Sunday, December 24, 2006
Woke. Showered. Napped. Woke. Usual oatmeal breakfast. Tidied, prepped for party. Patrick and I throw a German Christmas Eve party for a handful of our friends. Attending: ynotswim, Tony Q, Remi, Jesse, Peter, Hao, Galen, Ted, Emery, Yan-Hui, Drew, Phil, Danny, Drew's mom Jane, Sam, Mom Ryan. Patrick served: Pfeffernüsse (spice cookies), Sauerbraten (marinated pot roast in sweet-and-sour sauce), Kartoffelsalat mit Speck (hot potato salad with bacon), Rotkohl mit Äpfeln (red cabbage with apples), Blumenkohlsuppe (cream of cauliflower soup), Haselnusscreme (hazelnut cream pudding), Schwarzwälder Kirschtorte (black forest cake), Dresdner Stollen (Christmas fruit bread), Bratwurst und Bockwurst (German sausage), Schokoladen Brezeln (chocolate pretzels), Saftiger Rührkuchen (gingerbread cake), Marzipanstollen (marizpan Christmas bread), süsser Senf (sweet mustard for sausage). It was a lot of work, but it was worth it. It felt like a big family. All the food turned out the way Patrick wanted. I made food cards using modified nutcracker images by Kevin Trotman (kt) which I found in a Creative Commons search on Flickr. People brought lovely presents for us as well as party snacks and drinks. We talked about Seattle, taoism, quantum physics, French. We watched Taco Town, Will Ferrell imitating George W. Bush, and a chorus of singers complaining in a foreign language about problems.