Merry…

We varied a bit from our usual Christmas routine of work-shop-pizza. This year I cooked dinner. Nothing terribly difficult, a nice beef stroganoff paired with a variation on a beet and goat cheese salad from Epicurious and our favorite Tintara Shiraz. They were delicious; definitely recipes I’ll make again.

As usual, I sent Tod to work with a tray full of cookies, then collected him from the office at about 5:30. We headed off to Shinjuku to do our Christmas shopping then came home by about 8:30, wrapped presents and dined.

When Tod leaves for work, there is no evidence of the holiday. When he arrives home, the living room is unveiled in all its do-it-yourself Christmas glory. For the past few years, I’ve been making the holiday tree out of found objects; this year I planned ahead a bit and bought some shiny things. This year’s tree was made of three bamboo poles, some glitter-coated plastic snowflakes, beads, and two spotlights.

As you can see, there are a lot of presents under the tree. We received a 25 pound box from Tod’s parents on Christmas Eve. I always feel like there’s way too much for us and I want to share with others. Our haul of Christmas goodies includes books, music, warm clothes, toys, 18 pounds of candy (all from that 25 pound box!), and my favorite present—a technicolor fur collar from Tod. The books and candy will get shared around with friends but I’m not passing around my furry bit. :-)

After putting away all the newly unwrapped gifts, we finished off the festivities at midnight with a slice of Christmas cake in bed. It’s a simple sponge cake filled with peaches and whipped cream and top with more whipped cream and strawberries—surprisingly light and delicious.

I was exhausted from my busy day of cooking, decorating and shopping. After the cake, I dropped off to sleep in about 46 seconds. I hardly even managed two pages of my new novel…

Posted by kuri at December 25, 2002 11:59 PM