December 28, 2022
For those who celebrate, I
hope that your Christmas or Hanukkah were all you’d hoped they would be. When
an event comes but once a year, it’s wonderful if it turns out, also, to be
very special.
Anticipating the week leading
up to Christmas, there had been a few places we had originally planned to go and
a couple of people who we’d hoped to see. However, as the storm was first forecast
and as it approached, and since we were warned of its inevitability and nearly unprecedented
size, we decided to just stay home, instead. Seeing loved ones face to face isn’t
worth a risk of life and limb.
I can’t tell you all just how
much I wish others had done the same. Two things can be true at the same time.
I feel compassion for those who’ve been stranded—either because of the
difficulties of air travel, or because of attempting to travel by road. But I
also wonder what they were thinking, since, as I said, it was well publicized
that a monster winter storm was imminent. Getting stranded was a completely
unnecessary hardship.
Our Christmas Day here was a very
relaxed and quiet day, just the three of us here. Our daughter made breakfast.
There were two kinds of bacon, eggs, breakfast potatoes and toast. The food was
very tasty. Supper was my job, and since we’d decided well ahead on the bill of
fare, it was a very simple but good meal. We enjoyed bone-in ham, candied yams,
Brussels Sprouts (our favorite veggie), and coleslaw. I bought some of the
groceries on the Friday before Christmas, and because our daughter really loves
red cabbage coleslaw, that was what we had.
Recently, our daughter has
reintroduced chicken and ham into her diet. So far, it’s working for her. She
doesn’t eat large quantities of those meats, but she eats them with no negative
side effects.
There was an addendum to
putting some slices of ham into the oven to heat them, for our Christmas supper.
Most of what we didn’t eat for supper, had been designated for another purpose.
I put that cut up left over ham through the meat processor, added a few sweet
pickles which were also chopped in the processor, added some mayo to the mix and
voila: the family favorite, ham and pickle, which is salad that is eaten as a
sandwich filler. When daughter and I decided on the menu, she was most excited
about the ham and pickle since she hadn’t had any for a couple of years.
Made on Monday, (and a healthy
portion of it, at that), the meat spread was but a memory by the end of the
day, yesterday. I’m not complaining. I’d rather have something eaten up that
quickly than left to go bad in the fridge.
Our family Christmas supper
will be on next Monday, this year, January 2nd. There’s usually a
challenge coordinating since both our daughter and our “second daughter” have
busy schedules. This is also the reason I didn’t even attempt to serve a turkey
on the 25th. Sonja makes the best turkey, period. And while I pride
myself on being a very good cook, I have no problem bowing to someone who can do
something better than I can. It will be a fun evening, and of course a new rendition
of the game we always play when we get together for these events: left, right
and center. (If you’re curious, they sell it at Amazon).
Yes, next Monday will be in
the brand-new shiny year of 2023. Time does march on, whether we wish it to, or
not. That’s the way of the world. But I’ve lived long enough to understand that
few things in life are either all bad, or all good. So while time marching
onwards means we part with some things, it also means that we encounter some
new things.
I sincerely wish that y’all
have enough of the new, and the nice, and the happy, and the spice in the year
to come to put a smile on your face and a song in your heart.
Love,
Morgan
http://www.bookstrand.com/morgan-ashbury
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