Cooking On Christmas Day (12/25/13)...

Well this will be a quiet Christmas holiday this year. H is here with me for the first time in many moons. Typically he goes up to see his Mom but seeing that she recently moved out to Regina, SK that put a damper on those plans. He gets to hang out with his Dad, the cats and his friends this holiday season.

Next year I am putting up a tree so that it looks a bit more festive in the house. Hopefully Jynx has gotten old enough that she is no longer interested in using the branches of the tree as various sleeping spots and using fragile Christmas ornaments as cat toys. I guess I will have to tempt the fates then.

I gave H the last of his gifts last night. Christmas Eve was always the night for the opening of the Christmas presents growing up. Typically right near midnight. I did it a bit earlier. LOL. Staying up past midnight requires a pre-planned afternoon nap which I didn't have yesterday.

It gets harder and harder to get him gifts as he gets older and I don't like the idea of just giving him money as it shows a lack of creativity. I know I work with numbers so creativity is not my forte. I do try to get some surprises though.

This year I got him some stuff off the NHL.com website to continue to encourage his recent like of all things Canadiens. He got those gifts early as the box was delivered when he was home and I was at work. So the inquisitive type that he is opened up the box to find a Habs t-shirt, key chain and a chillsner that keeps the beverage of choice nice and cold.

I gave him a gift card to Mac's Speed Shop which he can use with his friends as well as a nice bottle of Johnny Walker Black Label. Maybe next year I will surprise him with Johnny Walker Blue. He and his friends fancy themselves as good scotch and bourbon drinkers all of a sudden. It is interesting to hear them discuss the merits of this brand next to the brand. It's a guy thing!

I also got him the requisite underwear and socks as it would not be Christmas without those products. It's like having orange, mandarin or tangerine in the Christmas stocking. It's a must! When my siblings and I were kids we always had a soft package of socks under the tree.

The last thing that Santa delivered to him was the result of my using up the last finite amounts of patience that I had yesterday and braving the traffic on Fairview Rd. Suffice to say that many French Canadian swear words escaped my lips right around noon yesterday. There is a good reason why I don't use that road much and yesterday only served to back that argument up.

Anyways I ended up going to Belk's and getting him a nice Calvin Klein fragrance gift set so now he can then use his own good stuff rather than raid my stash. LOL. I am a man with a plan.

So as the title implies I have already started cooking on this cold for SC Christmas Day. The temperature outside is right at freezing and it won't be getting much warmer. They are only calling for a high of 40F or 4C. That is cold for us. Brrrr cold!

So I have roast already going for late lunch thing I guess. I got to use some of the Pampered Chef items I received this past Monday. Happy Christmas to me! Now I just need to learn how to use them properly. There were some accidents involving beef broth and onions this morning. At least the cup of red wine made it to pot to correctly braise the beef. It better cook out during the process or I will be half lit by supper time. LOL.

I am going to do a roast chicken for later tonight as well. Ham is not a big favorite in this house so I went with a large chicken. I can use the leftovers for a soup base as well as for chicken salad I guess. I would have bought a turkey but they only had frozen ones at the grocery store and if memory serves me correctly it takes a couple of days for a turkey to defrost in the fridge. I will plan that better next time. I've never cooked a turkey so that will be a first. I will no longer be a turkey virgin. LOL.

That's it for now Journey fans. Merry Christmas one and all and peace out!

Friday Friday

Darn it is hard to believe that we're already at the 25th of November. Time does indeed fly by. Only a month to go to Christmas. Streets to avoid today are Woodruff, Fairview and Haywood. I can just imagine the traffic on these shopping roads.

Last night I had my first deep-fried turkey. I think I have joined the choir. It was pretty effin good. I stayed away from the skin which others were raving about and just had white meat but man it was juicy and fork tender.

I woke up at 6am for a moment and it clicked on me that people had already been shopping for hours at that point. Yikes one must be determined I guess. You won't find me anywhere near these roads. Only shopping I am doing is if I need anything to go with the greek-style chicken tonight. I may need potatoes. I have lots of tomatoes, onions and tzatziki.

Going to be another relatively inactive day for me. A little bit of work-work and some college football this afternoon. LSU and Arkansas. Hopefully it won't be a blowout. Be interesting to see the polls afterwards if Arkansas wins.

I should probably start raking the front of the house. My bradford pears out front gave up all their leaves this past week. You can't see any of the grass for all the leaves of the ground. On the left side of the house I may actually have to mow the lawn. It is that long. Weird have green grass year-round like I do here.

Tomorrow morning is my monthly appointment at Massage Envy. I sure hope that she can loosen up the right side where my sciatic nerve has been acting up. I am not aging gracefully. LOL.

Okay I think I need to start folding clothes. I have lots of laundry to do today!