elevator, elevate...take me home

Merry Christmas, everyone! I had an absolutely delightful day, even if I had to wake up at seven a.m. to kick it off. Of course, the eastern view was gorgeous as I stood in the kitchen trying to inject some caffeine into my bloodstream; the sun came up over the hills to the east, streaks of red and gold warming the snow-covered landscape and highlighting a deer walking across the frozen pond. 'Twas truly idyllic in a way that the sirens screaming down Van Ness Avenue in San Francisco can never achieve.

We opened packages and all received excellent gifts that no one else in the family would want. My father got a pair of high-powered binoculars. My mother got some gardening supplies that she will force my father to share with her come springtime (lucky man). My brother got, among other things, a gigantic set of wrenches that are longer than my arms and twice as heavy. And I received books -- lovely, gorgeous books that I now really want to read despite my fatigue. I shall likely blog about them as I read them on zee romance blog; if you like just hearing about my day, you'll continue to get content here ad infinitum, but anything remotely literary is moving to zee romance blog forthwith.

But two of the books were cookbooks - Ina Garten's Barefoot Contessa Back to Basics and the Culinary Institute of America's Book of Soups. I also got some fun kitchen gadgets, as well as a heating pad (to help with the destruction that my two-hour commute is wreaking on my back) and a teapot warmer. My brother scoffed at the fact that my Christmas gifts were more suitable for an old person than a twenty-seven-year-old, but I'm quite happy with what I got!

The rest of the day was wonderful. I took a nap after we were done opening packages, then managed to clean myself up in time for brunch. Gram came out to eat with us, and we had breakfast casserole (with farm-fresh eggs, of course), cinnamon rolls, and ambrosia. Then we all watched Bruce Almighty, the Jim Carrey movie in which Jim Carrey gets God's powers -- perhaps a strange choice, but my father *loves* that movie and so got it in his stocking from Santa this year. After that, we hung around waiting until we were hungry enough to eat again -- for supper, we had an absolutely perfect prime rib, baked potatoes, green beans, spinach salad (obviously not a fresh spinach and balsamic vinaigrette salad; think frozen spinach, hardboiled eggs, cheese, mayo, and some other ingredients I can't divulge for fear of having my mom put a hit on me), and homemade rolls. Mmmmmmmmm. I have a picture, but my camera's upstairs, so you'll have to wait to see the perfect Midwestern feast until I can upload my pics.

It's time for bed, and I'll be serenaded to sleep by the sounds of sheets of ice cracking outside my window -- it's above freezing for the first time since before I got home, and it rained/sleeted tonight, so the thick ice covering everything is starting to melt. I suppose this is a good thing, but I'm sad that the winter wonderland will turn to dreary mud. I hope you had a lovely, v. merry Christmas!