Christmas 2022

Christmas Eve went off without a hitch. My mother brought up an electric fireplace to add coziness, and the cats sat around it as if it were the real thing. Christmas Eve dinner is the deconstructed version of Christmas dinner: all the makings of a huge meat pie. Roast beef, roast lamb, tiny potatoes, piles of carrots, loads of gravy. It’s simple to cook, delicious to eat, and easy to chop up and throw together under puff pastry the next day, when you’re exhausted and full of chocolate and booze. Hands down, my favorite meal of the year.

I still have not managed to finish watching It’s a Wonderful Life in one sitting, but we did watch the Christmas episode of The Twilight Zone (“Night of the Meek”, season 2, episode 11). It’s a good one.

Christmas Day

At the stoke of 5am, the cats started rampaging, the rooster started crowing, and Zenny started shaking us awake. I put on a sad pot of decaf, popped two chocolate covered coffee beans like energy pills, and we did the Christmas morning thing.

The “seal of disapproval” pillow was a winner

Santa did not get credit for the bike. Santa brings small blinky toys and Japanese candies and scary exfoliating foot creams and dumb underwear. Parents bring the good stuff. 

The cats were very patient with me when I opened up a new lens and started following them around with the camera like an instagrammer’s boyfriend.

#wokeuplikethis #nofilter #blessed

In the afternoon, when everyone was worn out and laying on the floor, we bagged up the mess, packed the food, and drove to my mother’s house for Christmas dinner with my aunt and cousins. I brought a magic flan cake for kids who don’t like rum-soaked figgy pudding, and it was a hit. No leftovers, I win. Sorry, figgy pud.

Nothing caught on fire. No arguments broke out. No illnesses, crying, or injuries. And while I did not catch a moment where I felt the magic — it gets harder and harder to do as an adult — the kids were feeling it, and that’s where it counts. It was a good one.

xoxo