Not So Much Christmas Cheer Here this Year!

How was your Christmas? Was it Merry?

This year on Christmas morning I woke up to darkness and traveled to church on deserted streets to rehearse in the church choir that I have been a part of since September. We sang a lot of new and old carols in church, and as is the tradition, concluded with the Hallelujah Chorus, for which half the church joins the choir. It was finally nice to be out of the advent season and actually be able to celebrate the birth of Christ in full glory--no subdued songs or dull wardrobe choices--and no more candlelight until New Year's Eve. The title of the brief sermon was "Good Glory."

I'm not good at mornings, so this was a bit of a gift--not that I am so gifted, with my modest vocal talents--but to arise early to participate in something that is greater than anything I could do as a single vocalist required more effort than I am inclined to expend. I wore my old Christmas sweater (not too ugly) with that line on the front "Yuletide carols being sung bya choir."

The rest of the day was like a lazy Sunday, including a nap on the couch under my heated throw. It was bright and sunny out, but I resisted the impulse to pick up branches in the yard that had fallen with that recent violent wind storm. Thousands are without power in the area!

I did make the traditional chicken and broccoli casserole for the two of us. I didn't add a lot of buttery and crusty bread to the top and totally forgot to pick up a lemon for that squeeze of lemon juice, but it was still completely delicious. I steamed the fresh broccoli in generous chunks and then immediately assembled the casserole and popped it in the oven, so the broccoli was still green and sweet and maintained a bit of integrity. The other key to success was using a freshly cooked (last batch on Christmas Eve) Amish deli chicken with herb seasoning--so the chicken was already tasty without the sauce--and then, I topped it off with a generous amount of freshly grated cheddar cheese.

The husband gave the curried chicken divan casserole a rating of 8.7 out of 10 which is pretty high for a meal that does not contain mashed potatoes!

I thought of our girls--they all love this casserole. M. made it for Christmas Eve--even though I think it got to a crazy mid-seventies that day in NYC--before taking the train to Connecticut on Christmas morning. R. enjoyed paella and later crab legs on the grill for their very warm Christmas in Florida, heading to Palm Coast later on Christmas Day with her Bogota guests. E. hopefully enjoyed some good treats on her working holiday at the hospital, since everybody brings food to share.

On Christmas evening we watched a ridiculous spy movie on HBO On Demand and then I finished out the evening alone with a chick flick from 2006, The Holiday, with Jack Black, Jude Law, Cameron Diaz and Kate Winslet. This romantic film ended happily with everyone finding love by New Year's Eve.

This was a Christmas with no relatives, not even an evening of tree trimming with my Aunt V., who passed on to glory last February. No Christmas party in Chicago either, since we had all just been together to celebrate the home-going of the husband's mother, who passed on the eve of her 97th birthday.

And no Christmas Day "cheer," or even a beer--not a drop!

We played with our toys, though. We assembled our new fitbits and tried to figure out how to plug the wireless earphones into the television. I nibbled on my beer peanut brittle (I think the alcohol cooks out) which was delicious--except that the peanuts were not of optimum freshness.

Yes, I did well with gifts that matched my interests. I was gifted with beautiful black ceramic pots, for flowers next year on the new deck. And I got "The Complete Beer Course" book (boot camp for beer geeks) as well as beer soap!

Earlier in the week we assembled a new deck box which is big enough to use as my coffin (big deck=big deck box!) I won $20 from the husband for figuring out where  two holes were located, as described in the assembly instructions.

As I will soon close out my year of beer with one last brewery in town and one more entry in the sub-blog of beer, maybe I can learn more about all the crazy stuff we sampled this year! The book is easy on the eyes and written in an accessible and humorous style. I would have been able to describe our flights with much better beer jargon if I had browsed a book like this before starting on the year-long adventure!

So much to learn--in beer and life!!

 I consumed at least one gose beer this year (pronounced "goes-uh" I learned) which apparently has a long history in the sour and salty.

I was also reading about the real trappist monk beer that is mostly brewed in Belgium. At one point the author uses the words "a trap beer" which is just fun. There is only one abbey in the Netherlands on the list of eleven authentic monk-supervised abbeys which brew beer. It has a restaurant and shop and apparently some brewery tours are available. It has been put (mentally and now here) on my bucket list for retirement!

Christmas Cheer to all!