The day after Christmas, Katie and Dan’s family headed over to Frankfort to hang out (and to have a post-Christmas dinner). On arriving, we all ended up congregating and hanging out in the kitchen for a long while.
In back, that would be Sebastian putting on his Darth Vader helmet. I wish I had some video/audio to share, because in addition to changing his voice… it also spits out Vader quotes. Which, coming from his short frame, was actually just hilarious.
There is something quintessentially American about being Chinese-American, and ordering out for Chinese food on Christmas eve. Back when my parents used to have a restaurant, this happened all the time. But it still feels like the thing to do, especially around the holidays.
It’s been a very relaxing few days with Julie and Bob. Though there has been one day where I’ve been working on my laptop (in the dining room), the rest of the time has been a very comfortable, and slow passing of the hours. We’ve watched a lot of movies (which I always fall asleep to), and have had a lot of good food.
This is quite possibly my favorite image from the holidays.
Later in the evening, my parents came over and stopped off at (where else) a nearby Chinese restaurant for some take-out. The dining room table was covered with a lot of stuff, so we set up shop at the kids’ table. Is there anything more quintessentially American than Chinese food at Christmastime?
Let’s just say that today, a lot of things went down. There was an incident in the morning involving super glue being mistaken for frosting. And then there was a walk to church that should have been a pleasant stroll with a bit of rain, but the weather turned on us – leaving us pretty wet, both there and on the way back.
One great gift that the Fords got was a Karaoke set. Shortly after it was plugged in, all the kids began taking turns singing songs. As you can probably imagine, it was both awesome and incessant for the remainder of the day:
For a part of the morning afterwards, Tricia and I drove a bit around Decatur and she showed me around. Before heading home, we stopped over at a place called Revolution Doughnuts.
The thing with dry ice is that, through a process known as sublimation, it shifts from a solid to a gas without an intermediate liquid stage.
If you’ve seen it done in science classes, you know the cool “fog effect” that happens when you mix dry ice and water. The present we got Cameron was basically this experiment, but with a slight twist. Luckily for us, Cameron had never experienced dry ice before… so it got to be a cool thing on multiple counts for him.
A little later in the evening, Katie got on Skype with Tricia and her family. It was a lot of fun to watch everyone on the laptop, talking with everyone down in Atlanta.
To celebrate Christmas, Liz and I headed down to Frankfort to visit her folks. We went a day early, and ended up spending the night there – spending both Christmas Eve and Christmas Day with them.
We continued the early Christmas tour by visiting my sister’s family in Indianapolis. We all went out to Maggiano’s for a family dinner, then back to Stacey’s house to open gifts.
As is our annual tradition, we had an early Christmas with the Holder family at their home in Atlanta, GA. Recently, the Fords moved down to Atlanta as well, and are currently staying with the Holders. Needless to say, we had a very full house – which, over the holidays… is the best kind of house.
Liz and I have found ourselves on the eve of some holiday traveling, with our tree still not quite decorated. We’re off to Atlanta for the weekend, and tomorrow sets us on a mini-tour to see a lot of family.