It did not have native Mac drivers, which was less than I had been expecting.

We got the thing in place, cables cabled, some stuff configured, and then dropped everything mid-setup to go to dinner at my mom's to celebrate the solstice. My brother-in-law reminded my mother that we have this old half-size violin lying around from when I was being taught, but never really learned, how to play it. Damn if my 4.5-year-old nephew wasn't nearly as good with it as I was back in third grade. 2.4-year-old less so, but hey. Their dad loves music -- they have various instruments around their house -- and my sister has the rhythm that I completely lack. Those kids are so lucky.

On our way out it was decided that I'd get the privilege of making the brandy sauce this year, to bring to my sister's in-laws for Christmas day, so I grabbed the book that we keep the recipe in and the cognac that we have in the house specifically for this sauce, because no one drinks it.

The book actually started its life as a scrapbook. It's full of newspaper clippings in the front, things we found amusing at the time, or ticket stubs and miscellaneous souvenirs from trips abroad. There are some pencil drawings my sister made as well -- a lot of really good copies of photographs from the sports section of the newspaper, along with some other odd sketches:

("Desk" is a greeting that my sister and I adopted from her first job out of college when she worked for a commodities trading shop, and reported calling a guy on the floor who answered the phone thusly.)

There's also this gem from a high school French teacher of mine:

Somewhere along the line we started to add "useful" things starting in the back of the book, like recipes and take-out menus or phone numbers of restaurants we liked. It's in this area that the recipe now lives:

Everything in this book, just about, was created or acquired or inserted some time during my high school years, when I was still living at home, and my sister was either living there or close by, and around all the time. It's a trove of in-jokes, some of which I don't understand anymore (there's a bit of index card with the number "10" written on it, the meaning of which is now lost to me). There's also a copy of a recommendation letter for me written by a colleague of my father's (who also taught at the university I ended up attending) that claims that I come from a "scholarly family of the highest order," whatever that means.

ANYWAY, WE TOOK ALL THIS home, tried to set up the printer some more, until I got too tired and irritable, and went to bed.

The next morning, we managed to set up the drivers to print from my laptop, and I tried to get D to open one of his gifts early, since we'd now set something up. He deferred until Christmas itself.

The day after that, Christmas Eve, I juggled attempting to scan things with the printer with attempting to make the sauce itself. We had plans for dinner at D's parents that night, and the stuff has to be chilled.

"How old is this stuff?" D asked, looking at the bottle of booze.

"VSOP," I told him.

"I can see that," he said, "but I'm thinking it's probably VSOP since it's been in your mom's house."

In my haste I failed the "gradually" part of adding the sugar, so managed to make a huge mess when trying to blend it with the sugar, and also failed the "stirring constantly" part of step 2, and it got way too liquidy. While I was on the verge of breakdown (it's hard to explain how critical this sauce is to Christmas in my family, and I've never had to do it solo), D defused it by deciding to open his gift then. He'd mostly guessed that the long, oblong box contained a version of Guitar Hero, with guitar controller. So I managed to put the failed sauce aside and get ready for Christmas Eve dinner with his family instead.

From D's folks, we got a locker of frozen meat, which will be great as soon as we dig out our grill.

Back at home, D determined to get five stars on every song on easy, and succeeded by about three in the morning. We only had to be at my sister's in-laws by, oh, 1 o'clock the next afternoon (my sister was going to host and have everyone over, but then her mother-in-law wanted to host even more, so change of venue).

I GOT UP IN THE morning to try the sauce again, added the sugar gradually, stirred constantly, added the cognac, and it went all to hell. I stirred it and threw it in the fridge anyway.

When D woke up, I gave him his XO laptop ('cause all the cool kids are doing it), and he gave me, among other things, the Monster Book of Monsters.

Soon after that, we had to throw the chilled sauce, egg white, and heavy cream in the car to head to Christmas supper.

We weren't doing gifts at this gathering, but there were some pretty cool toys anyway. My nephew's cousins had a marble run (out of which D created an elaborate contraption later on, while the kids were sledding), and my sister's father-in-law had a little remote control helicopter that the flew and crashed around the living room for our amusement.

There was a fire roaring in the fireplace, and after dinner, when the grown-ups were lingering around the table and the kids were back in the living room, they suddenly came running to report that the fire was burning down and in danger of going out. First it was my nephews' older cousin, then my nephews too. "Oh no, it's a three-toddler alarm!"

The sauce, once completed, came out a lot lumpier than it should have. It was probably chilled and unchilled more times than it should have been. Tasted the way it normally does, though. My brother-in-law wondered why there wasn't as much of it as there usually is (when we double the recipe and end up with a vat of the stuff) though I'm pretty sure it's his handwriting that notes that it's not necessary to make a double batch.

We got home in time to get in plenty more Guitar Hero that day.

THURSDAY MY DAD ARRIVED and we did my family's gift exchange then. Luckily my family is completely informal about opening gifts and is more about everyone having something fun to do at any one time, rather than having one person open something at a time, and everyone watch while that individual is the center of attention. The various gadgets that were given and received -- iPhone for me that had to be activated, MP3 player for my brother-in-law that had to be charged, and printer for my mom that had to be set up -- were pretty undramatic as far as oohing-and-ahing factor. I think my sister had more fun playing with a new hair dryer that had a retractable cord out of the box.

Anyway, between all this and the other gifts like books, shoes, and other clothing, I feel this has been a pretty decadent holiday week. I'm almost caught up on my Husi watchlist backlog (my justification for the iPhone is that I'll be able to keep up with Husi more often, from more places). I haven't thought a lick about work -- something I only realized as I was reading some other diaries here -- though as a result of all the various familial events (and, truth be told, some simulated guitar events), I haven't done anything on the WFC book either, sorry. Well, I still have a day and a half to do something on the latter. If I get my act together I might get this one done before the second set of five WFCs is over.

Happy flip of the calendar, everyone.