Looks like a great itinerary, Zuke. May the horses be with you!
Christmas hugs,
Jamie
Why that's right nayyyybourly of you Jamie! Make sure Eva gets some licorice tea and propylis throat spray. I had that nasty throat bug a week ago.
Pan, I am German, English, Irish, Scottish. My grandpa, who was German and from whom I have received my surname is Lutheran German. He came here to avoid being drafted into the Nazi Youth party. This was much later than most of the settlers of the St. Joseph's Colony, who considered themselves "German Russian" because of the way the borders were shifting at the time they left to come to Canada. My great grandpa on my dad's side was a cowboy of British ancestry who lost his first wife in a tornado in Nebraska. His wife was a secretary from Chicago who got a bit of a shock when she ended up in Luseland, Saskatchewan (birthplace of vancouver businessman Jimmy Pattison). She went from typing memos to plucking geese, and other elegant fowl. (She's the one on stage left.)
KatieLoeb, I am a longtime admirer of your posts. Gegenbauer is special. have you been to Artner?
Moosh, I hope Noah has given you a long list for Santa to keep you busy! Happy Holidays!
rjwong, I am touched as gemütlichkeit is one of my favorite words and I try to use it once a day, preferably in the act of consuming chocolate!
Hello everyone. Well, the camera battery conked out tonight, so I'm going low tech. Actually, I always feel a bit awkward taking photos at a guest's house, so I was able to really be present in the evening, which was a blessing. We live in an era of blogging, an over-documented era of railing against the inevitable organic loss of memory. Since we are humans, not cyborgs, perhaps it is more natural and comfortable to use the software we were born with to remember what is at the heart of life, that which is invisible and can not be recorded.
At the same time, there is an art to making someone comfortable enough to ask them to document their lives. My dad has that skill. He is an excellent amateur photographer with a knack for putting people at ease. It's one of those life skills you spend your life working on. I love his photographs of community events.
You know, I love an evening of great food, but when you can say the conversation was even richer, that's a great night. I am truly lucky to have such generous in laws. We started with Sumac Ridge Stellar Jay Brut. This is a B.C. bubbly that has an incredible balance of the richness of ripe yellow apples, and a crisp grapefruit acidity. After the dryness of the Cava this morning, it almost tasted of apple cider to me in comparison. This is a robust, medium-bodied bubbly with dimples in both cheeks. Okanagan sunshine.
We had the Leslie Stowe cranberry and hazelnut crisps for starters along with some parmesan pastry thins. Then we had a simple meal of barbecued salmon with steamed beans, carrots and roasted potatoes. The wine with them meal was the 2003 Nichol Vineyards Pinot Gris from Naramata B.C., which happens to be one of my favorites. It is salmon in color. It married well with the salmon, having again a bit of the cranberry pink grapefruit acidity that cuts the oiliness of the fish.
Ullie ate well. I was proud of him. He loves his grandma's potatoes. Someone should do a study of children's eating habits in large family sittings. I bet they eat more within such a group. It seems to be a natural inclination. For dessert we had an old fashioned mince pie--the kind that separates the "flexitarians" from the vegetarians. Now this pie is very citrusy and rich and I would have believed it contained suet, but I must admit I was a bit surprised that it contained minced beef. I mean when it's served with whipped cream and Warre's Warrior Port, it just tastes like Christmas. It's almost as though port was made for mince meat pie. That combination of fresh, dried and stewed cherries and plums just helps me experience the music of the lemon and orange peel in the pie. I noticed the vegetarian at the table declined the pie. She knows the beasts that lurk therein. I also noticed that my MIL said that next year she might leave out the meat altogether. The ghost of Christmas future brushed against the back of my chair.
So I asked Grandma and Grandpa C. about their memories of Christmas, particularly when they were five years old. Grandma C.: "I was a bit of a troublemaker, so I was sent to my aunt and uncles' place. They gave us each two or three presents each: a pair of skates or skis and a couple of items of handmade clothing. My dad had caught tuberculosis in WWI where he fought at Vimy Ridge, so he was spending a lot of time at the San. He had been found in the trenches by the search dogs on the last go around. Otherwise they'd have left him for dead. He had a shattered leg, and an injured shoulder."
Grandpa C: "I have vivid memories of the orphanage where I lived. I remember getting in trouble for throwing a snow ball through the window. I remember the food was terrible." Well, if living well is the best revenge, he has certainly had his. He is a member of the Commanderie de Bordeaux a Vancouver, and has a cellar full of some of the world's most beautiful wines. Tonight he is very excited that he found a Golden Mile pinot noir in a local restaurant that is velvety, full of red fruit, but subtle and well-structured. I treasure the education I have received from him.
Both of them remember a favorite Christmas when they were young and in love and she knitted him a pair of wool argyle socks. "Oh, they were red socks with a white and gold argyle pattern." She describes them vividly as if she's holding them out to me in her hands.
One of Ullie's aunts works in a café that was recently trashed in a review in the Globe and Mail. I told her about all the gossip on the Vancouver eGullet forum. She was nonplussed, as is her style. Another of the cousins has recently been to Argentina, so he was telling me about the Yerba Mate culture there, which intrigued me. Giggles, gossip, politics and philosophy. I'll take them all. Since Grandpa C. used to be a surgeon, I have to have a conversation with him about the recent "face transplant" case--fascinating.
Okay, if I can stay awake, I'll post some of the day's photos. If not, sweet dreams of port, sugar plums et al.
Zuke
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