Merry Christmas Eve!

Since my last post was 6 days ago, I have a lot to catch up on.

I finished reading Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows on December 18th and I was filled with a sense of loss.  What an incredible world J. K. Rowling created and what an incredible privilege it is to experience it with her.  I started reading The Philosopher’s Stone during the last week in September this year and shared her 4,951 page adventure over the next 10 weeks, page by glorious page.  It’s amazing to me how the story grew up with the characters. I think Harry Potter is a literary masterpiece.

I was so heartbroken to have come to the conclusion of this great adventure, that I immediately jumped into the screenplay, Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, but it was quite a disappointment and I rather wish I had not read it.  The characters are much less developed, and, the story is much less interesting.  However, I needed a great adventure to wean me off of my Harry Potter fix, so I started the Chronicles of Narnia series.  Since our last chat, I have also now read The Magician’s Nephew and The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe.  These books are written for children and lack sophistication, so I do not think I will read more of them.  Instead, I have started Outlander.  I will let you know how it goes.

To follow up on my Goodreads book challenge, my goal was 16 books and I read 26.  Still trying to decide what my goal so should be for next year. I will miss the Harry Potter characters terribly.

I have worked out only twice since our last discussion.  One with The Terra and today I ran on my own.

Below is my run from today.  I did this over hills, which presents a whole, new level of difficulty.

I also did that run with Drago, which presents its own set of challenges.  (Drago, who runs tethered to my midsection with a jogging leash, refuses to moderate his speed either going up or downhill.)

Today was a bad food day.  Yesterday was no so great either, because we are eating in the Christmas spirit (and if the Christmas Spirit shows up, we might just eat him too.)  Our Christmas menu for tomorrow is:

• Roasted tenderloin of beef served with horseradish cream sauce on the side
• Cheddar and sour cream baked mashed potatoes
• Sweet potatoes, mashed and baked with brown sugar and candied pecan topping;
• Cauliflower and broccoli au gratin
• Green beans with mushrooms and cream sauce;
• Green salad with radishes, avocados, cucumbers and French Dijon vinaigrette
• Homemade buttermilk biscuits
• Chocolate bourbon pecan pie
• Pumpkin pie
• Hand whipped cream

We had quite a feast tonight as well.  My mother in law made her famous green chile stew.  I made a lasagna, a butter cake, a gingerbread loaf with vanilla icing, and because the handmixer died, we hand whipped cream to go with it all.  I had better get up and running before I start cooking dinner tomorrow!

Wishing you and yours all the blessings of the season.