Holiday Highlights

Ooooh, where to start? Maybe the best way to convey my holiday thus far would be in the ever-loved bullet form.

• Had a hangover Friday morning (2 glasses of wine..WTF?!) so I threw up, went in late and then left early to start the holiday drinking with Ray's work crowd at 3:30.
• Rum and coked at Prime 707, rum and coked at The Cottage, rum and coked at Suite 225. The first two were with the whole gang, the last with just Di and Steve before we went out to dinner at the new Italian place on Manalapan...where we polished off the Opus One they bought for us. I had a plate filled to the edges with steak, mushrooms and bleu cheese. I was overwhelmed and had to make myself stop lest I chuck for the second time that day. We laughed our asses off in a sea of grey (we saw the Early Bird crowd come and go and we basically closed the place. Maybe it was all the drunken f-bombs we were dropping...it was awesome. ps - I didn't have a hangover the next morning - go figure.
• Saturday morning was anomalous - Ray popped out of bed ready to tackle the day and I stayed tucked under the covers reading A Tree Grows in Brooklyn. He kept asking me why I wasn't up and doing shit at 6:45, like I usually (annoyingly) do on the weekend. I said, "'Cause I don't have shit to do...you do!" He was making lasagna for our dinner with Captain Ron and the 'Rents. Then it was,"Can you get up and help me? You have to cook the sausage, I always burn it." The sheer threat of having the house smell like smoke and burned meat for the dinner party kicked my ass out of bed. Sleep-in over.
• The dinner was really fun. Haven't seen Ron in a while and he looked great - had lost 30 pounds and was looking for 20 more. We laughed and drank a great wine, Silver Oak, that Ron had brought. He must've been psychic that day as it was the same wine we had bought to start the evening out. Ray's lasagna really is outstanding and we all had seconds of it , as well as Mom's Caesar Salad. Ron may need to tack on another 5 to the 20 he wants to lose - nobody left that room lighter than they came in!
• Sunday was a lazy morning, but we did get out of bed earlyish. We both needed to do some very last minute Christmas shopping. I thought I was going to have to break out my machete for the predicted mayhem at Best Buy, but it turned out to be fairly quiet and a pretty pleasant experience. Went home and wrapped gifts and got ready for Ballet Florida's Nutcracker. Kiefer's first time. Thought the experience could have gone one of two ways...either he loved it or hated it. Turns out there was a third way. After we had lunch at the fountains with E and Tricia, we headed off to the theatre. Kiefer proceeded to be fascinated by Act I. Between enjoying the music and straining to see every little thing happening on stage, he was asking questions like, "Who is she?" when Uncle Drosselmeyer appeared. "Why is he dancing like a girl?" when Fritz started out. He thought differently of the Tin Soldier and the Nutcracker Prince as he was battling the Mouse King. Then all love was lost in Act II. He was more interested in the gummy bears in his Mom's purse than he was in the "candies" that were dancing for him on stage. The phrase of the hour was, "No, Mom, I want to go home. Right. Now."
• Cassady was sick, and the family Christmas Eve Seafood Rip 'n Tear get-together was split into two factions so that Ryder wouldn't catch it. We did Lex and Jen's from 4 to 7 (great hollandaise Mom) and then went to Sash and E's from 7:30 to 10:00 (Ray's second pan of lasagna made an appearance there). Grandpa Santa made an appearance for Coleen, but he was too hot to do it again at Kiefer's - he didn't mind, his focus was on the presents. Orielle was the wine winner of the night. Good stuff, never had it before.
• Today is Monday - Merry Christmas! Ray and I have had a lovely morning (besides his back being out). I brought up a tray with our stockings, tea, cherries, clementines and cookies. Well, if you can't have cookies for breakfast on Christmas day, when can you? We opened our stocking stuffers and then ventured downstairs. We turned on the Christmas music channel and started the party. I gave Ray a boxing timer, a shirt and the Firefly series box set. He gave me every kind of Cosabella underwear known to god and man, a watercolour set and paper, brushes and a brush carrier. For both of us he bought another docking station (small and very portable) for my iPod. Now we can workout to music without having to boot up the computer.

Mom and Dad are coming over tonight for a fondue. Emmenthaler and Gruyere with French bread and Granny Smiths, vegetable broth for the filet, chicken and shrimp, finishing with semi-sweet chocolate and sherry and assorted fruit with poundcake. The wine? Girard, Provenance or Silver Oak...or all three. What?! It's a long meal!