It's Christmas Eve

This is looking east from where Auntie Violet is parked. I took the picture just as the sun was starting to set. I love the way the tops of the mountains are reflected in the sunlight as the rest of the countryside starts to turn dark.

As the sun sinks further, the reflection of the sunset is only in the sky --

The pink only last a few minutes, then the dark totally descends...

Over the years we've spent Christmas Eve in many places. Christmas Eve dinner has always been special. For many years, it meant fresh Dungeness crab to crack and feast upon. I can remember trips out to Bow with Son-in-law Scott to buy fresh ones. Some years it has meant fresh tamales as our Son-in-law Todd has a deft hand with masa harina.

I can remember one night when we visited Daughter Dawn and Todd in Santa Cruz, Bolivia. Dawn and I had made and baked sugar cookies that she wanted to share with her neighbors. Due to the humidity, the pink frosting we made just didn't want to set up and we ended up with very sticky cookies. Her neighbors, who weren't used to home baked treats, seem to enjoy them greatly anyway.

The last few years we've been in the South -- either in Arizona or Florida -- and we've gotten together with friends to go to Joe's Crab Shack for a crab meal. It's been good, but they serve it hot...

Since this year none of our friends are with us, I tried to find seafood shops in the area on the internet. I called a couple I found, but none had Dungeness crab. (King, snow or softshell crabs are just NOT the same to a Northwesterner!) We decided to take a chance, and headed for Costco in hopes they had gotten in more (I'd seen some a couple of weeks ago when we were there.).

Sure enough, they had some, frozen solid from Alaska. I bought two and we headed home. We made a stop at a Basha's bakery to pick up a crusty loaf of bread on the way. Once home, I put the crabs in cold water to start thawing them, cleaning the shells, gills and innards off in the process.

I made a couple of small green salads; sliced and buttered the bread; and we feasted. There is more then enough crab left for omelets for Christmas morning breakfast. Life is very good.