Christmas Day and Elphinstone

The view from our kitchen window this morning as we prepare the turkey.

Pre-Hamper packing Toast

But first, a thick toasted slice of our own molasses bread. One of our hybrid loaves that we bake on a regular basis.

Packing

Yes, today will be day three of our yearly adventure in volunteering to pack hampers for the Elves Club of Sunshine Coast BC. They will start to be delivered on Saturday. When we arrived at the Gym on Wednesday morning it was empty, this is what it looks like this morning and more work to be done!

Santa Cause 2 - the excellent sequel

Last Night we held the second "Santa Cause" dance down at the Gibsons Public Marina and a good crowd attended, and they drank, and they danced to my clumsy DJ tunes. I don't know what the final figures are yet, but we raised a lot of money for the Sunshine Coast Elves Club.

A shout out to Karen, who out danced almost everybody, to Barbara Hetherington who shook a leg too, and last, but not least, Buddy Boyd and his good friend Gus from Gambier Island, who both spent almost the last hour on the dance floor.

An Even Number of Days

It is something significant to celebrate, and we have become used to celebrating a few things as there always seems to be a reason to party nowadays. Three days ago Karen and myself celebrated twenty-eight years married and we stayed at a hotel in Vancouver for a couple of nights and ate and drank like royalty. 
Today we have been retired a total of 3000 days, another reason to have a home made sandwich and a budget beer.

Salmon Night

It's Salmon Night in the household and we have a special arrangement with the local sockeye guy (as if there's just one....) and we get fresh ground sockeye trim at a third of the price of fillet.  The amazing thing about this substance is that when fresh, it has no smell whatsoever, does not even smell like fish (but leave it a day and it soon changes for the worse).

250 Grams of ground sockeye trim.
Chopped chili peppers (from the greenhouse)
Salt, Bran and ground black pepper.
Louisiana Sauce.

All mixed up, made into patties, fried without oil in a quality non-stick pan with steam cycling.

Karen informs me that I am her best husband/cook after these devils are cooked and will stay with me for at least another week. They will be served with small buttered potatoes and broccoli and washed down with a Tree Brewing Thirsty Beaver Amber Ale.