1. Every year on Christmas Eve, my sister, Carol, and her family, host a dinner dedicated to the Christmas traditions and food of a different country each year. We are each assigned a dish, and this year I was assigned to prepare the soup course, so I got to make Cock-a-Leekie Soup, a hearty soup with a chicken stock enhanced by leeks and prunes, poured over large pieces of chicken that has cooked in the stock for about four hours. I was deathly afraid that my course would ruin the whole meal (will the family like a soup with so many leeks? prunes? weird), but, NO!, everyone loved the soup and we all enjoyed the complex fig salad dressing Christy made for our salad and the brussel sprouts dish and the savory meat pie and the awesome potato dish. The scotch eggs before dinner were awesome and paired well with the single malt Scotch whiskey I brought. I don't get to join in on these Christmas Eve dinners in Kellogg very often, and this one was a really good one to enjoy with my family.
2. I jumped back in the Kellogg Time Machine and went with my family to the candlelight service at the church across the street. Nearly forty years ago, I used to be asked to read the opening of John's Gospel at this service and some years I sang in the adult choir and, when a kid, in the junior choir for this service. It all came back. When the service ended, I saw Merle Buhl for the first time in at least forty years. Merle was the best worker I ever worked with, both as boxboys at Stein's IGA and then as strippers in the cell room at the zinc plant. Merle and I used to team up and pull loads at about the same speed and then helped each other stack our zinc and then we took breaks together. He made working at the zinc plant fun; likewise, he was great to work with at the grocery store. I never knew I'd ever see Merle again and it was a surprise that made me very happy.
3. Being in Kellogg for the holidays meant that I was not with the Deke for our 16th wedding anniversary. I called her while she was whooping it up at the Pendletons and it was fun to hear so much fun going on and I am happy to know that Patrick was paying her a visit for Christmas. I posted on Facebook that it was our anniversary and over a hundred people responded with well wishes for us, making me feel very grateful.
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