I hope my readers had an enjoyable Advent weekend. I availed
myself of Christmas music all three evenings. Friday Tiffy came to town, and
she, Rich, and I had dinner at Brasserie V and then went to the handbell
Christmas concert at the Middleton Performing Arts Center. As always, there
were treats afterwards, including these amazing red velvet cookies. They played
many of my favorite carols, including the Sussex Carol and “While by My Sheep,”
and, oddly, “Let All Mortal Flesh Keep Silence.” I had never thought of that
particular hymn as having anything to do with Christmas, but suddenly this year
it seems to be popping up everywhere as a Christmas song. I am not pleased,
because it is one of my favorite hymns of all time, and I hate to see it
relegated to just this time of year.
Saturday morning Travalon and I met Rich, Jilly Moose,
Luxuli, and Tiffy for coffee, then I had to leave for a haircut. Afterwards
Rich, Travalon, Tiffy, and I had lunch at the new Angkor Wat restaurant where
Inka Heritage used to be. It was pretty good, and the portions are huge, so
Travalon and I had the rest for dinner. He was a real sport and took me to the
Madison Bach Musicians concert at First Congo, despite the snow. Tiffy had left
right after lunch to avoid the storm, but lots of people made it to the
concert, including Cecil Markovitch and Mr. N’Awlins. It was a wonderful
concert, as always. There was a concerto by Biber for which the violins retuned
to have two E strings and two A strings, so they were amazingly resonant. It
was so beautiful!
Yesterday Travalon and I went to Mass at Westport because of
the snow, then we had brunch at the Willows. Every second Sunday they have a
walleye brunch. Again it was such a large portion that I will eat the rest for
dinner tonight. We had a relaxed day around the house, watching the most recent
Star Wars movie and the first half of
the Packers game. I felt bad for Russell Wilson, Seattle’s quarterback, because
he was having an awful game. Might as well happen against the Packers, right?
But I do still have a soft spot for him from when he was the Badgers’
quarterback. Then Travalon and I met Rich and the Dairyman’s Daughter for the
Tudor Dinner at Union South. First were hors
d’oeuvres, but there was nowhere to sit, so we wandered into the sports bar
area of the Union and got to watch most of the rest of the game. The Packers
just slaughtered Seattle. Then we trooped upstairs for a supposedly English
Tudor dinner with supposedly English Tudor music, although they sang some
pretty modern stuff. Dessert was figgy pudding and a sugar cookie for those
(like the Dairyman’s Daughter) who just cannot stand figgy pudding. Before
dinner they parade through the hall with a fake boar’s head to “The Boar’s Head
Carol,” and before dessert they parade through the hall with flaming figgy
pudding to “We Wish You a Merry Christmas.” Travalon was somewhat disappointed
that the choir didn’t wear Tudor clothes, which admittedly would have been
cool. The whole thing, with the concert after dinner, lasted almost four hours,
which is very long, especially on a Sunday night. Some of us had to get up this
morning…
Famous Hat
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