Black Friday

Because Cecily had gone Christmas shopping earlier in the week, she did not go today, and so consequently neither did we. It was a laid back day of reading and e-mail. I spent the morning talking to Becca and Cecily. James tried to get my laptop online, and discovered that it was rejecting the passwork without even reading it. Probably because it thought the router password was too short. When it was time for lunch, I fixed breakfast. I spent the afternoon reading e-mail, first on Chris' computer and then on mine after he got it online. I took pics of William playing his violin. He has great bowing technique. When I could no longer sit reading e-mail, I went into the kitchen to talk to Cecily and Becca who were making supper. On the menu: prime rib, Yorkshire pudding, cauliflower, salad, stir-fried veggies and twice-baked potatoes. Cecily took out the prime rib, and put in the Yorkshire puddings and potatoes. She called in Alfred to carve the meat. He discovered that it was all rare inside by carving the sides off of both roasts. So those pieces were left on the plate and Cecily put the roast back in the oven, removed the pudding and potatoes. Becca and I were salivating over the juicy rare slices of meat. When Cecily promised to look the other way, I ate two of them. When the roast was done, she put the potatoes and pudding back in the oven to finish cooking. Chris did the stir-fry. Then we sat down to eat. It was all delicious. I had seconds on all the vegetables except the potatoes. Again, the conversation was fun, mostly family anecdotes and computers. Yesterday we had discussed history, military life, TV, movies, Michele ( a favorite topic), kids in general, school, shopping, travel, books, etc. The kids left the table early to play. When their bedtime neared, they wrote in their journals, and climbed into bed with Magic Treehouse books. Everyone but Chris and I turned in for the night. James and Becca and the kids are leaving in the morning, as are we. Their trip back to New York will be shorter than our trip back to Huntsville. I am in a hurry to get back because we need to buy a fridge, washer, and dryer, all of which are on sale right now.