"By the chimney with care . . . "

Its a quarter past eleven on Christmas Eve as I write this quick journal entry before I head to sleep to dream of sugar plum fairies, presents under the tree, and ortiz riding a unicycle down Mass. Ave while holding a pinwheel and blowing bubbles. Such dreams occur when you eat what we ate tonight! Lynne, George, Jon, Edna, and Ensign Walters came over this afternoon to dine with the us for our "traditional" Christmas Eve supper (this is our third Christmas in the house!). This year was a seafood theme, and I started everyone off with clam chowder--recipe courtesy of the Park Plaza Hotel in Boston. It was in a very cool, old cookbook my mom gave me called "Yankee Cooking." Its not as good as "Redsox cooking," but at least this way Belle can enjoy it too.
Here is our "around the table" shot. What a great picture . . .mostly because I'm not in it. This was before the main course of baked stuffed haddock. Cool angle, huh (thats what she . . .)? It looks like I'm hovering above everyone, but really I am just on the staircase. I waited in line for about 40 minutes at Joseph's this morning to get the haddock. When I was in high school, I cooked at two restaurants: Maplewood and Edumunds. Maplewood was awesome. Edmund's needed to crumble into the sewer. But the one thing I took away from Edmund's (besides a strong dislike for Edmund himself) was a terrific recipe for our main course. The picture makes it looked "burnt," but it was not. Some of the secret ingredients included ranch dressing and cream sherry. Oops. I guess the secret is out . . . This is about half of what I cooked
Jon also made green bean casserole and Lynne and George made Ant June's special macaroni and cheese . A great, laid back Christmas Eve supper. Below, Thomas is waiting to be served his piece of fish . . .he has such virtuous patience
After dinner, Jonathan took his traditional after dinner nap on the couch while we cleaned up. Then we viewed "A Christmas Story," which is one of my favorite movies of all time. I know there is some cable station that shows it ad nauseum, but we barely have cable, and last year Sally bought it for me on DVD . . .so I watch it once a year. Jonathan, Lynne, and George have never seen it (until tonight). A heartwarming and funny movie! What a cruel joke mother nature played on us: we had hordes of snow (just like in the movie) leading up until yesterday . . .when all of the sudden it gets to be 70 degrees out, it rains, and half the snow melts. Now it looks like used wet newspapers rolled up on everyone's lawn. Wicked ugly. But I digress. Thomas took a nap with his uncle while everyone watched the movie. I guess all the butter and sherry in the fish really got Thomas wasted, and he crashed . . . Merry Christmas everyone. And I mean that.