Merry Christmas to all of you! Thanks for a wonderful year of sharing. I look forward to a new year of new bfs and wonderful experiences and sharing times. Sandy

Belated Merry Christmas to all. Especially to Triciae, who was on my mind a lot this holiday and will be during future holidays. Dear Wonder Woman, I hope you are doing well, where ever you are. Thank you for showing me what courage and strength and kindness are. We drove down to the Bay Area for the holidays. Christmas Eve we had dinner with our good friends in Berkeley, raw oysters with mignonette, cracked crab, and the traditional Buche de Noel. Last night we had dinner with other good friends in Richmond, tenderloin, mashed potatoes and a warm cauliflower-brussel sprout salad. I made half of the tenderloin, cut pieces 1" thick and tied them into rounds, pan cooked, with a sauce of reduced white balsamic vinegar, Muscat wine, shallots and garlic, butter, sauteed mushroom stems, blended smooth, then simmered over whole mushroom caps. No recipe, just made it up. Our hostess roasted the rest of the tenderloin with a red wine and shallot reduction. We were supervised by a friend who is a head chef at a large hotel and, for the first time in many years, didn't have to work on Christmas day, but was nonetheless pressed into service which he did with good humour. I've been negotiating a stressful matter at work for the past few weeks. As of Dec 24, we were uncertain whether our little business unit would be shut down and I had prepared myself to be jobless come Jan 1st. That all got resolved satisfactorily at noon on Christmas Eve, final document review pending, so for the first time in a month, I was able to relax and unclench. It was nice.

Merry Christmas to y'all!!! Hope everyone enjoys whatever holiday you celebrate!!! It's Christmas in the Florida Keys for us...my dh and I have been here a week and my sister and her family are joining us today for Christmas week...best Christmas ever!!! And yes, I have completely critiqued the kitchen in our rental house and it's pretty awesome actually!!!

Same here, we got a light dusting Christmas eve that wound up barely covering the grass. It was gone by noon on Christmas day. But, Mother Nature has a make up in store for us. Not sure it will make it to Minneapolis. I am 50 miles north of Madison, Wisconsin. ------------------- ...WINTER STORM WARNING IN EFFECT FROM NOON MONDAY TO 6 AM CST TUESDAY... THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE IN LA CROSSE HAS ISSUED A WINTER STORM WARNING FOR HEAVY SNOW AND SLEET...WHICH IS IN EFFECT FROM NOON MONDAY TO 6 AM CST TUESDAY. THE WINTER STORM WATCH IS NO LONGER IN EFFECT. * EXPECT A WINTRY MIX TO DEVELOP AROUND NOON MONDAY AND THEN DIMINISH AROUND 6 AM TUESDAY. * THE HEAVIEST SNOWFALL RATES WILL OCCUR BETWEEN 3 AND 9 PM MONDAY...AND COULD BE 1-2 INCHES PER HOUR. * TOTAL SNOW AND SLEET ACCUMULATIONS OF 6 TO 10 INCHES ARE EXPECTED. A LIGHT GLAZING OF ICE COULD OCCUR MONDAY NIGHT. * WINDS WILL GUST IN THE 30 TO 40 MPH RANGE. LOOK FOR SIGNIFICANT REDUCTIONS IN VISIBILITY AT TIMES. * TRAVEL WILL BE TREACHEROUS BY THE EVENING COMMUTE.