This year we are hosting Christmas.  Family is visiting, the house is bustling.  We’re having a great time.  Our traditional Christmas Eve dinner is Dungeness Crab.

Where can I find fresh crab?  I called two local reputable fish mongers and neither was willing to hold crab for me!  More surprising, neither of the two cooked the crab themselves.  They bought fresh cooked crab wholesale from somebody.

I called Costco and found that they had crab and they opened at 9:30 Christmas Eve.  Great.  At 9:10 off I drove to Costco to find the parking lot full.  They opened at 9:00.  It was now 9:25. Rushing to the crab station, I found people milling about waiting for their crab, but nobody was taking orders.  Then I noticed a line snaking down an isle.  Oops, I queued up in line about 20 people back.  I reached the front of the line to order, thinking they could run out when a trolley full of what must have been 300 crabs arrived.  There was no way they were running out of crab that morning. Costco cooks fresh crab on site!  Saved!

The crab was everything I had hoped for at dinner last night.  The only crab I’ve ever had that was better was with Jerry and Michelle on Whidbey Island.  We caught that crab ourselves!

Ellen will cook our traditional turkey today.   Kathy cooked two pies last night.  Clearly I’ll gain weight this week.