My wife and I drove to the restaurant Mignon in Plano, where our reservation was at 11:30 a.m. Mignon used to be a traditional French place, but now it is a "retro French steakhouse", which is a shorthand way of saying that the regular menu has some French touches but is closer to an upscale steakhouse these days. When we arrived, we were seated immediately. The restaurant was busy but not crowded. They had a Christmas buffet that was delightful--turkey cooked with sage butter, dressing, salmon, short ribs, ham, sweet potato casserole, mashed potatoes, green beans with almonds, broccolini, hard rolls with sesame seeds, butternut squash soup, bibb salad, and a host of other sides and desserts.
I limited my plate to the leaner things--the turkey, the salmon, the green beans, and so forth. When I went back for seconds I limited myself to the salmon, but perhaps over-indulged a bit. Yet like most holidays, I find the focused holiday meal easier for self-restraint than other meals and snacks. We both were so full that we did without the dessert.
My brother sent me a Facebook message showing off what I got him for Christmas. He has taken up electric guitar recently, and takes lessons on-line from a guitarist in Austin. I got him a wah-wah effects pedal. I had wanted to get him an inexpensive multi-effects guitar pedal, but our local Guitar Center required a 3 to 5 business day heads up to get them in. I was shopping on the Saturday before Christmas. Since he is learning from a blues guitar perspective, I figured he would enjoy a wah-wah pedal. He sent me a link to a Soundcloud posting of his playing a song using the pedal. That was fun.
After lunch, we took Beatrice for a walk. We did not go as far as we often do with her, as she seemed to tire a bit early yesterday. Then my wife and I went on a longer walk in Glendover Park. The weather turned pleasant yesterday afternoon. Later in the day, I walked in Suncreek Park in Allen. I liked that I heard the call of a Red-Shouldered Hawk and then hiked over and found the hawk perched in a tree.
Sunday evening we opened presents. This worked out well. The few gifts we exchanged and received were just right. Our Christmas tree, though not put in place until December 23, is perhaps my favorite one of the 28 or so we have had. I wonder if this is an annual thing, though, with every tree being the favorite.
I fell asleep too early last night, but still got a couple of the gingerbread cookies my wife made Monday. We will send most of those to my nephew.
This morning I got up early. I decided to microwave two eggs for breakfast. I tried a new experiment. I have some skim-milk string cheese. So I broke up a stick of that into very small bits and mixed it in with the eggs. This worked out well--though the flavor of the eggs did not change that much (I had wondered if it would make a vaguely omlette-like difference), the consistency of the cooked eggs improved. The cheese apparently added a little body to the mix.
I theorize that I like those 45 or 50 calorie cheese sticks precisely because I am indifferent to uncooked cheese in general. If I were a cheese buff, then the down-edited skim version would annoy. But since I am not enamoured of the original, the bowdlerized imitation actually tastes pretty good to me.
I must go into the office today, for what will amount to the last busy day of the year (though Thursday and Friday will also feature things to do).
I enjoyed Christmas, and look forward to the coming days.
from Dreamwidth, because two posts of the same text are twice as nice