blog and bling

I just woke up (4 hours ago) from a 17 hour nap. I hadn't intended to sleep that long when I put down my book yesterday evening to close my eyes for a few minutes. But, here we are. (FYI: during my dream I watched about 10 years of a soap opera entitled Market Days. Escape -- the Pina Colada song that goes, "If you like Pina Coladas and getting caught in the rain, if you're not into yoga, if you have half a brain, if you'd like making love at midnight in the dunes on the Cape: then I'm the love that you've looked for. Write to me and escape.-- served as a theme song for each episode which focused on the life and times of grocery story employees and the people they serve. It was really quite amusing).
Christmas went well this year. We managed to clean the first floor of my parents house, install and decorate the tree and entertain my father's mother, brothers and sister-in-law as well as enjoy the holiday ourselves. 2 pots of soup, 6 post-Christmas Day church service noshes, countless mimosas, numerous glasses of wine, and one caramelized sugar hand burn later, I am proud to say that my domesitc-goddess training is going very well (if I do say so myself). Highlights follow:
1) My sister, who "hates" the holidays, asked to make a Christmas cake. I have termed it "Grinch cake" because it featured purple icing and multi-colored birthday sprinkles and was the anti-thesis of Christmassy. However, it was tasty and I hope she'll make it next year (mostly cause it was good and knocked something off my 4 page to-do list).
2) When I had finished all I could with the front parlor (my mother's lair in our family home where our Christmas tree sits annually) I asked for her help. She proceeded to dust the bookshelf, and ask why I hadn't. Mind you, there were 40+ books and personal papers on the floor covering much needed chair and walking space-- things that I have no idea what to do with as I don't really live at home anymore. Finishing the bookshelf, she looked over the books at me and asked what she could do next **My mother is a dearly beloved reader of this blog.... but she can be hilarious when it comes to housekeeping**
3) As my mother enter the parlor where I had finished decorating the tree I expected to hear oohs and aahs. Instead she called me in to ask if I had thrown out the half-inch long resin corn cobs she had set on one of the side tables (I had). She then explained that she had been saving them since they had broken off of her harvest candle holder so I could crazy glue it back together when I came home. "Mom, did you notice the tree." "Yes. It's decorated. But you threw out my corn husks!"
4) I made Ciopinno (a Portugeuse fish stew) as part of our Christmas Eve dinner this year--a one-pot seven fish dinner (although there are only 5 fish). It was even easier and tastier than I had expected. But, my mother was obsessed with the fact that it called for anchovies. I explained that they melted down at the begining of the cooking process and were not the scary canned fish of pizza fame. This became an important part of the stew's explaination to my mother's parishoners and friends. "Katharine's making/going to make a Ciopinno. It calls for anchovies, which I don't like, but she swears I won't even know they're there." "Did the anchovies melt?" "The stew was great... even with anchovies!"
5) On Christmas Eve, my father introduced me to the parish where he was leading service. "My daughter Katharine is here. She's been to church with me almost every Christmas Eve since she was born." It was very sweet, but then the entire congregation turned to where he had pointed and said, "Hi, Katharine!" in unison. It was a bit like being at a late night 12 step meeting. "Hi. My name is Katharine. And I'm a PK squared." ** That's preacher's kid squared for those unfamiliar with the jargon of the family business**
6) In a moment of tactfulness genius I welcomed my uncle, aunt and grandmother into our home while subtly encouraged them to leave until they were expected. "Hello! Merry Christmas! It is wonderful to see you! What are your plans for the day? Well, that certainly sounds like fun. We're finishing up things here, but you are very welcome to come to dinner tonight at 6:30. I making that soup you loved last year. I don't want to hold you up because that party sounds wonderful. Have a great afternoon. See you soon!" Everyone left smiling, there were no jilted exchanges or hurt feelings and I bought myself an extra 5 hours. Awesome!
7) My sister decided it'd be fun to sing the descant to "O Come, Let us Adore Him" during service Christmas morning. Although she wimped out during the 3rd verse, we both made a 6th verse attempt and made it through without making fools of ourselves. After church my brother and I had the following conversation.
Dave: It's not fair. You got the cooking gene, and the singing gene and all the good genes.
Me: You're a musician and you got the skinny gene. So that's nice.
Dave: My doctor thinks that might be a disease!
7) During Christmas dinner (and my second glass of wine-- after all, my obligations had been fulfilled) I tuned into the conversation to catch the following: "I have to say, that if I hear the words blog or bling in a conversation I immediately shut down and have no interest in continuing to speak to that person." As I bit my tongue (literally) I wondered 1) who had said either of those words? How could you possibly work those into a conversation around a Christmas table where the average age was 47? and 2) please, please, don't let my mother bring up my blog! She didn't.

Merry Christmas to all! And to all a good afternoon!