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So there is a pretty well renowned chef named Barbara Kafka who had a cookbook called Roasting from 25 years ago. She has a recipe for a standing rib roast that we've used many times over the years. So I was making it today and there was SO MUCH SMOKE! It starts with the the temp really high and the drippings began to smoke and filled the house. I don't know how the smoke alarm didn't go off and send the fire department. The house smells awful and I have been so stressed!!! The roasting pan cracked so that is outside in the cold where I put it to minimize the smoke (which was well pst minimizing). Still don't know if I can salvage dinner. Ugh!!! It was a seriously expensive cut of meat too. Windows and doors were wide open (it's 35), Claudia was using the leaf blower to encourage the smoke out of the window. My clothes and hair reek and my throat hurts. I think my blood pressure should be down sometime next Wednesday. The Barbara Kafka book is going to the Friends of the library. Never again.

Argh!

Presents were well received. Wish me luck pulling this dinner to a positive conclusion!

Merry Christmas, my friends!

Merry Christmas!!!

202.0 - more up down, but it's all good. Salty food and constipation always lead to an uptick on the scale.

Christmas Eve was exactly what I wanted it to be. My dad had a great time and thought the food was great. He ate his entire dinner and dessert. I got him a couple of nice sweat shirts (easy on, easy off) so he'd have a little something to open.

He was fixated all evening on an imaginary situation he'd encountered. Two school aged boys (about 8 years old in his narrative) had come to blows in the school yard. The dean of students had decided to set up a boxing match for the boys so they could settle their differences. My dad had been asked to referee and declare the winning boy. My dad was horrified by this prospect and wanted to give a speech declaring his opposition to such a violent solution to a playground problem. Moreover, he was upset that the boxing match was getting news coverage and would be televised. Incidentally, paramedics came to his building as we were leaving and he mistook the fire truck to be a media truck and announced as we drove off that the news van and news casters had arrived for the boxing match. He kept revisiting the boxing match all evening. I had fun discussing with him the ill conceived concept of violence being a resolution for violence. He doesn't have the words anymore to really "discuss", but he appreciates the banter and his ideas being supported.

Like Liz, I had a fitful sleep. I think in part due to staying up way too late watching Christmas movies. Ron didn't get home from church until just about midnight and needed to decompress. We watched a really charming Netflix animation called That Christmas. A kid movie, but with relevant adult themes. Well worth the watch! I also had a dream I could not shake which kept me awake for a bit. In the dream I was diagnosed with lung cancer. I wasn't sick, or feeling ill, but... Yuck...

Ron, BFF and I will head to Sonoma (California Wine Country) to have Christmas with Ron's family. Always a good spread and enjoyable company.

118.4 - not bad after eating and drinking so strangely last night. I couldn't eat much though.

Christmas Day is here. Only about 4 hours of sleep for no good reason. I was worrying about those darn osteoporosis shots I have to have on Tuesday and couldn't settle my mind down. I planned the picture below while lying awake.

We leave at about 11 to drive to DD's home. It is a 2.5 hour drive. DS should be there when we arrive and eldest DSD shortly thereafter. Justice is coming though we will put him in the bedroom when the toddler is there (Justice doesn't like small children much). DD expects 14 people with most of them being her in-laws. Another 4 from our side will come later for dessert. It will be packed as it is a very small house but DD is very excited. We stay over at a dog friendly hotel about 15 minutes away from their house. We will have breakfast with DD and DS tomorrow morning before DS returns to Maine and we return to Cape Cod for 3 nights.

Have a Candy Cane Caring Christmas!

ETA: We actually have a small amount of snow on the ground from last night for a white Christmas (the snow in this picture was AI generated - it was originally a picture of Justice on the beach).

Greetings all

In spire of predictions the sun is out in full today. The weatherman was forecasting doom and gloom and terrible rain and wind and power outages but it did not happen here. At least not yet. There are some outages south of here and flooding but we seem to be exempt. A couple of miles makes a big difference.

So I feel like I am on the downside of this cold which is great. Today's plan is some cooking and wrapping. Last night was peculiar because DH had promised to pick up his friend from the airport. Flight was supposed to get in a 10;30 but it was more like 1 am. I went to bed and let him deal with it. This is the friend who is very tech challenged and his initial flight got canceled and DH had to walk him through making changes. DH sits and monitors the United flight app and could tell that Jerry's plane was still in so cal and not close to Reno. So funny.

Hey my new pillows are here!

CC so thrilled to hear that your dad is chipper. Priceless. But yeah, heat to 75 is not good. And agreed, AC to 75 is way different than heat to 75. Glad to hear you have that porch. You are brave to face a big box store today.

Chinese food sounds good Liz. Always fun to choose dishes to share. We don't have much good asian food in our backwater town. Wish we did. Peps is right - west coast does asian food best.

Paula having all your family sounds fun. Wishing you no more drama. Dinner sounds great.

199 is sneaking right up Peps.

Well time to get moving and cooking.

Diane S

Sounds like it will be a lovely Christmas Eve for your family! Your meal sounds better to me than Chinese LOL.