Month: December 2005

CHRISTMAS CLUES

TODAY’S WORRY

As if there isn’t enough to do with getting ready for Christmas, I have a new idea for you. To make package opening more exciting, put a clue to the contents of the package on the tag. This is something I started maybe 10 years ago and it has become a fun, challenging, dreaded part of Christmas at our house.

Now it’s important to be clever. You can’t just say something like “a man’s haberdashery item which he puts around his neck” for a tie. You must come up with something like “Bangkok resident,” or Thai (tie, get it?) Or “gasp, gasp” which of course is a pair of pants. Many years ago, there was a clue “snail gasps” for Jonathan which John inadvertently blurted out “escargot pants!” Of course, the gift was cargo pants.

So years and years of trying to think up new clues for a shirt or a pair of pants. It gets harder and harder as time goes by. Jonathan says we only have to clue for unique gifts now but every time someone gets a gift with no clue, you can see the letdown. In an effort to keep things fresh and interesting, sometimes I use rebuses, sometimes trivia questions about Christmas that you have to solve before you are allowed to open the package. Around here the present opening takes a long time.

Add a little more pressure to your Christmas preparations! Start with a few clues this year and before you know it, everyone will be clamoring for more. It’s really a lot of fun and a great source of angst for the present givers.

Boulevard, San Francisco, CA

Last Thursday for the birthdays, we went to Boulevard Restaurant in San Francisco. And although the traffic was really bad getting into the city, it was worth the trip. We had a great dinner with great service. Here are our choices –

Both George and I started with the sauteed fresh Hudson Valley foie gras with steamed persimmon pudding, persimmon sauternes coulis and red flame and pomegranite relish. Although once again there is a noticeable difference between European and American foie gras, it was melt in your mouth delicious and the steamed pudding was a sweet counterpoint to the foie. He and I also ordered the same entree, the grilled Florida butterfish (escolar.) I’ve had this fish twice before, once in Florida and once in Utah (of all places) and it is a firm white buttery flavored fish. Kind of like Chilean seabass but without the guilt. This was served with butternut squash and fresh porcini mushrooms with an aged balsamic vinegar. Wow, yum. My fish could have been cooked a tad less but it was still great.

John started with the fresh Monterey calmari two ways – pan roasted and stuffed and crispy fried. He says the stuffed calamari was the real star. He followed this with a second appetizer, the char-rare ahi tuna with pan seared foie gras and once again, the aged balsamic vinegar. He said this was perfect.

Karen, who is more of a meat and potatoes kind of girl, chose a salad of hearts of romaine and the wood oven roasted Berkshire pork prime rib chop. Yay, they didn’t overcook the pork! The mashed potatoes with white carrot-parsnip swirl looked especially good and Karen wished there had been more.

Accompanying the first course we had an Alsatian Weibach Riesling, and a Sonoma-Cutrer chardonnay for the main course. John had a glass of pinot noir from Volnay with his main course.

Since it was birthdays celebration, we also had dessert. A huckleberry buckle and a 3 dessert sampler which included a sweet corn ice cream and an intense chocolate thing. The ice cream, I thought, was especially interesting and innovative.

So all in all a delicious over-the-top restaurant experience – worth the hassle and the price.

Table Consensus – A

IT’S BEGINNING TO LOOK A LOT LIKE…

TOMORROW’S CELEBRATION

It’s beginning to look a lot like Marymom’s birthday, everywhere you go! Okay, maybe not everywhere YOU go but here in our household the cards are set up on the mantle with care in hopes that great presents (wrapped in not-Chrismas paper) soon will be there.

Having a December birthday is kind of sucky but I try to make the most of it. There are basic guidelines to follow — celebrate for at least a week, receive cards, and all presents must be wrapped in birthday paper. Things are going pretty well so far, I have a few cards already, a celebration with our friends, Karen and George, is set for tomorrow night and a family dinner is planned for Sunday. George has a birthday on December 9 and we have been celebrating “the birthdays” now for almost 30 years. How could we have gotten so old!

When I was born my mom wanted to name me Mary because she liked the name. It scored her really big points with my dad’s Catholic family because December 8 is the Feast of the Immaculate Conception. But I’ve never been keen on my name. I always wanted a nickname. There seem to be a lot of nicknames for boys that have no relation to their names like Bud, Lefty, Butch or Red. But very few for girls. And really, I’m a righty, not butch and have brown hair.

How old am I? Old enough to remember getting a TV for the first time, skating with skates that you put on your shoes and tightened with a skate key, and remembering “I like Ike” buttons. And although there have been strange saggy things happening to my outside, the inside of me still feels the same as it did a lot of years ago.

BAH, HUMBUG

TODAY’S WORRY

I am totally not understanding the whole brouhaha surrounding the wishing of Happy Holidays. I was taught that one should always be cognizant and considerate of other people’s beliefs and mores. Yes, America is a 75%-80% polyglot of Christian religions but there’s also the 20%+ others. Why not use a little sensitivity?

Bill O’Reilly and others are recommending that shoppers boycott stores that say Happy Holidays instead of Merry Christmas. What are they so afraid of? Will their beliefs be undermined by the use of one phrase instead of another? Are the Happy Holidayers planning a coup of the government? It is, after all, overwhelmingly Christian at the national, state and local level.

I always thought that many Christians felt that Christmas was too commercial. Now it seems they’ve totally bought into the commercialization. Perhaps they feel that the whole American economy should be faith-based. Or perhaps that like our Islamist foes, we should head toward re-making our country as a theocracy.

What do I do? Maybe I’m a little more aware of what’s being said since not everyone in our household is a Christmas celebrator. Certainly if I am with friends who celebrate Christmas, I say Merry Christmas. But if I am with a stranger or I am unsure, I always wish them a good holiday season. Isn’t Christmas big and strong enough to place itself under an umbrella of good wishes for all?

THIS AND THAT

TODAY’S WORRY

Here’s a just a few things I’m thinking about.

1. I went to the pharmacy and picked up the prescription for inhalers. Then I actually used them. Guess what? I am at least 75% better today. Resolution for today: must never, never wait so long before using medicine.

2. Really, people, not one job related name? Are you all too busy? On the way to wine country on Tuesday we thought of at least a few more. Jacques, the athlete. Molly, the picture hanger. Che, the buggy driver. Juan, the anemic (I know not a job description but I liked it anyway.) I would have thought you could have at least come up with Denny, the short-order cook.

3. Do you obsess over getting the Christmas presents even? Ever since my kids were little, I always wanted the numbers and money to come out at least close. What does this cause? A spiralling escalation of present buying.

4. I think they ought to create a special award for the pols in Washington this year. The Warren G. Harding Corrupt Government Award. It could be in the shape of a teapot.