First of all, I have to say: “Happy Birthday, Lauren! Yay!” I love the mention of the prime number. I believe I shall steal that when I celebrate my own birthday.
Okay, on to our regularly scheduled program:
I was waiting for stupid payday so I could go Christmas shopping. Even though I’m not using my stupid oil heat yet, the stupid oil company delivered $300 worth of stupid oil, so I didn’t have any stupid money to buy stupid Christmas presents. But then I got paid!
I can’t show any of them because everybody looks at these pictures. But here is what they look like under a blanket…
I went to a neighborhood Christmas party last night. It was fun and intensely interesting. I met so many new people, I was constantly chanting their names in my head so they would stick in my brain. I’m afraid I can only remember a few this morning. I will know their faces though.
I was a little jealous because many of them lived right next to each other and were talking real friendly-like with each other as if they were at least aquaintances. My immediate next-door neighbors (who have been the focus of some of my investigations) have owned their house for four years or so but have never lived there. They keep saying that they’re fixing it up before they move in. Any neighbor farther away is only a little less than a stranger.
There is a church and parsonage (or manse, as the Presbyterians call it) across the street from me. I’ve talked with the pastor who lives there. He seemed friendly enough when we first talked, but now it seems like he and his wife won’t hardly even wave to me. I did tell him I was Lutheran. Do you suppose he had a bad experience with a Lutheran once? I think they’re trying to send me a message with their Christmas lights. The bushes in front of their house that I see every morning and every night make a big frowny face.
We’ve been doing Secret Santa at school. I have a lot of fun with this. Sneaking little gifts to someone else is fun. So is getting little gifts. My Secret Santa has been good this year. Whoever it is has left me candy and toys, just like I wrote on the suggestion sheet we all use each year. I think the “Elf Help” sheet is a great idea. It helps me know what to get for the person whose name I’ve drawn. It also has a question that says “Do not get me…” Hehehe. I like that. I wrote macadamia nuts and mugs… no mugs.
So yesterday morning I left my room briefly to go to the copy room and when I came back, my gift was on my chair. It was a mug. I was confused. Then after first period, I was down the hall again talking to another teacher. When I came back , there was another gift on the chalk tray of the blackboard. It was a mug. Then I got another mug a little later. Then two mugs during lunch. During last class a high schooler brought me a box that said: “Brad, here are the forms you requested. Sorry it took so long.” I opened it. It was a mug. When I was done for the day and walking to my truck, I noticed something sitting in the parking lot next to my driver’s side door: a small, wrapped gift. It was a mug.
HIL-ARIOUS! I was laughing all day long! I got pains in those spots behind my ears because I was laughing so hard. My Secret Santa was messing with me! HA! This morning, we reveal ourselves with a little bit larger of a gift. I can’t wait to see who it is. Genius!
UPDATE: My Secret Santa didn’t give me the mugs. At our party, Kim revealed herself as my Secret Santa, but the Mug Santa remains a mystery. Thanks for the great stuff, Kim! Candy and trivia and origami, oh my!
Last night was Advent service night. Before services, we have a soup supper. The church council was to make the soups this time, so I offered to bring one. I tried my hand at turkey noodle soup. It turned out okay, but I thought it needed more salt. I was afraid I was going to add too much, so I stopped. My big adventure was trying to add fresh rosemary. Rosemary plants are evergreen, so you can harvest from them even in the winter. One little interesting fact I stumbled across while searching for how to cook with rosemary was this: apparently, rosemary will only grow in the gardens of the righteous. I have TWO plants.
Anyway, the rosemary flavor kept disappearing, so I kept adding more. In the end, I felt the same way about the rosemary as I did the salt: I was afraid I would add too much. The resulting soup was pleasant, if a little bland.
The funny thing was that there was some kind of miscommunication about soups last night. Usually there are three or four pots of soup. Last night there were EIGHT! HA! I tried them all. Most of them I would have had a full bowl of. Ehhxcelent!
Instead of handbell practice last night, we had a Christmas gathering at my house. Not everybody came, but it was fun to show off my new kitchen. I wanted to make something that I could cook in the slow cooker. What I ended up making was Beef Burgundy. It’s not easy to find Burgundy wine. The local liquor store did have it, but it was in a gallon-sized jug. Whew! Anybody know any recipies that use one gallon (minus one cup) of Burgundy wine?
I worried through the day that the liquid would boil out of the cooker and the food would burn or my house would catch on fire. I am happy to say that neither of those things happened. Though there was a bit of overflow and there are crusties all around the edge of the cooking pot. It’s not going to be fun to clean that up.
