December 25, 2008 - Thursday

Rainy, snowy, with thunder and lightning.

Today was...a good day! Yay. It all started when I went to bed at 4:30 am. (Yes you read that right....4:30 am.) Just before I went to bed I heard the newspaper delivery guy drop something in our box. I checked it out and found a newspaper in English. A ha! That was what Fumihiko meant when he said that he didn't know if Santa would deliver my gift on time. Cool!

I went to bed, thanked hubby, who was slightly awake now, and then went to sleep. When I got up it was 9:30 and I watched the news. I did my regular morning stuff but added in a lot of net-surfing for recipes. I know it sounds crazy but I needed a recipe for mashed potatoes. I'd only ever made them from a box before!

During the day I did a bit of food prep. I peeled and quartered potatoes, made a salad dressing, washed the tomatoes, cut up the first chicken and put the carcass in the freezer. I also put the other things I'd need out where I could get them quickly. I re-watched The Holiday, which was on WOWOW today. I really liked it, but still didn't see Kate Winslett and Jack Black as a couple. Kate Winslett and Eli Wallach....no problem!

Fumihiko called me around 3 to say that he was on his way back to Shonai and would be able to pick up the chicken after work. Whew. The weather was so bad today that I didn't really want to have to make the trip by bicycle.

When Fumihiko came home, I made coffee, put on some Christmas tunes, and then we opened presents. Fumihiko was a little overwhelmed by the presents he got from my family! He got a lot of small ones from me too, so he had a lot of opening to do. He got ear muffs, gloves, a compass/altimeter/barometer thingy, a shirt, undies, chocolate, and a few packets of ramen. I got 2 DVDs; August Rush and Get Smart's Bruce and Lloyd out of control, a shirt, some hand cream and 2 pairs of pyjamas. We both got toothbrushes from my sister's family (the battery kind) and some Kraft Dinner. I think that was for me! I had some when I was over in September, but it wasn't the kind I remembered, so my sister sent me the regular kind. Yay. I'm really tickled pink with the August Rush dvd as I didn't even know it was out yet, and hadn't requested it! Ditto the newspaper. I've really missed not reading the paper at work, so it's really nice to be able to have it again. It's mine for 6 months, and then we'll see how it goes.

After presents, it was cooking time. I started the potatoes, thought about starting the gravy, but decided to delegate it to Fumihiko, made up the Yorkshire pudding mix, preheated the oven and the muffin pan, and basically turned into Chef Stella! (Okay, no chef uses mixes, I know.) While the Yorkshire pudding was baking I did the potatoes. Somehow, everything came together at almost the right time, and we had a very nice meal. Hubby had never had Yorkshire pud before, and it's been years for me. It wasn't bad. The gravy was good, and while I sort of missed my Greek Salad of previous years, tonight's salad was good and not much fuss, so it was fine. We were stuffed after dinner. No room for dessert. Oh no!

I volunteered to wash up (it wasn't too bad as I'd been cleaning up after myself during the day) if Fumihiko worked on his nengajo. He said he was done, but just as I was nearly finished, found more people that he had to send to. I printed 3 more cards for him, he wrote them up.

Then, we ran out to the main post office to mail our nengajo. I volunteered to be the person who put them in the box. Luckily they marked one side in English for New Year Cards! Done.

We went by the grocery store to get something bubbly for tonight and it was terribly sad. Inside the store the manager was undecorating their tree. Sigh. Too soon. I told hubby I'm leaving mine up :-) for a bit anyway. We got some bagels too. A chicken bagel sounds good for lunch tomorrow doesn't it?

We had a quiet evening tonight. We each had a glass of wine and ate our Christmas Pudding. Yum. It's so good, but it's so rich. Probably a good thing I only eat it once a year!

That's it. It was quite a nice Christmas all in all.

Anyway, I'm off to bed. I'd like to get there before 3 am today if I can! Night.

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