The Day After (New Year's)

You could also refer to it as "get the Christmas decorations taken down and packed and return the house to normal appearance" day.  Or the "enjoy the last of the college bowl games" day.  Maybe "last day before both of us return to work" day.  You notice the labels just get more down and negative in connotation.  

I'll be returning to the salt mines after a week and a day of freedom.  Used the time well as Geogal and I celebrated our 25th wedding anniversary.  We went to Estes Park and relaxed at the higher elevation.  No, no skiing or showshoeing or winter sports of any kind.  

Just relaxing.  

We did take some pics just outside the Stanley Hotel.  And no, we did not see Jack Nicholson.

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As I alluded in my previous post I enjoyed watching Geogal opening her gifts.  I got her new dishes, square ones.  Now even when we eat the most rural, cheap meal it seems fancy on a square plate or in a square bowl.  

Her other big gift from me was an iPad Air 2 (128 gig).  Her old iPad was a second-generation model from 2011 that was on its last legs.  

Both gifts went over well.  

The actual day of Christmas was, for me, exhausting.  Geoana and I did a Meals on Wheels delivery around 11:30.  Normally it's no big problem except this Christmas day the clouds decided to open up a deluge of rare December rain.  Fortunately the cloudburst moved on out before our actual delivery time so it could have been worse.  

Then, after returning home, it was time to prepare the prime rob.  The digital thermometer helped greatly.  Instead of the medium-well to well-done roasts I've served on previous Xmases we enjoyed nice pink medium-rare slices of bovine.  And it made great leftover sandwiches, too.

However the stress of cooking seemed to take a toll on me.  By the time we did a FaceTime call to my family (in the evening) I was spent.  My tasks during the day combined with less-than-usual sleep the night before finally caught up to me.  

However I slept real well on Christmas night.  

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Since Geogal and I were in Colorado we took advantage of our location and came home with posole corn, red chile puree and pork tamales.  Yesterday I did another of our cooking traditions and prepared posole made with pork chunks from our half-hog we bought last month.  I also heated up both mild and hot red chile sauce to please each individual palate.  

Happy 2017!!