Culinary Delight and Other Christmasiness

The holidays bring good times. I mean, sure, there's the heart-wrenching realization that you have no family to establish holiday traditions with and wonder if you ever will, but I'll save the pity party post for another time. Oh stop, when I want you to feel sorry for me, I'll write more about my sob story. Fortunately, when I think back to my holiday season, the memories are mostly positive.

First, the tree. Last year, my roomies and I went out and bought decorations, so I decorated the tree similarly this year. Correction: Dallin and I decorated it. The boy has skills. I looked at the newly festive living room and said to my roommate, "Are we gonna have a Christmas party or what?" We decided...yes. So we sent out invites on Facebook, and the next Sunday night, we had the most interesting mix of friends and coworkers together eating food, chatting, catching up, meeting for the first time, and...well, there was flirting and a fair amount of awkwardness, too, but for the most part, just friends and fun. About midway through the evening, I counted, and we had 25 people in our little condo. It was good to get everyone together and see some old faces.




Mid-December, Maw & Paw decided to spend a weekend in Salt Lake, so I met up with them. The Friday night they came, we had dinner at Cucina Toscana, and the recommendations were well deserved. Really good food, great service. The couple next to us kept looking over, as if we were celebrities. I'm pretty sure they're just avid people-watchers. It was both slightly awkward and amusing. The next day, we did some shopping and, after I enjoyed my first salted caramel hot chocolate (I recommend them) with Toffer at Starbucks (Toffer happened to be driving by when I talked to him on the phone, so he stopped), my parents and I had lunch at Mazza, where we also ran into Cameron, another friend. Salt Lake's a small place, apparently. I'd wanted to eat at Mazza ever since I first ran across it incidentally many months ago, and I definitely recommend it. For dinner, a few friends and my parents and I met for pizza at the Rusted Sun. Also good times. It was a weekend of culinary delight.

After dinner, Dad wasn't feeling well, so he went back to the hotel, and I dragged Mom to temple square to see the Christmas lights like she's been wanting to for a while now. We all had a good time walking around, freezing our heinies off, talking, taking pictures (Javier had requested I take some quality pics of him with the little guy on temple square). Temple square at Christmas is quite a sight with the lights, the nativities, the many happy families and romantic couples... I had to laugh when Ryan quietly commented that he wanted to someone to kiss and we wondered if temple square was supposed to make you feel that way. In any case, our little romp MAY be associated with Mom's subsequent nastiness in the health department, but she says it was worth it, so I don't feel too bad.















The next morning, I went with friends to the Christmas Concert version of Music and the Spoken Word. Beautiful production as always. By far, my favorite of the Christmas Concerts I've seen was the one with Sissel, but each year's concert has its own strengths, and Brian Stokes Mitchell has a very impressive and versatile voice, so I couldn't help but enjoy the concert.

Christmas Eve Day, at work, we were allowed to play games, and this was my introduction to a new favorite game of mine: Ticket to Ride. So fun. Seriously. Who'll play it with me? ...I mean when I get around to buying it.

I spent Christmas Eve night and Christmas Day in Pocatello. The drive up was fine. In fact, I had been feeling not-so-holiday-cheerful, but a very brief, simple experience really gave me a boost. As I passed a livestock trailer on the freeway, I saw that the passenger was no horse or cow as I was accustomed to seeing. From between the bars, a curious, head-bobbing camel peered out at me to watch me pass, and I couldn't help but feel my holiday cheer swell within me at the sight. Christmas Eve, we ate a great dinner (dinner is always great at home) and unwrapped one present early: the Wii. You heard me. Mom and Dad bought themselves a Wii. We played golf and bowling and Mario Kart.

Christmas Day, with its Italian and Scandinavian buffet and birdie picture-taking, was also fun, but I think the highlight was Christmas Eve Wii-playing. I won't go into the 6-hour drive home and seeing a semi slid off the road with it's rearmost trailer dangling over a hillside. Let's just say driving home was an adventure!

OK, I'm tired of writing, and most of you haven't even bothered reading. I'm done now. Happy 2009 with its many new memories yet to be made!