It was actually, a very peaceful and quiet day, which was welcome after all the partying of the last couple of days. Both Max and Gabe were out seeing friends so Diane and I enjoyed hanging out the house. Both Gabe and Max went over to check in on Chris to see if there was anything they could do to help with the champ burn that’s going to be for New Year’s. On the way home Gabe picked up an order of delicious Indian food from our new favorite restaura of India corn. We had a delicious Indian feast and then just hung out together. Played some music and played video games. It was like old times…
Old times, but I don’t think I took any pictures that day that never happens!
I guess it really means we needed a quiet day like that 🙂
It wouldn’t be the chanukah holidays without latkes.
Another flashback moment this morning. I took Gabe up to to Bolton to ride the mountain with friends. just like we did hundreds of times when he was a kid
today was our latke party.. we were thinking we would get about 25 folks. I think we got closer to 35. it was super fun..a nd the whole house smelt like yummy fried stuff.. This year we also tried a recipe that gabe had found. Pickle latkes..( it’s a real thing.. look it up !). we started cooking early so we could feed people as they came in
about 5 pm people started showing up. .. and started eating !
Mid way we gathered folks around to light the candles.. we had a few folks there who knew the prayer and sang with me.
there was lots of playing with baby James
Kasey liked my spooky glasses
user nice getting to talk to everyone .. like these two
Happy Hannukah everyone !
may your hues smell like Al’s French Fries forever and ever Ah-men
Today was great.. today was our christmas.. even as adults we all love the traditions of our holidays. The kids came down at the crack of dawn.. well.. ok.. maybe `11 AM.. We even got a letter to sanat.. and a homemade ‘Grammacohn’ in the shape of the gramaphoen we’ve been workign on.
Lots of the presents this year were experiences and other non ‘stuff’.. all of us have too much stuff already.. .. but there was still plenty of stuff.. it was really fun.
We always bring sam in to our celebrations. it just feels right. THis year I made the kids and diane metal samstones.. oen of Pewter whcih my freind eliot helped me cast.. and the others in woods metal.. using the same mold .
one new tradition was ‘Caga Tio’ .. the poop log’. . Its a weird christmas tradition in Catalonia.. kids decorate a log.. and keep it warm and fed leading up to christmas.. then you threaten it with sticks until it ‘poop’s out small presents. CHeck out this story for the straight poop on Caga Tio
here’s our version
we took a break to eat lox and bagles.. adn a yummy pantone from Beckys parents
like all our christmases.. We took this one slow and it was actually getting dark by the time we were done.
One of the gifts we’ve given the kids and ourselves was four tickets to tonight’s Gogol Bordello show. Gogol Bordello’s one of my favorite bands… I first saw th in the early 2000’s and a bar in Austin. Through weird set of circumstances, I ended up getting to be friends with Eugene lead singer and Pam who plays the huge drum. The show has been a surprise for our kids, but a whole bunch of their friends were also going, Nate, Hannah Deborah, Ian, Maddie, Austin, Lindsey, Avery, Joe,// and I ran into ton of friends there… Homer and Mary , their daughter Ray, and many others
it was an AMAZING show !!!.. Eugene still has the same firey energy and stage presense he had when I first saw him 20 years ago.. and the band was great. they pulled up some members of the two warm up bands.. and then Pam came out an d the crowd loved that
the show ended aroudn mdinight.. and while the place was clearing out Eugene came to the stage door… He saw me and invited me backstage… I got Max Gabe and Diane and we went back for a short bit. It was really great to talk to him and Pam and Sergio their violin player. Eugene told me that he carries the sandstone everywhere with him… Which is really amazing. Anyway, it was great to be able to see them ! it was one of my favorite shows ever in Higher Ground.. and I’ve seen zillions of shows there
Easy start to the day. I’m lookign at teh needle assembly for the 1883 edison gramaphoen we’re tryign to fix.. it’s pretty cool looking !
I picked up Max around 2:30. So nice to see him.. !
Max and Becky had spent christmas wiht Beckys parents in atlanta.. Becky stayed in Atlanta for a couple of days and Max headed here. We’ll see Becky when she and Max come back here in Feb for Abbot and Megan’s wedding.
we headed back for a quick family walk before the sun set
THen back to the house for homemade spaghetti ala guitarra .. it’s such a fun way to make pasta !
After dinner we did one of our family traditions. We went out to decorate a tree in the woods with goodies for the animals. THe tradition came to us from a book we used to read the kids..
diane I will go fetch the string from the tree in a couple of days so not to litter.. hope the animals like it ! it was fun doing this all together.. it’s something we did since the kids were little.. we talked about doing it with Sam.. and with our dogs.. Chai in particular would always try to eat the goodies.. it was nice to go beck in the past a little
We got home still bundled up. so Max, Gabe and I decided to go sledding on the fantastic sledding hill we have in the back yard. THe sledding hill comes form an unfortuante incident that happened back in the mid 1990s . a neighbors rbothers truck accidentally came about 2/3 the way doen the hill. THe brake wasnt set.. but luckiny the truck was empty. We and the other neightbors have kept it clear and accessible for nearly 30 years.. the snow was FAST !!>. we took soem fun runs.
The stars were beutiful.. don’t knwo if you can see.. but the constellation Orion was visible just above the sledding hill. Beautiful !
THen back in our cozie house for DIane’s basque cheescake.. and soem music.. Gabe played mandolin, max played guitar.. I dug up our old autoharp and diane played keyboard.. ! |
funny thing about the auto harp.. we’d written some songs down when the kids were little.. they were on the back of one of my ICCAD tutorials from 1996 !
