Having the kids for an extra day this year is nice, although the prep time I would usually have to get ready has been a bit tricky due to other events and circumstances. Deadlines for the paper are of course a day earlier and trying to get final details for a piece can require a touch of creativity. In the case of this week’s story, it’s a student I’ve been covering for a few years who does these incredible toy distributions. I’ll take a couple of things from last year’s story to weave in as needed.

Except for poinsettias, decorations are in place. Hubby can pick those up today. I don’t have the final grocery list for the kids coming, so I will get what I do know to take us through the first couple of days, then take one or more of them to the store to get the rest on Sunday. I can also hold off getting the coquito from Chefs on the Run because one of the Horizon Divers staff did send some home with Hubby yesterday. For those not familiar with it, coquito is the Puerto Rico holiday drink instead of eggnog. Similar, yet lighter and of course made with rum. It’s another one of those drinks that goes down very smoothly and should be sipped slowly.

We will be taking part of Christmas dinner to the friend who is hosting and I have almost everything I need. As another of the holiday habits we picked up in Puerto Rico, we will have seafood tonight. Instead of the full blown “seven fishes” meal which really is too much for only two of us, we’re going with only lobster bisque and salmon. I’ll get those on the way home this afternoon. The actual meal can be done in two ways, which is serve multiple courses to get to seven different types of seafood or make a seafood stew – a popular approach – containing seven types. Even in using a small amount of each in a stew makes a batch and this is not a dish that freezes well.

Okay, Hubby is finally getting two days off even though he does have to start again on the 26th. Merry Christmas to all.