Happy Christmas Eve!

For a multitude of reasons, we decided to have our traditional Christmas dinner on the 23rd. instead of the 25th. E had to work most of the day so he instructed Christopher (the favorite and only son-in-law) in the manly art of preparing, stuffing and cooking the turkey the night before. When the time came, all I had to step in to assist with was cleaning out the spare parts and the internal rinse. Christopher was proud of the results. The bird was a pretty golden brown, juicy and the dressing was very tasty! Way to go Chris! Kristen and Chris are hosting Thanksgiving next year so this was a great way to practice.

As usual, nothing ever goes the way we plan it to. The tree staged another protest and still another section of lights went out. No amount of jiggling of cords, plugs etc. helped. Our dear neighbor, Deb, rode to the rescue with a string of 50 twinklers and all is ok save one area on the side where there are no lights...moving an ornament or two later to day.

Some of us in this family like our dressing cooked inside the bird and other (me) like a side dish of the really crispy dressing. I had a nice pan prepared for the oven but it never made it....we were giving Just Jack the Cat his pill for his "infection" and he spit it out. You guessed it! The pill went somewhere into the side dish of dressing. Despite much effort on the part of several of us to find the pill, we ended up throwing out the dressing rather than risk the possibility of taking Jack's pill.

E is off to work until 4 but he thinks he may be able to get away earlier. The kids and I are going kayaking this morning and will get home in time to prepare the meat and cheese platter for tonight. The cider is simmering now and the house is redolent with the aroma of cloves, cinnamon and orange slices.

Hope to post some kayaking photos later. If you don't make it back, have a great Christmas Eve and Day! Last I checked on NORAD tracker, Santa was heading for my friend, Clare's, in New Zealand.