How it worked out… (Christmas)

I got some Christmas lights hung; I stretched blue ones around the eaves and put strings of clear lamps on four shrubs.  The overall effect is very pleasing – to me anyway.  I have been leaving them on all night or at least until two or three am.

Christmas dinner wasn’t a total success.  Mom couldn’t eat anything so it was just Mandy and me – and my Cornish hens weren’t quite done.  There was a little bloo-oood around the bones where the ribs attach to the spines.  The corn pudding turned out very nice – it is sweet and very light like egg-custard (which of course, is what it is).  The pumpkin pie(s) took me all day to bake – it was a “high-maintenance” recipe…  Very good though, in the end. The recipe was for one, but the leftover filling caused me to prepare and fill another smaller pie (in a tart pan).  The vegetables were overdone (easy to do with zucchini).  I know how to "fix" all of this -- and have ideas on how I would do the same meal again and improve the results. So maybe again another time.

I have de-boned the left-over hens, and one I made Chicken a la King with (see recipe on blog) and the other, today, I simply sauteed for a few minutes and prepared a batch of barbecue sauce for it.  This all was designed to finish the cooking process as no one really likes underdone poultry, do they.

I didn’t go anywhere in the end – I did a tiny bit of visiting with Dave and his family last night but that was it.  My other friends I will try to catch up with later.  It was just too difficult to get away when Mom is so dependent on us right now.  She is virtually house-bound, and while she is moving around a little bit now, she hasn’t been outside since she came home from the hospital.  If you know my Mom, you know how uncharacteristic that is.  She has been unable to eat much – and she has no strength.

Mandy and I went to a Presbyterian candlelight service on Christmas Eve – my first choice (Christ the King Ev. Lutheran) had an earlier version this year – early evening.  So we went to Emmanuel Presbyterian on Shea Blvd at 11 pm.  Mandy enjoyed the service – but I don’t think that is a congregation I would attend habitually.  They do have a nice pipe organ though…  If I ever decide to attend a church, I might try some of the others around here – maybe Orangewood Presbyterian.  Or I always thought CTK Lutheran would be OK – although I prefer the colder austerity of the Presbyterians!  Any of them would likely throw me out on the curb when they found out what I believe – and what I don’t. 

New Year’s is a non-holiday for me, so that’s it for the holidays 2011.  I can’t say they were “bad,” but they weren’t “glowing.”  But we take them as they come and appreciate what we have.  No regrets.