lunadelcorvo: (Xmas-Snowfall)
[personal profile] lunadelcorvo
Yes, I missed the last few days of my Advent Calendar. Part of that was due to actual, real-life stuff - baking cookies, wrapping presents, cleaning the house for company, all that wonderful holiday stuff I really love.

This year, I made a really fantastic fruitcake, inspired by the one made by my hubby's great-grandmother. I have always loved her fruitcake, but the last couple years, due to declining health, she hasn't been making them (she's 103, so it's quite understandable!). She gave her recipe to my husband, who stuck it in a book for safekeeping and (you know where this is going, right?) So, I've been fiddling with recipes trying to find one that will yields a result as good as hers. I'll admit, I'm not *quite* there yet, but I think, with a few adjustments, this recipe will do it.

Christmas Day we had the family in for brunch at the house, for the second year running, and it was an unqualified success! We had eggs, potatoes with red pepper & onion, veggie breakfast sausage and bacon, fresh orange juice, biscuits, eggnog, coffee, and of course, fruitcake.

After brunch came the gift frenzy! My son was quite buried! I think he must have gotten at least 20 packages! Hubby cleaned up in the clothes department (about all one can buy for him) though I also got him a portable hard drive, a blank up-cycled journal of Baudelaire's Flowers of Evil, and a rollerball pen that fills from an ink bottle, like a fountain pen without the nib fussiness. (I've been trying to give him a pen he will actually use for years now, this was my last ditch effort! We'll see if it takes!)

I scored some good hits with the in-laws, I think. Of course the real prize for them was the MacBook hubby got for Dad! I just hope he uses it!

Yesterday evening we all snuggled up to watch A Christmas Carol (the Patrick Stewart version) and enjoy a quiet evening. Today it's been dishes and clean up, with a few errands, but overall blissfully little to do!

Love the holidays

Date: December 26th, 2011 09:12 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] ahrensm.livejournal.com
So it sounds like everyone had a very nice Christmas. But, I wonder ... did you get any presents? And if so, what? I, personally, got a new set of pots and pans, a deep fat fryer, and a kitten!

Re: Love the holidays

Date: December 26th, 2011 09:38 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] raven-moon.livejournal.com
I did - I got a really nice cozy sweater from dad, a lovely pair of purple & gold earrings and two pretty little beaded spider ornaments from mother-in-law, and from B I got a wooden puzzlebox, two books and a punching bag! :D (This last is actually a really good thing! I have totally missed the last one since it was forcibly relocated to the dojo when we moved to the apartment.)

Actually, I also got slippers (which didn't fit) and a tracksuit (WTF? Do I LOOK like the tracksuit type?!). Those will be. erm, financing something more... useful? And B has promised a family trip to Lexington, which means a wonderful bookstore, the best Pizza anywhere, and the fountain pen shop! :D:D:D

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Things I need to remember:
• Asking for help is not, as it turns out, fatal.
• Laughing is easier than pulling your hair out, and doesn't have the unfortunate side effect of making you look like a plague victim.
• Even the biggest tasks can be defeated if taken a bit at a time.
• I can write a paper the night before it's due, but the results are not all they could be.
• Be thorough, but focused.
• Trust yourself.
• Honesty, always.

Historians are the Cassandras of the Humanities

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