Christmas Day: Part II

Now that you've seen Billy's extraordinary Christmas, here's the rest of our holiday. We went to the Children's Vigil Mass on Wednesday evening and were joined by Sarah, Billy's girlfriend. She has had a good influence on him: he now eats onions and sings at Mass. Catherine came although she was spiking a fever. That's a picture of her on the couch after Mass.

By late Christmas morning, we decided that Billy had to be awakened so that we could open our presents and see what Santa had left for us. Catherine was still running a fever so she was propped up on the living room sofa. Nevertheless, a little new jewelry brightened her spirits. Billy gave me a huge, cuddly, and very warm robe. Bill was delighted to open his present from Billy: a new shirt that is on its way with Bill to the MLA conference even as I type this.

There are certain foods we associate with Christmas and every Christmas begins with French toast. This is an oven baked recipe so I always prepare it the night before and pop it in the oven on Christmas morning. Of course, for Bill, Catherine, and myself this was the second course. We had to wait so long for Billy to get up that we had already feasted on B.A. Rudolph's delicious blueberry coffee cake. Catherine wants the recipe, B.A.!

In the evening we went to the home of Rusty and Peggy Pang. Peggy is a fantastic cook. She prepared crab cakes, halibut with a bienville sauce, salad, and two desserts while Rusty grilled a salmon. It was delicious. Now in addition to French toast, the other Christmas food tradition is Schaumtorte. That's Peggy's Schaumtorte with the raspberries. It is an incredibly light meringue with whipping cream and berries.

The remaining pictures are of the kids. The first is Catherine with her "little" brother, Billy. In the next picture you find the Pang twins (Alex on the left and his brother, Adam, our godson, on the right), Chelsea, and Billy. These four sat at the "kiddy" table adjacent to ours. The twins are a year younger than Billy. Catherine and Andy are in the last picture. They are the same age. Andy is in the Army reserve.

So that was our Christmas. Catherine is feeling better today perhaps because I gave her Actigrip, the magical medicine from Italy. Bill is on his way to San Francisco. And I'm just sittin' here chillin'.