CHRISTMAS MEALS AND JOY

Did you know that our Milky Way Galaxy has a Christmas tree? New General Catalogue of Nebulae and Clusters of Stars (NGC) 2264 was discovered in 1784 by William Herschel, and is located 2500 light years away from Earth. These stars are only between one and five million years old. Some are seven times the size of our Sun, which is 4.6 billion years old. There is a smaller cluster within NGC2264 called the Snowflake Cluster (photo to the right).

The entire grouping is known as the Christmas Tree Cluster. NASA compiled renderings from multiple sources, their Chandra Observatory and NSF's NOIRLab Observatory, producing an animated image with the assistance of the Two Micron All Sky Survey.

We are dining well this holiday season. Here a dinner we had at the home of a golf colleague, Tommy and his wife Gail. 4,000 square feet home with a view from Diamond Head across the whole Waialae Golf Course, where the Sony Open is held, all the way to Koko Head. You can see the coconut trees W sign. I took no photos, but others did

The five golfers are, from the left, starting with me, David, John and Steve, with Gail in the middle. Tommy was grilling.

They featured steaks and salmon.

Gail is a noted artist. Some of her works.

Other holiday meals.

Roast pork and duck.

Chicken katsu and ahi sashimi.

Blue-fin tuna o-toro sashimi and pork chop with onions.

Pork tonkatsu and o-toro sashimi with hot sake and cold beer.

15 Craigside provided a Christmas Eve Dinner, which I ate in my room last night.

I like to enhance my take-out meals. Added onions and mushrooms to the braised beef, frying them in butter, and same for the fish and chicken. Added watercress and sea asparagus to the salad.

I provided the beer and Fisher Cabernet Sauvignon.

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