Hope everyone had a very merry Christmas. We certainly did, although I have to admit I’m always glad it’s over. It’s exhausting! Running all over the place, shopping, visiting… Eeesh. We made it through though, unscathed for the most part. Friday night we stuck to our usual schedule, which is an early dinner at Bones. Pretty standard-issue Friday night there, with the exception that the jukebox was broken so it was rather eerily quiet. Santa and Mrs. Claus showed up for a surprise visit, so that was certainly exciting! Quick tip; Never wear a Santa suit to the bar… Everybody will want to take a picture with you. Poor guy probably has a sore leg from all the… ahem… “plus-size” patrons sitting on his lap. Seemed to take it in stride though. I guess if you’re Santa Claus you get used to it after a few millennia. One of our waitress friends even had a bag of homemade Christmas tamales for us, that was a nice surprise!

Saturday some friends were having a big Christmas Eve party. By “big,” I’m talking 30 people. At once. All in the same place. Yeah, I had to graciously decline that one. While it sounds like everyone had a great time, and great food, it all sounded just a bit overwhelming. I opted to stay home and fix a rib roast for the two of us instead. I went to pick it up Thursday, and the girl at the meat counter rather apologetically admitted it was the last one they had, and came in a rather unimpressive 2.5 pounds. Hey, it’s for two people, that’s perfect! It was somewhere between a really big ribeye steak or a really small rib roast, but I was glad to get one that size. In something of an experimental cook, I threw it in the sous vide for 8 hours while we watched football games, then finished it in the air fryer for 10 minutes. Success! It was pretty darn good, and perfectly cooked. A rarity for me these days.

We kicked off Christmas morning by ourselves, with the pups, opening presents and listening to some festive holiday music. A nice, relaxing start to the day. We all got lots of nice gifts, puppies included. While I have to think they really don’t grasp “Christmas present,” they sure do seem to enjoy unwrapping them. Big fun right there. We sat through a few more football games, then headed out to dinner over at a friends house. They’d been smoking a 17 lb brisket all night, and it came out great. I am not sure bbq quite qualifies as a traditional Christmas dinner, but it should. Had some beans, mac ‘n cheese, slaw… Good stuff.