Small Celebration

We spent Christmas eve at my Aunt Steph and Uncle Mark's apartment in Waukesha with my Mom and cousins. It was a big gathering of people with plenty of food and laughs. Tonight, we celebrated the holiday with my Dad and Sister, Greta, at our house. We played a dice game called Farkle and lit a fire in the fire place. My Dad and Greta cleaned up in Farkle even though they'd never played before. It was a very small family gathering, but nice. We've never had big holidays, even before my parents got divorced, but with just the four of us it feels very tiny. This is our fourth Christmas doing separate celebrations and it still feels strange sometimes. Eventually, I suppose that will change.

Our sup was vegetarian, of course. For hors d'oeuvres we snacked on homemade tapenade, herbed brie, raw Wisconsin gruyere, apples and a pomegranate. For dinner I made a leek and white bean cassoulet with biscuits baked on top and smokey collard greens on the side. For dessert we enjoyed a low-fat chocolate bundt cake and turtle candies my mom gifted us.

We finally hooked up our under-the-counter kitchen radio, so we listened to Christmas tunes during prep and meal time. I can say with certainty that 99.1 WMYX plays too much Transiberian Orchestra. But I did get to hear two nice versions of Oh Holy Night, my favorite Christmas carol.

Now the house is quiet, the dishes are all washed, Ry is asleep with Silvio on his lap and it's only five minutes until my 29th birthday.