Christmas 2013

A belated Merry Christmas to all! Last week no computer, and using somebody else's keyboard makes me cuss. Saturday night I got home to no internet service, which has finally been resolved. So. Christmas.

Murphy's Law has already blogged a bit about the week here, here, and here.  My daughter and family live in St. Clair Shores, MI, and his family in the Detroit area, so the common destination worked out well.  We left The Mountain Sunday morning, heading north and west with Murphy and Belle in the back of the Jeep.  Don't believe ML - when I was driving I had the cruise control set at 78 mph. He did demonstrate that the Jeep will get up to 100 mph at one point, however. I ignore him and just hope we don't die when he's driving.  I also cling to the handle above the door more than normal.  But at least we drove out of the rain fairly early on.

Monday involved grocery shopping and lunch with B.'s friend and her son, Vasily, who is all of one hour older than Amelia.  He's also 5 inches taller.  Yeah, kid, sorry about the whole Grandma-is-a-dwarf gene thing.  And your Uncle Joe sucked up every bit of height on your daddy's side so there wasn't any left for you there, either.

ML's family was gracious enough to invite us for Christmas Eve dinner, where we were also joined by Aaron and his girls and a very good time was had by all.  There were even gifts under the tree for us, and when Amelia unwrapped her dolly she pulled it to herself and kissed it, eliciting an "Awww" from every female in the room.  My gun light works great on my Glock - thanks so much, ML!

On the way home we swung through Grosse Point (a.k.a. where serious money is) to see the lights.  Wow!  Wish I could find some pics online.  Trees where every limb has been separately wrapped with lights.   I'm guessing there are companies hired to do the kind of lighting we saw. Or people with a whole lot of time to decorate.

And remind me to remember that 40 degrees is not cold.  Detroit cold made my eyeballs want to suck back into my skull...

The bug I've been fighting for 2 weeks now rose back up and bit me Christmas morning, but it was still fun to watch baby's first Christmas.  I really expected her to be more concerned with wrapping paper and boxes but, nope, she figured out toys and books pretty quick.

I went back to bed after, but Punkin' had to get her Christmas outfit on.

We moved Christmas dinner to Thursday because I felt so lousy Wednesday, and so that was a pleasant afternoon prepping food and filling the house with the smells of garlic and sage and roasting chicken and by then I could enjoy them again. 

My son-in-law's family has an Italian tradition of a major fish dinner at Christmas time and he loves to cook so the call went out to ML's family and Aaron for a Friday night seafood dinner after shooting.  D. did the tradition up fine, with B. baking the pies: 3 lbs salmon, 3 lbs shrimp, 2.5 lbs calamari, 6 lbs mussels, 3.5 lbs crab legs, 3 lbs Tilapia, 2 lbs Brussels sprouts, salad, Blackberry Swirl Pie, Turtle Pumpkin Pie, and Orange cookies.  Their neighbor being a master brewer for Red Hook and D. being a wine collector added a fine selection of liquid refreshment.  It was a happy, burp-inducing success.  And I really need to remember that 1 part soy sauce to 3 parts maple syrup, marinade salmon for 3 days then grill slowly recipe. Yowza good!

Had to laugh, though.  I call myself a full contact cook - I make a heck of mess of the kitchen and anything within several yards of any cooking surface when I cook.  D. has me beat all to heck in that department.  The kitchen that had been spotless at 4 pm looked like this at 11 pm.

And then the week was suddenly done, and we met for Coney dogs in downtown Detroit and headed for home.  Murphy whined considerably less on the trip back, but he managed to remind me twice that I need to keep his leash choked up tight when I'm walking him.  He whips that thing around me and takes off and the next thing I know I'm on the ground.  Fortunately, I'm built low to the ground to start with and it's all aggravation and no damage when it happens.  

Now I need to go back and catch up on blog reading.  And think about work.