Election Celebration

     When Biden was proclaimed the winner of the 2020 Presidential race, I immediately missed Mike with a pang. Oh, how we would enjoy a celebration together! We might already have had a bottle of champagne in the refrigerator, ready just in case, and I would have cooked something special, and we would have sat down with such celebration in our hearts, so different from the moment in the middle of the night, four years ago, when Mike climbed into bed telling me Trump had won, and I cried. Now, if Mike were here, we would be enjoying the sudden wind of hope for our country that came blasting in with the election results.

    But, of course, Mike isn't here, so after that moment of missing him acutely, I decided I could celebrate anyway. So I went to town and bought a bottle of champagne and came right home to put it in the refrigerator. While it was chilling, I looked through recipe books and decided on crepes with champagne-poached pears that I would make with the Harry and David Royal Riviera pears a friend had sent me. Using half a bottle of champagne for the poaching, I reasoned, would keep me from either wasting the rest of the champagne or getting roaring drunk, which I didn't want to do. I made the crepe batter and set it aside, per instructions, to rest for an hour.

    Then, since Mike wasn't here to open the champagne, I looked up a YouTube video for instructions. Following those instructions I successfully opened the champagne. I poured half of it into the pot for the poaching, then refrigerated the bottle for dinner.

    I poached the pears, then made three crepes, filled them with pear slices, and poured over them the poaching liquid. I topped them with a couple of scoops of ice cream, poured myself a glass of champagne and sat down to eat. 

    But, first, of course, the toasts.

    First I toasted Joe Biden. Well may his time in office thrive.

    Then I toasted Kamala Harris and her beautiful acceptance speech.

    Then I raised a toast to immigrants. May their families never again be separated.

   I toasted the environment. Welcome back to Bear Claws (I hope) and good tidings to all wild things.

    I toasted good leadership in controlling the coronavirus pandemic.

    I toasted the possibility of reversal of our rapid decline into disastrous climate change.

    I toasted the warm welcome-back our allies will give us, especially in the Paris Accords.

    I toasted all people of all colors and ethnicities in this country: may you find peace and justice, which goes for all of us.

    Then I toasted or started to toast the end of the electoral college, but here I think I was veering into lala land. I don't think Biden said word one about the electoral college in his acceptance speech. Maybe after all these toasts I was getting a wee bit drunk. 

    Maybe it was time to eat my crepes.