December 25, 2021 Family Open House at Amy and Vahl’s

December 25, 2021  Family Open House at Amy and Vahl’s

Some days are more special than others.  Today was one of those special days.

We slept more than usual, we saw more family than we usually do, and some of the beauty of New Mexico.

Amy had decided to do her Christmas Open House, but just for family, which now included Craig and Dela, and his mother and father and brother, Vahl’s sister, Deann, and Amy and our old friend, Rick Spiegel from Fort Worth and his wife, Mary Sue.

We slept in until 9:00. I drank a cup of sweet lime juice and honey in hot water and puttered around until 10:30 when I took a shower and dressed.  At 11:45 I heated a tamale and made another cup of sweet lime juice, some of which I took in a carry mug when Willy arrived.  We grabbed gifts for everyone.  I took Amy the Emily Guthrie Smith pastel of Santa Fe that we had bought from Emily when we were married and living in Fort Worth and Vahl a bottle of De Ponte 2018 Chalk Hill Pinot Noir.

Willy drove us in his car, since he was more comfortable in his car, which gave me the opportunity to take a few pictures of

When we arrived at 1:00, we exchanged gifts with Amy and Vahl.  Amy and Vahl gave me a box of Scottish shortbreads and bottle of maple syrup.  Willy gave them a bottle of Frankly Organic Liquor and a bottle of the good olive oil as he had given to us.

Soon, Rick Spiegel and Mary Sue arrived. I started talking to Mary Sue, who is a wonderful talker of the Texas variety and caught up on things in Fort Worth.

Amy had set out a great spread of food, including ham and biscuits and a wonderful Waldorf style salad with apples, blue cheese, walnuts, lettuce and a poppy seed dressing she bought from the Roadhouse Restaurant.  In fact most of the food Amy served was bought, but delicious, such as the pan of chicken enchiladas made by a lady in Pecos, which I enjoyed very much. There were also refried beans and chicken tamales. We took our pot of Posole and five pork tamales, which went on the stove with the other New Mexican foods.

In the other room a bar of interesting wines was set up.

A little later, Craig and Dela and Craig’s family arrived and there was another wave of gift exchanges in the living room.

It was an all Gruet day for me.  When we arrived we toasted our family with a bottle of White Sauvage, which was lovely.  Later, a bottle of Gruet Brut was opened and I drank a glass of that with several desserts from Whole Foods as we watched the Green Bay v. Cleveland football game in Vahl’s man cave and I talked to Mary Sue some more. She told me about her anti-vaccine cousins who all got Covid among other interesting factoids.

Finally, around 4:15 we said goodbye and we packed up the Posole and gifts and Willy drove us home.

The sky cooperated magnificently today.  On the way up we had a heavy bank of clouds towering over the Sangre de Cristos and on the way home we enjoyed intense sunlight with shafts of pink and gold playing across and behind a bank of clouds over the Jemez Mountains.  In fact the clouds made the Emily Guthrie Smith pastel an even more impressive gift because her composition was dominated by a similar bank of clouds as we had seen in the morning hanging over Santa Fe and we all agreed that it was drawn from some point on I-25 where we had seen the bank of clouds.

I did not eat as much food today as yesterday.  When we returned home I made a cup of Earl Grey tea with the new kettle and Suzette made a cup of mint tea.  The only food I ate after we returned was a couple of bites of a mini pecan pie.

We watched the end of “Don’t Look Up” with Jennifer Lawrence and Leonard Decaprio. It was a dark movie with lots of funny parts.

It was fun to celebrate a traditional Christmas with family instead of hiding from Covid. 

Bon Appetit