Now You All Get to Look At The Slick Family Christmas Slideshow (that isn't)

Okay, this is what you get for reading my blog. You're going to be forced to watch the Slick Family Christmas slideshow.




Okay, I lied. If I were more of a techie, yeah, yeah, I probably could have figured out how to make this a slideshow but no such luck, I had to cut and paste every freaking link and have I mentioned how much I hate this new thumbnail thing? Does anyone out there use Photobucket with Blogger and know how the hell to make it resize the way it used to do automatically? If you know wtf is going on with this, I am begging you to email me the answer. Thumbnails really sucks. For whatever reason, the above two pics are the only ones I could post regular size, the rest are thumb, but certainly worth clicking on if you are still here reading and haven't fled my site screaming yet.

So the first shot is our obligatory yearly pic of the tree; the second is, trust me, just a fraction of the wrapped gifts, which spread from under said tree into two rooms by the time we were done.

Eric decided he didn't want to miss a Christmas morning here so he slept over with his beautiful significant other, Katy, but unlike other years, neither Eric nor Julie woke us up at 7:00 a.m. No, they drank that demon alcohol into the wee hours of Christmas Eve, feigning innocence the following day but the jig is up, I found the empty bottles. So in the end, it was our genius dog, Monty, who got us up, because yes, he knew it was Christmas morning as you will see in an upcoming photo. But one photo I do not have is that as soon as he saw a solitary ray of sunlight coming in from a crack in the blinds, the dog literally tried lifting us both out of bed by digging under our backs with his nose and paws -- and I truly believe it's because I still had J&E stockings in our room and they were filled with chocolate so he had that clue, too, since he slept beside them all night -- anyway, Gary went downstairs to make coffee, the dog followed him, and as Gary filled the pot with water, he heard a tearing sound behind him and out of all the presents under that tree, apparently Monty can read his name on a gift tag because he picked out one of his and immediately began unwrapping it with his teeth.

So here's one of Eric and Julie coming down the stairs to gifts of wonder and delight, and notice their way cool Christmas headgear.





Even the dog has it going with the haberdashery and yeah Julie can't help but kiss him and I know, I know, what a fabulous photo. Thanks, Gary! (But I'm the one who yelled "Ooh ooh get a pic of that!)



Here's Julie shooting me a look because I bought her make-up from Sephora as a stocking gift and Julie is so naturally gorgeous she never wears make-up but I just thought it would be fun.

"Sephora make-up isn't tested on animals," I offered lamely after seeing her skeptical expression.



Aw, I love this one of Julie and Eric spontaneously hugging after exchanging gifts - Julie, determined to turn Eric into a chef, bought him an immersion blender. Eric, ever practical and tired of being her human version, bought Julie a tuner for her bass.



"What's in this big box?" Julie wonders. Check out her Yes t-shirt. Is she a geek after my own heart or what?



"Oh God, Mom bought me motorcycle boots. Make-up and black leather boots. Good job, Mom. Mother of the Year."



Okay, so maybe she's the only geek. She did keep those deely boppers on all day. (Though of course I adored that)

By the way, I'm kidding. She assures me she loves both gifts and is wearing said boots today.

Eric looks puzzled because the box he is about to unwrap weighs about as much as a feather. What can it be? Notice Eric, who is decidedly not a geek, is wearing a Bob Marley t-shirt.



Why it's a hat. Not his usual style, but I worry he'll catch cold. Though I just saw a show on PBS the other night which said that whole heat escapes through your head thing is a myth. Truth is, I liked the hat and was running out of ideas for stocking presents.



Julie agrees the hat is cool and she's in a great mood because she's just opened part one of her main gift which pretty much told her what that gift is. Oh, let's get real here. She picked out her gift, sent me the link, and I ordered it so she knew what it was all along. It's a Canon camera and it's really nice and that's all I know.



Okay, Eric now knows he's opening his major gift. He thinks he knows what it is, but he's not sure...



Yes, Eric, your father and I caved. It's a new macbook Pro. Julie engineered that purchase as well so I can't tell you anymore more about it other than it's the top of the line and she's jealous.



Here's two shots of Julie with her new camera.





We realized we were starving all of a sudden and I totally blew buying something decadent for breakfast...I was really freaked out that I lost a week flat on my back the week before and had to stay up until 2:00 a.m. wrapping gifts...anyway, Julie said calmly, "Don't worry, I'll throw something together."

And so she did. Scrambled eggs with hot sauce and fresh cracked pepper, Pink Lady apples sauteed with butter and cinnamon, multi-grain toast with butter and fresh strawberry and blackberry preserves.



In the meantime, while we were busy stuffing our faces, Monty didn't think anyone was looking...





How wild are those photos? That he positioned himself next to a shopping bag which said "Believe". I don't think Gary or Julie or whoever took that photo realized it at the time, but it's amazing.

As is the fact that once again, the dog figured out which gift was his, tore it apart, and that one was in a cardboard box yet but yes, it was food and he is part beagle...

Now here's my educated guess about the next two shots. Julie wanted to try her camera out by taking random photos of the (messy) living room.




So it ended up being the world's most awesome Christmas. Gary got a Canon HD10 camcorder along with Rode video mic, and a bunch of CDs, Julie and Eric got so much stuff I feel embarrassed to list it all here; I got basically everything I could ever want as well but favorites include a rare CD I've been searching out for a while and really, really nice black leather gloves, some very special books picked out especially for me by Eric and it's like he read my mind because two of the books were on my to buy list and the other is a coming of age story written by a 91 year old man which looks hilarious...oh yeah, I also got a brand new mac blah blah blah I know there is a recession but I live in the moment and I did my part in trying to restore the economy and who cares if we have to eat cat food when we are retired...besides, let's get real, cat food costs more than people food, anyway, so that's a dumb analogy...anyway...let's move on to the next main event, which was Christmas dinner.

Ah yes, another extraordinary culinary experience at Casa Slick.



Julie's prep table with plates of swiss chard, arugula, and a green olive and freshly made in front of our eyes mozzarella salad. Oh wait. That's another story. Julie and me shopping on Christmas Eve for ingredients like fresh bread from Sarcones and white asparagus. It just wasn't happening, but we did pretty good despite our last minute rush. But that in itself makes for a separate blog post, and if I have it in me, I'll tell you the whole sad story. Just know that she tried to kill me. Not intentionally, mind you, she just forgets I'm not 22 like she is, can't run, and do not consider a ten mile walk holding bags which weigh twenty pounds each after spending the prior week on my back in agony a "piece of cake"...which, by the way, I would have loved to have had but she wouldn't let me. She also starved me to death on that trip but again, that's a story for another day.

"I want you to eat healthy, Mom."

Okay, as far as Christmas dinner, yep, she made good on her word. Below is my dinner - seared scallops in a sauce made of Greek yogurt, lemon, and a drizzle of honey served over arugula and garnished with chopped tomato. Mmmm....



Broccoli rabe ravioli topped with roasted garlic oil and wilted swiss chard (and a Sarcone's seeded roll) for Gary, Eric, and Katy:



Eric and Katy chilling out, waiting to be called to the table by the High Priestess of Culinary Delights...



Ah, finally, ready to rock...



Eric and Katy chilling some more; Julie is the photographer...Gary and I are already upstairs wiped out.



So a good time was had by all. Katy, Eric and Julie played Scrabble until 3:00 a.m. though when I came downstairs and saw the board, there were words like "Leroy" on it and no, no, kiddies, Leroy is not a word and you can't use proper names in Scrabble and...oh, who cares...it's just so cool that we all got to have one more Christmas together as a family...

And that's a wrap to Christmas, 2008.

Oh, P.S. Katy bought Eric a brand new bike, Eric bought Katy a camera kind of like Julie's, and the Adrian Belew Power Trio has added some new shows to their 2009 schedule - Julie, Eric and Adrian will be playing at Blueberry Hill in St. Louis, MO on April 17 and at the Riverbend Music Festival in TN on June 10 - don't know who the headliner is but last year it was the Black Crowes...more dates in April and June to be announced soon. Stay tuned!

Later,
xo