Christmas 2019

I hope that my readers had a good Christmas. Tuesday I worked on the cassata, then Travalon and I took advantage of the beautiful day to hike by the Yahara River. Here is a picture of it, and another one zooming in on the island.

After the "Midnight Mass" at five, we had dinner at Amber Indian Restaurant and then looked at Christmas lights. I didn't take any pictures, but here is a picture Tiffy took of lights in Racine.

Then we put the finishing touches on the cassata and went to bed to wait for Santa:

(Thanks to my uncle from Denver for that!)

I for one did not miss having a white Christmas, but Tiffy had one up north:

Christmas morning after Mass, Travalon and I went to visit his mother, and we brought her a poinsettia:

Travalon's oldest brother and his wife came bearing a cheesecake, so the five of us enjoyed some cheesecake and conversation about ethnic origins. They are a lot of fun to talk to.

On the way back to Madison, Travalon and I stopped for a very vigorous hike in Tyrenena Park in Lake Mills, on the shores of Rock Lake. Apparently the trails were for mountain bikers, since we saw some on them, and there were lots of uphills. I did take this picture of the sun setting over Rock Lake.

As we drove to Rich's house for Christmas dinner, the sunset was spectacular.

As usual, we had Rich's lasagne, Cecil Markovitch's spinach salad, and my cassata. Between dinner and dessert, we played a gag gift game. I actually got things I wanted: a toaster, a flotation ring for swimming in ponds, and a lovely drawing of a church in a lake with instructions for opening a safe written on the back. Some people got masks. Who wore it better: Mr. N'Awlins or Travalon?

Rich forget we must not. Yoda he was.

As we were enjoying the cassata, my neighbor texted me that the condo below ours had a fire, so there was a lot of smoke damage in our unit. We rushed home, but the firefighters had opened every window in the place, so it barely smelled smoky by the time we got there. And fortunately it was 50 degrees Fahrenheit out, so my plants didn't mind all the windows being open. Apparently our downstairs neighbor decorated her fireplace for Christmas, then she started a fire in it, and all the decorations went up in flames. Yikes! Her unit is a mess, and she is staying with her son. The hallway was in rough shape too, but the neighbors across the way (who had texted me) did a lot of work on it today, and it is so much better now.

When Travalon bought his mom the poinsettia, they had a two for one deal, so he also got us this indigo one with sparkles. Isn't it pretty?

Today we went for a hike at Horicon Marsh. We saw a bunch of geese, but I didn't take any pictures so you will just have to imagine how it looks to see geese swimming on a pond and flying overhead. I know those are such uncommon sights.

Famous Hat