Scattered Thoughts . . .

Kenzie stayed with us for the weekend when we were celebrating Christmas (this year we celebrated the weekend after Christmas).  While she was here, I made a nice breakfast. I made French Toast with thick sliced Challah bread...  it was delicious!  The Challah bread is hard to come by in our area but we got lucky and found some before Kenzie arrived.  I grab some whenever we do see it especially for making French toast... And, some Harrington's thick sliced bacon...   We enjoyed breakfast very much!

T his morning, I wrote about Lukey's Christmas gift from Gee and Papa.  I wrote about his gift separately because there was an interesting story pertaining to how he got his gift.  The rest of the grandchildren opened their gifts just like everyone else around the world...   tearing off wrapping paper like a monkey on a cupcake! Tonight, I'll share some photos of the rest of the grandchildren opening some of their Christmas gifts. Kenzie stayed with us for the weekend so she opened one of her gifts on the previous day.  We gave her two pairs of boots...  one for everyday playing in the snow and a nice pair of boots for special occasions.  We figured she would want to wear the nice pair of boots for our night out so we had her open that one gift on the previous afternoon.  Then...  she had to wait patiently for the rest of the grandchildren to arrive before she could open the rest of her gifts. Sophie was in a very happy, festive, and playful ...

L ukey had asked for only one gift this Christmas which, on the one hand, made things easier for us but, on the other hand, created a need for some research on our part.  I knew that the specific item he requested for Christmas was junk and we're not going to buy junk. Lukey wanted his own drum kit and he knows this would be a big gift so he chose perhaps the least expensive kit he could find on Amazon and sent us the link.  Being a musician myself, I know that introducing a new student to a cheap, junky instrument almost always ends in failure and long-lasting disinterest.  I needed to do some research to find a better drum kit for a beginner. This really applies to anything though.  If you buy a kid junk, they are sure to lose interest quickly and it will leave a bad taste in their mouth for any future interest in that thing because they tell themselves, "oh man...  that really sucked" .  What really sucked was the tool and not the activity but their feel...

B ack a few weeks ago, I wrote about a Black Friday Sale that I couldn't pass up.  A camera I have had my eye on for a few years was finally in my price range as a result of this sale (used, not new) so I jumped on purchasing it.  I happened to luck out because I got a much newer camera than I thought I was getting and it was at a much lower price than the current used rate.  In the end, it was about one-third the price of a new one. Any new camera requires a bit of a learning curve but I didn't expect the learning curve for this new camera to be as steep as I have been experiencing.  This new camera is a much newer and updated version of my primary camera that I've been using for the past ten years (Sony a7) so I figured this transition would be fairly simple.  It hasn't been all that simple. It hasn't been a terrible experience but it has been more of a transition than I expected with some unexpected difficulties. First, I was sorely disappointed in Sony for ...

S heila and I have always exchanged Christmas presents on Christmas Eve so we did the same this year.  Below are a select few photos from last night.  We had a nice night! I received a tabletop micrometer for cutting very fine slices of specimens for viewing and imaging under the microscope... Sheila came home from her office Christmas party this year and was a bit bummed that someone chose to take her Yankee Swap gift.  She had a miniature sled that would have worked perfectly with our Christmas decorations in our garden window but someone chose to "steal" her gift.   Upon hearing this replay of events, I immediately and quietly got online to see if I could find the right size sled...  I found a package of three sleds that were the exact size she said she had at the Yankee Swap...  so, she was excited and surprised to see she had her sleds again! It was a hard find but I managed to get the book "Wicked" for Sheila at a rare reasonable price...  a...

W e just finished eating our traditional delicious Christmas Eve dinner and it was tender and absolutely delicious! I encrusted the rib roast with fresh minced garlic, thyme, parsley, salt, pepper and olive oil.  I seared it on the grill and then slow roasted it in the oven...   Although it appears to be rather small in this photo, below, it is a 5 lb rib roast.  This is how it looked when I took it out of the oven... The roast was unbelievably tender and tasted great.  I made some mashed potatoes with sauteed onions.  Our side dish was carrots with a sauce of butter, brown sugar and maple syrup.  Of course, I made gravy too but I didn't add it to the dish until after the photos...  the gravy covers what I'm attempting to photograph so I shot the photos first... And, lastly, I made some Yorkshire Pudding which was also delicious!  The last two times I have made this, however, they have stuck in the muffin pan so I think we need a new pan....