my friend sandi is very fond of saying “you can’t be serious” when you explain you haven’t tried something. upon hearing my mother had not tried caviar, sandi did the entire, “you cannot be serious” schtick until progressing on to, “in this day and age, i don’t see how it is possible that….”

i try to avoid that “you can’t be serious” statement. especially about food. so when my girlfriend susan (aussie) explained that she had never had pumpkin pie, but kept hearing about it, i decided this was a perfect opportunity to:

a) make her a pie

b) make a COUPLE of pies (you cna’t make just one pie crust) and take the other pie to Christmas day lunch.

so i made the pies. really, the crust wasn’;t great. i was using a new shortening i didn’t like and i was in a hurry and used my hands instead of two knives to smooth the shortening into the flour. but, the pie was great…is great and i am quite pleased.

i took the still very hot pie up to susan’s (i gave her half a pie, the other half is for marianne), and had the satisfaction of watching her take the first mouthful. granted, susan and paul were pretty satisfied already, it was 7.30 and their kids were in bed. but she did seem to like the pumpkin pie. so tick that gastronomic experience off the list.

i think next year i am going to have to make a pumpkin cheesecake. i have a sudden craving for it and a really nice recipe for it.

it is officially Christmas day, and Christmas eve passed very uneventfully… we attended the Christingle service at st john’s cathedral. the only reason we attend that service is because it starts at 5pm. if union church’s service started at 5pm, i would attend that one. but theirs is at six, and can i tell you the difference it makes getting your kids home, bathed and fed and in bed by 7.15 vs. 8.15? HUGE DIFFERENCE!!!

the service was lovely, and the kids were well behaved. we went with the pheasants and sat in the exact same seats as we had last year. at least we had seats! in front of us was carys’ great friend danielle, and halfway during the service, when ella went to sit on andrea’s lap, danielle came and beside carys.

sela woke up at 5.45am today and has been tired since. whingy is a bye-product of tired. she nearly didn’t come to the service because of her attitude, but at the end, we let her, because we believe in grace! she was sitting on my lap, and i was giving her cuddles, and although the shadows under her eyes were massive, the tension and anger was easing out of her body. at “hark the herald angels sing” i noticed that there were tears in her eyes.

was it a Christmas miracle? was sela, overwhelmed by the music and atmosphere, repenting her repulsive behaviour and about to beg forgiveness? it was like a hallmark movie of the week! i leaned foward, and just as the line God (tess) and sinner (sela) reconciled rang out, i asked her, “what is wrong?”

and she replied, “my bunch isn’t tight enough and my curls don’t look nice!”

so she was the first in bed, but the whole family watched the old version of rudolph the rnr infront of the television, while eating sausages and plain white rice. the kids thought they were in heaven, until they saw the carrots.

heaven on earth. it is pretty wonderful when you consider that your home is as wonderful a place as anything you can imagine, simply because of the fun things you allow, or the rules you decide to abolish for the night.

enjoy your heaven tomorrow, whereever you are.