Christmas notes

--We had, as usual, prime rib roast for Christmas dinner. This year I dry aged the roast for two weeks prior to cooking it. It was num-nummy and I look forward to plentyfull french-dip sandwiches between now and New Year's day.

--Santa left a very nice note for the girls, who left him some healthy snacks of seltzer water and carrot sticks. I don't have the note in front of me, but lets see if I can remember what it said...

Dear Pecchia orphans (crossed out), girls; Jemma, Dahlia and whats-her-name (crossed out) Surenna. Thank you for the healthy snacks. Please enjoy your Christmas gifts and be good in the coming year--I am watching! Love, Santa

--We had lots of guests for dinner (lucky 13) Our immediate family of Wife and three kids (5), my wife's parents (2), Hemma, a close family friend and distant relative (1), Wife's uncle on her mom's side's family: Uday, Joythi, Rohan, Aditia and Joythi's mom Vijaya (5).We had them all over for the night before Christmas and all five children stayed at our home. The next night only Jemma stayed with us and everyone else stayed at our in-law's house (about 8 miles away)

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--People complain about all the wrapping paper associated with Christmas giving, but the real problem is cardboard and plastic. The paper wads up fairly compactly and is soon out of the way. The boxes and molded plastic packaging is very bulky and difficult to break-up. This year I burned all of this in the fireplace. The ash from boxes isn't too bad (I use it on the driveway for traction when there is ice) and the plastic and styrofoam leaves no residue at all.

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--We recieved many wonderful things for Christmas, but one which was very special was a Kringle sent by the author's sister Carol. There is a whole story here:

The Kringle itself is a pretzel-shaped pastry about one foot wide, eighteen inches long and about 3/4 inch deep. It has a flaky buttery texture and is filled with marzipan. The whole thing is presented in a decorative box which (if memory serves) is mostly red and gold.

We first had this confection when we went to visit V's brother Nithin and his wife Kerry who live in Seattle. (They live in a cute little house about a mile north of the Ballard locks.) Around the corner from their home is a little bakery where the Kringle is a specialty.

When we visit the Seattle area we have a lot of people to see, we usually visit at least the following: There are the family's of two sisters of this author and his parents usually make the trip over from Spokane when we are around--since we are comming all the way from the Boston area. The author's ex-cousin and former college roomate in Tacoma and his wife, as well as V's graduate school chum Khisty and her husband Mike and children Maxwell and Dagney. When we visited these people and others, we would get together for lunch or dinner or just coffee and we always took along a box of kringle for dessert. In every case but one, where our hosts either wanted it all for themselves or (most probably) were too distracted by their young kids to pick up on our copious hints, we had kringle. On our trips to Seattle we would have this pastry every day and never did tire of it. So it was a special treat to have a bit of this tasty memory this christmas.