Pre-New Year's Build-up Blues: Friday, December 27th

There comes a time in a man's life when to get where he has to -- if there are no doors or windows -- he walks through a wall. -Bernard Malamud, novelist and short-story writer (1914-1986)

Hi Pat, 

Thanks for the note - the kids seem to have suffered few ill-effects from our exploitation of them. In fact, they might even go so far as to suggest that they enjoyed the exercise. 

We’re up in the Kootenays for the next few days - back on Sunday - it was a great Christmas, if somewhat thin, snow-wise. There is only about a foot of snow on the ground when there is usually three times that. However, my brother-in-law has built a luge track and it works rather well, even with the lack of snow.

{Up at 6:30 am to put Egg Nog in my first cup of java!}

[In the 15th century, a group of people in Yemen first cultivated coffee beans and brewed a drink from them. That drink -- coffee, of course -- was originally used in religious ceremonies, but within one hundred or so years, the drink's popularity -- secular and religious alike -- had spread throughout the Middle East and well into Europe.]

I hope your Christmas was relaxing and low-key. If you would like to get together over the next few days we should be around. We have New Years plans which involve an early evening for the kids and then everyone in bed by midnight. Talk soon, -A.

P, not sure how this day will unfold but let me know if you intend to attend the big screen today. W 

Wayne Sutherland

On the flight in Toronto. Upgraded for the second leg.

• Patrick James Dunn God speed!

Hi Flash!

Love how you are still able to rationalize ill-effects of exploitation. "They enjoyed" what they were subjected to is the classic abuser's response! Truth be told, The Goils did seem to be having a fun so I guess I won't drop the dime on you, Jimmy Olsen, back when a  phone call cost even less!

Have been kept abreast, via Chloë, via Facebook, relatively speaking, of your ski-getaway in Rossland/Vermont! Would love to see everyone but unfortunately it will probably have to wait until 2014. We are off to the Sunshine Valley on Monday, for the night, with Big Al and Colleen at their new cabin there. They purchased it about a year ago and we have visited them once, at the beginning of July, before we left for overseas. It is a lovely, lovely situation.

At any rate, we are back next day to celebrate New Year's Eve with a good friend and neighbour, Joanne Trueman. She lives on the fourth floor and is hosting a dinner party, along with Clara and Dusty and some of her friends and family. Flamin' and Sarge were to have joined us as well but very sadly Flamin's brother-in-law died on Boxing Day and so they flew back to Halifax last night to help support her sister and niece. Certainly a difficult time all around as she and Linda lost their Mother this past July.

On a brighter note, if you don't already have plans for New Year's Day, we'd like to invite you all for dinner. The Sutherlands provided the Christmas turkey so we are doing one for NYD. We'd love you to join us if you don't already have other engagements and can suffer yet another large drumstick! Let me know and we'll plan accordingly.
 

On the riding front, even though I wasn't able to squeeze in a jaunt, even an errand one, on Christmas Eve Day, I went for a good outing on Christmas day itself, after we has set up table for 19. Typical SP/PPL but it was such a lovely, precipitation-free afternoon that I relished every moment. Stats are skewed by the fact that I somehow didn't turn off Garmin Goil and she continued to tick over until I loaded ride at about 9:45 pm that night! Pleased to say that I logged 21.1 km/hr over 51.51 km close to 2:32:?? as I looked at odometre once I'd stopped back at Heartbreak Terrace, in spite of damning evidence!
 

On Christmas Eve the Jazz Vespers at St . Andrews-Wesley was really a wonderful service with the We Three Queens, Karin Plato, Jennifer Scott and Kate Hammett-Vaugh, on vocals, backed by Jillian Lebeck, piano, Rene Worst, bass and Tom Foster on drums. Rev. Kathryn Ransdell and Rev. Dan Chambers were the Liturgists and read/commented upon the Christmas Story as found in the Gospel of Luke, the Reflections interspersed with traditional carols, both secular, (Happy Holidays, Christmas Time Is Here, Winter Wonderland, We Three Queens), and religious, (O Come All Ye Faithful , Silent Night, congregation; La Jornada, (Venezuelan Carol), The Babe, (Mexican Carol), Some Children See Him and Mary Had A Baby, WTQ, all with an incredible jazz arrangement/interpretation by the marvellous vocalists. The Candle Lighting, (Without mishap! "The lighted candle is to remain upright!" we were told a number of times!), was truly magical. St Andrew's Wesley is a lovely church, as you probably know, so to see it illuminated, with glittering candles, by a bursting-at-the-seams congregation, was a sight indeed.
 

Home by 5:15 pm to prepare for traditional, more or less, Ukrainian Christmas Eve dinner. We had invited the Swedish Twins, (Vittorio/Patrizzio Due, two cousins, of Chinese origin, born in Sweden, whom I met volunteering at VIFF two years ago.), and they arrived around  6:00 pm. Started with Clara's borscht, with sour cream, and then moved to perogies, (Alenka European Foods, Ukrainian owners, on Fraser and Kingsway. We have made our own, in the past, but simply ran out of time this year!), and Coriandre's delicioso fish cakes. Finished off with snowballs, (Combined Sisterhood effort led by Rosie-The-Riveter with much protestation, at every step of the way, by both daughter/granddaughter when criticized for various departures from technique of dipping, rolling, etc.) Nevertheless, final result was mouth-watering morish.

Around 8:00 pm we donned our own Freeloader hats and headed downstairs to invade Clan Sutherland. They were hosting their own traditional Newfoundland Christmas Eve fare: cod au gratin as main course. I wasn't aware that although potatoes, prepared "au gratin", are often locally referred to as "scalloped," this classic dish contains no seafood, crab or scallops, other than cod. Had loads of fun visiting with various family members and although we had just eaten a fairly filling meal of our own, didn't stop us from "nibbling" on all the wonderful appetizers/dishes that they had prepared. Around 10:00 pm Vittorio and Patrizzio had to leave to attend yet another Christmas Eve gathering so we bade our friends goodnight and trundled back upstairs, Clarisse and Dusty going to their own place as they were tired by now.
 

Had a quick taste test of two Aquavits, a comparison of the Norwegian Linie which Patrizzio had brought earlier in week, (He is currently working as a cook at a gastropub in Oslo and is home for a visit over hols.), and the Swedish Herr Gårds friend Kjell had given me a visit or so ago. Hard to say which I liked better, almost apples and oranges. Thanking Lads for their other gifts, we sent them on their merry way and set about stuffing stockings. Chloë returned from Sutherlands before we were finished being elves and did her own distribution before she made for the loft. We had suggested she stay overnight but she really wanted her own bed so we said goodnight, arranging a 9:00 am open presents time on the morrow.

Last presents carefully arranged, I sent a few ecards and then it was time for bed, shortly after midnight. Could only keep my eyes open for a few pages of Strange Shores before I was ready to join Cora Lee in Sugar Plum Land.

Coriandre and I still had our nightcaps on when Clarisse and Dusty came over at 8:15 am. Know you are aging when your parents/in-laws are up well before The Kids! Dusty went back to their place to paint while rest of us set about getting ready for breakfast. Slow Dunn, (Chloë's nickname at summer camp!), arrived at 9:30 am and by that time we had table set, mushrooms and bacon, (double cured/smoked from GI), frying, and scrambled egg mixture ready to go. Pop went the Champagne, (really a Spanish Sparkling), cork and we toasted one another "Happy/Merry Christmas" and set about plundering our stockings. We have taken to limiting our family gift giving to stuffers, ($50+/- total), but we all did very well indeed.
 

Once stockings were empty we sat down to a glorious meal. Had croissants as well. I stuffed mine with smoked salmon and cream cheese. Had more Freixenet, with OJ, this time, and toasts continued. After this scrumptious brunch, Chloë elved large presents under tree, (most from family members elsewhere), to the cleared table and the unwrapping continued. Once again, we all did very well and we certainly can be both grateful and  thankful for the abounding plenty we enjoy, given what so many, across the wide world, cannot even begin to imagine.

After we'd muled collapsible table, (originally Mom's), from next door, we rearranged living room furniture to accomodate our table, with all its five leaves, to put the two together, to seat 19 and then chairs from various rooms and next door/downstairs completed setting. Was around 1:00 pm when I suited up and went for aforementioned ride. back close to 4:00 pm, in time to shower and change and then guests started to arrive. Most of food preparation had been accomplished downstairs but we contributed other dishes as well. Clara did her fabulous turnip puff while Coriandre prepared squash, (I did all the peeling, boiling and mashing, but was not permitted to even think about seasoning/butter, etc!), and a really wonderful baron of beef.

At Chloë's inspired suggestion, we had decided to set up a cafeteria at The Islay Inn so that people could serve themselves before taking a seat. With so many people this seemed like the best idea and it turned out to work exceedingly well. We have a large warmer so we used that to keep gravy, mashed spuds and dressing hot while other groaning platters held the carved bird and beef, and Chloë's cornbread stuffing. Smaller dishes with the vegetables  and salads were placed at intervals along the table, the easier for people to reach, so long was the extended configuration. Coramandel said grace and we all tucked in to the wonderful, wonderful feast.

We sat down at just before 6:00 pm as Kid Chelene, (F's/S's), had to work the evening shift. He is an RCMP Constable in Surrey. He wanted to call in sick but jeered his whining, sending him off with a large take-away for his early morning "lunch-break", wherever/whenever he would managed to take it. Lots of fun and chatter around the table, as you can imagine, and the hootch flowed freely. There were the five Durstons/Dunns so thirteen form Clan Sutherland and three Mercados: Melvin, Nicole's fiancée, and his parents, Bella and Bert, are from the Phillipines. Five Sutherlands with their offspring's significant others, not already mentioned: Beckster and Avery, six months, (Corey, aka KC); Megan, (Prince Valiant/Ryan); Aaron, (Sarge's nephew), and Akiko, his wife and Jesse, Beckster's sister.
 

Around 8:00 am those who had wanted seconds or even thirds were finally sated and we cleared the table. Took down the one from next door to give room for the charades which followed. Chloë numbered people off and the "1's" were pitted against the "2's" . I was a "2" but managed to help out the opposition, unwittingly. I was doing final kitchenclean-up and rest were so loud that I couldn't figure out which team was up! Anyway it was an incredible hoot and everyone, but Aaron, participated. The assembled gang were quite surprised that Akiko, normally quite shy and retiring, was one of the best at acting out her book or film or words of wisdom.

Earlier, the desserts which had been entered in the "contest", (Gang decided to hold a Best in Show to put an end to the on-going bickering about whose dessert was best!), were arrayed down the centre of the remaining table and people tasted each one while the game went on. Much in the same spirit as bridge prizes when we host a couple of tables, in the sense that everyone manages to win some sort of prize. It had been decided, unanimously, beforehand, that Clara's pecan tarts were so good that she had already been awarded First Prize before the contest even began! Cora Lee was in charge of vote counting and distribution of prizes and somehow she managed to weasel First Prize in the cheesecake category. Funnily enough, hers was single entry! Still, very, very tasty for a first time, gluten free effort, so crowd reluctantly allowed decision. More laughs as awards were presented: "I'd like to thank my Mom, for making this award possible, etc., etc.", so great good fun right on top of some of the side-splitting efforts of the really inept charadists. Tears were rolling down everyone's cheeks when the clock finally ran out and it was revealed what the film title, for example, in question happened to be. Nowhere short of a country mile close to any of the gestures, flailings and increasingly desperate gesticulations the poor charadee had vainly attempted in order to lead the howling audience to the truth!
 

Since evening had started relatively early and many of the folk had distances to go the party started to wind down around 9:30 pm. We thanked everyone for all the wonderful food and drink and sent them on their way, wishing all the merriest of Happy Christmas's. Once everyone had left Cora Lee and I sat down to watch a recorded episode of Elementary, enjoying the quiet after the boisterous evening. Once the dishwasher had finished most of the dinner plates we emptied it and loaded it with remaining dishes and then repaired to bed to read.  Really was a lovely day, culminating with wonderful, wonderful food with wonderful, wonderful friends and family. Again, hard to express how privileged we are to be able to enjoy ourselves with the plenty that so many are without. Not to be  a Grinch but I do believe, and strongly so, that we need to continually remind ourselves how unbelievably fortunate we are, living as we do, where we are. Not that that is necessarily enough, but at least it is start. A glimmer of awareness, one trusts, can lead to action, however small and seemingly insignificant, to be concerned about and to care for others less fortunate. Here Endeth The Lesson! Cheers, Pastor Patrizzio!

Pics: Christmas morning; Santa's elf, cited for drinking/sleeping on the job, Christmas Eve of all times!

Season's Greetings

Hello, Patrick:

Thanks for your e-card and I hope that you had a very happy Christmas!

I have been off since last Thursday (19th), returning to work on January 6th.  This down-time is very welcome, as India and then the end-of-the-year at the Children's Library were both HARD WORK.
 

I am likely to be coming to Granville Island at some point in the next few days or week and am wondering you are around?  I still have prints for you of photos that I took at our get-together with Eyob . . . and it would be nice to see you in any case.

Let me know your movements! Best wishes, Janet P.S. Did you read Janet's India Blog yet? :-) 

Hi Janet!

Lovely to hear from you and know that you are enjoying your welcome holidays. Not sure if message was passed along but I popped by Children's Library a week or two before Christmas. Cora Lee dropped me off at our doctor's office on Burrard/Davie for a flu shot and I walked to VPL to look for stocking stuffers at the Bookmark. Anyway, please do stop by but perhaps best to phone and/or arrange a time. Cora Lee is volunteering at Aunt Leah's Thrift Store until 6:00 pm today and I'm off shortly to see Inside Llewyn Davis with friends, Kerry and Whirlygig. I'm helping friend and neighbour, Joanne Truemann, make Tourtière tomorrow morning. Not sure what Cora Lee is doing. Supposed to be sunny so I'm hoping to go for a ride in the afternoon but depending on your schedule, that can wait. Don't believe we have anything on, other than a ride, for me, at some point, on Sunday so that is a good day, to be around, at least for us. If you do come by, other than on Saturday, we will have a parking spot for you as Chloë is off to the Okanagan for six days with friends for New Year's.

If you don't already have plans for New Year's Day, we'd like to invite you for dinner. No, Miss Third Grade Teacher, I have not done my homework on the Indian subcontinent but please, please Miss, I have been ever so busy helping old ladies across the street in the snow. You could help me with the research it you come for dinner, though!

Let me know what your schedule looks like/allows. Cheers, Patrizzio!

Dear Friends,

Rather than a trip to the print shop, addressing envelopes, and heading for the post office, I am opting for an email this year.  Our greeting is no less sincere, and I hope you all understand that otherwise, it is likely to be Valentine's Day before I get these in the mail. 

 All in all, 2013 has been pretty good to us.  We were sorry to bid goodbye to my mother, but grateful for the good long life that she had.  Grateful too, for the good health that we are currently enjoying, and for living here in wonderful Portland with our daughters and grandchildren close by.

If you cannot read the attached PDF file, please send me an email, and I will print it out and mail it back the old-fashioned way.

Best to you all in 2014 Marilyn

Hi Patrick,

Thanks again for the wonderful Christmas dinner. I don't know what your schedule look like before the new years. I'd like to come over and hang out with you. I'm pretty much free. Let me know what works out for you. "I trust you are well", Patrick Sr. Cheers, Patrick

Hei, Patrizzio, sou kokk ekstraordinært!

Delighted you enjoyed yourselves on Christmas Eve, We were certainly pleased to host you and thank you both, again, for your more than generous, thoughtful gifts. Much appreciated.
Be great to see you again, either with or without Vittorio. (Are you trying to dump him? Don't blame you as older guys can be a drag!!!). If we weren't off to have dinner with friends this evening I'd say come on over. Am taking a Chateauneuf-Du-Pape I picked up this past October when we visited this wonderful village/appellation. 100% Mourvèdre, (One of my favourite varietals as it tends to produce tannic wines that can be high in alcohol.), this 2010 Secret de L'Ange weighs in at 15% so I'm really looking forward to tasting it.  Quite unusual for it to be sold as a single varietal as it is often blended with Grenache and Syrah. Bill and Denise, our hosts, are lovely people and Bill really knows what he is talking about when it comes to wine. I wish I had his knowledge, nose and palette as far as wine goes. (Bill and I played squash together at Vancouver Racquets Club. He still plays.)

If I've regained consciousness tomorrow, I'm planning to help friend and neighbour, Joanne Truemann, make Tourtière tomorrow morning. Not sure what Cora Lee is doing. Supposed to be sunny so I'm hoping to go for a ride in the afternoon but depending on your schedule, Saturday evening we will be at home. I'll be chasing Cora Lee around the place, nekkid, so be sure to phone ahead so as not to embarrass her! Don't believe we have anything on, other than a ride, for me, at some point, on Sunday so that is a good day, to be around, at least for us. If you do come by, other than on Saturday, we will have a parking spot for you as Chloë is off to the Okanagan for six days with friends for New Year's. Just phone and we'll let you in and show you where to park.

We are off, ourselves, to the Sunshine Valley on Monday, for the night, with friends, Big Al and Colleen at their new cabin there. They purchased it about a year ago and we have visited them once, at the beginning of July, before we left for overseas. It is a lovely, lovely situation. Might even do a bit of snow-shoeing if there is enough snow.
 

At any rate, we are back next day to celebrate New Year's Eve with Joanne. She lives on the fourth floor and is hosting a dinner party, along with Clara and Dusty and some of her friends and family. Flamin' and Sarge were to have joined us as well but very sadly Flamin's brother-in-law died on Boxing Day and so they flew back to Halifax last night to help support her sister and niece. Certainly a difficult time all around as she and Linda lost their Mother this past July.

On a brighter note, if you don't already have plans for New Year's Day, we'd like to invite you, alone or with uncool, older cousin, for dinner. The Sutherlands provided the Christmas turkey so we are doing one for NYD. We'd love you to join us if you don't already have other engagements and can suffer yet another large drumstick! Again, you are always welcome to drop by for a drink and a chat even if  you can't stay for meal. Let me know about this and we'll plan accordingly.
 

Not sure of any firm social plans after that so pretty much anytime should work for us/me. Cora Lee may well have some volunteer activities/meetings but she doesn't knock back malt or Akvavit like The Brotherhood so we can amuse ourselves without her, if needs be!!! We'll try to make the best of a difficult situation. No Sisterhood to tell us, ad nauseum, what to do and what not to do. Not sure if I can choose a malt without her around. Hope you can come to my assistance!

Anyway, let me know what might fit with your holiday schedule. Look forward to hearing more about what you and Jo do for kicks in Oslo. Cheers, Patrizzio The Elder!

Pat,

Sorry I missed your call this morning. I did phone back in the late afternoon without success. Think I fancy the kale stew with cornmeal dumplings.
I am about to finish the Reacher novel, 'Never Go Back' if you are interested. It's a bit unrealistic at times but plenty of suspense. There's about 2 weeks left on the hold. Are you planning a ride tomorrow or Sunday? I wouldn't mind a spin if we can catch some decent weather. Ray

Hi Raymond, (and Llewyn)! 

Just returned from a wonderful evening with Denise and Bill Gross. Enjoyed a lovely meal and met a couple, Jennifer and Robert, who are close friends. Both are from Glasgow but didn't know Matt Garrey! And I thought everyone knew everyone else there, just like West Hartlepool, no?

At any rate, I'm hoping to ride tomorrow, myself, so perhaps we can hook up. Be great if we can. Have you talked with Whirlygig. He might  be up for a jaunt as well. I'm committed to helping friend and neighbour, Joanne Truemann, with the making of Tourtière in the morning. Not sure when we'll be through but I could call when I have a better idea. Otherwise, Sunday is pretty free. Let's chat in the morning and see what might work best. Cora Lee would like you to bring the cornmeal dumplings along if we ride this way. Hold the kale! Cheers, Patrizzio!

Pics: The indignity of not being able to put on your own socks! Earlier tonight!