Monday, December 29, 2008

Post-Christmas


This may have been the quietest Christmas we've had in a long time. We only had our immediate family for dinner and it was so much less stressful. The snow kept falling through most of Christmas week and except for a couple of forays to finish shopping, I remained ensconced in front of my fireplace.

Our older son and girlfriend came on Christmas eve and stayed until this a.m. (the 29th). Christmas day, we had gift opening with lots of pictures and laughs, brunch, some Scrabble playing, Rock Band 2, turkey dinner, more Scrabble playing and Rock Band (last year it was Guitar Hero), then more food and munchies. It was lots of fun. Mind you, I didn't play Rock Band, but it was sure fun watching others play it. Oh, and did I mention wine?

As usual, (among other things) first son got me books and second son got me CDs:

The books:



- A Good Catch - Sustainable Seafood Recipes from Canada's Top Chefs by Jill Lambert (foreward by David Suzuki); and

- Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World by Haruki Murakami and a lovely Gustav Klimt bookmark.

I'm starting Hard-Boiled Wonderland and look forward to trying some of the recipes from Lambert's book.

The CDs:

She & Him - Volume One



The Last Shadow Puppets



Trust J to find me some new and interesting music. I think it's his mission in life to make sure I don't get stuck in a nostalgic coma of sixties and seventies music.

I'm really loving She & Him and I like some tracks from The Last Shadow Puppets, but I need to give it another listen.

What I find amazing (and heart-warming) is that both sons know me so well.


5 comments:

Anonymous said...

I think they know us too well too early. I figure the programming is done by age 7, and by 8 they are already playing manipulative games they learned from their surrounding ( namely us) by adolescence they are expert and play the games better than we do.Your kids seem to know you in a very sweet way.You must have passed on the good games ( hey, it's an unconscious thing, we can never tell who or why they learned what they did because it's all on a feeling level- not intellectual at all)
Bless you in the New Year.
xoxoCharlie

Anonymous said...

I love hearing about your sons. They sound wonderful, and it sounds as if they do know you well. They remind me of my son and our relationship with each other. It's sweet! :-)

Not sure where you're coming from, Charlie. Not all people are manipulative.

Anonymous said...

How are you finding Murakami's Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World? I recently read it, and I adored it; a very trippy adventure. Murakami is, in one word, brilliant.

Oh, and happy new year.

Anonymous said...

Hey Martin!

I'm loving Hard-Boiled Wonderland. It 's very much Alice-in-Wonderlandish with an edge.

Anonymous said...

I hear 'Dance Dance Dance' is especially superb but I haven't been able to get my hands on it cheap.