scorched

It's late. Sitting here trying to put thoughts together for this blog. It's Christmas eve, and we had two friends over for a nice supper. We enjoyed the time together very much. The food turned out well and all in all it was a success.

As always, my Mr. helped out immensely. He found the recipe on the internet for the crock pot chicken, ran out for broccoli at the last minute when I decided the meal just wouldn't be complete without it. Surprised me by hooking up the iPod to our speaker system to provide the perfect background Christmas music. And worked with me to clean up the kitchen after our guests had gone home. All without any complaints, although I know he would have been just as happy with a quiet evening.

The kitty, on the other hand, wasn't any help at all. I put up some Christmas decorations today—lights, ribbon, candles, stockings. She seemed to think every single thing was set out expressly for her to play with. Admittedly, she was VERY cute, but destructive. I fear the worst when we get up tomorrow morning.

And, there was a small crisis just before the meal. I had decorated the table with a centerpiece of candles and ribbon. Well, one of the ribbons blew into a candle and started burning. It was sitting on a cheap fabric table runner, which also caught fire. But nothing really blazed, just sort of smoked and melted. We doused it quickly, but not before our table got singed. That makes me a bit sad. We've had that table for about 12 years, and it still looked really nice. It's OK, but I'll need to always keep a centerpiece or runner on it to cover the scorched places.

Other than that, my Mr. had to go put out another fire of sorts today at the restaurant where I've been working. My friend, the owner, is out of town for the holidays, but there were still workmen doing construction on the place. So, this morning the village leader says they have to stop and can't put up an awning on the outside of the building. So, they called my friend, and she called my Mr. to go straighten things out. Everything here is negotiable for the right price, and it took a few hours, but he managed to satisfy the village leader and get the workmen permission to complete their task for just $50. Not too bad, just not the way he wanted to spend Christmas Eve day. I joined him at the restaurant for lunch.

I know today's photo doesn't seem appropriate for Christmas eve, but there it is. As we walked back from lunch I came across this tree in full, beautiful bloom. Hard to get into the Christmas spirit when things are so spring-like, but I appreciated the gorgeous blossoms anyway.