Less Hustle More Coffee

What’s under that Christmas dress? lol. I know ya wanna know! Blogmas Day 22, let’s find out! What Christmas Wine are you serving? (Also, to come…we have a Mimosa Board we are doing on Christmas Day!)

I don’t know a lot about wine, but I enjoy sipping it. This was recommended as a good deal for its price. So we went with the 9 Iron for Christmas Day for a red. I had stuck the white, a lovely buttery Chardonnay, in the fridge that we bought for Christmas Day. George poured me a wine tonight and I looked to see what kind and he had opened our Christmas Day white. ::sigh:: So we have to go back to the grocery and buy another. Should I hide it this time? lol. He said it was in the fridge so he thought it was good to go. NO, it’s in the fridge so Christmas Day we won’t say “oops we forgot to chill the wine”. Anyway, we are enjoying a nice chardonnay tonight. I wondered why it was so good. lol

Google says that 9 Iron Wines is a US veteran owned winery. From Monterey County and the Pinot Noir pairs well with Chicken and Turkey and fatty seafood – like salmon, it says. Good with creamy pasta dishes and cheeses. Pinot Noir is a wine that is often suggested to go with Christmas Dinner meal. ;-). Isn’t that special? I like mine chilled. Suggested to serve from 55 to 60. It really enhances the experience to have it slightly cooler than room temp. Especially in the summer months. I imagine we will serve it room temp for Christmas unless we put in the sun room for a few minutes as we will need the room in the fridge.

I also bought a 2021 Chateuneuf-du-Pape, a French red blend wine. It is recommended to drink a Chateuneuf-du-pape two to three years from vintage date. So probably not it’s best yet, but it’s in our wine rack and probably will be consumed sometime in the next week or so. The French label called my name. It just looked all sophisticated and a serious wine, lol. What do I know? Google says it goes good with barbecue, ribs, burgers, stew, and lamb. I bet it’d go with my spaghetti too. The name means “new castle”. And it’s from the Rhone Valley region of France. Expected to taste of plums, raspberry, blackberry with a second tone of pepper.

I had bought wines for one meal really, and I should have bought wines for both Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. But, it’s ok. We have one more grocery run to do. And I betcha somebody is probably getting wine for Christmas. I did not buy George alcohol this year mainly because of his gout situation. I am also trying to drink less of it as the older you get, the more nutrients it can suck out of your body. Your body is like a bike going up hill. You can’t get traction. You really need more and more nutrients and alcohol will just suck them right out of you. So in 2023 I plan for it to be more of an occasional treat than a daily table suggestion. I will be sharing that journey with you. And it will be in one of my challenges to go one month without any alcohol and see what changes it makes – one that I will be recording a journal on and will do a report out on any changes at the end of the month – stay tuned for THAT.

Here’s tonight’s white – I think it was a JOSH chardonnay – very good. Not expensive but probably a little more than I normally pay. I mainly drink inexpensive wine unless it’s a special occasion and even then not too pricey. Although I will say we’ve spent a few on the Quilt wines that friend Lauren got me into – during special vacations and holidays.

And that is my wine entry for the day.

That said, it’s Christmas and tonight I had a second glass of wine. The winter storm warning goes into effect in 10 minutes. We have up to an inch expected – maybe two inches with pockets of four! What does that mean? They really have no clue so they put it all over the board, lol. You can’t help but laugh. See it for yourself.

Now that we are HOME for the HOLIDAYS I can show you the tree with the presents. I always hate to do that before we are home for good. So don’t be overwhelmed. We have a lot of family that we are buying for. And it also includes some of the other families delivery already. Brace yourself, there’s more presents coming. This is for aunt, uncle, Katy, Cody, River, Mom, and George and I to each other, and also for some friends, and then his sister’s presents to us. We also buy “lots of little things” and maybe a big thing or two. We love Christmas, and we also often wait til Christmas to buy things we need/want, so….we feel like it’s fun for everyone to unwrap a lot of little things, more fun. The living room will look like a bomb went off after about 15 minutes.

Tonight it’s on my schedule to make fruit baskets for some neighbors that we haven’t given anything to yet. And also to clean off and begin working on the Christmas table setting. I bought this new green runner in the picture above and also these pretty off-white candles. I said if I had time I’d start on the laundry tonight now that we are into the weekend. I have a PTO day tomorrow.

Well Katy and Cody and Little Roo arrived today while I was at work and stopped by to say hello to George and bring lunch. Whaaaaaat? I was at work. They teased me:

George says he wasn’t trying to make me jealous that jealousy is not a good thing. (Insert rolling eyes here). I told him I was just having fun with it. I don’t thing it is anything I need to ask forgiveness for, my goodness. It’s a good thing to want to ALSO be with your grandson.

And they always told me to lighten up? Geez! Buahahahaha!

Anyway, George’s physical went well and I was very surprised that they did not prescribe him blood pressure meds. He had told me he thought he had high blood pressure for a long time, but he only took his BP readings in the last two weeks and offered up to the doctor that he’d been both on meds and in pain and asked if that could have made it high. (Not really the doc but only a PA.) So they agreed to let him go without meds and he has to continue to monitor. I will let you draw your own conclusions. I just have to go with the facts. He was a little upset with me when I questioned their judgement about foregoing the meds and said he felt elated about the doctor appt until he talked with me and that brought him down. I told him two things.

1. I was only going by the facts he had given me of high BP readings in recent days, that he said to me he thought it had been high for a very long time and he himself had thought they would give him BP meds.
2. He always tells me not to let anyone else change my mood/feelings. I told him to take his own advice. (lol)

And I decided not to be made guilty over having made a decision based on facts given by very same person. It cracks me up actually that we even had this conversation. If the facts change I can develop a new opinion. Would I not be amiss to ask questions. A girl has to have a mind of her own and that mind is made up of information he gave. And I also know that he said he never wanted to be on meds and that he has avoided going to the doc the last 30 years, so naturally I’m a bit skeptical. So I decided not to feel bad for asking questions. I’m only a caring and concerned person for doing so. Everyone wants to make you feel guilty for something, make you feel bad, or judge you for something, or perhaps not let reality sink in and avoid the inevitable. Let them. I have done nothing wrong.

Merry Christmas. Yeeeeee ha. I think we need some festivity. So 2nd glass of wine for me. Maybe tomorrow will be chipper for all, less judgmental, less finger pointing and all fault finders put away. Ain’t nobody got time for that. Geeeeeez.