Realm: Touristing – Subrealm: Holiday fun
Jan. 2nd, 2007 03:56 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
choco_froshThings my Christmas season has involved:
- Insane days spent assisting in cookie making, Christmas tree decoration, and assorted insanity with![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
maddieharridan, catilinarian, the giant fifteen-year-old, and a hyperactive beagle.
- Successfully avoiding lighting the Christmas tree on fire.
- Spending fourteen hours in Simsbury on Christmas Eve (ok, someone gave us dinner in the middle, but still) due to Grace’s various responsibilities.
This involved complex car-eography with Grace’s family, and also Cristingles, bizarre symbolic objects made by sticking candy on toothpicks, candles and other strange things into oranges, which are then handed out at a children’s service. Apparently, to add to the weirdness, the custom originated at a Norwegian-speaking Moravian church in northern Germany, while Grace’s rector learned it in Hong Kong.
We squeezed the oranges to go with the traditional Pritchard breakfast the next day.
- Cooking the spiced beef—while waiting around at church during the multiple Christmas eve services. It ended up tasting like rather uninteresting pastrami. I think I will NOT be doing it again. sigh.
- Protracted shopping expeditions and tasty St. Stephen’s Day pork roast with the above cast.
- Driving up to Maine to see father and brother. We stopped on the way north a few times to pick up Dan at the airport, see my grandparents, and buy a bottle of scotch at the New Hampshire State liquor store—an epic experience. The scotch, incidentally, replaced bottles that Dad had to ditch in china, and that Dan had been forbidden to purchase in Manchester OR Amsterdam, due to new airline regulations.
- Show by Portland Improv Comedy group, followed by the soberest post-show party I have ever seen or heard of. (fun, but not what one expects).
- New Year’s Eve, followed by yummy Vietnamese/American lunch, hosted by old friends in North Yarmouth.
- A lot of reading books, playing computer games, receiving presents, eating chocolate, being fed incredible meals, and general hanging out.
Not-so-good aspects of Christmas:
maddieharridan and catilinarian being delayed for eight hours in Heathrow due to fog.
Dan having to take Britrail up to York (for the same reason); his luggage being checked through to Manchester anyway.
Getting stuck in the tunnel on the way to Logan, presumably due to ongoing repairs to accident-prone ceilings.
Various people freaking out
Getting a nasty stomach bug--during the Christmas season, when you’re naturally going to be eating way too much rich food—leading you to loose your dinner, and then have multiple days of gastric unpleasantness.
Giving said stomach bug to your brother (sorry, Dan!)
Things that did NOT happen over Christmas:
Getting work done
Plans:
Go to Boston, hang out with as many old friends as possible...
- Insane days spent assisting in cookie making, Christmas tree decoration, and assorted insanity with
maddieharridan, catilinarian, the giant fifteen-year-old, and a hyperactive beagle.- Successfully avoiding lighting the Christmas tree on fire.
- Spending fourteen hours in Simsbury on Christmas Eve (ok, someone gave us dinner in the middle, but still) due to Grace’s various responsibilities.
This involved complex car-eography with Grace’s family, and also Cristingles, bizarre symbolic objects made by sticking candy on toothpicks, candles and other strange things into oranges, which are then handed out at a children’s service. Apparently, to add to the weirdness, the custom originated at a Norwegian-speaking Moravian church in northern Germany, while Grace’s rector learned it in Hong Kong.
We squeezed the oranges to go with the traditional Pritchard breakfast the next day.
- Cooking the spiced beef—while waiting around at church during the multiple Christmas eve services. It ended up tasting like rather uninteresting pastrami. I think I will NOT be doing it again. sigh.
- Protracted shopping expeditions and tasty St. Stephen’s Day pork roast with the above cast.
- Driving up to Maine to see father and brother. We stopped on the way north a few times to pick up Dan at the airport, see my grandparents, and buy a bottle of scotch at the New Hampshire State liquor store—an epic experience. The scotch, incidentally, replaced bottles that Dad had to ditch in china, and that Dan had been forbidden to purchase in Manchester OR Amsterdam, due to new airline regulations.
- Show by Portland Improv Comedy group, followed by the soberest post-show party I have ever seen or heard of. (fun, but not what one expects).
- New Year’s Eve, followed by yummy Vietnamese/American lunch, hosted by old friends in North Yarmouth.
- A lot of reading books, playing computer games, receiving presents, eating chocolate, being fed incredible meals, and general hanging out.
Not-so-good aspects of Christmas:
maddieharridan and catilinarian being delayed for eight hours in Heathrow due to fog.Dan having to take Britrail up to York (for the same reason); his luggage being checked through to Manchester anyway.
Getting stuck in the tunnel on the way to Logan, presumably due to ongoing repairs to accident-prone ceilings.
Various people freaking out
Getting a nasty stomach bug--during the Christmas season, when you’re naturally going to be eating way too much rich food—leading you to loose your dinner, and then have multiple days of gastric unpleasantness.
Giving said stomach bug to your brother (sorry, Dan!)
Things that did NOT happen over Christmas:
Getting work done
Plans:
Go to Boston, hang out with as many old friends as possible...
no subject
Date: 2007-01-02 07:24 am (UTC). . . Why was this an issue?
no subject
Date: 2021-12-24 07:10 pm (UTC)