When I asked my mom what she wanted to eat for Christmas dinner, she suggested hot dogs. I doubt she seriously thought I would take her up on that offer. But I couldn’t work up a lot of enthusiasm for the notion of wrestling another turkey into and out of the oven — those things are heavy! And I didn’t have enough time to plan and execute a multi-course meal. So, I grilled really good hot dogs on the pink Traeger pig, and we ate them while we played Scrabble and watched The Bad Seed for about the millionth time.
Now if you haven’t seen The Bad Seed (1956) or if you haven’t seen it recently, you should watch it (again). Patty McCormack was nominated for an Oscar for her performance which really is mesmerizing and slightly hilarious. This is a great mother-daughter movie, too! My mom and I have seen this movie a dozen times and it never fails to cheer us up.
All in all, it was a good Christmas. I boiled shrimp that I got at the market in Bucktown yesterday, and we had shrimp cocktails. Then we had hot dogs! For dessert, we had a chocolate roulage, my signature "house" creation. My mom beat me at Scrabble as usual! She also brought me a really cool Royal Doulton Bacchus mug with a wonderful bottle of dessert wine tucked inside. I'm glad I didn't kill myself cooking for days because I think we both enjoyed just hanging out and relaxing. Maybe I'll wrestle the turkey next year. But spending time together was what we enjoyed this year.
