Better late than never, here is my report on What I Did on Christmas Vacation:
We left Maryland on Christmas day on a direct flight to the
Minneapolis area. Parents and a 9 year old greeted us at the airport and
whisked us back to my sister’s house, where we were given:
- Presents (We also passed out our presents that we brought with us.)
- Wine
- Snacks. Really good ones like smoked turkey, pita and hummus, chips and salsa and cheese olives. Frango chocolates. I love Christmas snacks.
We played Apples to Apples, a new game that we gifted to the
kids. Then I sat down with Gran and the nieces and learned how to play Bunco.
Yes, we broke out the dice on Christmas Day, what can I say, that’s the way we
roll.
The 26th was another important family day, with
visits from my brother-in-law’s family, including his parents and
sister/sister’s husband and their two children. The kids roamed around playing
and shrieking at the top of their lungs.
In the end, most of the adults wound up in the kitchen
slicing veggies, bread, and cheese for our Raclette feast. Raclette is a Swiss
meal that involves melting some delicious strong cheese and eating it over
foods like bread, roasted potatoes, broccoli, mushrooms, cornichon, pickled
onions, and grilled onions. It takes a while to do and you get to prepare it
just the way you like it – perfect holiday feast meal.
Other high points of the trip were a trip to the local
rock-climbing wall facility (which was called Horizontal Terror, or Slanted
Exertion, or Vertical Expressions, or some such silliness), a visit to the NordicWare
outlet, and a visit to the meal/show at Benihana with all 14 of the extended
clan.
We went to the gym one day. I rowed for ten minutes, learned
how to do a kettlebell swing, punched a weight bag, and played basketball with
Thing 2 and her dad. I had not touched a basketball for years, but it came back
to me, and we enjoyed futzing around, shooting and screaming, “She shoots, she
MISSES!” at each other. The young men around us in the gym were slightly
bewildered, but we thought it was hilarious. We tried out some Harlem
Globetrotter-esque shots, but sadly, Meadowlark Lemon doesn’t have anything to
worry about.
There was also a lot of sitting around, doing crafts,
drinking wine, and watching silly movies. We played Scrabble, and Bunco, and
Apples to Apples and trivia. We sorted through books, and took a trip to the
Goodwill to drop off old books and toys. We visited brother-in-law's new office and got
to eat at a fun restaurant/bar in downtown Minneapolis. It was a good trip,
just the perfect amount of time that everyone had fun and no one had a chance
to get tired of each other!
