Christmas and Birthday Musings
Our Christmas dinner last night went very well, the better for the fact that my daughter Pasley and her family were able to share it with us this year. They were in Ottawa with Jeff’s family for the 25th, but we delayed our meal until Boxing Day to have them here at our table, too. After all, what’s Christmas without little kids around?
John’s brother David and his family arrived bearing gifts and champagne, which we drank immediately. The merriment that ensued was probably a direct result of that fact. I got a beautiful gift of one of Edith’s water colors for a birthday present. We had pate and the pretentiously-named ‘Paris toasts’ in front of the fire until it was dinner time, getting reacquainted, since David has been away in Calgary and Zoe in Toronto. Also, Edith, who looked great in a red sweater, has just recovered from an awful flu. Meanwhile, John toiled in the kitchen, with David popping in to keep him company, working like a wizard (in the half dark, since a lamp had come unplugged and we couldn’t replug it) on making gravy and finalizing the stuffing.
At dinner time, with everything keeping warm on my new warming tray (a gift from Paze and Jeff) on the sideboard, John was finally able to sit down while David and his daughters carved and served. John and I were amazed at how a rather limited menu managed to fill our plates: we had forgotten how cranberry sauce, and stuffing fill all the gaps between turkey, rice, peas and a green bean dish I had made earlier with beens, mushrooms, sou rcream, worchestershire sauce and a topping of Muslix and sliced almonds. We had planned earlier to have Yummy Taters as well, but that idea had been scrapped when Jeff went to Provigo for recipe supplies and found only two cashes open and over 40 shopping carts in line at each one. Luckily, we didn’t need his dish.
It was all very delicious, with the turkey quite moist and everything hot for once (which was amazing considering that before eating, we had to pull our XMas crackers, then put on our funny paper hats and then examine the cheap gifts inside the crackers, and that takes time with food on your plate going cold, usually, but not with the new warming tray.
Edith, who had a new part for her increasingly professional-looking camera for Xmas, circled us like a papperazza at first; Paze did much the same with her little digital. Even Devon took a few shots with her new, pink camera. But for the most part we ate very satisfyingly.
The Trifle was made by Edith’s family and had kiwi as well as other fruit, and rum at its base rather than the sherry we usually use. It was delicious, and there was a Xmas miracle attached to it: Devon was assigned to using the egg beater (we don’t have an electric beater any more) in the kitchen to turn whipping cream to whipped cream. I predicted that it wouldn’t work, since we used to try this every XMas, and found it impossible, even when I chilled bowl and electric beaters and went out on the back porch in the cold to do it. Yet the whipping cream turned to whipped cream for Devon!!
The meal was perfect. As we ate and drank and chatted, Little Tallis, up two hours past her usual bedtime but not a bit cranky, padded around the table barefoot in a Christmas dress made of patch-work velvet, looking very intent, now and then appearing holding a cat dish for our inspection. Devon, in a little misty-blue dress and silver sweater, played with the new toys her aunt and uncle had brought along, helped out at times. She was also full of funny questions and comments; D& E’s family were, I think, surprised to see how grown up she was, as they don’t see her often.
Today, my birthday, John and I have been lounging in front of the fire while sipping coffee and eating fresh bagels with cream cheese and sliced tomatoes, plus chocolates. Lord help me diet, but not yet, to rework something
St. Augustine once said. I feel great–being on a prednisone regime that I call Club Pred for its wonderful ability to erase all my aches and pains and make me feel great. I do not feel my age, and I am not sad at being a year older. I am never depressed at a birthday; it is a landmark on an adventure that I am still in the midst of. Besides , it’s always better to have a birthday than not do so, I figure. And I am very lucky to have a considerate, loving family around me.
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