over and done
December 26, 2012, 7:17 P.M.

So glad to put another December 25th in the rear-view mirror; I do loathe it more every year. I had a 4-day weekend out of it, though--and that is no bad thing. On Saturday, Spouse and Nephew headed down to Dad's to pick up the Taurus and drop off the loaner. The total for getting the heater repaired and the transmission serviced was a mere $241.00, so that was a huge load off our minds.

While he was out of the house on Saturday morning, I buckled down to some serious cleaning and got the house whipped into reasonable shape. About 11, Nephew's girlfriend came by and we made cookies together--a batch of Spritz, and a batch of Tollhouse that had red and green chocolate chips, as well as brown. The guys got back while we were finishing the second batch, and we all hung out while the cookies were baking and then went out to a late lunch at our favorite Mexican place.

Spouse and Nephew had made a stop on the way back: the Mrs. Fisher's Potato Chip factory in Rockford, which is an old favorite in the family. Nephew presented me with a very special Christmas gift--a 1-pound tub of "Darks". Seems so many people (me included!) favor the "burnt" chips in a bag that they have taken to frying up special batches that consist entirely of overdone chips. Only available occasionally, and only at the factory, a tub of darks is a highly sought after delicacy. I was very pleased with the gift, I can tell you--but I have to be very careful, because I simply can't eat the darned things the way I used to. More than a handful, and I have digestive issues.

Sunday, Spouse had to work second shift, so I felt sorry for him and cooked him up a nice breakfast of bacon, eggs, toast and OJ. I fiddled & puttered around the house, and after he went to work I did some more baking, getting out a batch of M&M cookies.

And then I finally siezed the moment, and made the batch of old-fashioned butter mints that I have been longing to do. I haven't made them since I was about 14, but once I found a sound recipe online, it was easy as could be. Another thing that the KitchenAid takes from impossible to easy. 5 cups of 10x confectioner's sugar, a stick of unsalted butter, a couple tablespoons of milk, 1/8th tsp of oil of peppermint, and some food coloring and that is really all there is to it! (I made up the batch, but split it before the coloring stage so I could do half pink and half green.)

I used my Wilton "Roses in Bloom" candy mold and pressed out 64 pretty little bonbons, and I have to say, it was really fun! Smelled so nice, too! I was totally ready to relax at that point, but Mom called and I ended up on the phone with her for two hours, which is exactly the opposite of "relax".

That was the end of holiday baking & candy-making, though--when we got up on Christmas Eve morning, we had to get all of our usual weekend shopping done on top of actual Christmas shopping, so we were out the door at 9 and about our errands.

We got Auntie a new hand mixer, because she burnt out another one while making cookies the other day. Got her one like mine, which is a very well-powered Hamilton Beach. Hopefully this one can take more punishment! I am afraid she is trying to make dough with them, though, and you simply cannot make a stiff cookie dough with a hand mixer. Anyway, she will be getting a box with mixer, a tin of cookies, and a small box of the bonbons.

We actually bought each other tangible gifts right at holiday time this year, so we got that done as well on Monday morning. He requested an LG BP320 model Blu-ray player, and I asked for a twenty-two-inch sterling silver box chain.

He got an LG BP320 model Blu-ray player. And five movies (Bullitt, Caddyshack, Casino, Das Boot, and The Getaway) for it.

I got a twenty-four-inch sterling silver cable-link chain.

Sigh.

He also bought me truly lovely opal & pink sapphire earrings and pendant, set in silver. Because he isn't happy if I spend more on him than he did on me--or even if we spend the same amount on each other. In order for him to truly enjoy exchanging gifts, he has to "win" Christmas. So I let him. That's part of the gift I give him. ;) Oh, and he bought me a silly little kit for making homemade root beer, just because I said it looked kind of cool. Cool, yes--but a $15 kit that makes two liters of root beer? That's some expensive soda!

So we did pretty well in our shopping, working through our list and hitting 7 stores in about three hours. Doesn't hurt to know what you're after before you start, I guess.

We stopped for lunch on the way home, at a new place we wanted to try called "Slice". A pub with over 30 beers on tap, pizza, burgers, etc. I had a personal thin-crust, woodfired, with prosciutto, artichokes, and sun-dried tomatoes. Spouse had a personal sized Chicago deep-dish. He loved his, but I felt that mine had been ruined by the Wisconsin overkill thing--where they feel they need to give value by piling the toppings on to a ridiculous degree. That thing was paved with prosciutto, and there was enough of each topping to have adequately supplied a pizza three times the size. What would have been a bit of delicate perfection if the proportions were right became a nasty mess.

When we got home, we put away all the groceries and purchases, got Auntie's box ready for shipping, and I read for a bit, while Spouse unpacked and set up his new toy. Then we each had a cocktail while we took it for a test run. Pretty impressive! I had gotten him the sound bar he wanted for his birthday, and now that he's got the Blu-ray, he is thrilled with his home theater set-up. Means very little to me, since I don't watch (American) TV or movies much anymore, but I'm sure I will appreciate it when Les Miserable comes out on Blu-ray! (Haven't decided yet whether or not I'll venture into a theater for it, but damn, I do really want to see it.)

For Christmas Eve dinner, Spouse decided he wanted one of his favorite offbeat things--BBQ chicken wings and cocktail meatballs. I went along, even though I get horrible indigestion from it and the pizza from lunch was weighing heavily on me already. We had potato pancakes with it, too--just because they're easy and we had some on hand. Then Spouse went to bed early since he was a bit sleep-starved, and I watched QI and 8 out of 10 Cats, then read until about 10 before I turned in.

The B presented us with a lovely and unexpected present on Christmas morning--he let up sleep in till 7:30! I couldn't believe it when I opened my eyes to actual daylight!

But by then, poor pup reeeeeally had to be tended to, so I got on the case while Spouse jumped in the shower. Then he decided he wanted to gas up my car, move his (alternate-side parking), and scoot down to DD for something to go with our coffee. They were closed, though. When he came back in, he brought B's gift with him; we had been keeping it in the trunk of the car till the big day. We got him a trio of new dollies at Sam's for like $9.96, so he now has a second raccoon, a third squirrel, and the umpteenth member of his vast hedgehog army.

By the time we had finished with the big presentation, Spouse was seriously hungry, and since he didn't feel like making pancakes, he ran to McD's for takeout. Which they screwed up, unfortunately, but whaddaya gonna do?

Spouse made some family calls while I got in the shower, then we were just planning to get the dinner started when my mom called did another two hours of blowing off all the good and focusing in on the bad. And coming very close to convincing me to buy her a Nook, actually. I came to my senses, though!

As I said to Spouse--it is a thing. A thing that others have, and that she does not have. Much like the Keurig that sits idle on the counter, it is something she cannot live without--not because of its usefulness, but because she simply cannot bear it when somebody else has something that she does not.

So I reined myself in. And she called me back again about half an hour after we finally got off the phone to tell me that ShopKo had one on sale for $100, and she had a $50 gift card she could put towards it. So I told her that if that's what she really wanted, she should just go for it.

Spouse ended up doing most of the dinner. Not that is was anything exotic or complex. He roasted a turkey breast, made stuffing and mashed potatoes, and heated up a can of gravy. My contributions were putting the bag of peas into the boiling water, rolling up the crescent rolls, and setting the table. We don't mess with tradition for holidays, generally. It is more of trying to reproduce what we grew up with than anything else. I was going to make a small blackberry cobbler for dessert, but Mom kind of time-sucked my window of opportunity on me. Not that it was missed--we have tons of cookies and candy on hand, after all!

After dinner, I did the washing up and Spouse valiantly fought off the nap that was trying to take over. He eventually lost, and went to bed early. I surfed a bit, took down my "virtual" Christmas decorations on FB and my desktop, read a bit, and got my workday morning ducks in a row, then pilled & pottied the dog and hit the hay.

Only to wake up at 3:30 this morning to the usual anxiety issues, nausea and diarrhea that all the workdays seem to bring these days. I was the only member of my team working today, so I didn't really have anything I could get done, or too many a-holes I had to deal with. Not a stressful day in and of itself. But this whole thing that is going on with work and life right now is just tearing my guts up.

I guess that no matter how deeply you delude yourself that the company doesn't own you, once they actually sell your ass down the river, you have to come to grips with the truth of it.