New York, New York

It is a tradition in my brother's family to spend Christmas Eve in the best city in the world - New York. So we did an early run to get fish for dinner, I stood in a long line at the French Bakery to get croissants and baguettes, and my brother got coffee at Starbucks. We gulped down breakfast and got into the car with the princesses and drove down to New York.

At that hour of the morning you can make good time, we pulled into the parking garage of the Museum of Natural History just after it opened. And the first order of business was to open the trunk for inspection. I asked why, apparently they are looking for "bombs". I said, that's crazy, if I'm bringing a bomb in, it's under the seat, not in the trunk. Why do they put up with that? Oh, it's only 30 seconds, and it makes them feel good. Before you approach the cash register you have to go through "security". There was a long list of things not allowed, like my Swiss Army Knife. Luckily, the guard was pretty much asleep, and we distracted her with questions about the lost and found (we found a sweater on the parking lot), so I got to take my knife in with me.

We spent about 2 hours in the museum, seeing the Origami Christmas tree with dinosaurs folded out of paper.  Then we went to see the real dinosaurs. Of course, the dinos in Berlin are much better and bigger than the ones in New York, but they kind of like them. And there is a little rotunda in the dinosaur department that has a nice view of New York, looking out over Central Park. Yes, that's me and my camera reflecting in the window. My picture taking skills need polish.

We went to Virgil's Real Barbecue for lunch - a heavy lunch, although we only had sandwiches. It was full southern BBQ furnishing, and the menu was calorie-laden. Salads? You have to be joking. I had a mixed BBQ sandwich and burped it all afternoon. Not my favorite kind of food. Then we walked to the Rockefeller Center in the bright sunlight.  The streets are full of yellow cabs ferrying people to and fro, but the walk was very nice, even if we did have to keep the princesses locked into an adult hand apiece so as not to lose them in the crowds. There was a tree at the Rockefeller Center - I've seen worse in Berlin. All tinseled up and with a big crowd pushing through to see it.

There was a tiny ice skating rink in the middle of the plaza that was crowded with people, and a Santa Clause lazily skating around. All around the plaza there were flags hanging from the buildings. This is something that still unsettles me, the sheer amount of patriotic flag-waving that goes on in the US.





On the way back to the car we passed the New York headquarters of the IRS, the tax collectors of the US. They have a sign out front with the current national debt on it:

Bill Clinton balanced, the budget, remember? And Mr. Bush, Jr. pushed that up to 15 trillion (!) with his war in Iraq. We got into the car (parking in New York is exorbitant, I think my brother paid over 70$ in parking fees alone!) and headed back to Connecticut. There we got ourselves prettied up and made it to the family church service at 5 pm. It was a 2-hour service, there's a lot to get in and the place was packed.

Then home for a Seven Fish Dinner (we gave up after six, there was just no way that anyone was going to be able to eat another bite): Braised tuna with sesame and poppy seeds, clams, mussels, grilled salmon, scallops in butter and parsley sauce, shrimp in garlic sauce. Add champagne and French bread, and it was just marvelous!

We managed to get the princesses to bed after reading the "Night before Christmas" and "How the Grinch Stole Christmas". I have tried to talk the princesses until waiting until 7.30 am to wake us. Fat chance that will work, but I tried.

Merry Christmas!

The Tree is up

So, Christmastime - despite a horrible cold I developed the moment I started out on vacation. WiseKid is with us in Sweden - at 16 going on 17 in under a month that is not a thing to be taken for granted. When I mentioned that we were driving up on the 19th he consented to go along, with a bored teenager expression, before I could finish my sentence.

He has been extremely particular about celebrating Christmas exactly right. He reminded me to buy a tree. He reminded me to get it up. He even consented to having Mom wear her stupid Mrs. Christmas braids while doing so and listening to Christmas carols on the DVD. We comprimised on the "Rock Christmas" DVD. He has made sure that I get all the right foods, although I am so tired right now that surely someone else can figure out how to make Christmas sweeties. The stuff is all in the fridge and the cupboard.

We will be having the family traditional dinners: fish and potatoes Christmas Eve, tacos Christmas Day. We're kind of strange.

The house is in a bit of disarray, as I decided the bedroom needed painted and that would be a great job for WiseKid to do to ward off boredom. WiseMan and I got all the stuff out of the room, but WiseKid didn't get up until 1pm, despite a number of attempts on my part to raise him. Since the sun sets at about 3.30 pm, he got it painted, but not the edging done before it got dark. So it will have to wait until tomorrow.

WiseKid went with me to Lund yesterday and we got new carpets. Very useful thing to have around the house, a guy who can lug carpets to the car and from the car to the house. We'll see how good we are at laying carpet (and how good WiseWoman was at measuring the rooms) tomorrow.

Merry Christmas!

Ahhhhh! The turkey was fabulous. On account of it being larger than expected I had to begin preparations earlier, so I spent pretty much all day in the kitchen, with an occasional run through the blogs (not much there) or another round of Online Scrabble with my brother.

I baste the turkey every 20 minutes or so - a horrible job, but the results are just divine. We had tons of stuffing, Aunt-Jean-mashed-potatoes, candied sweets (with marshmallows on one side for me and the going-on-16-young son), succotash, cranberry-orange-walnut relish, Grandma's cloverleaf rolls, pumpkin pie and mincemeat pies. I had a salad, too, but there was not much interest in that.....

About 11 hours of work (if you include standing in line to get the turkey), but so totally worth it for that plate full of goodies. And you can't make this for yourself, you need people to help eat it up. Luckily, there was a lot of that around. And no one needed to feel guilty about taking a nice piece of white meat, as there was tons, so there wasn't actually that much left. 2-3 more people would certainly have had their fill. So it will be turkey sandwiches and turkey noodle soup for the next few days...

My lovely Christmas present was a Samui Moon binary watch (blue). The manufacturer's home page is corny (and misspelled in places), so I am linking to one of the tons of ad pages. I'm having a grand time turning the watch on and trying to add up the time real fast. I've discovered that my normal "cornerstone" times of 00 - 15 - 30 - 45 actually look kind of nice in binary as well: 000000 - 001111 - 011110 - 101101. Lots of nice symmetry here!

Now I still have lots of leftovers and a ton of chocolates (everyone else gave me chocolate for Christmas) and everyone has left. I hope it keeps until New Year's Eve.

The Missing Turkeys

Am having the in-laws over for Christmas, so since I didn't do Thanksgiving this year I am doing a turkey with all the fixings. I invited some neighbors and a friend over so that we would be 10 people and be able to do justice to a 5 kilo bird. And as instructed by the organic meat shop on the corner, I ordered 2 weeks in advance, with a down payment.

I had intended to be in line at 8 am, but for some strange reason I actually slept for 9 hours last night, it was almost 10 when I eyed the alarm clock. Oops, this sounds like getting the bird before breakfast.

So I got a quick shower and headed off to wait in line. It was out the door and two shops down, would have done justice to the former East Germany. Helga was there this year as well, we mostly seem to meet in the meat shop line. We had a good chat for about half an hour as we inched our way forward.

I had just entered the shop when they called for people picking up poultry to come over to the sliced meat counter. So I did, and was daydreaming about that nice cup of coffee waiting for me at home when I realized that the woman in line in front of me was very upset and shouting.

She had ordered that bird, and it had better be there. The shop woman was very apologetic, but there were no 4-5 kilo birds left. They had one 7 kilo and one 7.3 kilo bird, would she take one of those? I spoke up that since I was having one person more than planned, I would take the 7 kilo one and she could have mine.

Uh, she said, did you order a 4 kilo bird, too? I dig out my receipt: 4-5 kilos, downpayment made. Yup. Okay, your's isn't here, either. My mind begins to race. It is 11.15 am on Christmas Eve. The stores will all close at 13.00. I have everything organized for turkey. No way I am finding alternate fresh one this fast.

The lady in front of me is really upset (rightly so, but she doesn't need to scream). They even took our telephone numbers when we ordered, so why didn't they call this morning to let us know what happened? I'm assuming that the young woman helping out sold all the 4-5 kilo birds, unordered, to the masses who were parked outside the door at 7.30 (as I was later told), hoping to get their mitts on something for Christmas.

They called the boss, boss offered us the big birds for the price of the little ones. Since I know my oven will hold a large one, I jumped at the chance, and lugged home the larger one, leaving the "smaller" one to the other lady who was mulling where to scare up 6 more people for dinner.

The lines were now 3 stores down as I left. I wonder how many of the rest were left without any turkey at all. Or if at the end of the day, out the back, they find a big box of turkeys. Whatever, we have one. Looks like turkey sandwiches and turkey noodle soup for the rest of the week....

Christmas Spa

Now that's the way to take the Christmas rush!

I don't have classes on Friday, so I spent yesterday doing a ton of shopping and getting the tree bought. I was exhausted, but today was well worth it - I spent the day at a local spa, floating by myself in the jacuzzi, enjoying empty saunas, having a good lunch. All while everyone else was rushing around, shopping and getting trees.

About 4pm lots of people arrived. I tried to continue sleeping, and then have another round of sauna, but the new arrivals were loud, speaking in languages I don't understand, and hogging the jacuzzi. Whatever I had a nice day!

Still got to get the presents bought on Friday wrapped, though....

Christmas Cards

I got some nice Christmas Cards from colleagues at other universities yesterday (and one from a Finnish University I swear I don't know anyone at, with an illegible signature). I went to display them on my bric-a-brac table, which currently holds such treasures as some Baltic shells, the stupid cloth flower I got in the Christmas gift exchange with handball last year, and the talking-stupid-Bush-doll I got from my brother a few years ago. I felt it needed a special place, so I have this table in front of a bulletin board where I pin funny postcards people send me.

I realized that the table was already full of Christmas cards. From last year. I never got around to ditching them.

I blew off a layer of dust (seems the cleaning people are scared of touching the button that makes George mouth off), removed the Xmas 2006 cards and put up the first Xmas 2007 ones.

Then I remembered that I had an envelope full of our school Christmas Cards that I had ordered on my desk. Unaddressed. I quickly made a list and got started. It turned out to be a major production. The ink on my inkpad for the return address stamp had dried out. I didn't have addresses handy. Many universities have horrible web sites, you need three clicks to find the address: on Prof. X's home page, it states that she is in building XYZ. The contact information for the department reveals the street address of the building, but no postal code. If I get lucky, I can find a link on the main home page of the school with that postal code.

I gave up yesterday and continued today. There were still a few cards left, so I started writing silly ones - one to a friend with a lame computer joke on it, one each to my two former students who are writing dissertations. Make their boss envious that they are getting Christmas cards already.

At home I don't even have a Christmas letter written, much less cards or envelopes. I did buy stamps at the post office, the other day, just in case. Maybe I'll send Easter cards this year....

Service of Lessons and Carols

We had a nice crowd at the Festival of Lessons and Carols this evening, about 100 people, counting the choir. As in the past few years, the Embassy Singers sang every other carol, and they seemed even better than last year. The pipe organ has also been repaired, so they had fitting musical accompaniment.

We have made a bilingual affair out of the service, which based on an Order of Service put together by Edward W. Benson, who later became the Archbishop of Canterbury, for Christmas Eve 1880 in Truro. Adaptations are used throughout the world, but it is especially liked in the UK.

We read the 9 lessons alternatively in German and English, and the carols are sung alternatively by the choir and the congregation. We include a German favorite carol, "Es ist ein Ros entsprungen" and sing "Silent Night" alternating between German and English verses. We print all the texts, translating the iffy bits from older English texts into German, and including in the bulletin translations of all the lessons read.

Since this year marks the 300th anniversary of the birth of Charles Wesley, the great Methodist founder, poet and hymn-writer, we sang both "O for a 1000 tongues to sing" (just 6 of the 18 verses, though) and his carol "Hark, the Hearald Angels Sing".

The lessons are:

• Lesson 1: Genesis 3, vv 8-15, 17-19
• Lesson 2: Genesis 22, vv 15-18
• Lesson 3: Isaiah 9, vv 2, 6, 7
• Lesson 4: Isaiah 11, vv 1-3a, 4a, 6-9
• Lesson 5: Luke 1, vv 26-35, 38
• Lesson 6: Luke 2, vv 1, 3-7
• Lesson 7: Luke 2, vv 8-16
• Lesson 8: Matthew 2, vv 1-12
• Lesson 9: John 1, vv 1-14

It was such fun to sing all these carols in a large group, one is beginning to get into the Christmas spirit - now just have to get the shopping done....