Late Christmas and New Year's greetings

Hi Loved ones!

This Sunday we celebrate Epiphany and we have neglected to even wish everyone a happy Christmas! Not to mention hope and peace for the New Year! Dear me! Perhaps some of you can understand... maybe you are even in the same boat as we are... a little behind as a result of the seasonal festivities (and in our case, seasonal guests).

We had the great pleasure of having Katrina's Mom, Dad, brother, and sister visit us over the the holiday... they flew in from Fairfax, VA, but wait, I am getting ahead of myself...

We had a lovely Christmas... shopping in Hong Kong was crazy, as you might expect, with outlandish yet festive decorations EVERYWHERE. But it's not about shopping- although we decided last minute that we would get a few small gifts for each other and thus spent a few feverish days at a giant mall scrambling for the physical manifestations of our vague 'ideas' of the sorts of 'stuff' the other enjoys... not recommended for next year. On the bright side, it was an amazing success and Katrina now thoroughly enjoys that her tea remains hot throughout he duration of consumption thanks to both low and high tech options: a Japanese mini-tea-hot-plate-gadget and the local version which is a metal lid. Both are lovely. (I never meant to discuss gifts, but I really love them and use them several times a day, so I had to brag a bit... Ryan is so thoughtful!)

The services were satisfactory, we made a switch last minute as a result of seasonal fatigue and some sickies... and other options will be explored for next year. Enough.

We spent Christmas Eve just the two of us (for the meal) and did a Spanish tapas-inspired thing. Very good fruit cake had been made earlier from a Bon Apetit recipe and we had it with lovely Spanish manchego cheese... among our smorgasbord of veggies and dips and other fun delights. Our attempt at mulled wine was far too strong for my taste, Ryan, however, I believe out of guilt, drank. Too much mull and not enough prior breathing time for the wine in question... also not to be repeated next year (how many times must people think that over the course of the holidays...?).

Anyways, enough of my food musings... wait... Christmas day we celebrated with our neighbors and had many laughs...

On the night of Boxing Day the family arrived. We went to the airport to meet them and had a fantastic visit... but that story deserves its own post...

Peace, joy, and love to all of you in 2008!