December 2022

 

Ok so here is December backwards  

On the 31st we went to the Haven Tudor New Years Eve Party in glorious costume.

They gave us (upon request) the quietest darkest corner table. 

I somewhat redeemed my Highland Havoc failure bu pumping out 13 fancy Italian loaves and a pumpernickel loaf for the event. Kiernan made cheese!

I tried to put the Haven logo on the pumpernickel. 

I used most of my birthday and Christmas money to start making my own set of 1530s style feast gear. 

I spent a fair amount of time looking through books like this one for the party. Also because I really dig books like this. 

We wore ourselves out for Christmas and took this very true picture. 

We had a big Christmas lunch. 

Had all the stars align from Christmas cactus

To ebleskiver breakfast. 

We got Pax a new bed and she loved it. 

Many gifts were exchanged. 

I tried a braided challah. 

Our tree was enchanting. 

We spent some good family time playing Stardew valley. 

I wore a plethora of ugly Christmas sweaters. 

David found me an outstanding crashed Santa birthday cake. 

I got Camino shirts for Michelle (who also had a birthday) and mom so we could look like team Camino. 

We went on a geology hunt with the Haven. 

My foot hurt so much during the short hike that i though really hard about whether or not I should go to Spain in 23 or not. 

We went to my favorite Indian restaurant (used to be Tiffin and is now Red Chili’s) to celebrate my graduation. 

We took lots of cap and gown pics. 

The graduation was weird. It was very Disneyfied. There were many halls and video screens telling us all sorts of excited and vaguely procedural things. A ton of people being processed. Lots of cheering. No significant down time. It was entirely structured as a photo op. 

David says this is how we usually look. Communication. He had the squinchy what is my wife saying to me face and I have the oh I have an idea/question face. In this picture I wonder if there is a coat check. 

It was cold and I wore fancy shoes on my sore feet. 

I wanted the kids to see me graduate. I wanted them to have a sense of ceremony and accomplishment associated with degree earning. For them to see it as a big deal. Hopefully to make them feel it’s an achievable sort of this that would be good to have. 

We have conversations about that sort of thing but this way we got free cake pops and cider with lots of cheering. 

We went Christmas caroling with Haven. 

They had a really good time. I did too. Man I love Christmas music. Also singing in groups. Also being out at night having fun that isn’t intimidating. 

We had an ugly Christmas sweater day at work. Lab people are good. 

We got up the wrath’s and lights and no snow. 

Joyce and I entered the on base Christmas door decoration contest again. 

We even did our fridge. 

Christmas cookies were made and eaten but we never managed to distribute them. 

We had a hood tree this year. 

The kids picked it. 

I did a little laser cutting on some of our glass bottles in preparation for our next mead batch. 

If you have bottles with flat surfaces the laser is much happier. If you also have dawn dish soap to diffuse heat and collect glass dust then you are golden. Happily I had all of that. 

We had a ton of advent calendars this year. Two of which were a jam and spread calendar and a cheese calendar. 

Many good snacks were had. Many weird combinations and a few new favorites. 

David’s company had a Christmas party with free hotel stays. This year we had no freshly broken armed daughter to return to so we took advantage of it. 

We were terribly dashing. 

In anticipation of the Tudor New Years Party we went to a series of Tudor and Medieval dance classes at Haven. 

It was a ball (literally and figuratively). My feet hurt and we missed a few therefore. I hope they will do this again. So much fun and I’m deeply grateful to David for doing them with me. 

I started populating my wish list with things I want to use for the Camino. 

This is a pair of socks I got for Michelle for her birthday. It is also a picture of the socks that Michelle got for me for my birthday. 

Megan started practicing for serous for her Christmas concert and nearly every evening before bed we had an increasingly hood preview.