Christmas Nativity 2023

Everybody piled into the Ark to make the journey to visit the new baby.

Stuffed animals in a woven basket making their way to see the Baby Jesus.

Meanwhile, Cmd Data was organizing the away team of Wise Men from the East. He’ll make sure the Wise Men get to where they need to go.

A Data Star Trek ornament leading an away team of ceramic wise men figurines.

Shepherds from the countryside have arrived with their sheep and cows to marvel at the new baby.

Christmas nativity scene with ceramic figurines.

The Ark has arrived, and it didn’t take long for everybody to disembark.

A new visitor this year is Smok the Dragon, from Krakow Poland.

A small figurine of the Wawel Dragon stopping by to see the new baby.

Update 2024-01-06: The wise men from the east made it thanks to Data’s skillfull navigation.

Christmas Nativity 2022

Christmas eve, and Mary and Joseph are settling down in the stable.

Mary and Joseph have arrived at the stable. A few shepherds are hanging around tending to their animals.
Mary and Joseph have arrived at the stable. A few shepherds are hanging around tending to their animals.

The animals are on the way in the Ark. This year, they’re joined by two Christmas lobsters. If you didn’t know that lobsters were present at the birth of Jesus, then you should watch Love Actually.

Animals on the Ark making their way to the stable. Two Christmas lobsters have joined the party.
Animals on the Ark making their way to the stable. Two Christmas lobsters have joined the party.

Christmas morning! The shepherds have come to the stable with their flock to see the new baby.

Shepherds and some of their flock gathered to see the new baby
Shepherds and some of their flock gathered to see the new baby

The wise men from the East have gathered to marvel at the new star. As usual, Lt. Cmdr. Data has joined them as their guide.

Wise men have gathered to marvel at the new star. Lt Cmdr Data guides the way with his star charts.
Wise men have gathered to marvel at the new star. Lt Cmdr Data guides the way with his star charts.

All the animals have arrived at the stable to see the new baby!

The animals, joined by the Christmas lobsters this year, have left the Ark and arrived at the stable. Some of the tree ornaments hitched a ride as the Ark passed by.
The animals, joined by the Christmas lobsters this year, have left the Ark and arrived at the stable. Some of the tree ornaments hitched a ride as the Ark passed by.

Merry Christmas!

Season’s greetings and all that!

Hoping everyone had a decent enough 2022. Have a good and safe holiday season, and a mostly uneventful year for 2023!

Christmas greetings

The dogs would like to wish everyone a happy and safe holiday filled with lots of treats, biscuits and chew toys.

Getting ready for Christmas dinner

Now that we have a house, the wife decided that we would be doing Christmas dinner at our place this year. That means instead of us heading out of town, the horde will be descending on our little house.

This year, instead of the traditional roasted turkey, we decided to try cooking it on the grill. So to practice, I threw my first turkey on the grill yesterday. We stuck with Alton Brown‘s tried and true Good Eats Roast Turkey (from the Romancing the Bird episode. The bird was brined overnight and then a basic BBQ rub spread liberally over and under the skin. Placed a drip pan under the rack over the two middle burners and fired up the two outside burners. Made a little foil packet filled with mesquite wood chips and tossed it on the grill. Once everything got nice and hot, on went the turkey and some sweet potatoes. Roasted everything until the thermometer in the turkey read 165°F (I never roast anything without a thermometer anymore) and everything came out just about perfect. The only problem was an area on the back of the turkey that didn’t get cooked all the way. Must have been near a cool spot on the grill. Not a place where there’s much meat for eating anyway, and the rest of the bird turned out fine. It didn’t come out quite as smokey as I was hoping (a lot of the smoke escapes out of the grill), so I think next time I’ll try to fashion some kind of foil tent to put over the turkey and wood chip packet. Still, it was a mighty tasty bird.