Happy Christmas!

Christine by the fire

Christmas Breakfast Recipes

Quiche Lorraine

12 eggs
3 cups half and half
4 slices bread, cubed
1 teaspoon salt
black pepper, to taste
onion, to taste
2 cups broccoli florets, cooked and cooled
1 pound ham, cubed
2 cups Swiss cheese, shredded

1. Beat eggs and half and half, add remaining ingredients. Store in covered bowl overnight.
2. Bake in 9x13 prepared pan for approximately 55 minutes, at 350 degrees. Let sit for 10 minutes before cutting.

Orange-Glazed Blueberry Scones

2 cups unbleached flour (plus more for rolling berries)
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1/3 cup sugar
1/4 cup unsalted butter, chilled and cut into chunks
3/4 cup half and half
1 egg
1 pint fresh blueberries

For the Orange Glaze
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
2 cups powdered sugar, sifted
2 oranges, juiced and zested

1. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F
2. In a large bowl, sift together flour, baking powder, salt and sugar; mix thoroughly. Cut in butter using 2 forks or a pastry blender. The butter pieces should be coated with flour and resemble crumbs.
3. In another bowl, mix buttermilk and egg together, and then add to the flour mixture. Mix just to incorporate, do no overwork the dough.
4. Roll blueberries in flour to coat, this will help prevent the fruit from sinking to the bottom of the scone when baked. Fold the blueberries into batter, being careful not to bruise. Drop large tablespoons of batter on an ungreased cookie sheet.
5. Bake for 15 to 20 minutes until brown. Cool before applying orange glaze.
6. To prepare Orange Glaze: combine butter, sugar, orange zest, and juice over a double boiler. Cook until butter and sugar are melted and mixture has thickened. Remove from heat and beat until smooth and slightly cool. Drizzle or brush on top of scones and let glaze get hazy and hardened.

So this is Christmas

Merry Christmas to all! God bless us, every one! The hell you say!

That last sentiment may not fill everyone's heart with the warmth of Christmas, but it does mine and, I'm sure, my mom's, and well it should. Someday "Maggie's Gift" by Katherine Patterson will be considered a Christmas classic on par with Clement Moore's "A Visit from Saint Nicholas" and Charles Dickens's A Christmas Carol.

Our Christmas with Christine's family was lovely. On Christmas Eve I baked bread, made scones, and prepared a quiche for Christmas breakfast, while Christine made a raspberry cheesecake that upstaged the cookies I had been baking all week. It was truly delicious.

Christine and I gave each other our presents on Christmas Eve night. I gave her The Complete Novels of Charlotte and Emily Bronte; Fantasic Beasts and Where to Find Them and Quidditch Through the Ages: Classic Books from the Library of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry by J.K. Rowling; Interview with the Vampire DVD; and The Empire Strikes Back soundtrack. She gave me Lost by Gregory Maguire; Batman: Year One by Frank Miller; I Will Fear No Evil by Robert A. Heinlein, which I never bought for myself only because it has a naked woman on the cover, and I didn't know how Christine would react to that; and a two-month subscription to Netflicks.

I got up early Christmas morning (8:30) to make breakfast. I missed my brother. Every year when I was at home, Evan and I were the first ones up every Christmas morning. Our sister liked to sleep in on the holiday, which annoyed us to no end. We'd be on the couch in our pajamas, unwashed, our stocking stuffers scattered before us, yelling for Dana to get up, which meant waiting for her to shower, get dressed, brush her teeth, put hot rollers in her hair, write in her journal, wash the cat, paint her bedroom, and anything else she could think of to delay the festivities. Once she was up, we would begin to open presents. I'd usually get Legos or Batman action figures and plenty of books. Evan would get sports equipment and clothes. Dana got extravagant gifts that to this day my dad hasn't put together. Mom got rubberstamps, books, and jewelry. And dad got store credit. After years of seeing the gifts we picked out get returned, we began buying him giftcards, although sometimes he'd just tell us, "You bought me this for Christmas; give me $50." Good times.

After opening presents, we'd eat breakfast. Often mom would make the same quiche I made this year along with an amazing cherry bread. Then we'd rush to clean up before the rest of the family arrived. Chris and his family would inevitably arrive first and stay latest, presumably so that Chris could win all of my Christmas candy in poker. Then Grandma and Grandpa would arrive to talk constantly and not at all, respectively. We could hear youngest cousin coming a mile away, already warning us what would happen if we threw our wrapping paper at her. When everyone arrived, dad would pray like Doc Boy in "Garfield's Christmas," and then we'd feast upon meatballs and ham sandwiches and various vegetarian side dishes.

When we had all stuffed ourselves silly, though with enough room to keep munching on cookies, Chex-mix, and chocolate-covered pretzels, we'd open presents. The best part was throwing wrapping paper at each other, occasionally "missing" and hitting our youngest cousin, who bore it with a stoicism that inspired one and all. Then we'd retire to different parts of the house to watch Christmas movies, play games, and chat, all while continuing to eat. I don't ever remember going to bed on Christmas night; eventually, I suppose, we collapsed from exhaustion or fell into sugar comas.

This year, I made breakfast and then watched A Christmas Story on TV while opening my stocking (same house rules here; you can open your stocking any time, but you had to wait for everyone else before presents). Christine's mom was up, but the rest of the family makes Dana look like Speedy Gonzales. Around 10, we ate breakfast and then began to open presents. Mum handed me a huge package. I waited to see what other people had received, a tradition of my family that Christine cannot abide, and after being prompted, tore open my enormous gift. It was the Premier Edition 70th Anniversary Monopoly. I had seen it in a Sam's Club ad a couple of months ago and asked for it, but it exceeded my highest expectations. It was huge! I opened to box with some help from Christine's brother. The pieces are about twice the size of those in my Deluxe Edition, and while they are all the classic pieces, they're fancied up art-deco style. The houses and hotels are metal, the hotels gold-colored in twelve different styles, and the houses silver in four variaties. All the pieces fit into the wooden pedestal board, and it comes with a certificate of authenticity signed by Mr. Monopoly himself. It's amazing. Christine and I played today, and I won, which seemed appropriate, but is rare for our two-person games.

I also received some amazing recipe software. It comes with several cookbooks and a feature to create my own, and so long as it recognizes my ingredients, I can give me nutritional information per serving and can scale any recipe to the amount of servings I need. Christine and I ended up with the remaining seasons of "Friends" we needed, and a plethora of gift cards. Some family friends bought me a nutcracker, which I've collected since I was 10. Christine is afraid of them, though, so I display them at my mom's house. I'll be bringing this one with me when we go up to Michigan later this week.

Christine's aunt, uncle, and cousins came over in the afternoon, and we feasted on ham, sweet potatoes, cheesecake, and, to my chagrin, very few cookies. At night, we watched the Veggie Tales movie, "The Lord of the Beans." It's hilarious. I love the parody of Tom Bombadil, the most annoying character in Western literature. Then we collapsed out of exhaustion.

This week we will celebrate with my family and attend a number of parties with friends in Grand Rapids.

Happy Holidays!
(Only because it's after Christmas, and I want to wish you a Happy New Year as well. Don't go all Bill O'Reilley on me.)

The Game

Passing Go

"The Dog"

Gold-colored money holder

Aged title cards

The laziest dog in the world

Christmas Cookies

I've been doing a lot of baking this week. Today Christine finished Christmas shopping while I baked cookies. I baked for hours. It was so much fun.

I made these great chocolate chip cookies. I throw in a handful of walnuts, because I like the texture. Even cooked until crispy, these cookies have a cake-like consistency.

I also made pecan puffs. I made some yesterday (many of which burned), but today was more successful.

Christine likes haystacks, so I made several of those. They're just melted chocolate chips and chow-mein noodles. Easy, but good.

In the background all day, I played my "Arrested Development" DVDs. It's such a great show. I can't pick a favorite character. If I had to, I would probably say Buster, but G.O.B., Tobias, and George Sr. are great, and I love George Michael. I'm also adding Maeby to my list of TV crushes. She still trails Topanga and Punky Brewster, but she may have passed Donna from "That 70s Show."

Tomorrow I'm making kolackis (KLOT-chkees) and beef stew for dinner.

Waiting

My updates over the last several months have been few and far between, as many of my readers have pointed out. The reason is that I never feel I have anything to write about. because since July, I've been waiting. Every four weeks or so, I'd go to the doctor, he'd tell me nothing has changed, and I would wait until the next appointment, when he would tell me the same thing. I'm still waiting. My next appointment is Friday, January 13, when I will receive either great news or devastating news, either my leg is healing, or I need another surgery (if the pain is any indication at this point, I fear it will be the latter).

Waiting takes on a peculiar significance during advent, a significance that tends to be lost in the American consumerization of Christmas, because Christmas seems to arrive the day after Halloween. But once advent was a time for fasting, which was observed as strictly as Lent. Advent was not a time of celebration, but for penitence. The celebration came with the arrival of Christmas.

When I was a kid, my dad would always say that the anticipation was what made Christmas exciting, and while at the time I didn't believe him (I was excited to open presents NOW!), I learned that he was right. Counting the days till Christmas on a construction paper chain or gumdrops on a string of dental floss or a stuffed mouse on a pocket calendar doubled the excitement every day as we saw Christmas coming closer.

My mom used to read to us from a book called When All the World Was Waiting, an advent book that traced the prophecies about the coming Messiah from Genesis up until the coming of the Magi. It helped us to see that while waiting four weeks for Christmas might seem like a long time to us, the world had been waiting for the coming of Jesus for thousands of years, and as excited as we were on Christmas day, the world was that much more excited when Christ finally arrived.

I don't have a great conclusion to wrap this up. I've just been thinking about the nature of waiting, especially since this Sunday when I attended an Anglican church and heard for the first time that advent is supposed to be a time of fasting and preparation. Now is not the time for celebrating, but that day will come. Someday I'll be able to walk and work and get on with my life, and that will be a time for celebration and something to write about.

My Wife

Christine has a new blog. Check it out.

I'm glad I'm not a horse

Today I had a follow-up on my CT scan from Friday. Apparently I have so much hardware in my leg that it distorted the image, and the scans were pretty much useless. I had yet another x-ray, and the doctor said the tibia is still not visibly healing. He told me to start putting as much weight as I can on it, and one of two things will happen: either it's healing and will continue to heal, or it's not healing and I'll break the hardware and need further surgery. But if it's not healing, I'll need surgery anyway. So, I can put weight on my leg with the boot still on, but I guess I won't really be walking by Christmas.

My next appointment is Friday, January 13. Wish me luck.

Happy Birthday to Me!

Today is my 25th birthday. I am half-way to fifty. A quarter century old.

Aside from feeling ancient, it was a great birthday. I woke Christine up at 8:30 so I could open presents. Her parents got me season 1 of "Desperate Housewives." Yay. Christine got me Son of a Witch, the sequel to Gregory Maguire's Wicked, and a box set of a children's fantasy series of books about bats. It looks really cool.

We watched the DH pilot and then went to breakfast at Richard Walker's pancake house. We had omelets and pancakes and delicious coffee. After breakfast we went to Barnes & Noble where I looked at games (they have Batman Monopoly!) and read some of Alan Moore's graphic novel Watchmen. My parents got me Moore's V for Vendetta, and it was amazing. Now I want to read all of his stuff.

On a less thrilling note, my driver's license expired today, and I found out last week that my social security card was misplaced in the move. So I applied for a replacement card, and in two weeks I'll get to take a road test to get a new license. Wee.

I spent the afternoon reading Son of a Witch before making tamales and red beans & rice for dinner. Now I'm watching three hours of "America's Funniest Home Videos." A happy birthday indeed.

Holiday Top Five

Movies/Specials

5. It's a Wonderful Life I was in the stage version of this movie twice, once as Uncle Billy and then as Ernie because the director's son's friend wanted to play Uncle Billy. The director later admitted she made a mistake. Both parts were a lot of fun.
4. A Christmas Story I first saw this movie on a winter school day when it was too cold to go outside for recess. I remember that everyone in my grade had to miss the middle to go to music class. I have since seen the film in its entirety every year.
3. "The Snowman" This animated special features a brief narration from David Bowie and then has no dialog, only amazing instrumental and vocal music. It's so good, it even held my attention as a child. Keep the hankies nearby.
2. "A Garfield Christmas Special" The Christmas is here song always gives me that warm holiday feeling.
1. Scrooge starring Albert Finney with Alec Guinness as Jacob Marley. The ghost of Christmas yet to Come scared me to death when I was little. It's probably a good thing that the tapes-off-TV version we had cut out the scene in hell.

Bonus - "A Claymation Christmas" This was on our VHS with Garfield, and several years ago, it mysteriously disappeared. I've since gotten the Garfield special on DVD, but not this one yet. The California Raisins appear, but the camels who sing the chorus of "We Three Kings" steal the show.

Music

5. Manheim Steamroller and Trans Siberian Orchestra. I lump these two together because they're essentially the same, and I like them equally. Manheim introduced me to "Pat-A-Pat," which I now love, and TSO plays my favorite version of "Carol of the Bells" since the face pounding, anthropomorphic bell of "A Claymation Christmas" (see abovce).
4. Handel's "Messiah" I'm listening to it now. I've only recently grown to appreciate Classical music, and this was a big step in getting me there.
3. Amy Grant's "Christmas Album" This one is pure nostalgia. I'm not generally a big Amy Grant fan, but I still long for a tender Tennessee Christmas. I can't imagine it's much different that the Michigan/Illinois Christmases I've grown up with, but Amy tells it well.
2. Bing Crosby was my mom's favorite Christmas singer, so his songs always remind me of childhood Christmases. My dad hated "Christmas in Kilarney," but we blasted it anyway. This year I fell in love with his duet of "Peace on Earth/The Little Drummer Boy" with David Bowie, although when my wife first heard it, she said, "Why the hell are Bing Crosby and David Bowie singing together?" I suspect that this Christmas she may be visited by three spirits.
1. "John Denver and the Muppets: A Christmas Together" This has been a family favorite since I was very young, and I believe that my extended family combined has owned about 100 copies because it's the unluckiest album ever. We had in on tape, and it got ruined. My cousin loved it as well, and he blames his younger sister for ruining theirs. We eventually bought a new copy, but it disappeared. A few years ago, I found it on a holiday rack and listened to it every day until, yes, I lost it. The following year I was at Sam's Club when I saw it in a case with two "Baby's First Christmas" CDs; I bought it anyway. This year, when I got out my Christmas CDs, I opened the case to pop it in, only to find it empty. Sigh. The album has subversively New Age lyrics, but it's still great.

Food

5. Sweet potatoes. I never enjoyed them until I had my mother-in-law's. I think the marshmallows always freaked me out. But mom makes them with just butter and brown sugar. After a dash of salt, they're amazing.
4. Pumpkin pie. My Aunt Carol makes a mean pie (she is, after all, responsible for Pie Night). Slathered in whipped cream (the pie, not my aunt), this says happy holidays to me.
3. Stuffing/Dressing. Any kind and with anything. My grandma used to make it with sausage, and Christine's mom makes a simple version with just bread, onions, celery, broth, and poultry seasoning. I even like Stove Top.
2. Turkey and Ham. These are tied because one is for Christmas and one for Thanksgiving, but both equally embody the holiday meal for me.
1. Quiche. My mom often made quiche for Christmas morning, and now I'm carrying on the tradition here. Christine insists that it's not truly quiche because it doesn't have a crust, but my mom says that the lack of crust is what makes it Lorraine. They're both wrong, but it's still delicious.

Please share your lists and suggest further categories.

Finally some news about my leg

I just got back from my doctor's appointment this morning, and finally he had some news for me. My fibula appears to be completely healed, and he sees bridging in the tibia. He prescribed a CT scan, and I'll be working with my case nurse to schedule that appointment. If the CT scan reveals that the tibia is in fact bridging, I'll meet with my doctor again and may be given the go-ahead to start walking. I may be able to walk on my birthday!

Thanks for all your prayers.

Today should be my birthday

December 1, 1980 was my due date. I didn't arrive on time. Apparently I was comfortable and decided to wait twelve days to come out. Every December 1 since then, my mom has wished me a happy it-should-be-your-birthday, and although this is the farthest away we've ever been on December 1, thanks to the miracle of technology, she can still remind me of the only time I was ever late for anything (until, of course, I got married).

Tomorrow I have another doctor's appointment. This year for my birthday, I want to walk.

I am currently sitting before a roaring fire, listening to Christmas music, and reading Calvin and Hobbes. I guess life's pretty good.