Just A Few Hours Until Santa Arrives 2024!
We await our family & friends.
While doing so, we do a Tom & Jerry at the Elks!
We celebrated by going to the Tom & Jerry celebrations at the Elks at noon with Bob Zaitz and Bill Capps. At 1:00 pm we came home to get ready for the revelers to arrive at 5:00 pm.
Did You Know? - "While culinary historians debate its exact lineage, most agree eggnog originated from the early medieval" British drink called posset, which was made with hot milk that was curdled with wine or ale and flavored with spices.
In the Middle Ages, posset was used as a cold and flu remedy. Posset was popular from medieval times to the 19th century.
Eggs were added to some posset recipes; according to Time magazine, by the "13th century, monks were known to drink a posset with eggs and figs."
A 17th century recipe for "My Lord of Carlisle's Sack-Posset" uses a heated mixture of cream, whole cinnamon, mace, nutmeg, eighteen egg yolks, eight egg whites, and one pint of Sack wine (a fortified white wine related to sherry). At the end, sugar, ambergris and animal musk are stirred in.
Posset was traditionally served in two-handled pots. The aristocracy had costly posset pots made from silver.
Eggnog is not the only mixed, sweetened alcohol drink associated with the winter season. Mulled wine or wassail is a drink made by Ancient Greeks and Romans with sweetened, spiced wine.
When the drink spread to Britain, the locals switched to the more widely available alcohol, hard cider, to make their mulled beverages.
During the Victorian era, Britons drank purl, "a heady mixture of gin, warm beer, sugar, bitter herbs, and spices".
In the Colonial era in America, the drink was transformed into an "ale-and-rum-based flip" warmed with a hot poker.[
We were first there day, image that!!
Oh my, quite a selection of additives to the egg nog!!
We waited until everything was set up!
Good friends make the world go around!
They are ready to serve and we are ready to drink!
We bring color to the world! These sweat shirts were made by my sister-in-law Dianne over a quarter century ago - Thank you Diane!!
Just us!
Tonight we expect about eight people but ended up with six and had a wonderful time telling stories and laughing until it hurt!
- Robin, Bob, and Nick
- Dianne and Fast Eddie
- Connor (He opted out as the flu hit him hard)
- Jan Mongel (she denied getting the invite and made up a story about can't come)
- Mary & Paul
In the afternoon, Mary's creative juices hit and she built an appetizer tree with help from me and the cheese and cookie cutter!
The ornaments go on first!
Then the branches are strategically placed.
Vanna White, eat your heart out!
It made a wonderful centerpiece.
We were introduced to "Feuerzangenbowle" by our great friends, Hans and Kerstin Thedens. They have since moved away to a new country called Arizona but they are in our hearts all the time.
We celebrated the tradition of "Feuerzangenbowle" at their home several times and enjoyed it so much, it was transplanted to Casa Valencia and performed several times a year, especially around the Christmas season. God Bless you Kristin and Hans for the wonderful friendship and new tradition you have given us!!!
Kerstin & Hans Thedens!
Serious work begins on the "Fire Bowl"
Did You Know? - Feuerzangenbowle is a traditional German alcoholic drink for which a rum-soaked sugarloaf is set on fire and drips into mulled wine. It is often part of a Christmas or New Year's Eve tradition. The name translates literally as fire-tongs punch, "Bowle" meaning "punch" being borrowed from English.
The popularity of the drink was boosted in Germany by the 1944 comedy film Die Feuerzangenbowle. It is a traditional drink of some German fraternities, who also call it Krambambuli, as the red color is reminiscent of a cherry liqueur of that name which was manufactured by the distillery Der Lachs zu Danzig (in Gdańsk).
Die Feuerzangenbowle (The Fire-Tongs Bowl or The Punch Bowl) is a 1944 German film, directed by Helmut Weiss and based on the book of the same name. It follows the book closely, as its author, Heinrich Spoerl, also wrote the script for the film. Both tell the story of a famous writer going undercover as a student at a small-town secondary school after his friends tell him that he missed out on the best part of growing up by being educated at home.
The story in the book takes place during the time of the Wilhelmine Empire in Germany. The film was produced and released in Germany during the last years of World War II and has been called a "masterpiece of timeless, cheerful escapism."
The film stars Heinz Rühmann in the role of the student Hans Pfeiffer, which is remarkable as Rühmann was already 42 years old at that time. The title comes from the German alcoholic tradition of Feuerzangenbowle.
Every slice has to be accurate to within one millimeter! This requires a surgeon!
The bar was ready!
Bob must get into uniform!!
Five gallon hat and four gallon head!
Looking good!
Mary tries to help but alas, we needed thumb tacks!
No no!!! Try super glue!
Bob accoutered himself!
Robin has a premonition!
Maybe, just maybe!!
She guessed it!
We are putting her on a game show!!
Disney wins again!
Someone is excited!!
She knew each character by name!
Where does it plug in???
Bob to the rescue!!
Looking good!!
Mary and I received genuine Christmas Vacation Moose Mugs
Paul got the bathrobe of his favorite movie star, Elvira
(from *Dianne's Hollywood Museum)
* Paul did not realize it was actually Elvira's real bathrobe and tried to put it on when everyone one yelling, "STOP, you will tear it!!!!"
Connor, eat your heart out (but get better soon!!)
Dinner gets underway!
The chef is ready to go!
Robin makes a "Grinch" and it is pretty good!!
Love the coconuts!
We are prepared for almost anything!
Fast Eddie and Dianne join us
Stories are told and retold!
Butter and onions make a terrific pirogies topping!
Kraken has arrived after Paul's fourth visit to Yang Ming!!
Did You Know? - Kraken Black Spiced Rum is a Caribbean black spiced rum. The brand is owned and distributed by Proximo Spirits of Jersey City, New Jersey and named after the kraken, a mythical giant squid-like sea monster.
Dinner went FAST!!!
Sharing tales of Christmases long long ago!
Dianne's salad was excellent!
The sugar cone is precisely placed and run begins to soak into the cone!
Poof!!! The sugar melts!
It was an inviting fire! Moths were swarming everywhere.... No No! Thats our guests!
The wine gets mulled!
Did You Know? - To mull something means to heat and flavor it with spices. To mull something means to heat and flavor it with spices.
Wassail is a beverage made from hot mulled cider, ale, or wine and spices, drunk traditionally as an integral part of wassailing, an ancient English Yuletide drinking ritual and salutation either involved in door-to-door charity-giving or used to ensure a good harvest the following year.
It was a great ending to an amazing evening.
Stories of long long ago!
Telling sto
You may notice Paul was NOT in any of the pictures because he was busy driving back and forth to Yang Ming who messed up the Christmas Day ordered. The food was supposed to arrived at 5:00 pm, we finally got it at 9:00 pm!
We wanted to call family and friends bit it was too late!
As I went to bed I thought of Christmas in 1953 (I was nine) and Mom, Dad, and I would got to the annual Chritmas Party at Ralph Lebowitz's home (yes, he was Jewish!).
We would drive to his home up on the hills overlooking Culver City and his managers from the ten dime strores would be ther telling stories. I would always look forward to opening gifts and I remember two items over the years that gave me pleasure:
- A light green sweather from Saks Fifth Avenue - I wore that until the 1970s when it became threadbare! It was a classif and make the girls swoon!
- The American Flyer Train Station complete with an audio system that announced the train arrivals and departures. It was on my train set until we moved to Santa Monica in 1962.
Ralph, his wife Caroloine, and daughter Paula were amazing people. I hope this year Paula and I can get together and have dinner and swap stories. She was three years ahead of me at Hamilton High School!
These memories are so vivid I cam see them in color and still identify the names of many of the people who attended every year.
I also remember that at 9:00 pm mom and I would go home and dad would stay and someone would drive him home, he loved his High Balls! Dad drank Jim Beam highballs made with Jim Beam White bourbon, soda water, and a lemon wedge garnish.
