Christmas 2023, and The Gift of Candlelight

After stressful dreams I woke up early to send e-gifts and start on the Japanese pancakes.

To make the pancakes you have to whip egg whites to stiff peaks, and fold them into the batter.
Then you have to cook them at low temps and covered so that they steam. This is relatively doable if you have a griddle or electric range where you can get even, steady heat and also see what the surface temp is. But we don't have those, just our old deep frying pan with a lid.

And so one makes do.


I burned the first two because the griddle was too hot, and was frustrated and stressing out by the time Jameson joined me and decided he wanted to make a blueberry compote (I hadn't planned to make one because I wanted to focus on the difficult pancakes.) Once again I was reminded how lucky I am to have Jameson. He saw that I was tense and stressed, and didn't press me, just said cheerful kind things as he stirred the blueberries, and commented on how the second round of pancakes looked much better and would be fine. I don't deserve him. And the second round of pancakes DID turn out fine.


After breakfast we opened gifts!

Jameson gave me many lovely gifts including FOUR bars of dark chocolate in different flavors and percentages of cacao, a book of recipes based around different kinds of honey, and a funny shirt that says "Bread Is Life." He knows me well! Also, these adorable little mince pies that I'd mentioned to him once, he remembered that I'd wanted to try them (I'd been on tour and didn't trust I could finish them before the next travel day.) I tried one and they were shockingly good!


Along with several fun books and gift cards, Jameson's main gift to me this year was a cast iron bread oven!
Going to be honest, this is one of those one-use kitchen gadgets that I'd never have gotten for myself because really, the only thing you can make with it is rustic boules (and those you can make in a regular Dutch oven.) But now that it's here, I'll do my best to make us some tasty crusty breads. Going to look up some recipes, probably for a rye since I still have a lot of rye flour in the freezer.

Gift-giving was good all around this year. My younger siblings seemed to really like their gifts, I'm very glad about that. I appreciated everything that I got, and was pleasantly surprised to get a lot of comfy clothing pieces. My sister Kate sent two pairs of pants, I was dubious about them but after trying them on they were so comfy I didn't want to take them off!


And Jameson's parents sent some festive stripey pajamas!


My sister Raven especially went out of her way with my gifts: she got me THREE gift cards to restaurants along my tour route! The first one is GW Fins in NOLA, the next is Best Quality Daughter in San Antonio, and the third is Jinsei Motto in Chicago (which is an "omakase" experience and she REALLY shouldn't have!!)

We spent some time enjoying our gifts, had a light lunch, Jameson chatted with his parents and we spent some of our gift cards.
Then it was time to start prepping our fancy Xmas dinner.

Beef tenderloin rubbed in cracked black pepper and parmesan cheese, with horseradish sauce, mashed taters and steamed broccoli. And canned cresecent rolls, which Jameson stuffed with Boursin cheese. So fancy!


Yes, I overcooked the tenderloin. It's because we don't have a leave-in meat thermometer. When I pulled the roast out it was at 105F, and needed to be at 135F, so I tried to guess how much more time it needed. 10 minutes? 15? No idea. Apparently the answer was five minutes because this was the result of ten. Exasperated, I immediately ordered a meat thermometer on Amazon with a gift card. Honestly.

The rest of the night was quiet. We watched LOADS of Christmas movies including Elf, The Grinch, Home Alone, Emmett Otter, and Krampus. We each had a wine/cocktail and a slice of eggnog pie. It was a lovely holiday spent together. I felt perhaps a little bad for not being with my family, but also, it's not like family has ever come to be with me.

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Tuesday was so strange...I guess Christmas on a Monday in general feels strange!

I checked my data entry work page and not surprisingly, there was no work to be had. It'll probably be that way through New Year's. I mentioned to Jameson how very grateful I am for the two unexpected Christmas gigs (the Candlelight show and the Spanish church) which have helped make up for the lack of work.

In the afternoon we went for a walk around the neighborhood, and afterward Jameson was headache-y and I was just generic-tired so we sort of lazed in front of the TV. For dinner I fetched us some Olive Garden.

And thus it was that I was on the floor wrapped in my burrito blanket, chewing on a breadstick, when my phone rang.
It was the stage manager for Candlelight.

"Hi!" she chirped. "We, um, have a situation. The second trombonist had to go home. Can you come do the last two shows?"

I looked at the oven clock. 6:20pm.
The next show was at 7pm, and it would take me at least 5-10 minutes to get ready and leave the house.
I did a quick Maps check while she was on the phone with me, and told her I could definitely make the 8:30 and would try very hard to make the 7pm. And off I went.

Threw on whatever black clothing I could find (everything was clean thankfully except I couldn't find my suit pants so went with pull-on leggings), blow-dried my hair as quickly as I could, grabbed a water and my trombone, and tore off. I tried to drive safely and not be impatient, but my ETA was 6:53 and you have to understand that the show STARTED right at 7pm. This meant to make it at all, I'd DEFINITELY have to run.

Someone must have warned the guardhouse that I'd be coming in hot, because they let me through instantly. I peeled into what I hoped was a parking spot backstage, threw it in park, yanked my trombone case out of the car, and ran as fast as I could in my heels though the backstage lot, did not stop to clock in, just booked it through the sea of pedestrians to the stage entrance, threw my case down and slapped my trombone together.

As I breathlessly scurried to the trombone 2 seat the French horn section cheered and applauded, and the other two trombonists smiled.

It was 6:58pm. Two minutes.
One slow tourist in front of me and I wouldn't have made it.
(stock photo from Disney Food Blog)

The show went well, now that I've played the music once before it was super easy to lock in with the rest of the trombone section. Afterward, before we had even left the stage, the trombonist to my right asked for my contact info to give to his personnel manager. Turns out he's a member of The Florida Orchestra. He was like, "Yep, that was fantastic. Send me your info, we'll try to work you in for next season."

This, friends, is why I gave up two weeks of My Fair Lady.
I now have the chance to be sublisted with both The Florida Orchestra AND the Orlando Philharmonic, entirely because of this Disney gig. "Grateful" and "Mind-boggled" doesn't even begin to describe how I feel about it.

Back at The Traphouse (which is like the green room) I could finally take a deep breath and find out what had happened to the trombone 2. This was a different musician than the one I'd subbed for a few nights ago (there's a rotation of regulars, it's not just one musician doing all the shows) and it turns out he'd shown up with the flu and it got quickly worse. I messaged him and he reassured me that he was okay, just that playing with aches and chills and a fever is horrible so he opted out (No kidding! Next time just call out sick, geez.) I was glad he was ok...and applied hand sanitizer liberally for the rest of the night. Chatted with the other musicians, had a few Christmasy snacks, and very soon it was time for the second show which was much more chill since I wasn't coming in at a mad dash. The guest speaker was Steven Curtis Chapman.

Here's the only footage that I could find today of the show, and you won't see me, but in case you wanted to see what it's like.
(CLICK HERE to watch)
 

And that was it. I shook hands with everyone and drove home where Jameson was playing some John Wick game. I sliced myself a celebratory piece of eggnog pie even though it was late.  And off to bed.

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I slept poorly from adrenaline, and probably from eating pie too late. But it's ok. Worth it.

Breakfast and there was a little data entry work so I did as much as I could (about an hours' worth) then swept the front sidewalk and the pool deck, then a drive to get gas (in case I get yanked to Candlelight again.) And then some shopping for cheap black boots, because as I was running to make the concert last night I heard that my heels were broken and cracking further on the pavement, can't have that.

Back home there was a new and very tedious type of data entry available to do so I plugged away at it until dinnertime.

After dinner Jameson went out with some Jollywood friends (a belated after-party), and I vacuumed and ate misc Christmas treats and worked some more.

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So that was Christmas, for Jameson and I.
On Thursday we have a friend's New Year's party. Then of course New Year's itself. For that I'll trek to Whole Paycheck once more for blinis and caviar for Jameson, and whatever we decide on for New Year's dinner.

There are four more possible days for Candlelight calls, but after New Year's that gig is done.
And then on Jan 8 I go back on tour.