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January 02, 2006
Merry Christmas, the Ark Departeth at 1:55pm
Somehow we pulled off an amazing feat at the U household: a rather traditional holiday season:
--All family members were present for multiple days on end, not only Christmas weekend but the weekends before AND after as well;
--A Christmas tree was procured, propped up in the living room, decorated, and eventurally stripped and removed from the premises without fuss.
--Everyone gave and received thoughtful, cool presents. Really!
--There were walks, even in the rain, and Adam's surfing habit provided a good excuse to get out to the beach to watch the sunset at least once (see below).
--Rotten persimmons were launched by all from the deck, with many actually hitting the targeted eucalyptus tree . Maybe that's not on anyone else's list of seasonal traditions, but we take rotten fruit launching very seriously in my family.
--We still didn't manage a traditional Christmas dinner, but we all did gather 'round for mom's Thai chicken curry.
I think the trick was having the requisite family meltdown relatively very early on in the process. That way, everyone got to vent their year's worth of gripes, and quickly move on to the fun stuff. I also highly recommend including non-family members--significant others and otherwise--as buffers to encourage best behavior. All joking aside, it's been a really fun couple of weeks.
***
Massive flooding may have stopped me from getting to Ethan's birthday dim sum lunch on Saturday, and various natural disasters (blizzards, mudslides, floods) did their best to stop Danny and the rest of the band from getting back from their gig in Reno. Fortunately, after only 10:15 on the road and many cell phone assisted visits to 511.org to help navigate the maze of closed roads, they arrived at the Sweetwater just in time for the New Year's party.
Off to Rio in a few hours, and the only way I could be more excited would have been if I'd slept at all the last couple of nights... Though there are scattered thundershowers in the forecast, the temperature is 80+ degrees, ahh! I'm still packing sunscreen. If, like me, you've planning to go, have never been before, and haven't memorized the Lonely Planet, this website is fun.
Posted by Elizabeth at January 2, 2006 08:06 AM
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