He knows when you've been bad or good

Five o'clock in the morning and pitch black dark outside: Winter Solstice with ten hours of daylight, fourteen hours of darkness, comes round this Time every December. If the cold drab darkness gets to you, this is your day.

IDK, I have five pairs of my prescription eyeglasses (yes, about $500 for the first pair at the eye center where they don't take my insurance, but $10 at Tyndall with my insurance), and I keep them scattered all over the "house" so I can always find a pair when I need them, but during holiday season I lose track of everything my seemingly disordered mind tries to keep track of, including eyeglasses this morning, so this is strained and pretty squinty. 

No eyeglasses, no lap blanket so a bit chilled and sneezing, and I have no idea where my ears are. WTH, I might as well end this paragraph with an exclamation point, eh?!

One of many advantages a computer screen has over books, magazines, and other printed matter is that the type size can be enlarged to where almost anyone can read it: just so here, just press command + and pop, pop, pop, into focus it grows, nomesane?

mug of December issue hot & black and it's just me and the Christmas tree surrounded by silence and darkness. 

If I treat this as a log or diary I do need to record that the standing rib roast of beef was perfect last evening. The cap was just as pink-red as the center, all because of the one trick that I learned online: take the roast out of the fridge, put it in the freezer for two hours (freezes just the outer inch or so of the fat and cap), sear every surface of it for two minutes in a 500°F cast iron skillet, then directly into the preheated oven at 225° for two hours or until the center temperature (probe thermometer) reaches 115°F, remove from the oven, cover with aluminum foil for half an hour or until the center temp reaches 124°F then uncover and carve. It was absolutely perfect, not one bit of gray cap, and rare to medium rare such that not one person wanted their slice cooked further in the hot skillet that I had ready, hot and waiting. Only the two char-seared outer slices, each of those two slices with a done side and a red/pink side.

About a five-nearly six pound roast, bone in, there were seven of us, and only a couple of bits and pieces left over - - 

one outside slice, which I set aside for Linda's noon dinner today. Joe is leaving about nine to drive to Tallahassee to visit with Tass & family and back tomorrow, and Saturday he is to fly home to Kentucky.

Christmas 2023 in two chapters this year, yesterday/today and next Monday, because everyone wants to see Joe! 

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Kristen's school lets out early today, and she's coming over for noon dinner with Linda and me.

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Thought from Anu Garg on word-a-day:

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY:

If there is a God, I don't think He would demand that anyone bow down or stand up to him. -Rebecca West, author and journalist (21 Dec 1892-1983)

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All for now, I think, just a log entry. The war news from both Ukraine and Gaza is horrifying, got no eyeglasses or hearing aids, my lap is freezing, and the last sips of coffee have grown cold!

Hoping you are the same.

RSF&PTL

T88&c