Monday, December 25, 2023
Christmas. Patrick baked chocolate muffins. Finished organizing and titling photos on Flickr from the Los Angeles and New Orleans trip, then published them. Medium bowl of oatmeal with milk, flax meal, cacao nibs, toasted slivered almonds, toasted shaved coconut, blueberries, diced half banana; hot water. Troubleshot file sharing problems after copying files from my computer to Patrick's computer. Solution: chmod 664. Organized mail and mail folders. Troubleshot problems with Apple Mail not properly creating or moving new mailboxes. Solution: use Roundcube instead. Patrick and I had planned to have Christmas brunch at home with Sam, Kerry, and Mom Ryan, but Mom wasn't feeling well this morning, so we changed plans. Sam came over and we opened cards and gifts. I gave Patrick a small jar of Heilala vanilla paste and a Victoria cast iron grill and bacon press. Patrick gave me a box of homemade cherry-pistachio biscotti. We gave Sam new bed sheets, a new pair of khakis from Uniqlo, and a box of Southern cheese straws. We ate our choice of bagels with spreads: toasted everything, poppy seed, and sesame bagels with chive cream cheese, whipped cream cheese, garlic and herb cheese spread, and golden-hour hummus. To drink: decaf PJ's southern pecan coffee with half and half; orange juice. Second course for some of us: homemade pecan pie, homemade chocolate gingerbread cookies, and homemade ruby-chocolate-dipped coconut macaroons. Afterwards we drove to Kerry and Mom Ryan's, bringing cards, gifts, and the foods from brunch. Mom Ryan got a large tin of many chocolate muffins with ziploc bags for freezing. Kerry got Southern cheese straws. They both received chocolate gingerbread cookies. We visited a few hours, and Mom admitted she was feeling much better than before. Sam drove us home. Rested. I began preparing some legal documents for Patrick and me for notarization. Dinner at home with Patrick: leftover Hawaiian food. Water to drink. For dessert, Patrick had a ruby-chocolate-dipped coconut macaroon, and I had peppermint bark holiday tisane. We watched What If…? s2:e1 then The Simpsons s32:e16 then Duck the Halls, a short animated film about Donald Duck wanting to not fly south for the winter so he could celebrate Christmas, all on Disney+. I walked in place while we watched. Patrick went to bed. Late snack: one navel orange.