Christmas Day

Christmas day was tiring, but fun.

We woke up early, opened presents, brined the turkey, had breakfast (pancakes, and maple/elk sausages for me), watched Ratatouille (one of our presents), made some lunch (salad, eggs), then spent the afternoon preparing dinner.

The turkey came out well, although it confirmed what I thought was already true - my probe thermometer is out to lunch. Fortunately, I had both timed it and used a pop-up timer since I'd already thought the thermometer wasn't working properly.

In any case, with all that backup turkey-testing, I was able to get the turkey properly cooked, and it was one of the better ones I've done. The gravy was good, but not exceptional. I haven't made the stock yet, but that'll come. We also had orange beets, carrots, beans, purple and sweet potatoes, stuffing, apple pie and ice cream. Yum. We also tried a tofurkey, which was unexceptional; we probaby won't bother again.

After dinner, we had coffee and played Monopoly. I wasn't doing very well (almost out of money for several rounds), then finally made a good trade and everything suddenly turned around, and I spent the rest of the game collecting everyone's money and building houses.

Actually, one of the things that playing Monoply makes me realize, is that I wouldn't be a good exploiter. Even in Monopoly, which is clearly a game, I have a hard time taking people's money when I know it's going to cause hardship, even in-game hardship. It's hard for me to watch friends and family mortgage all their assets in order to pay my exhorbitant rent, even in a game. That's a little silly, but I can't seem to switch off the empathy just because it's a game.

Anyway - it was a good night.