My Dirty Old Town in 2019 - Page 6

SignalHillHiker · #**101** Posted **Dec 29, 2019, 10:01 PM**

Christmas Eve was our first big blizzard of the winter.

December 2019 by R C, on Flickr

SignalHillHiker · #**102** Posted **Dec 29, 2019, 10:02 PM**

December 2019 by R C, on Flickr

SignalHillHiker · #**103** Posted **Dec 29, 2019, 10:02 PM**

December 2019 by R C, on Flickr

SignalHillHiker · #**104** Posted **Dec 29, 2019, 10:03 PM**

December 2019 by R C, on Flickr

SignalHillHiker · #**105** Posted **Dec 29, 2019, 10:04 PM**

December 2019 by R C, on Flickr

SignalHillHiker · #**106** Posted **Dec 29, 2019, 10:04 PM**

December 2019 by R C, on Flickr

SignalHillHiker · #**107** Posted **Dec 29, 2019, 10:07 PM**

Going back for a second... December 23 is Tibb's Eve here. It's probably the biggest night of the year for house parties. I went to get beer and it was madness at the grocery. Traditionally, Tibb's Eve was an expression that meant never, like saying, "February 31st". So if someone owed you money, they might say they'd pay you back on Tibb's Eve. Then, around a century ago, it became the first day of the Christmas season when Christians could have alcohol. These days, it's a night you spend with your friends only, no biological relatives, a nice Christmas drunk with your buddies before having to spend time with family. It's always a blast.

December 2019 by R C, on Flickr

Christmas 2019 by R C, on Flickr

SignalHillHiker · #**108** Posted **Dec 29, 2019, 10:09 PM**

Christmas Eve at my parents. A lovely seafood snack. We started with mussels.

Christmas 2019 by R C, on Flickr

Then the filet mignon of the sea, cod tongues. Sounds gross but trust me, you will never taste anything better from the sea, except properly-prepared sea urchin. Everything else is LESS delicious than cod tongues, fried with pork scrunchions.

Christmas 2019 by R C, on Flickr

And the main course, stuffed squid.

Christmas 2019 by R C, on Flickr

SignalHillHiker · #**109** Posted **Dec 29, 2019, 10:12 PM**

Christmas Day we had a traditional "Cooked Supper", which is a specific thing here, not just a phrase. It's Jigg's Dinner with a meat entree, usually turkey.

Christmas 2019 by R C, on Flickr

Christmas 2019 by R C, on Flickr

Starting with the potatoes and moving clockwise: pease pudding, carrots and turnip, salt beef, cabbage and vinegar, dressing, peas, and in the middle is turkey with cranberry sauce. Mustard pickles, beets, and relish as sides.

Christmas 2019 by R C, on Flickr

For dessert, it's different in every house here. We don't have any universal dessert traditions. In my family, we always have a simple cake made with whatever berries my mother foraged throughout the year. This year, it was partridgeberry. She always makes either a custard or this sugary sauce. We call it caramel, but it isn't.

Christmas 2019 by R C, on Flickr

SignalHillHiker · #**110** Posted **Dec 29, 2019, 10:13 PM**

And then the storm was over...

Christmas 2019 by R C, on Flickr

And we drove out to the suburbs for another Christmas dinner at my cousin's posh place in the middle of nowhere.

Christmas 2019 by R C, on Flickr

SignalHillHiker · #**111** Posted **Dec 29, 2019, 10:15 PM**

This morning, it was still fucking snowing. It's very unusual for us to have snow on the ground for this long at this time of year.

December 2019 by R C, on Flickr

SignalHillHiker · #**112** Posted **Dec 29, 2019, 10:17 PM**

But then it stopped enough that jeddy1989 and I got out for a run. It took us an hour and a half to run 10 km slogging through the snow lol

December 2019 by R C, on Flickr