The week of celebrations

The week after Christmas has always been on of dragging out the holiday spirit. I used to joke that in our family we'd celebrate from Dec 20th through the new year. So may Christmas parties with the extended family, Christmas with the fam, then my birthday, then New Year's eve. It was always busy and by the time the new year came around I was done seeing family for some time. 

This year I realized how much I missed that. Be careful what you wish for. 

The birthday this year was relatively uneventful on the day of. In fact, it was a little lonely later in the evening. I used to make a big deal about my birthday and ALWAYS had some type of gathering. That ended during Covid and it's never come back. I'm kinda ok with that and kinda not. 

The birthday celebration started the day before. We usually do the Keg for our birthday dinners, but I neglected to make reservations for mine and we couldn't get in. Not wanting to NOT go to dinner, I rallied and finally decided to go to Kidd Valley for a burger. 

I used to work at Kidd Valley and have always enjoyed their burgers. It's simple. It's easy. It's delicious. And it's something I knew we'd enjoy. Just getting together is fun so I knew it would be worth it. 

Bacon cheeseburger with mayo, ketchup, and tomato only.
Mushrooms and the rare chocolate/pb shake

My favorites.

The actual day of the celebration of my birth, Sherrie and I had lunch at Mod Pizza. I had to work so I had only about an hour to spend, but it was fun to get out and have lunch with the BFF. 

After lunch, of course, I had to go get my birthday Starbucks. I ordered what has been my recent favorite - Venti Chocolate Cream Cold Brew with extra Chocolate cream cuz it's my birthday. The barista said because it was my birthday I should have ordered a trenta! Oddly enough, I never think about going bigger and more expensive when it's free. I just get what I usually get. 

After work s when the birthday turned glum. I didn't plan any fancy dinner for myself (had Shepherd's Pie Soup). Didn't really do anything but watch TV and read. It was boring. And a little lonely. 

What I missed the most was my phone ringing at 7am and my Mom on the other end singing Happy Birthday to me so off key that most dogs would howl. This was her thing and I missed it every year. This year I missed it more than I care to admit. 

My sister called later in the day and sang to me. She said she remembered how much she loved getting that call from mom and thought maybe she'd pick up that tradition. She and I aren't overly close, but this meant a lot to me. 

So, here we are on the last day of the year. I have to get my goals together and have been thinking about who I am now, who I have been and who I want to be. I've let a lot go in the past two years, and not in a good way. Stay tune for more on my "goals" for the next year. 

Here's wishing you all a Happy New year and I hope 2023 brings you much love, laughter, and joy. 

That's a Wrap

Christmas 2022 is done! 

I didn't do a whole lot yesterday. Janet and Ashley were coming to dinner so I had the whole day to just hang out and do whatever I wanted. Normally, I'd be up in the scrapbook room doing something, but just didn't feel it yesterday. 

All day I felt like a dark cloud was hanging over me. I felt lonely. I felt like the loss of both my parents was really real. I felt like all the traditions we had for Christmas are gone. No one to share them with anymore. I was sad most the day. Even as I type this I can feel the tears wanting to come. 

I kept trying to tell myself it was just another day. Nothing to be sad about. It was only a Sunday in which people were coming to dinner. And no matter how I tried to convince myself, it didn't work. It was a Sunday but it was also Christmas.

Despite the sadness and grief that was boiling inside of me, I had a pretty good day. I made lasagna for Christmas dinner. In all my life I've never made lasagna for Christmas dinner. It has almost always been a nice cut of beef of some sort. But with so few of us here I decided something new was in order. The recipe for this lasagna is over on the cooking blog. 

We started the celebration with the traditional Clam Dip. This batch turned out so good. I swear I follow the recipe every time for this dip. Sometimes it's spot on. Sometimes it's not. Yesterday it was spot on. 

After all was said and done, it was a nice evening. Good wine. Good food. Good conversation. Good TV (we watched Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives all evening). 

Now I turn to the birthday celebration and the new year. Bring it!

Merry Christmas Eve

Here we are. Dec 24th ... already. I know we have a week left in this year, but my god this year went fast. 

The "excitement" over the last week has been the snow and ice. Yes! Snow! And Ice. Y'all know how much I loath snow and ice. It's beautiful. But it really doesn't belong on the roads. 

But before I get to that, let's talk about wine. 

Janet and I went wine tasting for like the second time this year. Far cry from years past where we got out a lot more to taste wine. I bought us the wine passports for next year so hopefully we'll get out more. 

We hit three wineries and I ended up bringing home 3 bottles of wine. And Janet actually bought a bottle of wine. 

As we sat at the first winery the snow started coming down. I was freaking out internally because I didn't want to drive in it. Thankfully it was still to warm so nothing was sticking, so we continued on to the other two wineries. 

I decided on the way home from wine tasting that, based on the forecast, I should probably go to the store and buy a couple more meals and the ingredients for Christmas dinner. The last thing I wanted was to NOT be able to actually cook Christmas dinner because I couldn't get out to buy ingredients. 

I'm so glad I did. Sunday afternoon the snow started. Just a skiff, but snow all the same. 

The snow started in earnest on late Monday night into Tuesday last week. I had 6" again on my back deck. It just kept coming. All....day...long. I shoveled my drive way three times during the day. Learning from last year that if I don't shovel as the snow comes down, then it's too heavy to shovel when it's done. I'm so very glad I did shovel. Kept my driveway nice and clean...for no one. I mean, I wasn't going anywhere, but just in case someone came to see me. 

On top of all that snow was frigid temperatures. It got cold. One day I woke up and it was 16 F outside. SIXTEEN! Reminded me of the days in Minot, ND and how much I hated snow then (I was in 2nd grade. You'd think a kid would like snow. Not this kid.)

The frigid temps caused freezing rain and all the roads in the Seattle area were covered in a thick layer of ice. I went out briefly just to see it and my clear driveway looked ok, but it was slicker than slick. I couldn't believe the number of people who were out on the roads too. Even though the advice was to stay inside. So I spent a good part of the day watching the news and seeing all these cars slide down hills and crashing into other cars. 

So, I've been stuck inside for almost a week. A week! Gah. While I've gotten out to walk around, it's not the same as getting in my car and going anywhere I want, like to go get coffee. Blueberry stopped by on Wednesday with a hot chocolate for me. She knows me too well. 

So here we are, the day before Christmas and it's finally raining. It's a balmy 41F outside this morning. My drive is slowly melting which means maybe, maybe, by tomorrow I could go out. Which is ironic since there's no place to really go that'll be open. 

And so on this melting Christmas eve, I wish all my friends and families (and my enemies) a very merry Christmas! Enjoy being with your friends and family. Hug them all. Tell them you love them and remember that before you know it, it'll be 2023!!

Sunday Funday Dinners

In Aug 2010,  I started this "Sunday dinner" thing. I invited a handful of friends to dinner and the rest, as they say, is history. 

Here we are at the end of 2022 and I'm proud to say my Sunday dinners are going strong. The guest list has certainly changed over the years. Added some new folks. Tossed other folks aside (for reasons I won't mention). Lost a few, sadly. And have what I call the "standard gang". My main peeps. They are invited every time and show up almost every time.

The "dinner" portion has changed over the years too. In the beginning I did the whole dinner. Everything from appetizers to desserts. And I liked that. I controlled the meal. I could plan accordingly and I could, of course, make sure everything "went together". 

But over the years the family wore me down. They kept offering to bring things. They wanted to participate. And a couple of them felt bad that I was forking out all the dough for the dinner. Even though I was ok with that. So I started allowing people to bring things. I tried to contain them though by assigning a list of "what was needed." So then every Sunday dinner, I'd make the "main dish" and I'd put the list out of Appetizer, salad, side, bread, and dessert. Or a combination of that. It's worked. 

I'd like to also add I got less "controlly" about Sunday dinner and begin to just enjoy how it turned out every time. 

This year I introduced themes. I LOVED the theme idea. It was a ton of fun to branch out of our norm and try new things. The "rule" was that if you were contributing to Sunday dinner it had to be in that theme. And surprisingly everyone followed the rules.  

We had this year's last Sunday dinner on this last Sunday. Mexican was the theme! The additional bonus of the December Sunday dinner is it's also a cookie exchange. Mexican food AND treats? Whoa!

The "standard" gang

The new "tradition" is to pick the next year's themes. And am I here to tell you next year theme's are going to be WOW! 

So if you want an invite, you gotta let me know. We might be able to squeeze you in.

I often wondered if Sunday dinners would run it's course at some point. The thing is, though, I think they might be here to stay. And I'm ok with that.