Belated Christmas Cheer

Holiday greetings to my faithful readers. I've been down for the count for about a week with a dastardly cold that I understand is making the rounds and is tough to kick. I've classified it as the worst cold I've ever had, requiring no fewer than 5 solid days on the couch in jammies complete with low rent TV like Oprah and Jeopardy to keep me from going mad.

Shuffling around the house with a box of Kleenex in one hand and a cup of lemon ginger tea in the other, trailing piles of damp tissue wasn't exactly the way I had planned to spend my Solstice through Christmas eve's, but that is exactly what happened.

We had voted not to have a tree this year, as when we do it's a fairly grandiose production involving walking around the land to find and cut just the right cedar tree and then a couple of days of getting the furniture rearranged so we can fit the tree in the house and slowly getting all the lights and decorations on it. But without the tree, the whole spirit of the season is missing.

Of course since we lean more toward pagan than Christian, the whole Christmas thing feels pretty hypocritical to us, and since I was too deep under blankets on the solstice to even ponder making a fire in celebration I was afraid the whole holiday was going to slip past without recognition.

But David came to the rescue, around about the 23rd he decided we could not have a cheerless holiday and he started to bake. And he baked, and he baked and he baked. Rocks, Mexican chocolate shortbread, oatmeal cranberry chocolate chip, rugelach fingers, bourbon balls and chocolate crinkles. Right up into Christmas morning the oven was going and he was working on one last batch of almond nut brittle.

And then I got into the act, as I was finally feeling that I could rejoin the living. We broke out the craft supplies and spent several hours clipping and snipping and gluing to paper bags to create our own one of a kind- Martha Stewart inspired- cookie gift bags.

The center of the action

The resulting bounty

Once we had everything packed up, we bathed and put on festive garb and headed out to spread a bit of cheer visiting all the neighbors around the hood' and ended up at my brother Chris's for an outstanding Christmas dinner that would have made Charles Dickens proud. From the medium rare standing rib roast down to the Brussels sprouts (grown by bro & sis A&B) and Yorkshire pudding and the plates of cookies from us and pies baked by mama Elaine the feast was enjoyed by all.

I'm slowly recovering and each day feel a bit more like getting into real clothes and even ventured out for a long walk today. I'm hoping to do some true celebrating on the calendar New Year after having missed the solar one. I hope everyone reading this is healthy, has had a happy holiday and I bid you all good tidings and great cheer!