Magnafide
christmas is my super best holiday and family get together. if i am using a real tree i get the first batch delivered, trim the base and stick in a bucket of water until it soaks upat least a gallon of water.
then i move the birds and the rabbit into another room and set up the tree in the dining/family room and decorate it immediately. i have a tree base that weighs about 25 pounds mounted to a 2' square by 3/4" ply so no try will ever tip.
my christmas shupping is already done and 99% wrapped. fortunately i have a back room that i can use for wrapping and storing the packages and i will post some pictures as soon as my real computer has been repaired and returned.
brad's wife trish makes the matzah ball soup and the chocolate biscote without nuts that i don't share with anyone.jessica, my new daughter in law hasn't yet decided her food contribution. since she is a born again christian, i joke with her that whatever it is, it will come in a covered dish. probably macaronni and cheese or a jello salad.
i start about two weeks before by cuttng 2 of those farmer john, bone in, hams, into bite size pieces about 2 by 2and soaking them in a mixture of peach, 100% fruit only, jam, apricot, 100% fruit only, jam, some water, vinegar and sugar, stirring every few days to let the mixture soak into the ham.
toby makes and slices the turkey breast and i make about two or 3 quarts of giblet gravey. toby also makes enough potatoe salad to last a month,but is always eaten that day. she uses a recipe that is in her head, but i do know there are hard boiled eggs and some kind of pickle pieces.
when the family arrives, i have both sliced and lox pieces, cream cheese, and extra thick sliced muenster, both plain and onion bagels, ready for toasting. toby has one quart of regular coffee, this year it will be alto grande, from puerto rico, a coffee i have been looking for since we went to puerto rico almost ten years ago, and one of my insured's brought back for me on her last trip to her home, actually her old family hom in PR.
we start opening presents about 1 or 2 and take a diner break about 5 or 6. we use the rick and toby diner style. "it's all in the kitchen, help youself. eat it cold, or heat it in the micro. all the dushes are the plastic, not plastic coated, dishes that smart and final sells along with plastic "silverwear" and fine quality plastic cups in either black or white.
this year we will use the green and blue amd yellow see through plastic dishes ifound on sale in vegas. i bought a few hundred to last awhile. when i use one, i wash it. too pretty to through away, but my family will through them in a trash back and toss them, hopefully not over the fence into my neighbor's yard.
we start back opening presents and take a break about 10 or ll, depending upon how many presents are left. rgwb it's chocolate cheeze cake from the cheeze cake factory with either malted milk ball ice cream or the chocolate cherry special edition from dryers.
we usually are finished about 1 or 2 in the morning and collapse for an hour or so before everyone starts loading up their cars for the trip home.
these are the surface (i cant spell accrutaments) pleasures.
the real happenning is the family all together for the day and evening, exchanging not presents, but the deep joy and happiness of seeing everyone opening something and smiling, in some cases crying, because ot the thought that went into the selection.
one year my brother had a picture of us at age 4 and eight printed on a tee shirt. he has had that picture for 60 years. i had to go outside with the tee and be alone for a while. can you imagine what that present would mean to you?
christmas is the best of all..
