Food! (And a Little Bit of Christmas)

As you are all probably aware, Daniel and I got to spend Christmas at home this year. What this meant was that we had ready access to a stove and a fridge, both of which we put to very good use.

To start with, there were fresh cinnamon rolls for breakfast...

Then, after a suitable and somewhat lengthy pause (we ate more of those than we probably should have), came Christmas Dinner. There were artichoke and green olive pies...

Ham, mashed potatoes and caramelised onions and beans...

And then Daniel surpassed himself with a bread and butter pudding full of sultanas and vanilla, with an apricot jam glaze. I take credit for the glaze! It was apricot jam that I made earlier this year.

Believe it or not, there was a bit more to Christmas than food. For instance, we did have a Christmas tree.

And we received some lovely gifts (thank you!), including some possums who can keep our kangaroo and koala decorations company.

We had a lovely, lazy day. And from what I've heard, you all had a lovely Christmas, too, although considerably more noisy!

The cats had varied approaches to the day. Maggie was very curious and playful...

Whereas Dobie followed our lead, and had a very laid back day. This is not unusual for Dobie - he is generally laid back for about 22 hours out of every 24.

And there you have it. Christmas at our house, 2009. Cheers!

A Tuba Christmas

So this last Saturday, December 5th, Daniel and I ventured to downtown Boise for A Tuba Christmas. Neither of us had ever heard about such a thing, but apparently there are about 200 of these events happening throughout the country on the given day.

Tuba, euphomium and sousaphone players from university bands, high schools bands, and even just those who like to play said tubas, euphoniums and sousaphones, gather somewhere public for a free performance of Christmas carols.

It was pretty cold (somwhere around freezing, I think), but the band and the crowd remained undaunted! Daniel and I were smart enough to grab some hot drinks on our way there. The warmth of those hot drinks lasted about, oh, two seconds, but nevertheless...

They played a selection of well-known carols for our entertainment, and it really was fun (if a little bloody cold).

Something I didn't know before Saturday is that a band of tubas warming up sounds like I imagine a herd of elephants might sound when they are waking up.

Did I happen to mention it was COLD?!

One of the best things about it, apart from the music, was the age range of the players; from this little guy, who couldn't even hold his instrument upright, right on through the spectrum.

They also played indoors at a church after this performance, but somehow I think the cold made it more worthwhile (now that I am inside where it's a bit warmer).