Really, I think I have to say the Best Day Ever, at least for this week, was Christmas Eve. I have a lot of “best days.” Walking in Paris – that was a best day, several best days; blood-red sunset at the farm – that was pretty best; walking in a Hawaiian rain forest with my sisters – pretty incredible. As I said, I’ve had a lot of them, too many to enumerate and that’s lucky. But yesterday? Pretty best.

In general, our Christmas was fairly low-key. Like many of you, life was over-the-top busy this fall. We were too tired to have a Christmas party or attend ones we were invited to. I managed to keep up fairly well with the Advent posts at the church site. We were even too tired to shop which meant Amazon.com came through to the rescue. But last night, as Christmas Eve tends to be, was magical.

For starters, here’s our living room with presents under the tree and lights:

These are the decorations we use most years (the tiny, twinkling rice lights look like fairies let loose in the branches) but last night the light and the fire and the presents under the tree (plus Santa and a rocking horse) and filled stockings waiting to be plundered looked pretty festive.

We stood under the mistletoe as we do every year – usually several times every year – but this year I decided to try for a selfie. Now. Grandmas and selfies aren’t quite the same as, say, a twenty-eight year old and selfie, but we managed even if a little blurred.

Outside was amazing too. We had a layer of snow plus an overcast sky so the two reflecting off each other made the light soft and hazy. Cliff called me outside to see a shimmering night. He was grilling his favorite Christmas Eve dinner: surf and turf.

We turned on the outside garage light for the shot, so all the light isn’t just snow/clouds. But it was fire and good smells and magical.

And then we had dinner: steaks and crab cakes and grilled oysters and large shrimp and small lobster tails. And a lot of butter. And wine. You’ll notice there’s nothing green on the table: baked potato, steak, and seafood.

We had fun. Excessive? Yep. You could say that. Indulgent? Yes, that too.

As an addendum for those of you who like oysters: Cliff learned to grill oysters rather than fight to get the raw ones open. A couple of minutes on each side and they pop right open. And with a dribble of champagne vinegar (which is the bottle in front of the empty bowl set there to gather fragments and shells) are quite lovely.

Merry Christmas one and all and thank you all for the gifts of friendship and family and love you bring to my life.

Okay. I’ll end here. I’m getting to sound like Tiny Tim.

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