Winter-Solstice-related Holiday Recap
Jan. 9th, 2008 08:45 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
damontYes, it's been a while... Well, I survived the hols, though there were many annoyances, and at least one screwup on my part.
Saturday the 15th I was missing people and wishing we could have gone to the Ponte Alto and/or Bhakail events scheduled today, among other places. ::glares at the nonfunctional multilocative teleporter in the corner of the shop:: As we were only able to go to one of the occasions we headed south to Richmond, where one of Sallie's cousins I hadn't met before was having a Christmas party; I was going in part so that I would no longer be "Sallie's mythical husband" to that branch of the family blackberry bramble. Given the weather forecast, we planned to crash with![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
ayrfield overnight where only rain was expected; this we did, and got home about 8 pm Sunday. It was a weekend. I'm reasonably certain I didn't make a *bad* impression at the party, though I think that a neutral impression was the most I was really hoping for.
The week or 10 days leading up to the 15th were very stressful on multiple fronts, including dealing with deaths in the family for many friends, and like too many of my friends, I didn't have any cope left by then. The following week wasn't much better; I don't think I have ever been more tempted to stay away from my entire family for the holidays.
Friday the 21st we had dinner withfuzzface00 and bronx_baroness after dropping off our baronial pollings with the latter. I think she got close to four dozen pollings on or after the 21st! We therefore got to Allentown late, but without incident. Saturday morning, I got Mom's computer back online (with phone help from killernurd) after breakfast. bunnyjadwiga came over to carpool out to Echo Hill Country Store; I was going mostly for stocking stuffers, and came home mostly succesful. while we were gone, juergen and maziemaus and Becka came to snag montuos and take *her* shopping! We all ended up back at Casa Montuori at roughly the same time; it was amusing to have all the Easton cars parked there simultaneously. We had a good Italian family dinner, and for dessert there was birthday cake for my niece Rachel who is now 14.
Sunday the 23rd I went to my mom's church in the morning to sing with the choir. The afternon was somewhat confused, as we loaded the van and tried to wrap gifts and get the stocking stuffers sorted out; eventually we got everyone together to exchange presents, andmontuos and I opened our stockings since we were about to leave. We finished loading up the car and headed out. It rained for the first leg of the trip; we stopped in Delaware for gas and in Elkton MD for dinner. We then went down old route 213 to Galena, by which time the rain had mostly stopped. Got on US-301 and took it over the Bay Bridge, diverted off to the Beltway and Branch Av to avoid traffic, got back on 301 in Brandywine and took it all the way to Dahlgren VA, then took the short cut over to Oak Grove, got on the usual route to Kinsale and arrived a little before midnight.
Christmas Eve was a very frustrating day doing last minute shopping in Tappahannock. Grrrr.ayrfield had a full house, with the three of us plus montuos's sister, brother, sis-in-law and nephew-dog; we had the big dinner on Monday night, anticipating mid-afternoon departures on Christmas itself. Christmas Day was very laid back; after brunch was eaten, stockings opened, and other gifts exchanged, we left Ayrfield around 1700; stopped for gas at the Wawa in Dahlgren, stopped for dinner at the Hunan Star III in La Plata, dropped montuos's sister off and headed home. I unloaded the van and did some minor catch-up on what email and LJ.
Wed. the 26th through Fri. the 28th were, in many ways, highly frustrating. So many places I'd like to be, visiting people. Did get over to![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-community.gif)
chez_turtle for Friday night gaming; some of us looked over the rules for (Die Baumeister von) Arkadia while chelona was putting together the game pieces, but we decided it would take too long to learn, given what time it was. I played three new (to me) games: Alhambra (won), Sitting Ducks Gallery, and Ca$h 'n Gun$ (won on the tiebreaker). Saturday and Sunday were spent at home, punctuated by a shopping trip with fuzzface00 Sunday night.
New Years Eve we got a slow start, but did eventually head over toherveus and Megan's, where a number of friends gathered for a laid-back New Years celebration. Among the LJers we got to wish "Happy New Year" to in person were pedropadrao, sister_devora, cariola, anne_rose, mizkismet, morgynleri, and killerbunnie007. After a semi-late night we slept in a little, had breakfast, got ready to face the world, loaded up the van, and went over to the GrayMouse Inn, where grayhawkfh and mousecat0 were bringing in the New Year with the usual food overload. We got to see many friends we don't see too often, including tth, aylinn, byronczimmer, principia_coh, and others whose handles I've forgotten (if I ever knew them).
I'll post about happenings after 1 January later.
Saturday the 15th I was missing people and wishing we could have gone to the Ponte Alto and/or Bhakail events scheduled today, among other places. ::glares at the nonfunctional multilocative teleporter in the corner of the shop:: As we were only able to go to one of the occasions we headed south to Richmond, where one of Sallie's cousins I hadn't met before was having a Christmas party; I was going in part so that I would no longer be "Sallie's mythical husband" to that branch of the family blackberry bramble. Given the weather forecast, we planned to crash with
ayrfield overnight where only rain was expected; this we did, and got home about 8 pm Sunday. It was a weekend. I'm reasonably certain I didn't make a *bad* impression at the party, though I think that a neutral impression was the most I was really hoping for.The week or 10 days leading up to the 15th were very stressful on multiple fronts, including dealing with deaths in the family for many friends, and like too many of my friends, I didn't have any cope left by then. The following week wasn't much better; I don't think I have ever been more tempted to stay away from my entire family for the holidays.
Friday the 21st we had dinner with
fuzzface00 and bronx_baroness after dropping off our baronial pollings with the latter. I think she got close to four dozen pollings on or after the 21st! We therefore got to Allentown late, but without incident. Saturday morning, I got Mom's computer back online (with phone help from killernurd) after breakfast. bunnyjadwiga came over to carpool out to Echo Hill Country Store; I was going mostly for stocking stuffers, and came home mostly succesful. while we were gone, juergen and maziemaus and Becka came to snag montuos and take *her* shopping! We all ended up back at Casa Montuori at roughly the same time; it was amusing to have all the Easton cars parked there simultaneously. We had a good Italian family dinner, and for dessert there was birthday cake for my niece Rachel who is now 14.Sunday the 23rd I went to my mom's church in the morning to sing with the choir. The afternon was somewhat confused, as we loaded the van and tried to wrap gifts and get the stocking stuffers sorted out; eventually we got everyone together to exchange presents, and
montuos and I opened our stockings since we were about to leave. We finished loading up the car and headed out. It rained for the first leg of the trip; we stopped in Delaware for gas and in Elkton MD for dinner. We then went down old route 213 to Galena, by which time the rain had mostly stopped. Got on US-301 and took it over the Bay Bridge, diverted off to the Beltway and Branch Av to avoid traffic, got back on 301 in Brandywine and took it all the way to Dahlgren VA, then took the short cut over to Oak Grove, got on the usual route to Kinsale and arrived a little before midnight.Christmas Eve was a very frustrating day doing last minute shopping in Tappahannock. Grrrr.
ayrfield had a full house, with the three of us plus montuos's sister, brother, sis-in-law and nephew-dog; we had the big dinner on Monday night, anticipating mid-afternoon departures on Christmas itself. Christmas Day was very laid back; after brunch was eaten, stockings opened, and other gifts exchanged, we left Ayrfield around 1700; stopped for gas at the Wawa in Dahlgren, stopped for dinner at the Hunan Star III in La Plata, dropped montuos's sister off and headed home. I unloaded the van and did some minor catch-up on what email and LJ.Wed. the 26th through Fri. the 28th were, in many ways, highly frustrating. So many places I'd like to be, visiting people. Did get over to
chez_turtle for Friday night gaming; some of us looked over the rules for (Die Baumeister von) Arkadia while chelona was putting together the game pieces, but we decided it would take too long to learn, given what time it was. I played three new (to me) games: Alhambra (won), Sitting Ducks Gallery, and Ca$h 'n Gun$ (won on the tiebreaker). Saturday and Sunday were spent at home, punctuated by a shopping trip with fuzzface00 Sunday night.New Years Eve we got a slow start, but did eventually head over to
herveus and Megan's, where a number of friends gathered for a laid-back New Years celebration. Among the LJers we got to wish "Happy New Year" to in person were pedropadrao, sister_devora, cariola, anne_rose, mizkismet, morgynleri, and killerbunnie007. After a semi-late night we slept in a little, had breakfast, got ready to face the world, loaded up the van, and went over to the GrayMouse Inn, where grayhawkfh and mousecat0 were bringing in the New Year with the usual food overload. We got to see many friends we don't see too often, including tth, aylinn, byronczimmer, principia_coh, and others whose handles I've forgotten (if I ever knew them).I'll post about happenings after 1 January later.
