1. Twenty-five years ago today, Debbie and I woke up after spending the night with friends, had a bite to eat (as I remember) at Lindaman's Bistro, and rocketed to the Hitching Post Lakeside Chapel in Coeur d'Alene and, in a very simple ceremony, got married. Molly, Patrick, and Adrienne were in Chicago with family. After the ceremony, Debbie and I zoomed to Kellogg and joined Mom, Christy, Everett, Carol, Paul, Molly, Cosette, and Zoe (did I forget anyone?) for Christmas Eve and Christmas Day festivities.
I took a little time at different points in the day and thought back over the past twenty-five years of being with Debbie. We've been flexible over the years, supportive of one another in situations that that required long stretches of time apart. We worked together to help send Adrienne, Patrick, and Molly into the world and have happily provided each of them with a place to live when they needed a place to sort out different difficulties or were in transition. We've enjoyed going on car trips, whether across the USA or blasting our way up and down the New Jersey Turnpike, driving to New Jersey and New York from Greenbelt, MD. We made a fun trip to the Jamestown area, too, and enjoyed drives out across the Chesapeake Bay and into eastern Maryland. I hope we'll go to British Columbia and other places in Canada before too long.
2. For our anniversary dinner, Debbie had called in an order to GarrenTeed BBQ, a superb food truck here in Kellogg. GarrenTeed offered a special today, a smoked prime rib dinner featuring a generous slice of smoked prime rib, a huge baked potato, au jus, dinner roll, drink, and second side. I picked up our dinners around 3:45 and we were blown away by how deliciously prepared the prime rib was, how tender and tasty it was, and by the generous portions. We could have easily split one dinner between us, but, instead we have leftovers to dig into some time down the road. If I haven't written it before, I think GarrenTeed's Crack and Cheese (macaroni and cheese made with pepper jack cheese) is peerless and I loved my helping as a side to the prime rib and potato.
By the way, I am almost certain that this was the first time I'd eaten smoked prime rib. It worked for me in a big way!
We'll be keeping an eye out for when GarrenTeed BBQ might offer this special again. It's a good idea to keep an eye out -- limited dinners are available when he puts on this special and once they begin accepting orders ahead of time, they sell out quickly.
3. Christy, Carol, Paul, and Zoe went to the Christmas Eve service at Mountain View Congregational Church (across the street) and then piled into our living room for a cocktail and some snacks as a Christmas Eve and wedding anniversary get together. Debbie made a batch of Brandy Old-Fashioneds and she set out a spread of sliced meat, cheeses, crackers, and different sweet things for us to eat. Nearly all of this food came to Debbie and me as gifts and we were very happy to share our bounty with our family.
Icy conditions made getting to our house challenging, but by helping one another out, everyone got in and out and back home safely. We had fun sitting in the living room yakkin' about all kinds of things, including histories of the Tom and Jerry drink and Nuts and Bolts.
Debbie and I weren't quite done drinking or yakking when the house cleared out and we had a great time finishing off the batch of Old-Fashioneds and yakking about our experiences over the years with Christmas and how we experience Christmas now that we are older. Very interesting conversation!
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