Christmas Day...

I would be lying if I said it was an easy Christmas Day, it was not...but it WAS a Great Christmas regardless.  Heard from my three kids, two via text and one via phone.  Had a absolutely wonderful Christmas dinner with mom, two sisters, brother-in-law, niece and her boyfriend, and of course, with my wife.  It is 9 pm, and all we have to do to leave tomorrow is empty the garbage, put away our extra steps, unhook electric, turn it on, back out, hook up car and off we go.  THIS TIME the disconnect switch will be in the "ON" or as they call it "USE" position.

A few things I learned today...

Loosing your best little buddy of ten years, Skruffy, is harder than I thought.

Mom was with dad for 72 straight Christmas Days...getting ENGAGED 72 years ago today, Christmas Day, and being with him each and every Christmas after that until today.

When you give and get presents early, as we did a week ago before we departed the first time, it is just not the same as when you see people open presents in front of you, and you in front of them.

My sister Sandy is finally on Facebook!!!!

Smoking a 19 pound Loin Strip Roast is as good as Prime Rib!!!!!!!!

Giving the Christmas Prayer after losing your dad a month ago and your best little doggie a day ago is not easy...but I got through it.


Christmas Dinner

One of the first things when we realized, due to our breakdown which turned out to be a stupid mistake, that we would be here for Christmas was to inquire as to what Sandy and Arny had planned for Christmas Dinner.  With only thoughts and no plans, I told them I would go to Sams and get a Loin Strip Roast.  (A Loin Strip is what a New York Strip is cut from).  They had none out in the meat department, but I inquired and a guy went back to their big walk-in fridge and came out with a 19 pounder. " WOW, is this the smallest you have?"  "Yes, it is...."  Well, $95 but we will have lots of leftovers for all.

Now, how do you cook this huge piece of meat?  Well, Arny had a smoker, one of the old fashioned BBQ smokers, sometimes called a "Oklahoma Joe's" or "Texas Original" or "Old Country BBQ", the list of names goes on and on.  Essentially, it looks something like this:

 

With Patti's daughter Ashley and boyfriend Vince driving over from San Jose (which, by the way, is where mom and dad 72 years ago became engaged...hint hint Ashley), we wanted to eat at 2.  Now to smoke this meat meant that Arny had to get the smoker going at 4:30, and put the meat on by 5:30.  I think he actually started just a bit earlier than all that, but by 2 pm we had dinner, and the Loin Strip Roast was the best, absolutely the best...and this is the first time Arny had cooked anything like this on a smoker (although we did put it on a BBQ for about 5 minutes per side, after we cut it in half so it would fit, around 1 pm.)  WOW, did I tell you this was as good as Prime Rib?  We all commented on how Dad would have just LOVED this Christmas Dinner, because he LOVED Prime Rib!  And we probably had 10 pounds of leftovers, of which a few pounds in our motorhome going to Florida with us (doubt it will make Florida though.)

 

 

We missed you two so very much...hope they served Prime Rib in heaven today dad, and Skruffy, I am sure you eat anything you want now, no Diabetes in heaven!

Hope Everyone Had a Wonderful Christmas Day...