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Yaaaawwwwwnnn***** Merry Christmas boys and girls! Wonderful time here. Christmas Eve at Mom&Pop's we departed from traditional turkey and dressing and went the deli route for a delightful change. Almost summer-like: both smoked and fried turkey and smoked ham for sandwiches on rolls and different breads, potato salad, all kinds of pickles and spicy relish stuff like dill and kosher and sweet cucumber pickles, olives, pickled onions, deviled eggs, slaws, salads, and great pre-dinner dips like an artichoke/Parmesan sinfully rich spread, and an almost-a-meal, chicken/cheese& heavy cream dip. And desserts, oh my! Standard pecan pie (mine!); coconut chess pie (like a dense egg custard, and so rich! my fave); plain yellow cake with thick, hard chocolate frosting; some kind of baked ice cream cake; pecan pralines; and the
piece de resistance, a vanilla custard and chocolate
tiramisu (like a trifle). Huzzah! It was like Dickens' Ghost of Christmas Present it was so bountiful!
Christmas morning has been festive at Casa JumJum. Uncle Jummy got needed clothes, some neat light gadget with a mini-table that fits on the arm of your recliner/arm chair; Coppola's redone Godfather Trilogy plus a 4th dvd of extras (!); some fantastically warm shearling-lined moccasins; a wicker laundry hamper; luxury back scrub brush; a microfleece 'throw' and some Cuisinart stainless steel cooking utensils (I asked for them - your desires change as you get older).
Mrs. Jummy got clothes, books, dvds and a Dell laptop. Okay, it was my son's two-year-old laptop that had a horrendously deep and tenacious virus (he said it was something with a name like "pmd38", I dunno). We tried several times to fix it and couldn't, so we just made it a paperweight and got him a cheap desktop. I finally had his new roommate, a super computer geek (hooray!) clean the laptop and make it useful, in lieu of his part of his first month's rent. It took a lot of work and a couple of weeks, but Mrs. J. can now ditch her 8-year old lappie that barely wheezes along. And my outlay was minimal.
The Jummy Kids are both in college (aha! More pieces of the puzzle!) Jummy Boy got clothes and shoes; Jummy Girl got clothes, plus one of those "Snuggies" blankets-with-sleeves from the stupid tv ads. It looks like someone wearing a heavy robe backwards. She laughed at how the thing looks like the younger Obi Wan Kenobi's robe, so she put on a big wide belt and sure enough it looks like a Jedi Knight robe...from the front - it's a little breezy in the back.
This morning, I baked a delectably juicy sausage/onion/egg and cheese casserole. I had cooked the onions and sausage yesterday and let it and all the cooking juices blend in with the mixed raw eggs and cheddar and Swiss cheese overnight. Plus blaaaaaack coffee, strong enough to wake the dead. A manly, meaty and rich Christmas breakfast indeed! I feel strong, vital and mighty - give me a wall to tear down! Yaaaarrraaaaghhhhh!!
This evening it's over to the mother-in-law's to open more presents and have the traditional turkey, dressing, cranberries, rice, gravy, green beans dinner. A little Riesling, maybe some rose' or merlot, and some kind of chocolate desserts.
And then I'll repair downstairs to a deep chair in front of whatever bowl game might be on (are there any? I haven't checked) and sleep like I'm comatose while all the womenfolk assemble in front of a big screen and watch some chick flick with Hugh Grant or Mr. Darcy or Heathcliff. Ah, heavenly.
P.S. - Stray03, I want to eat with you next Christmas - either side of the family is okay by me!.