadly at my ghetto phone (which, BTW, I love in spite of the fact that it can't do anything more than call and text).

Dec 24 - Traditional 7's game. Usually we do a pot luck dinner and then play Sevens but this year I wanted to try out a bunch of new recipes so I told everyone to just show up and I was so surprised and flattered by the oooo's and ahhhh's and the fuss that everyone made over the food I prepared that I briefly considered changing careers and becoming a caterer.... VERY briefly LOL.

Dec 25 - Vince & I opened our stockings in the morning. I filled the stockings for the dogs and cat so I made Vince open them up too.

Then we exchanged presents and I had to confess that I went way over our agreed on $50 limit. But I had the best of intentions! It went like this.... I went to buy Vince a $50 gift card to his favorite golf store. While I was there I decided to get him something that I could tape the card to so he could unwrap something (instead of just open an envelope). I selected some new golf balls and, since it's Christmas I splurged on the best ones - they were about $50. And when I mentioned to the salesman/manager who it was for it turned out he knows Vince very well and he said he's holding a wedge for him as Vince wanted to buy it in the new year. On the spur of the moment I asked him to add it to my bill so I could give it to Vince for Christmas - it was about $130. So, as you can see, I really did only go in to spend $50... it's not my fault that I walked out with a $230 bill LOL. Thank you Visa :)

Immediately after the gifts were opened I was back in the kitchen preparing the Christmas dinner. I wish I had had the forethought to take a picture but I didn't so you get a list of what I made.... turkey breast with bone in (oh man, it was SOOOO good and just had the good white meat which is all that Vince & I like to eat), gravy made from the turkey drippings (I'd never done that before and it was, without a doubt, the best gravy I've ever made), mashed potatoes (a new recipe and it was very good), yorkshire puddings (my one disappointment... they didn't rise as much as usual but were still quite edible), green beans (sauteed and steamed with almond slices), salad, fresh homemade buns, stuffing (another new recipe made from cornbread and french bread.... delicious), corn, cranberry sauce (I was going to make it from scratch but at the last minute decided to use canned and it's just as well as I was the only one there who likes cranberry sauce), and I think that's it. We had regular and non-alcoholic white wine which complimented everything nicely (although my sister in law implied I was an alcoholic even though she has never ever seen me drink alcohol before.... that's a whole other story though). It all ended with a white chocolate cheesecake topped with kiwi and raspberry artfully shaped into a Christmas wreath. Okay, anyone else drooling right now? LOL. It all went well but I felt bad for Ben... he came over and was so sick he took a nap on our couch after dinner. What a trooper for coming over though. It wouldn't have been the same without him.

After those three days I didn't do anything too memorable except take a day trip to Calgary with Scott. We saw a movie ("Milk" which I HIGHLY recommend... not a dry eye in the theater at the end), and I was introduced to Pottery Barn (which didn't do much for me) and Williams-Sonoma (in which I could easily spend thousands of dollars and enjoy every second of it - but I only bought some measuring spoons and wooden spoons). The drive home was scary as the snow was falling and visibility was crappy... and, as you may know, I'm not a great passenger at the best of times - imagine how bad I was in scary road conditions. I joked with Scott that I might have to replace the "holy shit" handle in his vehicle as I was pulling on it so hard.

So those are the highlights of my Christmas break. I hope yours was good and that getting back to the usual routine isn't too painful :)