A merry retrospective

When faced with a choice between A) sorting through pictures, synthesizing my thoughts, and crafting a coherent post; and B) alternating between eating and sleeping, I think it’s pretty clear why I am a tad belated in wishing the World Wide Web a merry Christmas.

So, Merry Christmas!

The mood around our house yesterday was lovely and drifty and drowsy; I spent the entire day in pajama pants and glasses. JG walked Ted in the morning, and we all took turns diving into our stockings and presents. I went for a geeky-puzzle-y theme for JG’s gifts, and I was so pleased that he liked his deluxe Scrabble set (with a turntable!), a book of Mensa logic puzzles, and a deck of verbal brainteaser cards. The highlight of his presents this year seems to be the sleek binary clock, which is currently blinking away in a benign blue haze on our dining room buffet, but it will soon have a place of honor on JG’s desk at school to, as he put it, “drive the kids crazy.” JG did very well for his part, gracing me with a stocking stuffed with red candy, a sentimental card, a Delaware football jersey with my favorite player’s number, and sundry other items for my amusement in the kitchen and for bedtime reading. Along with the joy that is ripping paper apart, Ted came away with new toys — a hoof and a tennis-ball-bungee thing to replace the others he has killed — and a bag of filet mignon treats, because we spare no expense when it comes to our doggie.

It was with great anticipation that JG and I had been planning yesterday’s meal plan, and it did not disappoint. Fluffy pancakes made a delicious breakfast, and stuffed mushrooms constituted a light lunch in preparation for the big dinner. See, we earned a free turkey from the supermarket, but since we went to Mimi’s for Thanksgiving, we decided to cook it for Christmas dinner instead. (I should note here that turkey and all the fixings is JG’s all-time favorite dinner, so to let a turkey go uneaten by him would constitute a travesty.) With that in mind, JG took the coupon to the store and came home with a seventeen-pound turkey. For two people. I was horrified at the sheer mass of the bird, despite the protestations that a smaller one wouldn’t have been free. Needless to say, we saved up our stomach room for all of the lovely food spread out on the table — turkey, green beans with pancetta, garlic mashed potatoes, and sausage herb stuffing. The dinner was a momentous accomplishment: JG had never cooked a turkey or made gravy before, and I persuaded him to try a stuffing that had a little more to it than bread. I do not exaggerate in the claim that our Christmas dinner was the best meal we’ve ever cooked. We barely made a dent in the food, but the refrigerator now is happily stocked with Thanksgiving-style leftovers for lunches throughout the week.

Between the presents, the food, and the time away from work, I savored the time spent with JG and Ted most of all. For me, the sweetest moment of this year’s Christmas was when I woke up to the sound of the oven timer. I had fallen asleep inadvertently on the couch during a long string of deleted scenes from the first season of The Office. JG was sitting a couple of cushions down from me, dozing away with his feet propped up on the coffee table, while Ted snoozed on the sturdy platform of JG’s legs. I would love to have a picture of all three of us, zonked out on the couch, on a cold Christmas day.