2005-01-09 - 12:25 a.m.

Today we celebrated Christmas with my dad and his nutty ladyfriend (Karen). Karen (who likes to wear floor-length mink coats and dine at the Ritz) decided they ought to do Christmas in style, so they went on a cruise to Aruba. My dad (who likes to discuss the heroes of Nascar and paw through piles of metal in junkyards) is up for anything, so he played along. Apparently their voyage was all kinds of fancy and they were able to purchase lots of fancy-fancy duty-free items (including some exquisite cologne for Erik). They came over, along with my brother and his ladyfriend (La Liliana Bonita). I made a hearty French stew (served in ridiculously huge individual bread bowls), which I hoped would be nice comfort food with all this stormy weather we've been enjoying. But I think it was a bit too hearty. It was like Viking food. It was the sort of meal that should be consumed by Visigoths after sacking the Huns' stronghold, which is not my usual cooking style. It was an Anglo-Saxon feast. Then I made those delicious Nigella molten cakes (from p. 179 of Domestic Goddess), which were not at all necessary after the stew troughs. On a whim, Erik decided he would whip up a cream topping for the cakes and diced a sliver of a vanilla bean to an impressively fine powder. You know how sometimes the person you've loved for years can suddenly (ever-so casually) do something that strikes you as remarkable? I'm not saying that Erik doesn't do remarkable things all the time, because he does. I do believe he's a genius. But this vanilla bean dicing maneuver really warmed my heart to the point where I thought it might explode. I can't explain it.

After that dose of family fun, we headed over to my mom's for le famille part deux. My cousin (who I rarely see) is in town, and my grandma (who I adore) was there. Grammix is almost 92 and went to the emergency room a few weeks ago. She turned out to be OK, but it scared me to death, and I want to spend as much time with her as I possibly can. Anyway, the come-visit-with-your-cousin gathering at my mom's was billed as a "party." But you know how nowadays there are things like �makeup parties� and �candle parties� and �other-crap-you-don't-want-to-purchase parties�? This was one of those. It was a jewelry party. Apparently this cousin I never see is peddling jewelry. An array of sterling silver with semi-precious jewels was spread out on a card table in the living room. I'm against this �party� trend for 4,000 reasons. It pains me.

We finally dragged our crispy Christmas tree to the curb. Goodbye, Christmas. I love you.

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