Christmas and Julbord:
This was a very odd Christmas for me; some really high points and low points. Some old traditions unexpectedly brought back, and some things mucked. Julbord and full holiday report after the cut:
Negatives: The tree turned out to be a serious bust; we only had it up for about a week, and took it down yesterday. It rapidly dried up, shed like mad, was very sappy, and Meredith had a terrible time with what we think was an allergy to the tree. Susan’s suggested getting an artificial tree, and Mere and I are horrified by the idea. Right now as I saw this, the allergy has knocked Mere for a loop, and we think she’s developed a sinus infection - one day before Sissy is supposed to arrive. We’re taking her over to Urgent Care early today.
Susan doesn’t like classical music and orchestral stuff, and Mere and I are more traditionalists in music, so there were squabbles over Christmas music. In general, we didn’t *do* much in Christmas-y things through the Advent period; my attempts to introduce an advent calendar are at an end, partially because Mere likes the idea of candy and sweets, but she really doesn’t eat much of it!
Positives: The Julbord was wonderful. We were concerned because of a lot of recent snow, but we got in and out of the city without problem, and everyone got there close to time - Valli Hoski was the only late arrival, and she got in before the food was an issue. Susan’s aunt Marlyce cancelled over the snow and so we ended up taking the van in with everyone squeezed in - and Rich Rostrom’s sister Kathleen showed up for the feast in her place.
The company had a good time, and chatted away like mad. In my ‘host’ position, I gave the big yearly speech, and mentioned how the person around the table that I’d known for the shortest time was - Meredith, my daughter. (She didn’t like that!) Some I’d known for 30 years - and since this dinner in one form or another has been going on for 55 years…
The food was good; the Janssen’s Temptation was not as good as last years, but some of the other stuff was better. The different (nine) types of herring went over well; the big favorites were the Herbed, the Christmas and the Housewife’s herring. I ate them all and went back for seconds on the really good stuff. The gravlaks was to die for. Susan was annoyed - the place seemed to be way understaffed, and she ended up not being able to get much non-fish, non-pig stuff (pork and ham give her gout, and she’s very touchy about fish, as she’s violently allergic to certain fish) because it was continually out and not replenished in any sort of timely fashion. Everyone pigged out; even Connie went on about the herring. Meredith was too chicken to try it, and stuck to her beloved deviled eggs and gravlaks.
Christmas Eve was a pleasant surprise, as Susan’s aunt set up a good nibble-away dinner table full of delicacies, some home-made. A lot of nice surprises, and THAT is the way traditionally, that we did Christmas Eve in my family, and I was VERY pleased with the fare.
The way we have been doing presents is that the family stuff is done on Christmas Eve, and the stuff from Santa will be there in the morning. Susan got a new zoom lens, a terabyte hard drive for backup purposes, an underwater case for her Flip video camera, and various assorted stuff. Mere got a ton of games (board and Nintendo) and a scattering of American girl stuff, including the big Santa present - a camping tent similar to the one she and Sissy had at Camp Juliette Low. She was delighted by her haul.
And my big present was the Amazon Kindle, which I’m trying to learn to use. I gotta get a reading light for it. Kurt and John gave me and Mere a set of COSMOS, the Carl Sagan science series, and I was thrilled.
Christmas Day and the day after were pretty quiet - we cleaned house, and sat around playing Mere’s games with her, and watched some movies on TV. Just pleasant family time, and I really enjoyed it. The weather was terrible outside, and it still is; after a ton of snow and some bitterly cold temperatures, it’s suddenly warming to 63, and raining and raining and raining. So Susan’s off at Sears getting a sump pump for the back yard low spot. We also had to have the van in; the battery was dying on us in the cold temperatures.
Aw cripes - the basement’s flooding again…