Christmas Extravaganza, Part I

Yes, the Christmas celebrations have begun.  (And you might recall from last year how much I like Christmas.  If you somehow forgot, you can refresh your memory from last year's posts here, here, here, here, here, and here.  And from the year before that here, here, here, here, here, and here.)

This year it is some of the same, although I'm doing some new things too!  We started out with baking cookies (not surprisingly).  The first round included almond crescents, Santa snacks, apricot squares, and rum balls.  I'm just getting going on round two, which consists of pfefferneuse cookies, sugar cookies, and molasses crinkles.

Where outings are concerned, for the bargain price of $10 I was allowed to attend the SJA Christmas concert.  Is it a high school concert?  Yes.  Is it clear that they are high schoolers?  At times, yes.  But sometimes they're really good.  And I love choral music.  And I get to sing along.  And I saw some of my old teachers.  So, all in all, totally worth it.

T and I also went to the opening night of festivities at the Missouri Botanical Garden.  They do a night of celebration for members, when the garden is all yours.  Our first stop was the Gardenland Express, which this year has a traditional pagan theme of trees and presents.  Then we wandered around the second floor looking at the wreath exhibit (turns out this is also an auction? I didn't know that.).  Props to the guys at the Dierberg's floral department, who did a darn good job with their wreath.

 Train cars wrapped up like presents!

My first new holiday adventure this year was Christmas at the Cathedral.  First things first, though.  We stopped for dinner at La Gra in Dogtown on the way to the CWE.  They call themselves a tapas restaurant, but they're really not.  If you go expecting that, you'll be disappointed.  Also if you go expecting subtlety, you'll be disappointed.  Much of what we got was driven by one single, powerful flavor: the hummus plate by garlic, the arugula salad by red onion, the Charlie's Special by basil (which I don't mind, but beware if it's not your favorite), etc.  Most everything was good, but not great.  T got the white wine sangria, though, and I easily could have sipped my way into a wicked hangover on that stuff.

Then off we cruised to the cathedral for the holiday show.  The first half consisted of selections from Handel's Messiah, while the second half was more traditional carols (including some audience participation portions!).  We had great seats, which made it easy to hear the soloists.  I was a little concerned for people in the back that they might not be able to hear them, but otherwise everything was simply lovely, and it's a phenomenal setting for Christmas music (or really music of any type, probably).