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No, I am not an orphan. I just prefer to retain what shreds of sanity I have by not attempting to fly during the holidays. After being stranded at Chicago Midway one night due to snow, I'm probably not going back east again until the spring.
Took a walk out by the water on Alameda Point in the morning with my camera as it was a nice day (photos are here). Cut out silk for my uchigi, then drove out to the central valley to spend Christmas Eve and Christmas Day with![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
mamapduck and her family, which is always a good time. dinner was basicaly hors d'oeuvres and cheesecake. For some reason the cheesecake never quite achieved cakiness in the center, so it was a bit more mousse-like this time around. Made serving quite messy, but it still tasted good. Cupcake is a charming baby, Boy is an excellent big brother.
Lily is still a Crazy Dingo Dog, but she loves me and I applied knees to chest or butt scritches as the situation warranted.
Attended my first and only Methodist Christmas service on Christmas Eve. The church was beautifully decorated, and the service was basically a series of carols with brief readings threaded between them. Felt very Christmas Lite compared to even a Roman Catholic low mass, but it was still nice.
As per usual, mamapduck had filled a stocking for me - various eats and drinkies from Cost Plus, the obligatory Satsuma, and this, because nothing says Christmas like a Hotei-sama snow globe. (Actually, nothing says, Get Back On Your Diet like a Hotei-sama in a snowglobe.)
There was also a biography of Victoria and Albert, which looks like it'll be an interesting read.
Had lunch and a delightful Christmas Day afternoon atmamapduck 's parents' place out in Jackson, complete with grandchildren careening about, handsewing (put in a sizeable dent on the uwagi!), and a reading from the Gospel of Damon Runyon, accompanied by hot Tom & Jerries. (I tasted mamapduck's, but declined, not being an egg-nog fan.)
Spoke to the family at home. All are well, everyone liked what I picked out for them. Surprise winner for the nephews was a bamboo mancala set I'd picked up at Cost Plus (along with a backgammon set and some flying pig gliders) before Miriam had told me what they might like. Evidently they were familiar with a computer version of the game, and sat down and played together all afternoon. I have a grainy cellphone photo from my b-i-l as proof.
OK, you want to know what the Christmas haul from back east was: Mom sent a check because she doesn't like putting credit card info through the internet. Dad and the girls availed themselves of my Amazon.com wish list and I received a gorgeous coffee-table monolith on the films of Akira Kurosawa, a DVD boxed set of four of his early films, and a copy of Mad In Translation, a collection of comic Japanese waka.
Took a walk out by the water on Alameda Point in the morning with my camera as it was a nice day (photos are here). Cut out silk for my uchigi, then drove out to the central valley to spend Christmas Eve and Christmas Day with
mamapduck and her family, which is always a good time. dinner was basicaly hors d'oeuvres and cheesecake. For some reason the cheesecake never quite achieved cakiness in the center, so it was a bit more mousse-like this time around. Made serving quite messy, but it still tasted good. Cupcake is a charming baby, Boy is an excellent big brother. Lily is still a Crazy Dingo Dog, but she loves me and I applied knees to chest or butt scritches as the situation warranted.
Attended my first and only Methodist Christmas service on Christmas Eve. The church was beautifully decorated, and the service was basically a series of carols with brief readings threaded between them. Felt very Christmas Lite compared to even a Roman Catholic low mass, but it was still nice.
As per usual, mamapduck had filled a stocking for me - various eats and drinkies from Cost Plus, the obligatory Satsuma, and this, because nothing says Christmas like a Hotei-sama snow globe. (Actually, nothing says, Get Back On Your Diet like a Hotei-sama in a snowglobe.)
There was also a biography of Victoria and Albert, which looks like it'll be an interesting read.
Had lunch and a delightful Christmas Day afternoon at
mamapduck 's parents' place out in Jackson, complete with grandchildren careening about, handsewing (put in a sizeable dent on the uwagi!), and a reading from the Gospel of Damon Runyon, accompanied by hot Tom & Jerries. (I tasted mamapduck's, but declined, not being an egg-nog fan.)Spoke to the family at home. All are well, everyone liked what I picked out for them. Surprise winner for the nephews was a bamboo mancala set I'd picked up at Cost Plus (along with a backgammon set and some flying pig gliders) before Miriam had told me what they might like. Evidently they were familiar with a computer version of the game, and sat down and played together all afternoon. I have a grainy cellphone photo from my b-i-l as proof.
OK, you want to know what the Christmas haul from back east was: Mom sent a check because she doesn't like putting credit card info through the internet. Dad and the girls availed themselves of my Amazon.com wish list and I received a gorgeous coffee-table monolith on the films of Akira Kurosawa, a DVD boxed set of four of his early films, and a copy of Mad In Translation, a collection of comic Japanese waka.
