Christmas Clementines

The red berries are the little picks I purchased at work.  Don't they add Christmas cheer?  I peel and eat a handful of Clementines everyday.  It is so difficult to know which box of fruit to buy.  The first bag I bought was from Morocco and the clems were tiny and spicy.  I devoured them.  The second box were dry and sour.  This box is fragrant and juicy.  I miss the spicy taste of the tiny ones.  I love orange and blue together.  If I was choosing a color combo for the Twelve by Twelve (which I should be working on!!!), it would be the colors in this bowl of fruit.

Today I need to actually get lights on my Christmas tree.  And ornaments.  See, the thing is I procrastinate about these two jobs but when I get started, I really love doing it and SO love the decorated tree.  I just sit and stare at it, so happy.  I always say I will decorate sooner, and have more days to enjoy the tree, but this is the way it goes.  But at least the tree has been in the house for about 10 days which is 10 days longer than usual.  The tree is drinking massive amounts of water and Prolong.  Riley is still wagging his tail into the tree branches and making a mess of needles on the floor.  Pretty soon ornaments will be falling off the tree to join the needles.

I purchased a new cookbook.  Mad Hungry by Lucinda Scala Quinn.  She has a cooking show on Martha Stewart's Hallmark channel.  I started TiVo-ing some of them and reading the book, I have found some recipes for things I actually love to eat but don't know how to make.  Thrilled to see the bacon, egg and cheese bagel recipe.  Teen age boys worked out the best technique and taste.  And the instructions for perfect fried eggs.  Mine are never right as the yolk is always overcooked.  And baked bacon.  Without all the sugar other recipes load onto it.  Quinn had a great English recipe for scones that I plan to make.  They stay moist inside and crunchy on the outside.  I have only read the first, breakfast section so far.  Simple food.  Always the best because you can eat it everyday.

Today I am also running to the grocery store for ricotta cheese and spinach for stuffed shells.  I have a jar of marinara in the fridge which will be enough to sauce the shells. (or I can buy another) And I want to buy some crispy garlic bread.  Sounds like a good dinner to eat while watching Survivor.  Need Parmesan also.  In fact, I need a great deal of different cheeses for the week ahead because I want burritos or nachos for dinner this week because those two things go together quickly and I work Monday and Tuesday and Thursday.

Christmas Eve starts my furlough.  In more ways than one.  Sam will be sharing Christmas Eve with her boyfriend's family and G and I can feel free to do whatever we want (yippee!).  Sam will be here for Christmas day and the Christmas Burritos and Pumpkin Cheesecake.  And the annual Scrabble game plus a walk in the woods with Riley. I'll be making her cheese pierogi on Wednesday.

The traditional meals we shared as a family when the children lived at home, have somehow lost their appeal (for G & I) in recent Christmases.  I think, if both kids had married and started families, we would have been able to let go of these work intensive meals and traditions sooner and with less anxiety (for daughter).  I could have enjoyed the occasional holiday meal or plate of cookies prepared in my own kitchen.  Over the past 5 or more years, I have stopped stuffing stockings, buying presents and baking cookies. It was all joyless and such hard work.  Somehow, baking cookies with growing children dipping fingers into the dough bowl or snatching cookies off the plates each time they walked past made it all seem like fun.  Now, it seems like work and a dangerous amount of cookies left for me to eat.  And grow an even bigger butt.  Now, I order things from William Sonoma or write checks.

Working up until the end at the greenhouse has certainly made things more difficult.  I have had to rely on pain pills more often this past week and have had to skip the Sunday walk with G and Riley (which I enjoy) on two Sundays.  My hip aches.  I am doing stretching exercises to stretch the hip muscles.  Cement floors do not make it easier.  And I tripped and fell into a crate of plants last week.  That didn't help.  I have eleven weeks to rest and repair myself and get ready for Spring and the opening of the greenhouse.  And four more posts to make 1000 in 2010.  Any ideas on a project to work on, in posts, for 2011?