Saturday, December 26, 2020

Christmas 2020

A cold front rolled into the area on Christmas Eve. After raining all day, it suddenly got windy with great big gusts rattling the house, and then the temperature started to drop. That night it got to just below freezing, with a stiff wind that would chill you to the bone. Yesterday the high temperature never got much above freezing, and our low last night was 22 degrees (-5.55 Celsius)! That's pretty intense for South Carolina! I've been afraid for the little fig tree I planted out in September so I covered it with plastic garbage bags yesterday afternoon. It's far too young and tender for such low temperatures.

I've enjoyed my low stress holiday although I do miss our family and friends. Gregg's sister Karen and niece Melissa arranged a Zoom meeting for the family yesterday, but since our desktop computer doesn't have a camera, it was just too hard for us to manage with a cell phone. We were content enough with phone calls and texts, and hopefully by next Christmas we can see them all again. On Christmas Eve my friend Marla did a front porch drop and left a package for us: homemade ornaments made by her and two year old Carsen. I miss seeing that little girl! A year is a long time to lose when a baby is that young. I hope by next Christmas we can safely have her (and her lovely mom and dad) over, too.

Yesterday morning we bundled up warmly (even George had on winter wear!) and went over to the park for a good walk. Afterwards we watched old movies and stuffed our face. I'd made way too much food, as usual.

Christmas day at the park:



Here's some of the food:




 


This wasn't all, there were also dates stuffed with toasted pecans and wrapped in bacon (Devils on Horseback), Watergate salad (terrible name, but it's delicious), fresh pineapple, and King's Hawaiian rolls to make ham sandwiches with. One thing we didn't have much of was sweets. Yes, I made cookies, but the recipe was for "tea cakes" which are very mildly sweet. The red sugar I sprinkled on top rolled right off so they looked kind of plain, too. I made extra of the cookies and the Chex mix so I could share with our nice neighbors. I'm actually relieved not to have tons of sweets left over this year.

George and Marco would like to announce that they both got new toys from Santa!








They both loved having something new to play with. In fact, George loved his new rope toy so much he's almost chewed through it on one side! Oh well. 

So that's been it. The only other thing of note that happened is that Gregg's cell phone started acting weird and then it died. I spent two hours this morning after he went to work trying to deal with that and get a replacement. First I went to the Verizon store, but they're only seeing customers by appointment and since it's the day after Christmas they were booked solid. So I came home and called a customer service number (or three) and finally got a claim in on it and a new one is on the way, set to arrive on Monday. Despite having a "protection plan", since the phone is unrepairable and over a year old I had to pay a $199 fee for a new one. Ouch! I should be used to it, that's just how things go around here when the holidays roll around. On a related note, we're still enjoying the new dryer we had to fork over for at the beginning of this month. Merry Christmas to us, I guess! :)

I hope you've all had a nice holiday. It's definitely been a weird one, hasn't it? 

23 comments:

  1. George and Marco are the cutest I have seen all season. I LOVE them both! Your weather WOW, sounds like climate change is hitting you hard, that is COLD!!! Glad your Christmas was so sweet, the food looks amazing! may 2021 bring all of us a much better year! Stay well and safe- love!

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  2. It's very cold here in North Florida, too. Those are great gifts for George and Marco. Stay warm and safe!

    Love,
    Janie

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  3. freezing up here too; we went nowhere yesterday and today. LOVE the santa paws/claws toys the kids received! and such a good looking food table!

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  4. George and Marco look so happy, glad you had a good Christmas.

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  5. I love stuffed dates! The food looks devilishly delicious. And the day was awfully quiet, but nice. Oh, and it's very cold up here as well, though we're sort of used to it up here.

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  6. Your animal roomies look very pleased with their day, yesterday.
    That temperature is way too cold for South Carolina! Let us know if your save worked for the ficus.

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  7. You had a lovely Christmas as much as anyone could.
    Love dates I stuff them with a lightly sweeten beaten cream cheese and roll them in sugar.
    As always your food looks wonderful

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  8. All that delicious looking food; oh my goodness! And I thought we had a lot! Cold here too, but not enough to stop us doing things. I'm quite pleased to have Christmas behind us, but we now have my wife's birthday and New Year to come. It doesn't stop until the 6th Jan.

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  9. That is a cold snap for you, isn't it! I am realizing I'm going to have to deal with a cell phone company soon, as my phone just won't hold a charge for very long anymore. I am filled with dread. Hope your little fig tree is o.k. -Jenn

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  10. The food looks so beautiful and probably very tasty. Here easterly winds blow and when the morning temperature reaches 10 degrees Celsius, for me it is really very cold.

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  11. It sounds like you all had a wonderful Christmas! We always get gifts for our cats and they get excited just like children. Your food looks delicious and much of it looks familiar! I like to make Chex mix at Christmas and we always have a cheese tray and fresh veggie tray too. Sorry about Gregg's phone. Don't things like that always happen on holidays!

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  12. These are unusually low temps for your area, I guess. Hopefully your young fig tree survives.
    Fun pictures of the happy pets with their new toys, and very yummy food!

    Christmas was not much different for me than in other years; the main difference was that we did not go to church because OK and the village band were not playing, plus of course I had my first own tree! Some cards and parcels have not arrived (yet), but I will be equally happy about them after the holidays.
    Keep watm & safe!

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  13. That's a bummer about the dying cell phone. I always worry a little at Christmas that some appliance or other will break down and we'll be stuck until the tradespeople all re-emerge after the Christmas break.

    That's certainly plenty of food. And watching old movies is one of the delights of Christmas. I wouldn't like those temperatures though - we're a few degrees above freezing, which is quite cold enough!

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  14. "I've enjoyed my low stress holiday although I do miss our family and friends". I suspect that sums it up for many of us.

    Loads of great grub there. Did I spot julienne carrots? I made a load and lightly boiled them for Christmas dinner. At the end, there wasn't a carrot strip to be seen anywhere. I said: "so you liked my carrots then? " She said:"what carrots? " I'd left them in the pan.

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  15. George and March (and Gregg) all look so happy with their new toys. And what a feast. A nice simple holiday dinner for two. Stay warm. I'm warmer already just looking at your pictures.

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  16. I just love how proud Marco looks with his new toy treasure.
    It may be cold outside but it sure looks welcoming and warm and cozy and lovely in your house. I hope you guys are having a nice, relaxing morning.

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  17. Sounds like a wonderful Christmas! The food looks fabulous!

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  18. I love that shot of George with his new toy! We had a nice holiday too.

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  19. George and Marco look so happy with their presents! I'd never heard of "Devils on Horseback" but Dave knows them and says they're fantastic. I'm guessing Watergate salad is so named because it came from the Watergate Hotel? (Kind of like a Waldorf salad...?) I think your fig tree should be fine. My grandmother had one in Maryland and it survived from year to year and produced lots of fruit in the summer.

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  20. I expect that Marco will peck that crap out of that plastic duck. He is such a sweet parrot. Thanks for giving us a glimpse of your happy Christmastime.

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  21. This all looks so lovely, particularly the pooches.

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  22. Well...you certainly didn't go hungry ! I had to look up " chex mex"...it's not a thing here. I have given up buying my schnauzer a toy for Christmas as he doesn't bother with them any more. He got some dog chew carrot and sprout shapes!

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