Adventageous

Presents started coming in almost two weeks ago, and of course I didn't wait to open them.  Chocolate, cheese, books, and cards to fix on the wall -- all very delightful.  The skies also delivered, with some big aurora on the solstice, as well as bright half-moon light and long-trailing meteors.  Solstice Silent Dance Party successfully traveled from the Antarctic to the Arctic.

I faced up to a self-imposed challenge tonight and tempered chocolate for the dipping of truffles and other items.  It didn't really go right, but at least there are now deliciously enrobed sweets.  A group of us also decorated sugar cookies, some less traditionally than others.  We have an army of pride-rainbow snowmen/persons and my raisin-bedazzled candy canes mixed in with wreaths and stockings.

About every third day, one of us night cooks cleans the deep fryer.  This is one of my more technical tasks, requiring screwing on a drain pipe, opening and closing a valve, floating creepy gunk on water, and cleaning around the heating element.  (Note: most of my job is moving chicken fingers from a big freezer to a little freezer to the fryer to a plate.)  The old oil gets dumped in a big plastic cube outside and, evidently, the maintenance guys burn it for some sort of fuel.  I bring all this up because, as it's difficult to pour the oil without spilling, we have attracted and -- it feels wrong to use this word in such a context -- nourished a large flock of ravens.*  I've counted as many as twenty shuffling around, cawing in human-like voices, pecking at the grease-laden snow surrounding the waste bin.

*whoa...an "unkindness," or "conspiracy," or "treachery" of ravens

Uhhhh, so, with that, merry Christmas!  Like the ravens, may we all feast on fat things, and look forward to the new that is coming.

our giant cafe tree

coming back from a walk about 3pm

Lords of the Fryer Oil