The Second Annual Pork & Vermouth Christmas Lighting has just come to a close: the hedges are lighted; the doors are wreathed; and the porch is beaconed. It was a productive afternoon: Guido was able to easily locate the proper lights and cords; the propane tank had enough gas to slow cook a ton of pork; and the boys were active helpers. Yeah, "helpers."

Not everything mirrored last year's festivities. For one thing, we didn't burn the pork chops. And surprisingly, we didn't finish the entire liter of vermouth.

(I tend to think that those two facts are intimately related.)

So I'm calling it a night... I still have a fair amount of shopping to do -- I'll see if I can get that knocked off tomorrow. In the meantime, I'm eyeballing the remnants of that vermouth bottle -- drinking the stuff seems to relieve some of the fierce back-pain I've been experiencing recently.

Bring on the vermouth!