Christmas past

I had a full and enjoyable Christmas. Claire joined my family and my sister's friend Joanna for my official birthday meal at Joe's Crab Shack on Friday. She was ill that night (for reasons unrelated to the meal), so I stayed the night and took her to urgent care on the morning of Christmas eve. She was already doing better by the time she rejoined us for dinner, the candlelight church service, and, of course, opening of presents. The highlight of my collection was a Tom Bihn Brain Cell laptop case for my new Alienware notebook computer.

The next morning we opened stockings (Mom gave me three bars of dark chocolate!) and ate homemade lemon doughnuts. We were joined for a lunch of roast ham by my aunt and uncle and my cousin Karl and his girlfriend Natalie. Pictionary and chocolate chip birthday-cheese cake followed. Claire and I finished the day by creeping ourselves out with the unpleasantly dark movie Seven, and we were both glad to have each other near.

Turkey and ham with Netskis and Wellingtons

Thanksgiving was a delightful experience. I enjoyed both my time in the car with Chris and the time at the house with her immediate and extended family. The Netskis were the hosts for the day, but most of the guests had the Wellington last name that Chris's mother once used. I was the only non-relation except one childhood friend of an uncle who was back in town unexpectedly. Chris's cousin James is just a year older than myself, so I quickly came to be called "James H" to avoid confusion; I'm not sure anyone other than Chris herself knew my whole last name. She and I both had the impression that the more distant relations took us for a couple, but we went with the flow since there seemed to be a general feeling of approval and the closer family had the accurate picture anyhow. My cosmo cranberry sauce was a hit with all the aunts, and the fact that the recipe came from a Google search didn't seem to diminish my kitchen cred'. Mrs. Netski was very generous at departure time, and I've been eating delicious leftover ham at every meal today.

Ready for Santa's parade appearance

My Thanksgiving break began last night around 9:00, and it looks like Syracuse got a couple inches of snow since then to create the appropriate ambiance. I enjoyed my first full night of sleep in several weeks, and I'm actually looking forward to donning my new boots for a pre-Thanksgiving trip to the grocery store. Tomorrow I'm joining my classmate Chris for a visit to her parents lake house in the finger lakes. I'll miss being with my family, but I expect that this will be the next best thing.

Taste o' Dublin

It was a busy day: I had three power-lectures, a two-hour exam, and a productive trip to the library. When I returned from all this, I found a friendly little St. Patrick's Day party in my suite, and Mike welcomed me back with a double Baileys on the rocks. I followed that with a can of Guinness stout and the very last shot of John Jameson Irish whiskey in the house. We had ten guests throughout the course of the evening, if you count me as a host despite my limited role. The party was deemed a success, and we did it without a single drop of green beer.

Grasshopper grasshopper scoot!

Happy St. Urho's Day! St. Urho, of course, was that heroic Finlander who drove away the locusts with his pitchfork while shouting, "Heinasirkka, heinasirkka, menetaalta hiiten." But perhaps you haven't heard of him. That's understandable; there are many naysayers who claim that Minnesota Finns cooked up this character just so they could tap into the green beer a day before the Irish. As one who considers himself to be more of a Minnesota Finn than anything else, I'll take pride in either version.