Christmas Eve

The recipe guinea pig project has begun. One of the reasons Mother wanted me to come home from living alone situation was for my own mental health but another was to try some new breakfast recipes. Since my favourite cuisine has long been breakfast, I was happy to oblige in this aspect. Don’t want to disappoint my Mother after all. The first on the list was a lovely blueberry pancake recipe. I’d say if falls somewhere between a loaf and a pancake. We had it with some very fancy and likely costly maple syrup. If Canada is known for it the world over then this must be the good stuff. It was elegantly rich and very delicious. It didn’t overpower the pancake but enhanced it to a new level. The accompanying tartness of the juice was also a nice addition to balance the sweetness of the blueberries and syrup. Very nice weekend breakfast, on the heavy side for the week because there ain’t no way you aren’t going back for seconds. Added bonus is that we somewhat supported local with the syrup, which was a gift for my Mother’s birthday from a local artisan.

After that enjoyable breakfast we both decided to revel in it and watched an episode of House MD, there is a marathon on the Drama channel. It was the episode with Kathryn Winnick. I took a shower after for the first time in a couple days and feeling refreshed I processed half a dozen of these posts to get them up and live. Another reason for delay was that we got the details for GRP and KJMH’s daughter. I won’t share them here, nor will I share any of the photos but I was really impressed and happy with the name. I could find no holes with it, really good job by them. When I came back upstairs at half ten the house had powered down. The dogs were unconscious and Mother was gone for a nap or to enjoy the Audible subscription I helped her setup. After months of explaining it to her and fretting over the cost she is up and running now and apparently very much enjoying it. Her first ever audiobook is Matthew McConauhey’s novel. He reads it, not sure who much of a factor that is.

Towards noon everyone started coming back to life. The Big T returned home from work and we had some lunch. They watched a movie and I retired to my quarters for some quiet time. Guess we haven’t aligned yet. Around two we reconvened to play a bird game called Sequence. It was fun. Big T won the last two matches and was a poor winner as usual. With that done up it was around cocktail hour so I fetched some libations for everyone and we sat around. Our Christmas festivities were slated to start at five so we started some prep work. I made some chicken bites with the air fryer and the T made jalapeño poppers. While those cooked Mother made some toasted ravioli and a charcuterie board. It was shortly after five that we started eating. STL Sister was having issues with WiFi and tried to connect via data and that was iffy at times. Youngest Sister ordered in her feast and was able to eat along with us all.

With the food mostly dealt with we transitioned to the gift opening phase. This is a new move. Generally we open them Christmas morning, all excitedly waking up early but waiting until 7am. The anticipation is the best part. To accommodate work schedules and other events we chose to do it Christmas Eve. It was new for everyone. We tried to get the STL pair to open everything quick whilst they had a decent connection. We had an iPad on a tripod on our end but eventually switched to our phones with only Mother’s unmuted. It made it hard to follow the action. I think some of the gifts I’d sent were opened while I wasn’t paying attention. We did the best we could but COVID made things challenging. I think our virtual gift opening was okay but for sure felt strange. The whole affair took three hours. When it was done we watched a bit of TV then shut it down around ten. All completely sober and exhausted.