Christmas 2022
It's so nice having some time off. Most days, I try to do something (clean, car maintenance, cook, etc) before just being lazy. So I feel like I've been productive and relaxed.
I've been trying to schedule a get together with a few of my high school friends at one of their cidery (bar). Since people are busy, it keeps getting delayed and moved around, but I was able to meet a couple of friends. I arrived around 6:30, but ended up leaving after midnight! So it was a nice time. And I was also able to get a nice Wawa hoagie too.
We mainly chatted while trying lots of different types of cider. I got two flights to try different things, then at some point, Christian (co-owner) just brought us around the back to try things from the vats. And it was nice to talk about random stuff like work, life (someone's expecting), and the past (nostalgia). Hopefully we'll be able to meet up every so often going forward.
That was last Thursday night, which originally was supposed to be Friday night. It was moved at the last minute (someone going to Hawaii) which worked out well. Since I needed to do some cooking/prep on Friday. For my side of the family, we were meeting up at Hugh's with everyone bringing food. Angie was making lamb soup (fake Icelandic) and I was making Cornish pasties (fake British). I've never made Cornish pasties before, but it wasn't too bad. I was nervous about the dough since my pies often have no structural integrity, but it turned out well. The filling was pretty easy (although I made too much). The only thing was they were a bit dry and I had to substitute rutabaga with turnips and beets.
Some of them look better than others. The red is from the beets, not blood!
We were doing two gatherings on Saturday! First, we went to Benihana to meet Angie's family (11 people) for lunch. I haven't been to Beninhana or hibachi in a fairly long time, so it was nice to have. Plus, there were very positive children to support the chef. The food was good and more than I remembered. Afterwards, we went Angie's sister's house. We opened presents (Henry has to enforce order) and had cake. It was one of the kid's birthday, hence the cake. It was also less hectic during presents since two of the kids were not feeling well and one was working, so it was just the two youngest. Since we were getting together with my family afterwards, we left somewhat early to get home to cook the food and drive.
For my side of the family, there was way too much food, but it makes up for missing Thanksgiving. In addition to what we brought, there was a ham, mashed potatoes, fried rice, chicken curry, crab legs, sweet potato casserole, salad, corn, and I'm sure I'm forgetting other things. OH! How could I forget my favorite balut =) And there was brownie cheesecake and table cream fruit salad. So there was lots of eating, the opening of presents, then dessert.
Presents for Henry
Since I'm a child, I'll go over my presents. From top left, there's a Baby Yoda (or "Grogu") cookie jar (Hugh), Earl Grey tea (Angie's mom), comfy "golfing" pants (Angie), Humble Pi book (Joy), Sherlock Holmes collection (Julie/Tim), World War Hulk collection (Hugh), Resident Evil 2 Remake (Ben/Jasmine), Marvel Legendary Venom Expansion (Howie), Marvel Legendary Ant-Man Expansion (Julie/Tim), set of Squirtle/Warturtle/Blastoise (Howie), and the Last of Us 2 (Angie's mom).
I feel like we get lots of resistance to it, but I heavily advocate having lists so people don't just waste money. If you are going to exchange presents, it's nice to be able to see what people want. I constantly get "I don't know what I want", but if you think that, think about what other people think! And that doesn't mean you have to stick strictly to the list either. Like I'd say the Baby Yoda is possibly my early favorite and he didn't really come from a list (although I am super excited to finally play Resident Evil 2).
And what's a Christmas post without pictures of a tree and a Santa?
Angie is really good with getting decorations from our travels. And it really makes setting up the tree extra fun since it's like a trip down memory lane!
And a sant-dog busting out of his costume!
A great thing about the break is that I've been able to focus on reading. I finished Lucifer's Hammer and started the Sherlock Holmes collection. I'd say that I enjoyed Lucifer's Hammer, but I do feel it's very unfocused. I liked the general story of the novel, but I kind of feel that there were several characters that were unnecessary. But there are a ton of characters so you're going to like and not like some. I also felt like some of the plot lines don't really go anywhere, but again, I guess that's the disaster aspect. I also don't think the title suits it since they always say "Hammerfall" or something similar; I don't even remember if and when they say "Lucifer's Hammer". But with all that said, I enjoyed the book's story and explanation of things. I'd recommend it for disaster science fiction.