Christmas Jammies

Margo has a tradition of getting us holiday jammies every year, and wearing them Christmas Eve. So this is us last night.

Holiday Hosting

Last night we hosted a neighbourhood party. It was our first opportunity to properly host people in about five years, since we just haven't had enough space until moving into our house.

Weeks ago we printed up invitations I'd designed and then went door-to door through our complex, popping them into mailboxes. (I'm hoping to make it easier next time - I collected contact information from guests and have shared the email list already.)

Margo has already been heavily Martha Stewarting our living room with holiday decorations, so her culinary contributions were no less impressive. We asked guests to bring dishes to share, but Margo came up with quite an attractive spread herself. The collection of sweets had childred goggle-eyed.

Margo also made vegeterian chili and cornbread.

I got to be a bartender again and made some hot spiced wine, chilled a few lagers and ales for guests whose beer tastes are less snobby than mine, and had a few homebrews on display to represent for the boxes of bottles on the floor nearby. I also served wines from the racks just above and later got to shake up a few mixed drinks.

Sarah and a friend chaperoned kids in the basement. They had some craft activities and later watched some Christmas animations and played board games.

It was great for us to finally host many of the neighbours we'd been having occasional chats with and get to know them better. We'll see a lot more of them after last night; a few plans have already been made. We're happy to be able to help grow some community in our shared housing - we've been wanting to do this for a long time.

Christmas Decorations

Margo and Sarah picked up a Christmas tree Friday and spent the evening decorating it. Margo is still adding finishing touches; this is what our living room looks like today.

We have lots of lights on our "street". Sorry this is so blurry but it gives you an idea how many lights there are.

And this is our house's contribution to the street's collection of lights.

Divination Dubbel

Today Sarah and I bottled my latest batch, a Belgian Dubbel style, just in time for the holidays (though it'll need a week to carbonate in the bottles). I ran out of bottlecaps with four to go, so I'm having a happy afternoon - you can't let it go to waste.

Christmas Comedy

Last night we caught the season's first performance of Under the Christmas Tree, Christmas-themed sketch comedy and improv from Table 23. It's been too many years since I saw live comedy, and overdue for some hearty laughs. Sarah enjoyed it too. Favourites for us were a reworded rendition of Baby, It's Cold Outside with an ex-boyfriend/stalker at the window, and a gospel-tinged hymn to the Visa card. The theatre is just a bike ride away, so I'm sure I'll be back for more soon.

Labeled

Today I bottled my IPA. I had to bone up on the bottling process again since it had been a few years. As I was filling the last bottles I wondered how much beer remained. More than I expected. I'd had one extra bottle I'd kept but saw there was much more still. Not wanting it to go to waste, I filled a glass jar (that coffee beans normally go in) and then started grabbing pint glasses. So after two full cases of bottles, I still had this much left over:

Even I would struggle with so much. I called a neighbour and texted some friends, and luckily the latter were free and willing to come to my aid.

The beer was flat, of course. Priming sugar was added just prior to bottling, so after about a week it will be more carbonated. But I thought it was pretty tasty. I was a bit worried with this being my first batch in some time, and also as I'd had to do some impromptu conversions with the measurements of the ingredients to go from 5 gallons to 23 litres.

I affixed labels to bottles to be sent home with our friends. I'm happy to be designing them again. With this design I'm going for a "warm glow in the dark of winter" look. Mike's Nanobrewery, which has formerly operated in Olympia, WA and Portland, OR, now calls Coquitlam, BC home (though I considered using Port Moody and Vancouver alternatively).

Scary Stuff

Last night we visited some neighbours for a neighbourhood Halloween party. Here's Devil Girl Margo and Scary Ghost Sarah. Sorry for the camera blur. I was Doctor Who. (Bow ties are cool.)

Tonight there's more trick or treating in our neighbourhood. Sarah went out after dinner, but here she is at dinner ...

... and here's Margo's outfit.

And dinner, pasta with eyeballs of meat (ground beef, Italian sausage, bread crumbs soaked in wine, Asiago cheese) with olive pupils. Mmmmm.