Coming Home for Christmas | Heathrow Airport

Been trying to deChristmas the house and putting up with sinuses from hell.  The house is almost done, the sinuses aren't.  They make everything hurt, my cheeks, my teeth, my head, my ear.  All I can do is grumble and put hot compresses on my face.

Mac made me the cutest thing for Christmas, if you've seen the Heathrow Christmas ad for last year you'll know what I'm talking about.  If not take a look.







And this is what he made me.  Isn't it adorable.

Christmas 2017

A wonderful Christmas, we were all together and that's what makes it Christmas.  But now she's gone, we got up in the pre-dawn hours yesterday and took her to the airport to begin the long journey home to Japan.  Bless her for being willing to make that long journey each year, it just wouldn't be Christmas without her.
Dinner was delicious if I do say so myself, may have been the best leg of lamb I've ever cooked.  The pies I made were just
so-so, I had only one piece, but the others kindly ate more.
Many gifts were exchanged, both needed and surprising.
April brought us both goodies from Japan, mostly chocolate for me and more adventuresome fare for Mac.

Teeny, tiny crab

She gave me the most awesome Godzilla (if you've read this blog for any length of time you know I love Godzilla), he not only roars, smoke comes out of his mouth, well actually not smoke, but mist, he's technically a humidifier.  Mac built him a town to destroy, I'll have fun with that.

I gave Mac a toy from his childhood, a set of vintage cap guns and the caps to shoot with them.

There were many laughs, a great day.

Merry Christmas

Just popping in for a quick visit.  We've spent the week enjoying our daughter's company.  Internet was out for the better part of 3 days so we spent out time talking and reading.
Lunch at the Cotton Exchange and then breakfast one day at The Sunshine Restaurant which was packed to the gunnels with other folks who'd come to use their free Wi-Fi .  Tasty breakfast too.
I think all of the packages are wrapped.  I baked 2 pumpkin pies this morning,  spilled them all over the place when trying to put them in the oven, had to steam mop the kitchen,.    I think next time I'll just buy my pies.
Lamb for Christmas lunch, looking forward to that.  A load of cookies have been eaten, luscious shrimp for lunch yesterday and it'll be baked chicken today.
Hope you and your families are enjoying the holidays.

She's Here

And in fact United got her here a few minutes early, so job well done.

Saturday in the Swamp

Beautiful cold day here, down to 36º last night and only expected to reach 60º today, but the sky is blue and it looks wintery.
Lots to get done before our daughter gets here.

• Made bread

• Made sugar cookie dough, it's chilling in the refrigerator

• Made a total mess of the kitchen, cookie dough everywhere, if the ceilings were lower it would be up there too.

ª  Made sure all the Godzillas had fresh candy canes.  One of them kept moving and his picture turned out blurry and I had to retake it.

• All the packages here are wrapped, still waiting on a couple to come in.

• Mac hooked up the tv upstairs and brought a chair up for our daughter to use.  We'd moved the regular chairs from there down here.

Time to go play with Canon in D, I'll master it some day.

Another Sign of Christmas

My Christmas cactus is blooming, well at least one of them is, I don't know what the others are doing, planning on being Easter cacti perhaps.
Cookie baking today, lashings of chocolate chip cookies were made.  Their saving grace is that they're so rich you can only eat one.  Tomorrow I'll make sugar cookie dough and refrigerate it.
Mac got an order for a painting today and the lady wants it before Christmas (she lives in  Massachusetts) , well good luck, all he can do is mail it today, which he did, the rest is up to the USPS.
Gloomy day, but that's ok, too busy to really notice.  They're predicting we'll be around 70º by Monday, not very Ho, Ho, Ho.
Our daughter arrives Monday afternoon, if United We Not Much of an Airline, gets her here on time. From Japan to D.C. she flies ANA which is a great airline, but from DC to Savannah it's United, a not so good airline.  Last year she was 4 hours late and year before last they cancelled her return flight in the middle of the night a few hours before she was due to leave.  So fingers crossed.

What's Cooking?

The kitchen smells heavenly.  I made vegetable beef soup, think it's the first time I've done that.  It's for lunch tomorrow and I went a head and cooked it today because I was going to be in the kitchen all morning anyway.  I'm cooking Rabo de Toro (Ox-tail soup), a Spanish dish Mac always has when we go to Spain and we decided to see if we could cook it at home.  Picked up some ox-tails at the commissary Sunday, found a recipe online and started work on it this morning.  It involved searing the ox-tails, cooking together onions, garlic, tomatoes, red peppers, ginger, beef stock and red wine.  Then letting it simmer for 3 hours.  The broth tastes delicious, I'm going to serve it over mashed potatoes, can't wait.

The Vegetable Beef Soup

The Rabo de Toro

Tuesday in the Swamp

The house is once again filled with the smell of Gingerbread, I baked a load of little men, even wore my Gingerbread Apron, but I'm too lazy to take  pictures, so you'll just have to take my word for it.  I filled a sleigh with them and they're sitting on the table.  Mac and I shared one and he squirted whipped cream on it---well YUM---whipped cream and gingerbread, a match made in heaven.
No a lot done besides the baking, starting to get the house clean before our daughter gets here so I can spend time with her and not on housework.
Finally finished A Visit From the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan, a book I didn't think I was going to like much but ended up loving it.  Now it's stuck in my head and I keep thinking about it.  Not told in chronological order and even has a Power Point presentation in the middle.  Some critics call it a novel, others 13 interrelated stories.  Very different and very good, but also very strange.
Now I'm reading When You Disappeared by John Marrs about a man who leaves his family and then returns 25 years later, so far it's very good.
I'm also reading Rooster Bar by John Grisham and so far it's just ok.
Warm day today, nearly 70º, but due to drop to 32º.  That's kind of nice though, warm days and snuggle under the covers at night.

All Wrapped Up

Started early, finished late.  I started wrapping presents way back in November and except for a few small things due in the mail I'm finally through.  And I have the back ache to prove it.  I use a lot of bags for gifts, but even that is time consuming.
Had a nice weekend, it's finally cold enough to feel like Christmas might be near.  Lows near 30º the last couple of nights, so a fire in the fireplace and the electric blanket on the bed.
Today I cleaned up our daughter's bedroom and put fresh linens on the bed.  She'll be here next Monday, can't wait.
Watched lots of football, OMG, the game in Buffalo looked awful---so much snow.
Grocery shopping done, have most of the things we'll need for Christmas, though I'll wait a bit to get the leg of lamb.  That's always my daughter's choice for Christmas dinner.  She says lamb is the one food that it's hard to get in Japan.
Saturday I made Gingerbread men, but tomorrow I need to make more.  Love when the house smells like ginger.  Saturday I also cooked bacon and the house smelled like ginger and bacon, my daughter wanted to know if I'd put bacon in the Gingerbread Men.  Wonder what that would taste like.
Time to go fight with Canon in D, I've been working on mastering this piece for years and though I've made progress, there's no way I can say I play it well.

On a Dark and Gloomy Friday

Second day of rain and BRRR, it's cold outside.  Would not have left the house, but it was time for my B-12 shot and I need all the energy I can get.
The living room is done, mostly, I still need to set up my teeny, tiny train.  Time to wrap more packages.

This was while I was still working, note cat in window.

Entry way table

The Nutcrackers are out in force.

The Christmas Critters and the stockings

The rest of the Critters are under the tree.

Working on Christmas

The tree is up and decorated, will post pictures when the room is done.  This is the only time of the year we use the living room so it's its time to shine, but so far we haven't found the Christmas stockings to hang on the fireplace.  But all the Christmas critters are out and about.
Making chili for lunch today because it has finally turned cold--YEAH!, it's been in the 70's all week, just too darn warm for this time of year.  But it will probably warm back up for Christmas, it always does.
A little more decorating today and then I've got to do so wrapping, my closet is clogged with boxes and I can hardy walk there, so I must get to work.
Thought I'd show a couple of photos of the Christmas Market at Union Square, small, but it smelled to good.

And one of the fantastic places we found while wandering the streets was Eataly a fabulous Italian food center owned by Mario Batali and others.  It's 50, 000 feet of Italian goodness.  Mario (one of our favorite chefs describes it as a grocery store with tasting rooms.  It was incredible and I could have eaten in every restaurant.  We bought a cheese ( which turned out to not be very good),  a salami (which was wonderful) and some good crusty bread.