Yesterday would have been but an English breakfast with kippers awaited us in Pasadena with my brother’s family and their new in-law additions from the marital acquisitions this past summer. It is nice having 2 permanent additions to the Mac clan.
A lovely sight for our family.
The day after Christmas was delightful, the kippers, even the water retention from the sodium overload and the riveting game of Cranium. Nothing like seeing my eldest very reserved engineer son roll on the ground finding his inner caramel apple or my eldest very reserved pharmacist brother go after our car after finding out his wife had given us contraband kippers at our departure. Both animations were priceless.
Christmas Eve had us in the kitchen.
We make our traditional cinnamon roll late at night and let it rise in the frig overnight. For the past couple of years this is something the boys have done. Hooray!
It can be very serious business. 🙂
On Christmas day, naps came after breakfast and seeing what Santa brought. Before family arrived for the second round I finished my preparations for the Beef Wellington with Green Peppercorn Sauce where I decorated the top of the puff pastry in holly leaf and berry cut-outs. I made two roasts and doubled the sauce. It came out incredibly delicious. The sauce is to die for on it’s own and could go with any beef dish. Do give it a try, perhaps for New Year’s? It takes a very long time to reduce twice so next time I would do this a day or two ahead.
Christmas Day.
Let the party begin!
The Ladies of Christmas with their Santa Hat ‘Naughty but oh-so-Nice’ martinis. The ladies are donning their new red feather boas courtesy of moi. I have yet to vacuum from the shedding!I think this can wait another day.
I highly recommend a couple games of Pictionary after the martinis. My SIL was in rare form. I am convinced laughing should be the new ab exercise. We used a large easel pad of dry-erase sheets that I found at Staples. Since I don’t have an easel I propped it up on a shelf and it worked fine.
I have no delusions of high energy or of equally loafty aspirations.
It’ll be tough to get back to semi-normal life this week. There is work, the decision of whether to clean up and put all of the holidays away while the boys are still here to help or let them leave with the glow of the lights still twinkling in the rear view mirror as we head respectively to the train station and airport.
I can’t help to feel the pending slide into empty nestdom again. It begins on the 2nd and concludes on the 4th. Mr. P.M. and I have said many times over the last week how wonderful it has been with the boys home. There have been more dirty dishes that don’t find their way into the dish washer. The washing machine has been eerily silent although I predict will go into high gear come the 1st, and trips to the grocery store have been frequent whereupon gallons of milk once again find their place in the frig. It has been wonderful, abundant in laughter, hugs and verbal ‘I love yous.’ What more could a mother ask Santa for?
I hope you had a wonderful Christmas too! 🙂
