My dear friend John gave us season one of Veronica Mars on DVD.

miatuc gave us a nice bottle of wine (lots of nice wines were given at our party, but most were drunk right away. This one was safely stashed.)

We gave Mutti a giant book of New Yorker cartoons, a gift certificate to iTunes (since she's becoming such the pirate, we thought we should encourage a little bit of legality), some nice products from Bath and Body and also "Airplane!" on DVD (her favorite comedy, and featuring your very own blow-up co-pilot.)

We gave mom-in-law a gift certificate to Target (she just moved from a house to an apartment), some mysteries, some nice Bath and Body products, and some maple syrup that we brought back from Massachusetts.

Oh yeah - hubby's girlfriend* gave me a karaoke machine. So I'm thinking whyvette and supergoober should come over some time and we can watch John Cusack movies, and then sing 80's tunes until dawn.

My sister Jenny gave us beautiful ornaments for the tree. My oldest sister sent us a generous check, as she always does. And my Yurt Sister (LJ entry explanation is forthcoming) sent us homemade cookies, which my husband, having seen the conditions of the yurt and their friendly attitude toward dirt and bugs, have politely refused to touch.

Had a nice lunch today with our lovely former neighbors, a wonderful gay couple that mom-in-law has adopted as "her boys" (pretty sure they're the first gay people she ever met), and going to dinner tonight at the stately mansion ("brick ranch" my ass, with 7' doors and about 7 bedrooms) of a lovely lesbian couple that mom-in-law is on the verge of adopting as "her girls". Our circle of friends in Decatur has provided quite the diversity education for a woman who was the original Coal Miner's Daughter in Appalachian Kentucky with only an elementary school education. It's fun to see her becoming such a passionate advocate of gay rights, based on the fact that she now knows and loves some gay people. She has a non-nonsense approach when it comes to loyalty to people cares about. Hubby's best friend, aka "Super Jew", gives her the best arguments against anti-semitism - because she likes him and likes his family. Hubby inherited this loyalty (and discrimination was never a factor in his personality, unless you count his intolerance for stupid people), which is one of the many things I love about him.





* Not real girlfriend. We're not poly. But he likes to tease me that she's his girlfriend when I'm traveling. Luckily for him she A) is slightly scared of me, B) really likes me, and C) has recently fallen in love with a cool guy of whom I approve. So the teasing is mostly acceptable.

Wheeee presents! So here's how Xmas went:

Xmas eve we went over to my mother's house where we had a lovely dinner of roast salmon, spanish rice, and creamed spinach, followed by a homemade pumpkin roll. Fairly quiet and low-key - just Mutti, her boyfriend, hubby, me, and mom-in-law. We ate well, opened presents, and then did my favorite Xmas activity: we lit the candles clipped to the tree branches and turned off all the lights.

Please don't tell the fire marshall.

It's still a tradition in my mother's Austrian family to use real candles. Many years ago when I was visiting family in Innsbruck for Xmas, I was surprised to see my aunt light the candles and then go about her business for a few hours. Here in flammable America, we light them for maybe 20 minutes, at a special time, with a bucket of water sitting near by just in case. We also sing Christmas Carols, and despite my lack of Christian beliefs, I still really like the songs - many of them are just beautiful and peaceful. We always end with singing Silent Night first in English, and then in German. And really, the tree with just the scattered candle flames, is beautiful.

Xmas day I woke up at 9 AM so I could get my pork loin in the oven because we wanted it ready to eat about 1 PM, and it's 25 - 30 minutes per pound, and a four pound roast takes .... um.... oh. Not four hours? No? Oh. I realized this after it had been in the oven for 30 minutes or so, so turned off the oven and covered the roasting pan so it wouldn't get dried out, and turned it back on at 11:30 AM. Not so good with the math, sometimes. I blame my lingering cold. Anyhow, it smelled and tasted delicious - I rubbed it with olive oil, thyme, and rosemary. Should have used kosher salt, but just used regular salt. Also roasted a nice medly of veggies (red and green peppers, yellow squash, zuchini, Japanese eggplant, and shallots) and boiled the snap beans for just three minutes so they were nice and crisp. Tossed them with olive oil and lemon zest. There was a whole saga over finding a working meat thermometer (if anyone wants to get me a late present, that would be great), but the pork wound up perfect.

And presents! We got presents!

From hubby I got a Treo, the final season of Angel on DVD, the new Depeche Mode CD, new black leather gloves, the Daily Show's "America: A Citizen's Guide to Democracy Inaction" day-by-day calendar, a sudoku book, Buffy/Faith action figures to add to my "Girls Who Kick Ass" collection, and probably more things I can't think of right now.

I got him the new black 60 gig iPod. Oh, and a few more items (two Billy Joel CDs, the new DVD release of "Office Space" (with flair!), a stuffed Godzilla who roars and flashes his eyes when you squeeze him, and other stuff.)

Mutti got me a beautiful lacy shirt that I need to lose a few pounds to really wear, green leather gloves, a silver bracelet, and a beautiful art calendar. She got hubby an OSUopoly game. Her big present to the two of us was a beautiful piece of art, with the promise to frame it if we want it for our big bare living room wall.
( Want to see the art? )

Mom-in-law gave us a thing that holds salad dressing and stirs itself as it pours (who knew!), a spice rack (I needed a third?!), some money (which was very sweet of her), and also sent down her father's original straight razors for hubby - they're pretty cool, but he refuses to let me try to shave him with them :-)

Mutti's boyfriend gave Dave some vintage comic books that he loves, and gave me a beautiful vase. My lovely aunt gave Dave some nasty lemon liquor, and gave me a gorgeous artistic mug. She also gave us a funny book about neurotic cats.

Also got some gorgeous gifts from friends - a beautiful delicate artistic spoon from AG, more Sudoku books from whyvette and Norm, beautiful candle holder from Sharps, and again, more that I'm probably forgetting.

So there we go. A nice Xmas, and now we're ready for a week of napping. Hubby is sick, and I still have a lingering cold, so we probably won't do too much this week. Mom-in-law leave tomorrow morning, and I'm hoping to go see Kong with my lovely friend Marc (anyone else hasn't seen it yet wants to go, let me know.)

Yeah, we went cheesy :-) But it was fun!!

(Click here for more photos of our tree and some of the cooler ornaments.)

I'm off to Kohler, Wisconsin in a few hours(yes, again) where it will be a high of 20 degrees and snowing. Back tomorrow night, I hope!!!