We decorate our tree on Christmas Eve. When we had small children, we’d wait until they were asleep so that the decorated tree would be a Christmas morning surprise. Once the kids got older, they stayed up to help. Now that our nest is empty, we invite friends – and the kids, of course, whenever they can come – to help us hang ornaments. Last night we were joined by one kid, Polly, and two friends, Darrell and Mary Anne the refugee. So here’s our Martha Stewart Omniliving Corp. Tree, no longer a surprise but still pretty nice to see first thing on Christmas morning, in all its glory:
The decorating committee had cioppino for Christmas Eve dinner. I used a recipe from the net, and while the seafood itself – halibut, clams, shrimp, crab, lobster – was great, the broth was bland. I remember cioppino as being spicy, and this cioppino wasn’t. Then, this morning, I looked in my own cookbook, and lo and behold, there’s a great cioppino recipe there, the recipe I should’ve used in the first place. Well, maybe next year.
We opened our presents this morning, and later today we’ll enjoy a nice Christmas dinner, just Donna, Polly, and me. Oh, and our cat, a visiting cat we’re babysitting for a vacationing friend, and our dog, who has already chewed her Christmas present – a stuffed animal – to pieces.
I have to mention one people present in particular, namely mine. A few years ago Donna brought me a gas barbecue grill, and I gave my old charcoal Weber to our son. Ever since, I’ve been bitching about how much less fun barbecuing is with gas than with charcoal. Well, my bitching paid off: I got a brand new Weber! Thanks, Donna!
I’ll close with a link to a very nice entry at one of my favorite blogs, Making Light. Merry Christmas, everyone!