mind_chaos

It's been brought to my attention that I haven't posted for a while. So here it is.

Recovery from surgery went fine. I was more tired, and tired more easily, than usual, but other than having the mother of all migraines the following Wednesday, it went as expected with no problems. Also, all the labs came back fine, which is good to know. The bill has not arrived yet, although an unrelated letter from the IRS has. And I will need to deal with that soon. But not today.

Work was very busy through the 24th. At my client site, people start trying to use up vacation right after Thanksgiving and it's not uncommon for people who have been there for a while (like, say, the ones who review and sign our documents) to be gone for most of December. I have said before, and will probably continue to say that, after Thanksgiving, it's like an Agatha Christie novel---fewer people each day. Plus, a lot of projects were careening towards an end-of-year finish, so instead of coasting, we were all hands on deck this year.

Then, two weeks before Christmas, Spouse had seven hearings in three days, which threw off our schedule for most of that week. Necessity, and all that. He followed it up with a bout with a nasty, nasty digestive bug the Sunday before Christmas, and didn't make it into work at all last week. Not that he wasn't motivated, but I tend to think that if you can't keep down solid food, you probably shouldn't be sharing your germs with the court staff. And I took advantage of his weakened condition to enforce that, because I'm mean, nasty, rotten, and not very nice.

I have avoided getting sick. In fact, I have insisted upon it. Tired, however, is another matter entirely. I could sleep like a cat for a month, I think, and probably get to the point where I had begun to feel a bit rested.

After a delightfully quiet Christmas day highlighted by Chinese food with friends, we spent the next couple of days driving up and down I-65 to visit Spouse's sister's place, where the extended family had gathered for December holidays and Youngest Niece's birthday. Spouse's Sister is quite the candy-maker, and she sent us home with a far-too-large-for-two-people platter with eight or nine kinds of cookies and candy. No reindeer logs, but I'll have to send her the recipe.

Today, I took Youngest Niece, who just turned 18, for lunch, shopping, a manicure, and homemade hot chocolate (Spouse is turning out to be quite the barista, since we splurged on the espresso machine).

Coming up, we'll be putting in more time on I-65, only going south rather than north, later this week. Also possible catching up with my Illinois relative. In between, I plan to do a little lot of laundry, some light housekeeping, enjoy my present from Spouse (all things AbFab on DVD!!) and not a hell of a lot else. Including blogging, so don't worry if I'm quiet for a little while yet.

In the mean time, head over to your local library and get a copy of the book I just finished, Nancy Kress's Steal Across the Sky, which is nifty novel about the ultimate double-blind experiment. (It's given me an idea for a screenplay that I just might be able to finish. As opposed to some ideas that have been kicking around and mutating for ten or twelve years now, but never seem to come together. But I digress.) And if you haven't read her Beggars in Spain either, get that while you're at it.

Have a happy and safe New Year's, all.

We always spend Christmas with my in-laws, because it matters to them (if only as a day to gather family), and not in the least to my mom. My mother-in-law has been having increasing difficulty getting around, but a holiday should be marked by a special dinner. She'd bought a huge turkey for the purpose. Why she got a 20 pound bird for 5 people (one of them my son, who generally turns up his nose at things like turkey), I have no idea, but there it was, thawing in the garage. She'd also bought fresh cranberries and sweet potatoes.

So I thought about it, consulted my husband, and offered to cook dinner. Sold! It took me less than 5 minutes to come up with a menu, and I betook myself to the nearest grocery. (In passing, I wish profoundly that we had a grocery like that closer than 45 minutes drive away!) There I acquired the remaining necessities for my concept of a festive meal. I realized as I unpacked it all that I was essentially making a Shabbat dinner for Christmas, which made me giggle, but there you go.

I cut every single recipe in half, and it was still enough to feed a goodly portion of the Russian Army. Boiled custard to enjoy ahead, and keep people from getting too hungry. (What else are you going to do with 5 stray egg yolks?) The turkey, which was rubbed with ginger and savory and stuffed with a whole onion. Gravy. Cranberry chutney (cranberries, pear, apple, raisins, celery, orange juice, lemon juice and a tiny bit of sugar, cooked for about 15 minutes and chilled.) Kugel (Eastern European noodle pudding) with all kinds of fruit - crushed pineapple, dried apricots, raisins and chopped apples. Mashed sweet potatoes. Broccoli with mushrooms and toasted almonds. And for dessert, eaten hours after the meal and after everyone had had a nap, macademia nut cheesecake (which is where the egg whites went) with sliced strawberries. My mother-in-law turned out not to have a springform pan, but the cheesecake turned out just fine in a ceramic pie plate. I'd had the appropriate bread, but we decided not to put it on the table, just because there was such a plethora of dishes already out.

The turkey turned out to be too big for the pan my mother-in-law usually puts a turkey in, so I had an oven disaster to clean up. Fortunately she has 2 ovens, so I moved it to the second while I let the first cool so I could mop it out. Except it overflowed again. That time found me hunting out her old roaster from the basement and transferring the hot and half-cooked turkey into it. It just barely fit into her oven diagonally, but fit it did, and the bird finished cooking.

I love to cook, so while I was well and truly tired by the time it was all on the table, I'd had a marvelous time getting there. Our son joined us with minimal complaint, actually ate some turkey and mashed white potato we'd made just for him, and joined in a discussion of football teams and their relative merits with great gusto.

So today I am eating leftover kugel for breakfast, and will be taking a care package over to my mother here shortly. My in-laws had their Christmas feast, without exhausting themselves for a week to do it. Mission accomplished.

Happy Midwinter Holiday of Your Choice to all my friends, and may the returning sun and light herald a bright year for us all.