Rough Week

I found out this week that the old man has snuggled his last. I wish I could find the one poem I wrote about him, but let me just say it was about one of those many moments that were too perfect to share with anyone else. We were a team, him and I. I'll miss him terribly.

In other news, I've finally set it up so I can watch The 4400 while doing homework. She's a small one, but she does the trick. I'm so proud of this laptop. It's such a sport. I almost named it Tugboat, but knew it would be Tug for short, and thought maybe that wasn't an appropriate name for a laptop... Maybe I'll stop anthropomorphizing things and just get a new dog.

To cheer me up though, in a karma sort of way, Katie's package arrived this week! More on that later, but I was most amused by this addition. Sure the little figurine is Dutch. It says 'Holland' right there! I even have one in my house. But this one? Straight from Iran.

As a last point, my wine is on its last legs, but that just removes all guilt for drinking it on a Tuesday night. It IS Tuesday today, right?

Bit of a Brag

Last time I talk about the holidays, promise.

I admit it. I watched all of Scrooge. I just like watching a young Albert Finney try to play an old man, and comparing it to today's Albert Finney.

More bragging: I got to snuggle this robed old man for three weeks.

And oh my goodness, by (my) request, lovely steak in madeira sauce with perfectly baked potatoes and green beans for Christmas Eve dinner. I do like green beans.

And yeah, that's the table runner I made last Christmas. Looks like it's going to be a regular Christmas feature.

First use of a Christmas present: boiled egg forms. The heart maybe didn't work so well, but the other one?

YEAH. It's a BUNNY. Unfortunately the method is to peel a hot boiled egg, stick it in the egg form, and dunk it in ice water for ten minutes. At first I thought this would work just fine with soft-boiled eggs, so I could get my Christmas morning runny yolk fix. You know how it is. Anyway, it's really hard to peel a soft-boiled egg. That, and of course being in ice water for ten minutes would make anything cold. So Christmas morning breakfast was adorable, but not very hot on the whole.

Never mind. There was the traditional salmon terrine. It's just not Christmas without this stuff.

And Christmas dinner? Coq-au-vin. Back in the day, my parents made this sometimes, but it's FULL of mushrooms, and mushrooms were one of those things I just would not eat. Mushrooms and pretty much anything that wasn't pasta or boiled potatoes slathered in ketchup. But there was one late evening, and I remember it vividly, that my dad was making coq-au-vin (so the flavours could marry overnight) and the smells came wafting up the stairs to my room. It just smelled so delicious that I promised myself I would try it at dinner. Of course, it's always lived up to my expectations. Oh, except the pearl onions in this particular rendition were a little undercooked, but that was my fault since I was in charge of the onion and mushroom sauce bit. Shame.

Ah, and finally, family Christmas. We'd all been to a late turkey lunch, so dinner was mostly soup and snacks. But check out that gouda, straight from the Netherlands! Also, the second salmon terrine.

And of course, Talia tries some bean dip. The chips were ok, but the bean dip "accidentally" fell into her bowl and stayed there. More for the rest of us!

Most of Christmas was just me and my mom. One of the first things I did when I got home (after snuggling the dog) was download Love, Actually and force her to watch it. I was so happy she enjoyed it since, ignoring the blatantly romantic bits, the movie always reminds me of her. Maybe because she always picks me up from the airport. Or maybe because Christmas just wouldn't be Christmas without her.