vacation tidbits

The official post-Christmas vacation wrap up.

There was a whole lot of relaxing and very little actually doing anything. I went to the movies twice. Once to Sweeney Todd and once to Enchanted. Sweeney Todd was my choice, Enchanted was Mom’s choice. Sweeney Todd has been my favorite musical since high school. I have mixed feelings about the movie. I think it’s better than the recent adaptations of Rent, Phantom of the Opera, and The Producers, but not as good as Chicago. If you don’t know the musical well and don’t mind lots of blood and very dark subject matter, go. You’ll enjoy it.

I built my first gingerbread house with my nieces and nephews. Each of us took a side of the house. I had the front with the door. I had fun and so did they. Also I think the other adults were happy to be off the hook. There is waaaaay too much sugar involved in gingerbread house making. Click here and here for pics.

Christmas Eve we went to the service at my brother’s church. Very casual. Very cool. I like his church. Saw some of my old friends. Then we had a dinner of appetizers. We worked a jigsaw puzzle and watched White Christmas. Once again I let everyone else off the hook and helped the kiddos put together a plate for Santa. Cheese and crackers for the man. Two big carrots for the reindeer.

Christmas day brought a gargantuan feast, a stopped up garbage disposal (that was fixed the same day), the TBS marathon of A Christmas Story, and snow. The snow didn’t stick, but it was cool to watch for a few minutes. I had specifically asked NOT to be given lots of stuff. I’m still purging stuff, I don’t need more. I’d said the trip home was enough of a gift. They pretty much obliged, but I still got a few items.

Mom and Dad got me a new air popper. Yay! They also got tickets for the whole family to see Jersey Boys. The national tour is on and I’d heard good things. It wasn’t stellar but it was a fun night out. My brother and his wife gave me a coupon valid for an evening of Thai food and wine at their house. That was redeemed. Their kids gave me ceramic items they had painted/created at a do-it-yourself place. The trivet I absolutely love. The snowman mug is not really my thing but I think the “I love you” on the side is cute. It gave me a warm fuzzy. Mom and Dad also gave me a vintage cigarette box. Tucked inside were three bracelets of fresh water pearls. They also had a pair of hair sticks made from abalone shells they’d picked up in Alaska. I’m a girly girl so these little trinkets pleased me.

I finished reading the Tales of the City series. The first 6 anyway. I’m dying to read Michael Tolliver Lives. Fetched from Mom and Dad’s bookshelf, I completed Red Dragon and came home working on Hannibal.

I spent lots of time at my piano. I named him Clyde when I was in Jr. High. He’s an heirloom. My great grandparents bought it used for my grandmother to take lessons. My dad and my uncle took lessons on it. My brother and I took lessons on it. I’m the one that has studied the longest so my squatting rights are undisputed. The insides were rebuilt when I was in high school but most of the keys are still the original ivory. So soft and silky. And the touch is so easy. You think about hitting a key and it fires. My little clavinova works for my apartment, but it’s got nothing on Clyde.

I had teriyaki twice. I love it and haven’t found good teriyaki here. I went to the most awesome Mexican restaurant I’ve ever found outside of Texas or Oklahoma. Mom and I baked our little hearts out. Jack Daniels Tipsy Cake, french bread, coffee cake, fudge, mini bill candy, potato dinner rolls. We made sausage cheese balls and bacon wrapped scallops and a broccoli cheese casserole and prime rib and fried ham and a host of other stuff. We both love to cook and since I learned most of what I know from her, in her kitchen, we’re like a well oiled machine when we get together.

We drove out to the ocean one day. Mom and Dad are building a house on land they purchased when I was in Jr. High. They managed to hang on to it through a bankruptcy. I’m so thrilled for them they’re finally building on it. It was fun prowling around inside what will one day be my inheritance, shared with my bro. The weather sucked but we still drove out to watch the water. The waves were outrageous that day. I consider myself fortunate because I have a water view from my apartment. But it is of a bay. So very different from the open ocean. I could sit and watch the ocean all day long.

I was also reminded how cool my life really is. I get caught up in the day to day minutia. I forget how glamorous working in my industry can seem. I know plenty of people that support themselves solely through the performing arts but 99% of them are not household names (or even close). I was drug out of bed early one morning because an old friend of mine was on TV. A televised concert related to a CD that had hit number 4 on the classical music charts a couple of weeks before Christmas. Watching a mini-series on TV I was able to tell stories about an actor I’d met. Same thing for a couple of random TV shows. Only the TV actors I know better than the one from the mini-series. At Jersey Boys, I didn’t know any of the actors personally but there was definitely some 6 degrees of separation happening. What really sealed it for me was when I actually heard these words falling out of my mouth, “Well, really I only had to do full on black tie four times this year.”

All in all it was a most fabulous holiday.