christmas in seattle

we spent a week in seattle over christmas, visiting mike and vanessa, and arushi and shyamal. the family didn’t do too many presents this year, which was great (from both a we-don’t-want-material-things-to-clutter-up-our-lives standpoint, as well as a travelling-on-a-plane-with-gifts-sucks standpoint). before we left, though, doc and i exchanged gifts. he gave me some more beautiful glass tree ornaments, a panini maker (which we’ve used almost every single day), the book “wicked,” some kitchen implements, balsamic vinegar, some invader zim toys featuring gir (including tacos, pig, and squeezy moose). i gave him some fancy mustards and chocolates, a leather jacket to replace his worn out one, and some MOMA italian leather shoes to replace his worn out pair.

christmas day was really fantastic. mom and vanessa and i spent most of the day cooking in her beautiful kitchen, complete with granite countertops, deep stainless sink, and 6-burner double-oven viking range. we made turkey breast, ham, 2 kinds of mashed potatoes (smoked gouda and chive, and horseradish), green beans with tomatoes, lemon, and balsamic vinegar, green salad, spicy cornbread dressing, tomato and kalamata olive tarts, wild mushroom tarts, cinnamon ice cream, apple cheesecake torte… and probably some other stuff that i’m forgetting.

we didn’t have much of an agenda while we were there, so we had a lot of time to sleep and relax, which is really a lot of the point of vacation. we saw a movie (“narnia”), hung out with arushi and shyamal and had dinner at their place one night, saw john and sue as well as reed, lisa, and their little boy (whom i have never met; in fact i have not seen reed since he got married in… 1997 maybe?) (and let me just say that the richardsons seem to have gotten all the energy in the family… they were only over for like an hour and i was exhausted by the end of it!).

we also went skiing one day, where i concluded that i am just not cut out for winter sports. the forward-leaning position that you have to have while on skis made my calf muscles tighten and burn so badly that i only lasted about an hour and 15 minutes of my 2 hour group skiing lesson (taught by a 14 year old… sigh) before i had to sneak away and sit down. i couldn’t stand it any more. it wasn’t as bad while i was moving, but much of the lesson consisted of standing there listening or practicing leaning this way or that, which made the pain unbearable. doc had much the same problem with leg cramps during his snowboarding lesson, but we seemed to be the only ones at the entire place having these problems. of course, we appeared to be older than most people there and possibly not in shape… or at least not in the right kind of shape for this type of sport.

so skiing is not my thing, and as we learned in 2004, neither is snowboarding. snow tubing is much more my style — especially the face-forward kind.

i had a lot better time sitting in the lodge with doc and my mom, drinking hot irish cocoa. (when i say “lodge” you probably get a mental image of a wood paneled room with a roaring fire and comfy chairs… ha! try instead a college bar atmosphere with wet beer stained carpets and prepackaged nachos and other “snacks” at a cafeteria style counter).

poor shyamal hurt his arm pretty badly on his last run down the mountain (he and arushi went a couple of weeks ago and had fun, so they came with us this time too and apparently are much better at it than us). he somehow yanked his arm backwards in its socket while holding on to a stuck ski pole. he didn’t think it was broken or torn, just badly pulled. i need to call and see if he’s ok now, actually.

just a few days before we came home, an alaska airlines plane leaving seattle (much like the one we flew) tore a hole in its fuselage shortly after takeoff, apparently because a baggage handler ran a cart into the side of the plane and didn’t report it. i am glad that i did not hear about that until after i got home. i’m a nervous flyer anyway and that would not have helped.