Christmas 2019

Merry Christmas to each and everyone of you.  It is such a wonderful celebration.

  Our day in AJ here started off wet.  It rained off and on, more on this morning and at times very hard with a river running down our street.

  We had to be at the hall for 8 AM this morning.  The kitchen staff didn't know how to light the conventional stove and oven, so I went to get that going.  Then they had to wash the turkeys, clean them up, season them and get them started.  I say turkeys because there were 5 of them.  The gals also chopped onions and celery for adding to the stuffing later in the day.  We also got the tables organized and coffee made plus a bunch of other chores.  

  Then it was back to our place until the turkeys were cooked. We had a couple of face time calls with our kids.  Marg worked on the dishes she was bringing to the dinner, pyrogies and .lazy cabbage rolls.   At  noon we went back to the hall and the turkeys were out and done.  They were too hot to carve, but the ladies used the time to make the stuffing or dressing and get some more things ready.  

  Then back to our place where we finally caught up with the Smiths on a facetime.  Marg finished the pyrogies and I took the patio heater from Christmas eve back to its owner and then helped the party organizers load their chairs and tables into their truck.  You may have forgot that party was not thrown by us, but held in our breezeway.

  Lots of running around today as we went back to the hall shortly after 2 when we carved the turkeys.  One of the ladies wanted to try carving the breasts the way I do it using an electric knife and she was a quick study, so it made the job easier.  The rest of the group all deal with the dark meat.  The guy who looks after our knives at the kitchen certainly keeps them sharp.  In fact I nicked my thumb and had to go to the first aid and band aid it.  Then I had to wear a plastic glove to prevent contamination with the meat.

See the bowl of shooters still available!

The ladies also made the gravy and messed with the stuffing.  The gravy is made in a large pot, I think there was about 4 1/2 gallons of it and tough stirring for the short people, right Marg.  We plugged in the coffee pots and one of them leaked, so we had to clean up the mess and then get another pot started.  While the ladies were working the sisters who organized the Christmas eve party declared they had made jello shooters for that party and forgot to bring them, so instead had them in the kitchen today.  They were either tequila or vodka in red jello. As it turns out there were about 75 shooters.  I tried one and that was enough for me, but the gals each had more than that.  It certainly made for a happy work crew.  The food was good and we received several compliments on how tasty it was and how quickly we got it out.  By the middle of the afternoon all of the clouds were gone and it was a beautiful sunny warm day.  Just like the heavens smiled down on us to help us celebrate.

  Supper was at  5 and there were 8 tables of 12, with a few empty chairs, so we fed lots of folks today.  One of the challenges we have is to ensure everyone receives a fair amount while trying to limit others who try to get enough to take home so they don't cause others to be short changed.  For the most part it works out, but there are always some glitches.  The group at our table was all the kitchen workers and the ladies had a good assortment and ample amounts of great dishes.  Our dessert table was also very good today.  Marg brought nanaimo bars, others brought pumpkin & apple pies.  The nanaimo bars were quite a hit as many people had never heard of them let alone eaten them and all found them delicious.

  All in all even though we are tired, a good day ending with a great dinner.  While we enjoyed the day, we both agreed that this will be our last Christmas away from family.