Christmas

My work is generous and gives us 2 days off for Christmas, so mine started Wednesday night. We celebrated in the usual fashion, as Todd Wright hosted his annual Santa Clausterf*@k with a lot of area musicians. Since they don’t really rehearse, there were some trainwrecks, but overall a good show (and check out the TVs on stage, new this year).

stage

Thursday I had reserved for shopping. I started off driving down the toll road towards Tysons Corner. My sister wanted an L.L. Bean gift certificate, but looking at the traffic on Route 7, I headed west instead of east (I got her an email one instead). I did need to stop at Wolf Trap to pick up some tickets for Dad, then it was off to Manassas. In addition to picking up some books for Jill, I needed to get my car checked out as the check engine light. It only needed a firmware upgrade, but I had to wait a while for that. Next stop was Fair Lakes, and by the time I finished there, I was done (both physically and mentally).

Friday both Jill and I were off, but busy. I had a bunch of bookcases to fill, and she had some baking to do. Our friends Melanie and Scott were hosting a Christmas Eve party so we joined them for a while. Saturday was Christmas and we both slept in, then cleaned up. I baked a ham and made two sauces (pineapple and mustard), Jill made potatoes au gratin and my mom, dad and sister were soon there to help us make a sizable dent in all the food. The gift giving went well, everyone got something they wanted, but soon everyone was on there way, and Jill knitted and I read in front of the fire.

Sunday we met our friend Patty for lunch at Pho 75 in Herndon. Jill was feeling under the weather and it hit the spot. I watched a Skins game that I actually enjoyed in the afternoon, then made a Hollandaise sauce and we had artichokes and Eggs Benedict for dinner. We finally had time to watch some TV together after dinner – the season finale of Burn Notice was good, and the Christmas episode of Doctor Who was brilliant (one shark open sleigh – LOL).