Day 68: Vacation in Review

Definitely been bad about updating recently. Here are some links for more details on the Vancouver trip (from cassiopia) and on our Solstice (here and here, from resourceress).

That said, the nutshell version of this holiday vacation follows:

Mon 12/19: Leave the Event Horizon with polymorphism and drive through the night to Summanulla, near Boston.

Tue 12/20: Celebrate resourceress's birthday with cheshcat and sunastria and gyades and polymorphism. Besides presents and gifts, the usual tradition of resourceress performing Middle Eastern dance for us was observed. Also, much-deserved adoration was lavished upon the two kittens of the house, both roughly eight months old. Sulis had lived in the Event Horizon for two weeks, back in June/July, when she was five to seven weeks old. It was amazing to see how big she has gotten. And Diana, who I had never met before, is wonderfully soft and amazingly graceful.

Wed 12/21: Last minute Yule shopping. Ritual at sunset. Late night present wrapping. Staying up to welcome back the sun.

Thu 12/22: Nap, then opening presents. More nap, then more opening presents. Lots of cool stuff. Best gift (for me) was a djembe from cheshcat and resourceress. After opening a carefully wrapped homemade gift certificate, we went out to actually select the drum in question. I know very little about drums so far, but I have received a slew of compliments on it, so I guess it was a good choice. Thanks, Lover(s)!

Fri 12/23: Drive to NYC with cheshcat and polymorphism. Meet up with pomoloco. Do the usual holiday stuff in NYC -- visit the tree at Rockefeller Center and watch the skaters, look at the windows and lights at Saks, look at the windows at Lord & Taylor. We also ate at our friendly crepery before heading back to pomoloco's apartment to watch A Christmas Story. She's been wanted to show it to me for years and taped it this year for that purpose.

Sat 12/24: Buy peanuts and feed squirrels (and pigeons) in Madison Square Park with cheshcat. All the animals were more insistent than when we last fed them in October. Squirrels now ran up our legs to get nuts; pigeons flew into the palms of our hands! After, drive to Jersey to spend Christmas Eve at Uncle's house with family. This has been family tradition for as long as I can remember. cheshcat and I arrived hours early (for a change) and got to enjoy a good conversation with my Uncle about the family history, and he showed us many old photos from when he and my father were growing up in Egypt. Unfortunately, the evening was later marred by family drama, so this may be the last X-Mas Eve that we observe my family's only tradition. One nice moment, though, was announcing the upcoming move to Oxford to the whole family after the presents were opened. When I made my announcement, everyone first thought that we were either getting married or having a baby. That was fun.

Sun 12/25: Christmas Day with Mom in Staten Island. Overall a nice quiet celebration. We stayed in and talked and played SkipBo. At sunset, we lit the Menorah. Around dinnertime, The Kiddo came over to eat we all exchanged presents. Mom was in a good mood, which was nice.

Mon 12/26: Drove to Massachusetts to pick up yavin7, who we had not seen in nearly two years (since just before I began this journal). Got caught in rain and traffic, but eventually made it. Got dinner, then brought him back to Summanulla, where we played several rounds of EcoFluxx with sunastria. After sunastria went to bed, yavin7 and cheshcat and I played Settlers of Catan. cheshcat won one game and I won another.

Tue 12/27: Drove yavin7 to the airport in the morning, then climbed back into bed with resouceress. This was supposed to be a quiet day of rest. Key words: "supposed to be" Around 12:30pm, we were awakened by a call from cheshcat's uncle, who was wondering where we were. We had plans to see this aunt and uncle later in the week, but he had mixed up the schedule and thought that we were coming today. Whoops! Since last we talked, he had already booked the rest of the week, so we had to see them today. It was a quick shower then on the road for us, as we drove up to Danvers. However, it ended up being a very nice day with the Aunt and Uncle. We caught up on the past year, played several games of dominoes, and made plans to spend next Christmas with them, instead of with my family.

Wed 12/28: Went to the house that cheshcat and her brother had inherited from cheshcat's mother last year. We met her brother and the realtor there. We have started the process of selling the house, though there is still work to be done before we put it on the market. Then we went out to lunch with her brother and spend the afternoon with him and his dog. That was a good afternoon. The evening, however, was not good, as mentioned in my previous post.

Thu 12/29: During the day, we stayed at Summanulla and tended to some mundanities. In the evening, cheshcat and I went to dinner with sunastria while resourceress and nw1 went in to the recording studio. After, we all re-converged on Summanulla and talked nw1's ear off with questions about living in England. He was a cornucopia of useful information... and it is nice knowing that we will have friends in London when we arrive there.

Fri 12/30: Today, cheshcat went back to the church where her mother's funeral was held last year. We went to see the memorial bench erected by the bereavement group that her mother had run. Then we drove to Connecticut to visit the Tree House, where we are now and will stay until Monday. It is great to see C&C again; we have only seen them once -- at P**T*** -- since last New Year's. Also, JZ is here, too. Tomorrow, gyades and resouceress and lots of other folks will come, too, but it was nice to have a quiet evening with C&C first. Also, cheshcat and I got to squeeze in a game of Citadels, which she won.

Okay, that's the update. Time for tea with cheshcat and then bed...

Day 68: Vacation in Review

Definitely been bad about updating recently. Here are some links for more details on the Vancouver trip (from cassiopia) and on our Solstice (here and here, from resourceress).

That said, the nutshell version of this holiday vacation follows:

Mon 12/19: Leave the Event Horizon with polymorphism and drive through the night to Summanulla, near Boston.

Tue 12/20: Celebrate resourceress's birthday with cheshcat and sunastria and gyades and polymorphism. Besides presents and gifts, the usual tradition of resourceress performing Middle Eastern dance for us was observed. Also, much-deserved adoration was lavished upon the two kittens of the house, both roughly eight months old. Sulis had lived in the Event Horizon for two weeks, back in June/July, when she was five to seven weeks old. It was amazing to see how big she has gotten. And Diana, who I had never met before, is wonderfully soft and amazingly graceful.

Wed 12/21: Last minute Yule shopping. Ritual at sunset. Late night present wrapping. Staying up to welcome back the sun.

Thu 12/22: Nap, then opening presents. More nap, then more opening presents. Lots of cool stuff. Best gift (for me) was a djembe from cheshcat and resourceress. After opening a carefully wrapped homemade gift certificate, we went out to actually select the drum in question. I know very little about drums so far, but I have received a slew of compliments on it, so I guess it was a good choice. Thanks, Lover(s)!

Fri 12/23: Drive to NYC with cheshcat and polymorphism. Meet up with pomoloco. Do the usual holiday stuff in NYC -- visit the tree at Rockefeller Center and watch the skaters, look at the windows and lights at Saks, look at the windows at Lord & Taylor. We also ate at our friendly crepery before heading back to pomoloco's apartment to watch A Christmas Story. She's been wanted to show it to me for years and taped it this year for that purpose.

Sat 12/24: Buy peanuts and feed squirrels (and pigeons) in Madison Square Park with cheshcat. All the animals were more insistent than when we last fed them in October. Squirrels now ran up our legs to get nuts; pigeons flew into the palms of our hands! After, drive to Jersey to spend Christmas Eve at Uncle's house with family. This has been family tradition for as long as I can remember. cheshcat and I arrived hours early (for a change) and got to enjoy a good conversation with my Uncle about the family history, and he showed us many old photos from when he and my father were growing up in Egypt. Unfortunately, the evening was later marred by family drama, so this may be the last X-Mas Eve that we observe my family's only tradition. One nice moment, though, was announcing the upcoming move to Oxford to the whole family after the presents were opened. When I made my announcement, everyone first thought that we were either getting married or having a baby. That was fun.

Sun 12/25: Christmas Day with Mom in Staten Island. Overall a nice quiet celebration. We stayed in and talked and played SkipBo. At sunset, we lit the Menorah. Around dinnertime, The Kiddo came over to eat we all exchanged presents. Mom was in a good mood, which was nice.

Mon 12/26: Drove to Massachusetts to pick up yavin7, who we had not seen in nearly two years (since just before I began this journal). Got caught in rain and traffic, but eventually made it. Got dinner, then brought him back to Summanulla, where we played several rounds of EcoFluxx with sunastria. After sunastria went to bed, yavin7 and cheshcat and I played Settlers of Catan. cheshcat won one game and I won another.

Tue 12/27: Drove yavin7 to the airport in the morning, then climbed back into bed with resouceress. This was supposed to be a quiet day of rest. Key words: "supposed to be" Around 12:30pm, we were awakened by a call from cheshcat's uncle, who was wondering where we were. We had plans to see this aunt and uncle later in the week, but he had mixed up the schedule and thought that we were coming today. Whoops! Since last we talked, he had already booked the rest of the week, so we had to see them today. It was a quick shower then on the road for us, as we drove up to Danvers. However, it ended up being a very nice day with the Aunt and Uncle. We caught up on the past year, played several games of dominoes, and made plans to spend next Christmas with them, instead of with my family.

Wed 12/28: Went to the house that cheshcat and her brother had inherited from cheshcat's mother last year. We met her brother and the realtor there. We have started the process of selling the house, though there is still work to be done before we put it on the market. Then we went out to lunch with her brother and spend the afternoon with him and his dog. That was a good afternoon. The evening, however, was not good, as mentioned in my previous post.

Thu 12/29: During the day, we stayed at Summanulla and tended to some mundanities. In the evening, cheshcat and I went to dinner with sunastria while resourceress and nw1 went in to the recording studio. After, we all re-converged on Summanulla and talked nw1's ear off with questions about living in England. He was a cornucopia of useful information... and it is nice knowing that we will have friends in London when we arrive there.

Fri 12/30: Today, cheshcat went back to the church where her mother's funeral was held last year. We went to see the memorial bench erected by the bereavement group that her mother had run. Then we drove to Connecticut to visit the Tree House, where we are now and will stay until Monday. It is great to see C&C again; we have only seen them once -- at P**T*** -- since last New Year's. Also, JZ is here, too. Tomorrow, gyades and resouceress and lots of other folks will come, too, but it was nice to have a quiet evening with C&C first. Also, cheshcat and I got to squeeze in a game of Citadels, which she won.

Okay, that's the update. Time for tea with cheshcat and then bed...