Monday Musings

Hello Monday!!

Our weekend began on Friday evening with the girls, their violinist friend, and I playing some holiday music for the Waterloo Theatre prior to their performance of "The Man Who Came to Dinner".  We spent a couple evenings practicing and working up some music for that.  It was a lot of fun and we think we did a pretty decent job. We did learn a lesson, though, and that was that "winging it" on something we didn't actually practice maybe isn't such a good idea.

Saturday was our first big family Christmas celebration.  We traveled about 3 hours away for a nice dinner and gift exchange.  We got to meet our newest family member, Zoey, and she is adorable.  The girls did a little "cousining", which is always fun for them.  Our girls are the oldest of the cousins group on that side, and they have fun playing with the younger ones.  It was a smaller Christmas than normal as some of the family was sick that day and others had car trouble.

Sunday was relaxing, with not much on our calendar other than going to the musical "Befana" at the Lamppost Theatre in the evening.  While grocery shopping, I saw chestnuts in the produce aisle and thought, "why not"?  So at home I tried my hand at roasting chestnuts.  It seemed like a Christmasy thing to do.  They did not turn out perfect, but were not horrible, either, and the girls and I actually really liked them.  I learned that I should soak them in water before roasting so they aren't quite so dry.  I guess we really are looking for that soft, chewy texture rather than a crunchy one.  Hopefully I'll get it a little bit better next time.

"Befana" was a really nice production.  We have never gone to one of the Lamppost Theatre's productions before this one.  It is a very small theatre.  They were very creative with the use of projections as set pieces.  It worked beautifully and we were impressed.  It was a dessert theatre production, so after the show was over we were served coffee, hot chocolate, and our choice of dessert.  I had apple caramel cake, which was delicious.  KD got the chocolate torte and Angelle got peppermint poke cake.  We tried each other's desserts and they all got a great rating.

Their interpretation of the story of  Befana was very nicely done.  We all agreed that it had a good message yet it was funny, and very entertaining. I love the story of  Befana.  She is the Christmas witch, after all, I mean, she does fly on her broom delivering presents to good boys and girls!

None of us wanted to go to school today.  It seems like it should be on break already.  We are not quite done with our concert season as Angelle has a chorus concert yet tonight.  That should be the last one, though, and then we are ready for Christmas!  We are looking forward to all the delights and surprises that come with Christmas Eve and Christmas Day for us.  Parties, celebrations, friends and family.  We will deliver our "reverse Advent calendar" on Christmas Eve to a homeless shelter or food pantry.  We will decide together where to take it.

I hate to say it, but I still have shopping to do!  Luckily, I get a day this week when everyone else has school or work and I don't to get it all done.

I hope everyone has a wonderful and festive Christmas week.  I am still planning on doing a Tarot Tuesday and Witchy Wednesday post, but will probably take Friday off.  It's Christmas, after all!  have a magical Monday!