Christmas Dinner/Friday + Michigan Hoops Win Thread

1.Mother in law made some delicious prime rib 

2. Indy Matt got me a framed and matted Fab Five photo for the MgoBasement! (His own idea and money as a 14 y/o - bright future! ?)

3. Yes - my two siblings and I zoomed a surprise exercise bike gift for our Dad who just got over Covid and turns 70 in 1 month - and is still practicing Cardiology with excellence to boot!

Merry Christmas to you XM - the official emcee of MGoBlog Christmas!

Lasagna with my wife's scratch made sauce, daughter and son in law came over.  Wife had to make two lasagnas, one with and one without meat. Daughter is not a meat eater. They got here early, 7 am and went home before the UM game.  Great day.

Plus MSU lost so perfect Christmas. 

Had two Zoom family gatherings (my side in morning and wife's side in afternoon) - still not anywhere close to the feel and atmosphere of a true family meal.

Seems that the "thing" to get people this season is food.  From gourmet meats, specialty items, premium candy, exotic sauces... apparently people in my family believe that we all might starve in this pandemic.

Happy holidays XM

1. beef roast/prime rib. Really small affair so no tales this year...yet 

2.  My kids are at the age where the are enjoying the fun parts of the Christmas (ie Santa, opening gifts, etc.) and to see them so excited is enough joy for me. 
 

3. Yea. I zoomed with some folks today. I’m used to it. Sign of the times

Christmas dinner: started with a fancy cheese, prosciutto, and smoked salmon tray, main course of beef rib roast, cheesy mashed potatoes, green beans with shallots and mushrooms, and cranberry-pecan bread, and then a surprise dessert: a flourless chocolate cake with a chocolate ganache topped by a fresh raspberry glaze. The last my wife thought I had bought at a local store or bakery because when could I have found time to make it? There are advantages to only needing six hours of sleep when everyone else is getting eight plus taking naps! For me, creating excellent food for my family is just another way for me to express my love.

Dinner and clean up just finished, so I missed the basketball win, but still worth it. Not sure if I could have found BTN on my mother-in-law's cable here in AL, and at 91 she doesn't bother with internet, so I'm working from a mobile hotspot so streaming it was probably out.

Gift: from here until the end will be another year with my wife. And with her mom still doing well, that also is a gift.

No Zooming, I do that enough as a teacher. Just many good old fashioned phone calls.

Happy holidays to you, XM, and to all the M faithful who read this blog.

--Ron

1. Woodford reserve and northern harvest. my 3 year old wanted to show off for the in-laws and decided to nosedive Into his wooden play set. Looks like a legit rhino.  Fortunately politics have not come up yet. 
 

2. My MIL can’t read for shit and opened the Apple Watch I got for Mrs Bluenoser. Otherwise a pretty sweet hockey set up. 
 

3. facetimed with the parental unit. Was happy Motherglobluenoser see her rhino grandchild.  
 

merry Christmas to you XM and I look forward to that pint at the backlot summer 2021 

1: Sippin’ on some Cone Head from Zero Gravity and had some leftover spiral cut ham for dinner today.  Going with the rib roast tomorrow.  Gonna really have to get after it hard in the gym on 1/4

2:  I got a nice Goldbely gift certificate and some bbq sauces from around the country.  Wife got a Dyson Airwrap and loves it. Christmas has been a lot of fun this year with an 18 month old running around!
3: Had 3 FaceTime calls today with people all over, which was nice.

My best gift was self gifted. I got me and Eastside Jr. both a Nerf gun. We had a lively dart gun war this morning. Needless to say, I took a nice afternoon nap. About to tackle some Tito’s with Blueberry Simply Lemonade.

Nebraska doesn't have a pulse. It needs Epi, Bicarb, and Cal Chloride.

Solid Christmas with my parents and brother. Prime rib and crab legs for us. Amazing meal.
 

Then watched Michigan get a solid W. Michigan looked a step quicker than Nebraska at times. Dickinson has been a blast to watch. That quick post spin he had was awesome. I’m amazed at how quick he can get into a shot. He looks really comfortable down low. Mike Smith is looking great, too. Really comfortable on the floor and not forcing anything. I thought Franz looked great today, too. I’m wondering if the time off has helped him heal up a bit. Overall I’m really excited to see where this team goes. They have some great pieces, but they need to clean their turnovers/defense up a bit. 

1. Old Fitzgerald 14 w/ leftover prime rib

2. My youngest boy was like Randy on a Christmas Story, excited at every present because he loves the act of opening more than the present itself. My girl has been wearing a princess dress all day long and bossing everyone around. Now she's just commandeered the last of my prime rib while I've been typing.

3. No zoom, we had family over last night. Literally one person from each household has had surgery in the last two weeks, so every adult has been recently tested for covid and is negative.

Absolutely stuffed. For dinner, had a field roast, macaroni and cheese, corn casserole, stuffing, all topped with gravy with fudge cookies for dessert. Plenty of mimosas throughout the day as well as a few beers. That after breakfast burritos this morning (and leftovers for lunch).

Merry Christmas to all my fellow MGobloggers ??!!!!

Just finished cleaning up the kitchen after a prime rib feast, too many sides to list. Washed it down with some St. Bernadus ABT 12. Thinking about a little dessert (Blanton's, thanks buddy!!).

Definitely a different year not seeing the extended family or traveling to see our daughter.

Great win, will watch later on dvr.

Stay safe everyone and as always

Go Blue ???

1.  Mother in law made a nice ham for the 10:30 am Christmas dinner.   Lol

2.  Junior got an Xbox Series X.  He was geek’d

3. no Zoom. The entire family got together.   

Beef tenderloin (awesome gift from work), roasted veggies, bacon and balsamic braised Brussels sprouts, roasted cauliflower, bottle of Cab (also work gift). Perfect Christmas, hardly mind that I have to be up early for work at this point. Time for a movie and snugs with the wife. Cheers to all! Pos bang that bball win!

The only thing that has me not as impressed is the lack of fans in the stands, I understand you still travel, but without fans is it a true road game? None the less I think this team is good, and has a chance to be great if he can get more consistency with Williams and Brooks

1) Beef tenderloin with horseradish cream sauce, potato latkes, orange beet salad. 

2) My parents gave us a decent sized Omni Hotels gift card, and told us to name a week over the summer and they’ll watch what will be our one year old while the wife and I go on vacation. It’s been a tough year for the both of us (as it has been for everyone, obviously), and as much as we love our son, our lives have 100% revolved around him since the day he came home. Comes with the territory of course, but any parent will agree those times are exhausting. We’ve been juggling all of that along with significant changes in our jobs, and it will be nice for the both of us to just take a week next summer to unload all of that and go away. To have time to ourselves and only ourselves. 

Salmon and lobster tails... Not sure why but I'm not about to argue with a new mom of a 9 week old baby. Merry Christmas, everyone. ?

We do the big meal on Christmas Eve (Alaskan king crab legs, beef tenderloin, roasted potatoes, and green beans), and I think I'm still digesting. There are various appetizers out tonight, but I couldn't eat anything if I tried.

However, tomorrow we break out the new air fryer for toasted ravioli. Excited for that!

1) Porthouse w/ au  gratin potatoes 

2) Best Christmas present ever happened again this year - romance is wonderful.  Also, expectant daughter recovered from covid.  Baby shower stuff was in abundance.  

3) Several zooms, many texts, 3 drive-by drop-offs of gift bags

Turkey with all the trimmings here, our favorite holiday meal.  Will be working on the leftovers all weekend.

No Zoom today, just a couple calls, texts and emails.  I think we're all OK with that, too much Zoom in 2020.  A nice low key day.

1) I made ribs from the recipe posted by fellow mgoblogger WindyCityBlue. Amazing recipe the whole family loved it 

2) My daughter got a toy dump tuck / snow plow like the size of those tonka sandbox toys. I have never seen her so excited and happy. We have a truck for our family car which is why she is obsessed with trucks at the moment. 
 

3) We are at my moms. She has been at our house for the lease month and a half watching our kids so we wanted to spend Xmas at hers. We video called all our other relatives though. 
 

Happy Holidays and let’s all look forward for 2021 which should be better than 2020 (Famous last words)
 

Iowa lost @ Minnesota in OT.  The B1G meat grinder continues

Polish peasant traditional dinner (Wigiła) last night.

Pierogi w/potatoes, cheese (tarog), potato mushroom, pork w/Polish spices, plum w/cinnamon, cherry.  Kutia (wheat berries w/poppyseeds, honey, and compote).  Latkes. Pickled herring.  Home cured sauerkraut.  Four kielbasa, fresh, smoked, double smoked, and kielbacy.   Beets.  Carrots.  Horseradish.  Vodka. 

A very nice barbaresco.  
 

Pizelle, struffola, shortbread.

deep sleep...

1. Xmas meal traditions kept: breakfast mid-presents, including a marzipan stollen, homemade monkey bread and a cold chick fil a nuggets tray heated up.  Tradition superseded; rather than the standing rib roast, we went for filet mignon, king crab legs and salmon. Something for everybody.

2. Fun seeing our youngest (9) get each of his “top three” wants, our middle schooler realize Christmas money helped him get his savings to a point where he had achieved a personal goal (buying a Switch) and our oldest truly surprised at some fun things we got her. It never gets old.

3.  Yup!  

I made our traditional standing rib roast with Yorkshire pudding Christmas dinner even though only three of us are here for Christmas.  Got it nice and medium rare in the middle.

Best present was probably a catnip toy for my sister-in-law’s cat that we’ve been taking care of.  The cat went absolutely bananas then collapsed in exhaustion.  “Real” best present was my wife getting the Pfizer COVID vaccine this week because she works at the local hospital.  She has an autoimmune issue, so she’s also on the high risk side.

We did FaceTime with my daughter who is in Boise.  She’s doing the clinical part of her Physician Assistant program, so she’s dealt with some tragic COVID cases the past 5 months and getting COVID herself would really screw things up.  Least risk is to stay there.  She was also lucky enough to get into a COVID vaccine trial this week.  Based on her reaction to the shot, pretty sure she got the vaccine and not the placebo.

Here’s to staying safe and having a more normal Christmas in 2021.