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Christmases
Jan. 2nd, 2016 02:16 pmSo the holiday season is officially over. I was back at work on Friday, even if it's the weekend now.
The Wiedlin Christmas. Kimberly and I went down to San Marteen on Christmas Eve. That's a grueling three hour or so trip by foot, by BART, and finally by car. I'd been hoping that Warm Springs BART would be open by this Christmas. (It was supposed to be.) Alas, no, we're still stuck in Fremont, which is not just several miles further north, but also quite a ways from the highway. (If you were designing a public transit end point, wouldn't you want to put it near the highway??)
As has been the case the last few years, we spent Christmas Eve with my mom, Bob, and Rob, with shrimp dinner as prelude, then board games afterward. (This year, Between Two Cities was well-received.)
My mom has three guest rooms in her house (one of which is mostly an office), and we've now slept in all of them due to various siblings being in various rooms for the long-haul at various times. We should unlock some sort of achievement.
It's nice staying over the night, then having a family Christmas in the morning (when Jason and Lisa show up from their other-family festivities). We had stockings and presents. Afterward Kimberly and I went with folks to walk dogs on The Loop, then I went to bike with Bob, who had a new bike. Then there was a tiny bit of game playing. (Jason can not read game rules!) Then a more traditional Christmas dinner, then an hour or so of Ping Pong. (I'm always surprised that I can still play decently well, with my once-a-year playing.) It was a very active Christmas, which would be foreshadowing for the whole holiday.
Jason insisted on giving us a ride all the way back home, which means it was only a 2-hour trek home (but 4 hours for him!).
The Mini Appel Christmas. Towarder the end of the holiday, Melody and Jared came and visited us. We talked, had lunch at Smart Alec's, talked, and exchanged some presents. They had to move their cars every two hours due to Berkeley's fascist parking laws (laws that they're now talking about extending to evenings and weekends, which I suspect would be the end of me being able to host gaming at my house). Any who, the Appel christmas was nice.
The Christmas Tree Ordeal. By the time Christmas came around, our tree was quite dry, the result of us having picked it up a few days after Thanksgiving. So we took it down the Monday afterward. That turned out to be a lot of work. The hardest bit was getting the slats of wood and tub off the base of the tree. That required screwdrivers, a hammer, and lots of prying. It took two of us and some trickery to get the final nail out of the center of everything. Then I had to cut the top couple of feet off the tree so it'd get picked up. That last work didn't seem as impossible, but took some hard effort.
So, we've now had the entire adult Christmas experience.
Shortly afterward, Kimberly ordered an artificial tree for next year.
The Other Stuff. We saw Star Wars and enjoyed it greatly (though I thought it hit too many plot beats from the original movie). We went to the Academy of Sciences. We went to Rick and Ann's for brunch. I did not do much biking due to lack of bike, at least not until Wednesday when I took the new bike out to EndGame.
The Presents. Lots of fun stuff. Kimberly got me an entirely delightful Dalek mug. Also a biking shirt that I think will be really nice in summer. There were many games from Wiedlins, including some new Feld games and Broom Service. And some books. I used cash to pick up many things including the run of Y: The Last Man in nice hardcovers and the Lord of the Rings deckbuilders, and Wrath of the Righteous decks for Pathfinder ACG and biking lights and gloves.
So that was Christmas.
The Wiedlin Christmas. Kimberly and I went down to San Marteen on Christmas Eve. That's a grueling three hour or so trip by foot, by BART, and finally by car. I'd been hoping that Warm Springs BART would be open by this Christmas. (It was supposed to be.) Alas, no, we're still stuck in Fremont, which is not just several miles further north, but also quite a ways from the highway. (If you were designing a public transit end point, wouldn't you want to put it near the highway??)
As has been the case the last few years, we spent Christmas Eve with my mom, Bob, and Rob, with shrimp dinner as prelude, then board games afterward. (This year, Between Two Cities was well-received.)
My mom has three guest rooms in her house (one of which is mostly an office), and we've now slept in all of them due to various siblings being in various rooms for the long-haul at various times. We should unlock some sort of achievement.
It's nice staying over the night, then having a family Christmas in the morning (when Jason and Lisa show up from their other-family festivities). We had stockings and presents. Afterward Kimberly and I went with folks to walk dogs on The Loop, then I went to bike with Bob, who had a new bike. Then there was a tiny bit of game playing. (Jason can not read game rules!) Then a more traditional Christmas dinner, then an hour or so of Ping Pong. (I'm always surprised that I can still play decently well, with my once-a-year playing.) It was a very active Christmas, which would be foreshadowing for the whole holiday.
Jason insisted on giving us a ride all the way back home, which means it was only a 2-hour trek home (but 4 hours for him!).
The Mini Appel Christmas. Towarder the end of the holiday, Melody and Jared came and visited us. We talked, had lunch at Smart Alec's, talked, and exchanged some presents. They had to move their cars every two hours due to Berkeley's fascist parking laws (laws that they're now talking about extending to evenings and weekends, which I suspect would be the end of me being able to host gaming at my house). Any who, the Appel christmas was nice.
The Christmas Tree Ordeal. By the time Christmas came around, our tree was quite dry, the result of us having picked it up a few days after Thanksgiving. So we took it down the Monday afterward. That turned out to be a lot of work. The hardest bit was getting the slats of wood and tub off the base of the tree. That required screwdrivers, a hammer, and lots of prying. It took two of us and some trickery to get the final nail out of the center of everything. Then I had to cut the top couple of feet off the tree so it'd get picked up. That last work didn't seem as impossible, but took some hard effort.
So, we've now had the entire adult Christmas experience.
Shortly afterward, Kimberly ordered an artificial tree for next year.
The Other Stuff. We saw Star Wars and enjoyed it greatly (though I thought it hit too many plot beats from the original movie). We went to the Academy of Sciences. We went to Rick and Ann's for brunch. I did not do much biking due to lack of bike, at least not until Wednesday when I took the new bike out to EndGame.
The Presents. Lots of fun stuff. Kimberly got me an entirely delightful Dalek mug. Also a biking shirt that I think will be really nice in summer. There were many games from Wiedlins, including some new Feld games and Broom Service. And some books. I used cash to pick up many things including the run of Y: The Last Man in nice hardcovers and the Lord of the Rings deckbuilders, and Wrath of the Righteous decks for Pathfinder ACG and biking lights and gloves.
So that was Christmas.