And we survived.

Well,  that’s a little overly dramatic I suppose, as it wasn’t that big a deal.  Christmas Eve has come and gone,  along with Christmas Morning.  Not overly hungry at this point.  Just wanted to say that.

Thankfully we had lots of help for Christmas Eve, since Travelling Companion was determined that she was going to “have Christmas”,  which to her means hosting a hoard on Christmas Eve for a meal. 

There were some protestations from her siblings,  or at least those who were up to the task of doing the hosting themselves,  but she was determined.   I think I said that.

Well,  she admitted after not too very long into the day that, “I couldn’t have done it”.  

I said nothing.  I knew this.  She had surgery four weeks ago.  And it’s not like an appendectomy, wherein a person might just be a little sensitive around that area,  knee surgery is usually followed by this thing called “walking”.  This then,  lo and behold, involves the use of said knee. 

Which,  when not elevated at proper intervals,  does tend to get “tight”,  as she well noticed.

 

It so happened,  that the crowd was rather light this year,  as there were only 17 of us.  Quite manageable. 

 

 

Some helpers:

 

 

The lady on the right there, one of T.C.’s sisters,  came at around noon time and worked like Cinderella all day getting things ready.  T.C. did make the stuffing and one other dish,  and that was more than enough.

I man handled the bird when it came to getting it in and out of the oven.

 

Only 22 pounds,  no sweat.

 

There was plenty of stuffing.

 

Not only was certainly enough turkey, but in the picture above there, Daughter Number One is dealing with the ham. 

No,  not her sister.

 

That’s her there.

There were more pictures,  but we don’t need to get carried away.

We once again did “buffet style”, with everything laid out in the kitchen.   You can then load up, find yourself a seat, and if you failed to get one particular ingredient or other, it’s nobody’s fault but your own.  There was a time when we’d try to put all the dishes on the table,  but then someone would invariably say there was not enough “whatever” on their table.  Only took us about 20 years to figure out that buffet style would solve all of those issues.

 

Earlier in the year,  Travelling Companion had come up  the idea to have portraits done of her late father who,  by the way,  was the previous owner of this house.

So she commissioned her sister to do portraits,  we had them framed and gave one each to the girls.

Here’s an example.

There is a third one that we had framed for ourselves.  We haven’t figured out where to hang it just yet.

 

 

I’ve been whiling away the hours this afternoon browsing through one of my presents,  which is an archive of all copies of Fine Woodworking going back to 1975.

 

It’s a DVD that I’ve been covetous of for a few years now,  and this year I dropped enough subtle hints,  “Look,  it’s 30% off!!”  such that it did manage to find its way under the tree.

Hey,  they’re always asking for Christmas ideas.  I’m only too willing to oblige.

 

 

That particular cover above from the spring of ‘89, was one which caught my attention back in the day, as I was intrigued by the look of that chest on the cover. (Hm, good thing you know I’m not referring to anything of a lascivious nature)

And so I built one.

For a number of years now,  there has been a copy of that very same blanket chest sitting in our bedroom.  It took me several months of going over to the vocational school every day for a couple hours and chopping dovetails and such.  This was when we were still apartment dwellers.  Somehow I’ve had difficulty taking on such a huge undertaking after we bought a house. 

Funny how that works.

Well,  with the exception of that big woodworking project at the front of the house.  I suppose that counts for something.

 

 

 

The gentleman on the cover there,  with whom I spoke by phone,  had made something like a dozen of the things. When I caught up with him (I had a question about something or other that wasn’t covered in the article) he was working as a restorer for Sotheby’s.

 

Anyway,  hope your Christmas was grand.  I haven’t quite got caught up in the nap department,  but I’ll be getting back to that shortly.

 

Hope all your left overs are enjoyable.

Thanks for taking a look.