‘Bout got them holidays licked for another year! \u00a0I think I can, I think I can… \u00a0Ah, we’ve had a rather good time of it actually. \u00a0Very busy though, as evidenced by my lack of attention to my updates. \u00a0In case you couldn’t guess what we’ve been doing with our time, we celebrated Christmas. \u00a0Sort of the same as the majority of the rest of the world, duh.<\/p>\n
It all kind of ran together, but I’ll skim the highlights. \u00a0For it our pre-Christmas Friday, we went over to a friend’s house and made tamales. \u00a0Festive! \u00a0I guess they do it every year, but we missed out last year for whatever reason. \u00a0Apparently I should have watched some youtube videos prior to going, my tamale skills were roundly ridiculed. \u00a0Hey, they don’t have to be pretty, people. \u00a0It’s some meat in a pile of dough, it all tastes the same. \u00a0Sheesh. \u00a0After that, at Doni’s design, we went out Christmas caroling. \u00a0Hmmm. \u00a0I was skeptical of the plan at best, sounded like a good way to get shot. \u00a0In fact, I had already devised my perfect way out, by declaring that I would only go if his 16 year old son would go. \u00a0What are the odds of THAT? \u00a0Backfire, he went, and even pretended to enjoy it. \u00a0It was a fun time after all, and we didn’t get shot. \u00a0Most people seemed to thoroughly enjoy it. \u00a0And, some didn’t. \u00a0You can’t please everybody all the time, as they say.<\/p>\n
Christmas Eve we stayed home for a quiet evening. \u00a0Still stinging from my merciless taunting at the tamale festival, I resolved\u00a0to hone my skills. \u00a0So, I dug some leftover brisket out of the freezer and went to rolling again. \u00a0(After watching countless youtube clips, of course.) \u00a0I can say with conviction that this batch turned out significantly better. \u00a0I’m not really sure what we’re going to do with 3 dozen brisket tamales, but that’s an issue for another day.<\/p>\n
For Christmas day we got up early-ish and had a nice little celebration. \u00a0We opened our presents from our families, and worked in some good facetime chats too. \u00a0We had festive video chats with both our families, and later in the afternoon we heard from Johan also, our friend in Sweden. \u00a0After that we headed back over to the scene of the previous tamale crime, and enjoyed another big Christmas. \u00a0They’re nice enough to let us weasel in on their family Christmas; \u00a0We even participated in the gift exchange. \u00a0** Edit: \u00a0Wait a minute… \u00a0The facetime calls were the day after Christmas I believe. \u00a0Geez, it’s all a big blur. \u00a0I’m not retyping the paragraph, close enough.<\/p>\n
For a post-holiday wind down, we headed out wine tasting with some friends in nearby Sutter Creek<\/a>. \u00a0(That’s what triggered my razor-sharp memory… \u00a0We went wine tasting right after wrapping up the video chats.) \u00a0We hadn’t been to this area before, so it was a nice little exploration trip. \u00a0It was quite the quaint downtown. \u00a0Actually, I was surprised to learn it was even older than our old Brookside haunts, by quite a bit actually. \u00a0Good times, and I believe a bit easier of a drive than Amador; \u00a0We’ll have to get back there soon.<\/p>\n\n\t\t