The Meyer Family Blog: Christmas Holiday Fun

being a compendium of activities for the Christmas Holiday in the Year of Our Lord 2016

Manhattan Clam Chowder

It's the first time we've done anything with "live" clams in our house. Most of the time, we buy the canned stuff and make our clam spaghetti, or buy the prepared Ivar's Chowder from Costco.

But today, we decided to make our own Manhatten clam chowder. Which starts with real, live clams. From Costco (of course).

So they were on ice for I don't know how long, until I bought them and dragged them home. Then they were weighed out into appropriate portions and plunked down into steaming pans of boiling water and poured out into bowls and checked for viability then gently scraped out until nothing was left but the soft, squishy parts.

Half of them went into the chowder, and the rest were set aside for simply eating with crackers. Yum!

We also had Crab Louie and Salmon with a lovely béarnaise sauce, but I failed to get pictures of those ... because I was too busy eating!

The Table

This is the way it has been for years and years, with the antique dining room table surrounded by six white chairs borrowed from the breakfast set. It's been that way for a long time because Grandma Green never had a set of chairs to go with her lovely dining room table, and when the table became part of our set of household goods, we didn't have the money to go out and purchase any.

But the breakfast set worked fine.

This last couple of years, while the dining room and music room were crammed full of boxes from the basement (because the basement was being finished), we were unable to use our lovely dining room table, and it languished in the darkness.

With the advent of our basement completion, we were finally able to clear out the clutter and use the fancy dining room table again.

And it was a lovely table.

But it just looked ... wrong.

Until Cheryl went online and found a set of lovely chairs at a consignment shop that perfectly! Yay!

So on her birthday, we went to the consignment shop and bought the chairs and brought them home and set them up, and we all lived happily ever after.

Except the cat.

Who has to sit in her own chair.

And is not permitted to eat at the table.

(Although we're not above giving her a bit of salmon now and then on her own plate...)

Cabinets

The cabinets for the kitchenette are in the process of being installed.

Now that the den has a nice table with chairs and a couch and a refrigerator and a hot plate and a teapot and the plumbing is hooked up, it just seemed like the thing to do. So that anyone staying downstairs can have plates and cups and forks and spoons and hot tea and sandwiches and snacks and cold beverages and actually have a place to put it all.

The hardest part is finding the studs in order to drill the support holes correctly. You would've thought that I might've put together some kind of plan when I first put up the frames so I would already know where the studs were, but, no, that would have been too logical.

So I'm doing what everyone else does - using the stud finder to try and locate the studs, then drilling the holes in the back of the cabinets, the hoping when I put the cabinet screws in that they actually find purchase in something solid.

Candy-Making

Mary decided to make some caramel candies for handing out to our friends.

On Christmas Eve - and again on Christmas Day - she passed out bags of caramels to people at church. Especially to those with kids. So the kids would get all hyperactive and cause havoc when they went back home.

Doesn't that sound like fun?

Note: We did save some to have around the house. But not too many. Because they're addictive!

The Star

Tabea and James sent us a lighted star to hang in the living room next to the tree.

Which looks very lovely when all the other lights are off. Unfortunately, I can't take a picture of it because the camera's auto-focus doesn't work in dim light.

Not sure why.

But trust me. It's very pretty.

Thanks, Tabea and James!

Cheryl's Birthday

On Cheryl's birthday, we went to Meijer Gardens to see all the pretty Christmas trees.

My Lovely Lady

We even stopped at the gift shop! And found a book of Fun Places to Go in Michigan! Which is kind of odd, considering we've been here for twelve years and should have gone to all those places already.

My Lovely Lady in the Gift Shop

But there's a difficulty in going to all the fun places when there is so very little time due to things like school, work, house repair, car repair, etc..

Maybe one of these days, someone will drop a a huge bucket of Time on our doorstep and we'll finally be able to go to all those wonderful places.

And after Michigan - what next?