Christmas Moved To Sunday

7:22

It's pitch black outside on this Christmas morning and I have been up since 5:30, anxious to see how much snow we received overnight.  Predictions were high but so far, we have four or five inches if that.  More to come over the next 36 hours.  The Winter Storm Warning was so dire, up to 19 inches that we pushed our Christmas dinner with friends off until Sunday.  So, we have two more days until Christmas here at Chautauqua Lake.  It's 7:00 as I finish writing this and it is still dark out, as the sun will not rise until 7:46 when I might be able to kayak.  It's 8:55 and I was able to get in a 25-minute paddle in a light snow, the lake gelatinous and beginning to freeze.  After my paddle, I cleared our parking area and finished just as Evie was getting up,  perfect timing.  

Kayak Morning

Soupy Lake

The major excitement yesterday was the arrival of fresh oysters late afternoon, compliments of our daughter Jill and husband Drew.  We will be enjoying them this evening for sure.  Other than that, it was a quiet day for Christmas Eve with family scattered across the US.  It was too windy to kayak and wet as it rained most of the day, saturating the yards and roads, turning to sleet, and finally snow late last night.

Our decision to put off Christmas until Sunday suddenly freed Evie from the kitchen as her prepping was put off for a couple of days.  We had, then, a lazy day of thinking about Christmas Eve's past, in Hawaii, Turkey, Ohio, and here at Chautauqua Lake.  Evie, of course, had things she wanted to get done and while she did them, I practiced some Yoga With Adrienne since it was raining out and we nixed our walk.  

Lunch arrived early, a vegetable/salad sandwich on lavash, and a bowl of Evie's homemade chicken soup. I watched my show, finished my book, The River, which I really enjoyed, and then downloaded a few books that I thought I might like.  Neither of us did much the rest of the afternoon.  We talked with our son Tom in Kansas City, then watched some TV and read until it was cocktail time.  

7:00 In The Evening

We decided to have our Manhattans on Christmas Eve, rather than waiting for Saturday night. Evie made some popcorn, pulled out a brie and I made our drinks.  We listened to Christmas carols, lit good luck candles from our friends Linda and Ron. and had an enjoyable evening even though we were 'home alone.'  I had to laugh at our dinner, soup and scrambled egg sandwiches with baloney, my request by the way because it was good and easy.  I even looked back at last year's Christmas Eve blog to see what we had for dinner and it was a Turkish omelet with a bagel.  Hey, we don't need the seven or eight fishes like the Italians.  Soup and a sandwich are good enough. We were not sure what to watch and started a Hulu Christmas movie called Happiest Season but after ten minutes, we were not very happy and switched to Midnight Diner.