Happy holidays indeed

Like BT, this is the most drama-free and pleasant holiday season we've had to date. We went to the Sacramento area for 3 days and barely left my parent's house during daylight hours except to go to lunch at this new fabulous restaurant in town with my family for my birthday. We biked around Folsom Lake, I made cookies for a twin-carrying pregnant friend who has been on bedrest for 8 weeks, I also made homemade pasta & bolognese sauce for Christmas Eve. My mom made a yummy sukiyaki dish for Christmas dinner which we enjoyed with M's mom and her husband (who again behaved himself!). Then I served a delightfully light dessert on Christmas night to round out the nice & light Japanese dinner. We read books & newspapers, went to a movie, shared our Japan pictures, swapped stories, etc. All in all, it was a refreshing break from tradition (no turkey, no crazy presents, and no DRAMA!)

It's almost unbelievable how smooth things went. Especially considering [1] last year's horrific Christmas with M's father's side of the family in Florida and [2] the history between me & M and our crazy mothers.

On top of it all, M and I recieved some very cool gifts (mine were a mix of birthday and Christmas presents and this year it totally worked out!). M got the cold weather biking/running gear he wanted, I recieved the awesome-est vaccuum cleaner EVAR, my sweet brother gave me a gorgeous collection of L'Occitane stuff (all in lavendar because he's been reading my blog, doh!). And M and I, while deciding not to get each other traditional Christmas gifts, just purchased our combined Christmas gift yesterday. Of course he and G spent half the day installing it and connecting all our gear (meaning crap like an Xbox, DVD player and a reciever we've had in our garage for months but couldn't use because our old TV had *literally* one cable plug in the back of it).

Funny story: My mom asked me what I wanted for Christmas. We don't need anything really, but just so she had something to look for ('cuz she loves that), I told her I wanted a set red wine glasses and champagne flutes. Y'all know, if you've been to our house and drank wine (and who hasn't?!) that we commonly use tasting glasses from wineries. One, because we are aware that wine glasses break all the time. And two, because we don't have anything in between tasting glasses and crystal from our wedding to serve wine in.

So, she goes and gets them. Searches high and low for red wine glasses (although they are technically from my brother, but because he flew up here for Christmas, my mom "helped" with this shopping a bit). And she finally finds what I'm looking for . . . Red-COLORED wine glasses. No joke. And red-COLORED champagne flutes. You should have seen my face when I opened the box. Total confusion. HUH? BT's mom would have loved these, they were so festive. For Christmas. But for everyday drinking glasses? Not so much.

Clearly my mom isn't a wine drinker. M's mom thought it was hilarious. She was like, "oh geez, I coulda told you that's not what she was lookin' for!"

In any case, cheers! Hope you all have a perfect NYE, whether that be rockin' it Times Square style or layin' low with close friends at a small house gathering.

Looking forward to a great 2008!