Ho, ho, ho!

I've managed to spend the holidays doing not much of anything thanks to a nagging cough. The kids went down to Jay's in Victoria on the 23rd so Niko and I had a nice quiet, sleeping in style Christmas morning, then went to our aunt's for the family dinner. I made a gluten free chocolate cream pie that turned out mostly OK. Boxing Day we took lunch to Victoria for our other grandparents, Dad & Cat, and our uncle Tim & his girlfriend. Niko made the yummy chicken in maple, orange & curry sauce (even Selena liked it!), and I made some potato & yam mashed with cream & roasted garlic, then we did beans and carrots.

Tonight we did a goose. Just because we really wanted to have goose. It was very tasty, Niko roasted it and I made Pommes Gratin Dauphinoise (similar to scalloped potatoes - basically sliced taters baked with cheese in a cream & egg custard). Everything sounds more fancy in French, doesn't it?

In between all the eating we managed to get to the Sally Ann here and I picked up some stuffies for the dogs. Skyla immediately stole all of them, as well as my new Cookie Monster slippers. //laugh// That little dog sure loves toys! Cuinn got a new collar (see post below, the autumn leaves) and they also got lots of yummy treats. The cats got a shared stocking full of different little toys - Allegra loved it, Iolaus played a bit, and Sorsha turned her nose up (I guess when you are almost 15 and queen cat you don't do toys anymore).

As Niko mentioned in her blog, we did have a bit of book & DVD bonanza this Christmas. For Christmas I got:

• King Arthur from Jay and the kids


• The Lord of the Rings: Return of the King extended edition from Mum


• The Adventures of Indiana Jones boxed set from Mum


• The Star Wars Trilogy boxed set from (you guessed it) Mum


• The Hobbit by Tolkien, from Niko. A lovely Folio Society slipcovered hard cover //drool//, it even has a fold out map attached inside the back cover.


• The Silmarillion by Tolkien, hard cover, also from Niko. I am currently trying unsuccessfully to read it and The Hobbit at the same time


• American Gods by Neil Gaiman, again from Niko. This is "The Reader's Copy", A Limited Companion to the Author's Preferred Edition. I'm not entirely sure what all that means, but Niko assures me it's a good thing.

I also got lots of chocolate, the previously mentioned Cookie Monster slippers, candles & a candle holder, some pot holders, assorted Christmas decorations (from Jennifer & my gramma), the ever popular cash, and some stainless steel measuring cups & spoons (yeah!).

If that wasn't enough we did a spur of the moment trip to Nanaimo with Mum and Gramma to check out the post Christmas sales at Value Village, etc. First we hit the Dollar Store and we shocked to discover actual decent books! I picked up a couple for each of the kids at $2 a piece and several for me ($4 each!!).

• The Multiple Identities of the Middle East by Bernard Lewis. I really like his work and am looking forward to this one.


• Veiled Threat: The Hidden Power of the Women of Afghanistan by Sally Armstrong. I've heard good things about this one, although her resume sounds a little lightweight. We'll see.


• A Fury For God: The Islamist Attack on America by Malise Ruthven. I tend to avoid books with provocative titles like this one but for $4 I can at least take a look. He wrote another book on Islam that got a good cover blurb from Albert Hourani , a writer I think knows what he's talking about. Again, we'll see.


• Chicken Recipes of James Beard - this one was only $2 and Beard is a legend in the cooking world.

Over at Value Village I found slightly lighter material:

• The Death of a Joyce Scholar by Bartholomew Gill


• L is for Lawless by Sue Grafton


• The Venture of Islam Volume 1: The Classical Age of Islam by Marshall G. S. Hodgson, of course they did not have Volume 2 or 3 //sigh//

Then we went to Bolen to spend our gift certificates! Ryan got himself a hard cover of The Hobbit, Selena got a small journal and 3 manga (Tsubasa: Reservoir Chronicle volume 1 by CLAMP, a Gundam Seed, and an Inu Yasha) that she read right away (she got so much because she had 3 certificates to spend, lucky chick). After much deliberation and carrying around and putting back of books, I came home with

• Ireland's Eye by Mark Anthony Jarman


• Duende: A Journey into the Heart of Flamenco by Jason Webster

Both are travel tales & life experiences of the authors and sounded interesting. I also have a love/hate fascination with both countries (the second takes place in Spain) and some day plan to take up flamenco.

So that's Christmas not in a nutshell. In closing, here is a pic of Niko's Darwin in his new collar (from Cuinn & Skyla). Niko now calls him "the Dread Pirate Darwin".