tree decorating

Hawling the 4ft pine solo up to the penthouse wasnt the big deal. The big deal was to find a suitable stand for it. After a couple of days, I've noticed the needles were losing their green but the fresh pine scent still filled the room. Every now and then when I walked by it, I could sniff it and pretend I was in some cabin out in the woods with snow falling. So I woke up on Sunday extra early, and stood on my feet for 3 hours and cooked a feast. First baking the chicken with chimichurri, then frying onion and garlic and browning the squash, zucchini and eggplant. then in went the different color peppers, then the tomatoes and thyme and a few bay leaves. Tossed up the romaine and poured in the caesar mix. It took enough courage to pop the prosecco cork and finally chilled mimosa, with a cup of tropicana little pulp that is. With sparkling wine in hand, the aroma of the Ratatouille hovered the room, an enormous pleasure to my olfactory sense. A rare treat. Then they came and consumed the meal, decorated the tree and each selected a tiny plush microbe, a special order from ThinkGeek.com. A Black Forrest cake was presented to T with a dark candle that says 'over the hill, too old to count'! He proclaimed surprised (really? not convinced!), and opened his bathday gift wrapped in robot papers. "What the heck is this?" It's a turtle light! That is, a sea turtle with a shell that glows in ocean blue, and illuminates with twilight constellation. since T loves astronomy and ocean, I thought this would be a great gift. I rather like one for myself actually. Then more gifts, a bottle of Castello Amorosa Fantasia, bracelets that glow in the dark and butt paste from J. then we watched the latest Darwin movie 'creation'. B, after a brief creation vs evolution debate, didnt want to stay and see the movie. that's how they are unfortunately. But the movie, although with an outstanding performance by Paul Bettany (albino in the DaVinci Code) , was quite boring. From the BBC, so one quite expected that. But it did explore the inner struggle of the scientist with his findings that didnt quite mesh with his ingrained belief, and that tore his conscience. The rain continued to pour outside and splashed on the skylight window while I did the clean-up, accompanied by Debussy. A lot of work for one day but way worth it.