For Christmas we took the long drive down to South Carolina to visit my maternal grandmother and see my family. We amused ourselves in the car by starting a John Iriving book on CD, The Son of the Circus, and whiled away the time chatting. It was lovely seeing everyone, going for morning walks, swapping presents and sharing photos. We even had a ( Read more... )

An early taste of Winter came on the 18th and we stayed inside to watch the grey swirling of large wet snowflakes. Only traces remained by the next morning. In a strong effort to ignore the weather, we've enjoyed the first seasons of two tv series: Dexter and True Blood. Both were based on novels and a thrill to watch. Julian finished playing Wall- ( Read more... )

 Our fifth anniversary was celebrated at our new find - Sichuan Gourmet in Billerica. We had dan-dan noodle, spicy chicken wings, kung bao beef, and twice cooked bacon. I was happy to finally have dan dan noodles after having read about them in Shark's Fin Sichuan Pepper. The food was spicy and delicious.

For our part, we've had another week of ( Read more... )

 Happy New Year! Yesterday we celebrated New Year at home with about 6-8 inches of snow on the ground. We watched Prince Caspian on the new Blue Ray player. For dinner we had leftover pizza and also deviled eggs and mince pies to keep us going until midnight. It was a bit strange trying to appreciate the extra second given to this year but I think ( Read more... )