Laowai

We had a lovely relaxed Christmas and I feel grateful but… let's not do a 2020 style Christmas again. Here are some highlights.

I got an early Christmas present – we had our French doors repaired. Since we bought the house the original screen doors and storm doors have never fit because the door threshold was changed. So we finally hired a carpenter to fit them and to repair the hardware and to give them a coat of paint. They are so pretty and I can't wait to put the screen doors in this spring and let the fresh air in. 

We had a Lego Christmas Tree building contest. Bea was the judge. I won. Smug.

Brian and I went down to Chicago for an evening. We haven't been into the city at all since we moved this summer. We went for a walk and then got some take-away food at a brewery/smoked meat restaurant. The food was delicious (Brunswick stew for me) and it just felt nice to get out with my husband.

Here's the restaurant scene in the West Loop during the pandemic. Sad.

We got our first bit of cold weather and just a sprinkling of snow. We get pretty frost patterns on some of our old windows. I don't mind.

For Christmas Eve dinner we had fondue. 

There's Brian scraping off the brown bits at the end – it's his favorite part.

I like Christmas morning carnage. The more mess the more smiles.

For Christmas morning breakfast we had Sour Cream Coffee Cake with Chocolate Cinnamon Swirl. It's the most tender coffee cake recipe – but it makes a huge cake so I halve it. We've adopted a couple food traditions from Gramma C. She usually makes pork pie for Christmas Eve dinner and then we have leftovers for Christmas morning breakfast. Well I decided to make the pork pie just for breakfast, I love it with scrambled eggs. And we also had supremed oranges with dates, just like Gramma C. serves.