Still Here

Has it been a week?  Hello?  Bueller?  Bueller?

Santa came and went, my Girl came and went, three or four pounds of holiday fluffiness came and have decided they like my hips and will stay, snow came and went and came again, the dinner guests came and went, and although no Christmas cards went, a nice batch came today and brought some much-needed cheer!  My friend P sent a family photo, and her clan is looking sharp, especially herself in her new carb-free slimminess.  My friend B sent a warm greeting in her perfect handwriting, and it makes me miss her whole family, especially my best friend M who had the nerve to turn 11 in August without me.  My grown-up niece C sent the cutest round ornament card with a photo of her with her new husband and beautiful dog.  Other bloggy friends have written about Tinyprints.com, and they sure did a cute job with that card.  I am so thankful for all the greetings we received - I don't think I've ever appreciated the cards so much as this year!  I love mail!!

Here is a quick holiday recap:

My Girl absolutely made my Christmas.  My love for her is much too deep and wide (haha girl, I will never forget your kitchen rendition of that song last week) to blog here in front of everybody; suffice it to say that we are two who live at the ends of the drama spectrum and never in the middle.  We adore, we argue, we rest.  I have never met anyone more like me and more unlike me at the same time.  I'm so grateful she chose to spend 13 days of her Christmas break here in the frozen tundra with me.

She also gave me the perfect Christmas gift.

 Hello, darlings.  You keep me toasty and yet I can go up and down the stairs to the basement without getting wet or dirty.  You have fur inside.

 She also hopped up onto the counter and put up my longsuffering kitchen valance.  Apologies for the photo quality.  I have no idea how to work my phone camera - I just keep using it.

 And she helped me prepare and consume these yummy appetizers for our Christmas guests,

 which was lots of fun.  Both gents are here without their families, so we got the pleasure of making our family a bit bigger on Christmas. 

 Annnddd, she did a lot of this.  I can barely look at this photo without having a pity party about the fact that my sofa is very empty now.  The bed is made in her room for the first time in two weeks.  There's nothing on the floor in there.  It's so neat it's just awful.  Come back, Girl. 


Oh, I forgot to tell you about a new old tradition that began for us this year!  Sir's family is Polish, and he told me that their traditional big celebration is on Christmas Eve, and includes a family blessing/communion followed by a special dinner.  After phone consultation with his mom, we decided to make our own shortcut version of the dishes she serves.  They included a beet soup with mushroom tortellini; fish and pierogi.  I am quite thankful for Mrs. T, whoever she is, because she makes frozen pierogi and I didn't have to do battle with a rolling pin and a hot kettle. 

We had a very precious time of blessing and communion - what an incredible gift Sir is to me to lead us spiritually in his quiet, humble way. 

Then, the feast.  The Girl and I were game to try everything - truthfully Sir enjoyed it more than we did, but we were happy to provide a meal that would give him a taste of home and tradition, since his whole family was celebrating in CT this year and of course he wasn't there.  The funniest part of the evening was when I realized we had a serious shortage of space in the fridge, and Sir said, "Hey, let's put the soup on the porch - that's what my grandmother always did."  So we did, and then it snowed - a lot.  The next day when we brought the soup in, this is what it looked like.  Who needs Kenmore?  We have a balcony.  The downside is that I had put the pot on a large cookie sheet, and that is still buried and stuck to the porch.  I can't dislodge it even by kicking it hard with my new slippers.  See ya in the spring, Toots.