Oh no, Teppy! Fingers crossed y'all feel better soon.

Elaine came through surgery OK, though they've pushed back her expected discharge date to the 27th. On Saturday we thought she'd just broken the tibia, but it turned out the fibula was broken too. We hung out with her yesterday evening until I had to leave to be one of the readers at my church's late Christmas Eve service (which is an annual favorite of mine, what with all the candles and carols).

We had our standard family gift opening followed by a late breakfast of waffles, but now I'm doing laundry because the hampers were overflowing and we were starting to run low on socks and soft pants, and Dylan is going back to the hospital in a few hours. Fortunately we don't do a major production for Christmas dinner with just three people. This year I picked it up from a catering service, so we'll just treat it like elaborate and festive leftovers and heat it up as the spirit/stomach moves.

So it's sort of a weird Christmas, but we're getting through it.

Emmett, Emily and Mia have left so Matilda and I will be doing cleanup today.

We talked about her less than we did at Thanksgiving, but Christmas missed Jacqueline more.

Still, we had a fun Xmas eve. Emily made a glorious beef filet tenderloin, and served Rhode Island Clam Chowder (neither cream like New England, nor tomato based like New York, but clam broth focused with potatoes. Clean, simple and savory).

Lots of laughter, but everybody crapped out early. I was the last one up at 10pm.

Morning started early because we had been told Mia would be picked up by 10am, so we were all out and up by 8:15. Lots of lovely presents. I got E&M both posh hotel style robes. Matilda got cowboy boot with roses on them. Emmett got a new chef's knife and a bomber jacket. Emily got pink Doc Marten Mary Janes. Mia got a variety of goth-ish flavored books.

I made steak and eggs for everybody for breakfast with Emily's homemade focaccia, and Mia didn't actually get picked up until Noon so Matilda had plenty of time to hang with her.

I'm going out for a walk now to see if the supermarket is open so I can buy some more pods for the dishwasher.

Tonight, Matilda and I will go see the Boy and the Heron in Japantown.

I never knew about that chowder. Glad you've had a nice day. My brother got me a signed copy of Rachel Maddow's latest book, so I'm on chapter 3.

Timelies all!

Hugs and ~ma to all who need/want it.

Tomorrow it’s back to work for me. Gary has the week off and Mr. S is on winter break.

I dread tomorrow's work day. I had so much I needed to accomplish over the 3 days, and none of it got done because I was too sick. I didn't even have enough brain to delegate. This coming week a new practice I am bringing up isn't seeing patients because the doctors are on vacation so I was going to have intense staff training, but nothing is ready, and now I have to be remote. I hope I can get some stuff ready tonight and tomorrow morning. Ugh.

The good news is that DH just called to ask me what leftovers he is to bring back and on the list was lobster mac 'n cheese. BIL is a seriously awesome chef and I am looking forward to this very much indeed. As well as the other leftovers, but ya know, the cheesy lobster more than the brussels sprouts, as much as I like those.

That sounds yum, Laura. Sorry for the work stress, though.

I'm now watching The Meg. I've completely surrendered to my monster movie two-day binge.

Jason Statham acting with a kid is cute.

My brother got me a signed copy of Rachel Maddow's latest book

I got that for my stepdad (not signed, though).

Our Christmas dinner is plain rice with an egg cooked over-hard. Hopefully everything will behave.

That was the tastiest rice in the whole world.

We also watched Elf, and then read the Wikipedia article on porridge (we were trying to think of other bland food to eat, and got caught up in wondering if "porridge" is just another term for "oatmeal" [SPOILER: "porridge" does often mean "oatmeal," but the term also encompasses other boiled starches like grits, cream of wheat, etc]).

I know you're all jealous of how exciting our barfy Christmas is.

I have seen congee described as porridge. What about gruel, Tep?

Gruel and congee *are* considered porridge! At least, according to Wikipedia.