post-Christmas celebrations

It's been such a bizarre holiday season, and not the most Christmassy one ever.  I've whined about that already, I know.  Still, we're doing what we can to get a bit of celebration in.  Dinner out tonight, a movie and then Maestro tomorrow, and then NYE at Van's.  And then life will go back to normal eating.  I very much hope!

It's been lovely being home, getting some time to enjoy the tree and other decorations. 

The trappings of Christmas will be with us a little while yet, and that's a nice thing.  Oh, sure, it will be good to have things restored to normal at some point in January (or February - we'll see!).  For this week, at least, though, there is still some small sense of Christmas.  On the other hand, as is usual for me, I've essentially stopped playing the Christmas music.  I let it stretch to two nights ago, but that's it for me.

Two nights ago Van (and Olive) came over for dinner

and gift unwrapping.  Cocktails and little bites to start, then we had ourselves a meal of beef short ribs on a pea puree. 

Not too bad a meal, I think, but I still find that short ribs are never really as good as I want them to be.  We had some red wine from Epoch to go along with it.

After the main course, we opened gifts, including some treats for the little girl. 

How nice to get all the lovely things we did.  I'm very grateful to my guys as well as to the friends who sent us gifts as well.

Dessert followed:  a red-wine poached pear with buttermilk cake and a dollop of creme fraiche. 

Van headed out after that, we cleaned up, and it was off to bed.

Yesterday was another meal, but a little lower key.  We had invited our neighbour, Erik, to come over.  He'd been watching out for parcels and such for us as he always done, and with his son gone for the holidays, we thought it would be nice to thank Erik with a meal.  We also had a bottle of gin from The UP for him as a gift.  I made us pork chops slow cooked with onions and thyme,

and for dessert it was a buttermilk fruitcake with a bit of poached pear and the red wine syrup. 

A nice meal, but clearly I still have some jet lag.  As it closed in on 10:00, I was almost dropping to sleep in my chair, and I excused myself and went to bed.  Terribly rude of me, but I needed it.  Conrad kept Erik entertained another hour or so and cleaned up and came to bed himself.

Some good food the past few days.  Some nice company.  We've managed to get some things done around the condo as well, and more of that to come today and tomorrow.  First plan for today post-morning walk and coffee?  A massage.  My Christmas treat to myself.  😃

About time!

A cold, travel, the holidays - all my excuses this time.  With only a few days left in December, I finally made it into the pool.  It was a crap swim on a beautiful day.  And about time.

May I make it into the pool a little more often and regularly in 2024!

Christmas morning, 2023

Another foggy morning in Escanaba, this December 25.  I slept decently and in sufficient amount, happily, but I was still up a good hour and a half before Conrad was.  Once he was up, we headed to Starbucks, which we knew would be open today (and thank you to the staff working today for being there - I tipped well!).  Alas, we were early, so we did something long overdue:  a simple walk.  In the morning fog, damp everywhere, looking to see the trees and more in the houses in the neighbourhood down by the lake. 

Not a long walk, but nice to finally get one in.

And then it was Starbucks.  A venti oat milk decaf latte?  Yay for Christmas miracles!  😉

a drive to Marquette on Christmas Eve

Ah, it was good to escape for a while.  To leave Escanaba behind, drive out the fog that has the whole town, the whole county, socked in. 

Get away from the boredom of sitting in the hotel while Conrad was going through his mother's personal effects.  It's been a sad, dull, awful week, truthfully, and any change in that was welcome.

We had no family obligations today, nothing to do with his Conrad's mother's things once we had dropped some boxes off at his sister's (and managed to do so before her household was awake).  Conrad and I went to a local diner for breakfast, then to get some groceries to function as our Christmas Eve meal (and likely bites for tomorrow night given that Christmas will be a mid-afternoon family get-together with frozen pizzas), then to Starbucks, then out of town.

I haven't been to Marquette in ages.  I was commenting to Conrad last night how funny it was that after all these visits where we kind of sit around in Escanaba at his family's beck and call, none of them wanting to venture out of town, resulting in me telling him that we should just say to them that we are going on an adventure and that we will see them at dinner, that after all that (run-on sentence, sorry), we do an adventure the week we're here for his mother's funeral.  But thank goodness we did.  Marquette is a cute little college town.  20,000 people on the shore of Lake Superior. 

Where Escanaba has a hollowed out downtown, a ghost of what it was decades ago, Marquette has some life to its downtown.  Yes, it's larger.  Yes, there is a university there.  And yes, they've managed to keep things feeling vital.  It's attractive, too, built on hills

on the lake shore, some handsome old homes and fine churches and excellent older commercial buildings. 

I'd be happy to go back.

We arrived late morning.  The fog lifted about two-thirds of the way to Marquette, though there wasn't sunshine there.  It's not going to be a white Christmas in this part of the Upper Peninsula, alas.  45 degrees, cloudy, damp-feeling today.  We parked at the lakefront and strolled briefly, taking a few photos, then parked downtown and began browsing stores.  Our big target was the good bookstore in town, Snowbound Books,

but we managed to find mementos and some treats in a few others, including a really nice little wine and cheese shop, Everyday Wines, that has provided us with the centerpiece for tonight's evening in at the hotel.  Lunch, meanwhile, was at Donckers, a sandwich that was already the freshest thing I've had in days thanks to the avocado and roasted peppers on it.  So welcome.

Back to the hotel after our poking in stores was done.  About fifty miles from Escanaba, the fog kicked back in, and now we're here in our room, looking out on thick whiteness obscures the lake just below.  I've made a cocktail, I'm writing this and some postcards, and we'll settle in to make the most of this unexpected, unwelcome Christmas.

Little Bay de Noc

It's a gloomy Friday before Christmas in this little nook of the UP.  Damp out, above freezing.  There is a fog on Little Bay de Noc, and when I look out from the hotel room, I can't see the Stonington Peninsula across from us (and not all that far) clearly.  If I joked in an early entry about the bleak midwinter, well, this feels even moreso.  Broken ice on the lake near shore.  A bare tree.  A good afternoon to stay inside, cozy.

an Aviation by any other name

It was my second dinner of the stay at the hotel bar last night, and while the food was fine (a pork chop, but the potatoes were the star of the plate), I only took a photo of the cocktail I ordered.

They called this The Butterfly Effect.  A scan of the ingredients, however, suggested that it was an Aviation.  And a good one at that - not too strong on the creme de violette, a nice balance of sweet and tart.  They can call it what they want, but if we go back to the hotel restaurant again, I might just have to order it.

day of the funeral

Yesterday was my mother-in-law's funeral.  We're now past that part of the trip, and on to all of the dealing with the things left behind.

The service itself was very nice.  The immediate family (nine of us in all) arrived well before others so we could have our time together.  There was a terrific slide show of photos from throughout her life.  There was some lovely flowers with the open casket.  She looked peaceful, a cliche, but it felt true.

I didn't count the attendees - I'm not keeping score on these things, after all - but there was a nice turnout, including one or two of Conrad's cousins whom I'd never met in all these years (and still haven't - Conrad didn't do introductions yesterday, nor did I ask for any).  The pastor from her Lutheran congregation did a good job in her sermon and otherwise.  Conrad's great-niece, all of 11, wrote a letter to her great grandmother that was absolutely shatteringly beautiful.  All in all, it was a good and fitting funeral for a lovely and loving woman.

We'd spent the whole morning in the hotel room, just being low key and quiet, but we needed a little movement after all that.  After the service, Conrad and I came back to the hotel and changed, then went for a short walk. 

Our hotel is outside of town, and so there wasn't much we could walk to.  The day was chilly and grey, damp-feeling.  We made it to this apple tree

and turned around to get ready to meet the family for an early dinner.

After dinner, it was back to the hotel.  We got into comfy clothing,

we sipped a little wine, but before it was even 8, I was swooning with continued fatigue.  And I do mean swooning.  I got myself into bed a few minutes before 8, and that was it for me.

Now then, onward with the day and the work we need to do.

so...

... the worst Christmas in my recollection got even worse yesterday with Conrad's decision that he wanted to stay in Escanaba for Christmas.  This came on the heels of a bunch of texts from his sister, and cost us far too much additional money for me not to be angry about this.  Home on the 26th.  Now counting down.

Sorry.  I'm jet lagged and cranky.  I have never really been fond of Conrad's hometown (there's not much going on here, we know no one outside of the very small family), and it's even worse at the holidays when so much shuts down and we're trapped in a hotel instead of our own home.  So forgive any attitude that creeps through in days ahead.

We left Chicago after sunset yesterday,

later than scheduled but still in time for dinner.  A short flight, and then we made it to the hotel.  A nice hotel,

right next to Lambeau Field (for any Cheeseheads reading this).  We headed up to dinner after dropping our bags, and that was very enjoyable:  Last Words to start with, some deep fried deviled eggs,

a wedge lettuce salad to share, a steak each,

a bottle of a 2010 Rioja, a huge chunk of carrot cake to share. 

It was so good.  Up until Conrad dropped his bomb.  The evening unraveled at that point, and you can be sure I had stern words for him.  And then it was bedtime, more or less, and another truncated night (three hours again) for me.

Ugh.

We got on the road late this morning, having stopped in a couple of places.  By the time we got to Escanaba, it was lunch time, so we popped into Gram's for pasties

before we did anything else.  I left Conrad after lunch to take care of things with his sister, and I headed to buy food and Christmas decor.  I mean, if we're not going to be home with our tree or Van's, if we're going to be in a hotel room for a week, we may as well have a little touch of Christmas.  So I shopped, and then checked into the hotel.  A nice enough room with a lake view,

 

and with some Christmas touches, it feels better still.

I got Conrad back to the hotel to unpack, then sent him off for dinner with his sister.  Me, I had a cocktail (The Meredith - grapefruity, but a bit sweet)

and the bison meatloaf at the hotel bar. 

I'm now back in the room, finishing off a boulevardier.  Conrad is back from dinner.

Tomorrow is the funeral, and then it will be a couple of days of getting things done.  I've told Conrad to put some of the burden back on the rest of his family.  He heard me, but he won't do it.  Ah well.  As long as I can pin him down on Sunday for a Christmas Eve together.

Counting down here, counting down.