Christmas!!!

What? I was six months behind on the wedding; a six week delay on Christmas blogging should be viewed as an unqualified success. 

So....the day after Tom and I got back from Florida Christmas, we headed down to my parents' for San Diego Christmas, which for those not in the know, was on December 27th this year. My brother and Erin had arrived on the 26th, so it was one of those all-too-rare weekends when my family is all together in one room.

Not only did I get to spend real, live, in-person time with Mike and Erin, but I also got to hang out with a puppy, which as we all know, makes everything that much better.

{Coya}

{I'm confused by Tom's expression... but I mean, really. How cute is that puppy?}

We did Secret Santa this year, and Michael got Buckley this totally rad hipster giraffe t-shirt.

{Remember how I said he was weird in all the best ways? Case in point.}

Mo got all the ladies matching bracelets.

{faith, hope, and love}

My dad was very excited to surprise my brother with Chargers tickets.

{They had a great time despite some hail and a near miss with a vomitous fan who was seated behind them.}

I had ordered Michael a Chargers shirt for the occasion, but it was late to arrive so I had to improvise.

After some present opening, we broke for a trip to the movies. The guys were having a hard time generating the appropriate level of enthusiasm for the planned viewing of Les Miserables, so we split up. The boys got their Tarantino on at Django Unchained while us girls bawled our eyes out at Jean Valjean's noble struggle. [Side note: Is Jean Valjean not the best character? Ever? Sigh. I love him. And the music. Oh, the music... I know every word. I found myself mouthing the lyrics to just about every song...Castle on a Cloud being the obvious exception. Baby Cosette is kind of a whiner.]

After the movies, it was beer tasting time. Apparently, this is becoming a holiday tradition.

{Coya obviously can't hang.}

After a delicious dinner (popovers, mmmmm!), I broke out Cards Against Humanity, a Christmas gift from Tom and my new favorite game. It's like the adult version of Apples to Apples, and some of the cards are pretty x-rated. We censored a few for my mom's benefit, but after the beer tasting and the wine with dinner, everyone was feeling pretty loose.  

Still, we don't mess around when it comes to games....serious decision making (and more wine, naturally) going on here.

The prompt on this round was, "What gets better with age?"

{I don't remember which card won, but I really hope that it was "Home video of Oprah sobbing into a Lean Cuisine."}

I'm not sure how long we played (an hour? two?), but there was a lot of laughing. Like tears streaming, can't catch your breath laughing... Playing this game (and hearing my mom say things like "Harry Potter erotica") - probably my favorite memory of San Diego Christmas '12.

Lastly, just because I love it so much, here is a series of Meghan with Lucy, the biggest lapdog of all time, and a jealous Coya. Just over a month ago, Meghan left for Haiti to spend six months teaching a school in Port au Prince because she's a badass with a heart of gold. Seriously, I'm so proud of her, but I miss her face so for now, I have to get my Midgey dose from pictures of these.

Week 15: Caine's Arcade

Last Friday, (after a little wine) I finally watched this video:



Did you watch it? Seriously, go watch it. It's ten minutes long - you have ten minutes. See? I mean, have you ever? Anyway, I just watched it again, and I am still so in love with it. Caine's enthusiasm, his dad's willingness to let his kid run amuk all over his shop, how Nirvan is all, "heck yes, I want a fun pass," the way all of those strangers came out to make Caine's dream come true...the whole thing just fills me with love for all of humanity. If I'm this effusive about it now, dead sober, you can imagine how a few glasses (ok a bottle) of wine would intensify this feeling of love for all the world. I was basically Ebeneezer on Christmas morning after watching this thing...

Want to know the best part? When the Caine's Arcade website was first established, they decided to try to raise a little money for a scholarship fund for Caine's future education. The initial goal was to try to raise $25,000. As I write, the PayPal widget on the website shows that a total of  $179,271 has been donated to help fund Caine's education (a move to a private school now and savings for college later). And, actually, it gets even better - the Goldhirsh Foundation has agreed to match donations to the scholarship fund dollar-for-dollar. These matching funds will be used to establish a separate Caine's Arcade Foundation that will "help find, foster, and fund creativity and entrepreneurship in young kids." The interweb can be such a force for good - it's not all cat videos and cyberbullying after all!

Anyway, point is, I watched the video and decided that Tom and I needed to make a pilgrimage to East L.A. to get ourselves a fun pass. The next morning, I held on to my tipsily arranged plans and looked up the website again to get directions to Caine's arcade.  Lo and behold (who says that?), they had scheduled a block party for Saturday since the arcade would be closed on Sunday because Caine was going to be making his First Communion... I mean, really. Could this kid be any more adorable?

{source}

We weren't the only people who decided to come check out Caine's Arcade. You could feel the goodwill in the air.

The line to buy a fun pass stretched down the block, so we hung out for a bit, signed Caine's guest book, and headed home.

All in all, it was the perfect way to spend a Saturday morning. In addition to the rare opportunity to see an arcade made entirely of cardboard, I got a glimpse of an L.A. that I never get to see.

Gratitude - Day Ten

Today I'm giving thanks for silly, spontaneous celebrations (and alliteration, apparently). When I was listening to, you guessed it..., NPR this morning, I heard a short piece that inspired me to throw a mini 11/11/11 party. The only guests were Tom and myself, and he left early, but still... Spontaneous parties for no real reason are fun!

Anyway, the NPR piece was commemorating 11/11/11 by choosing eleven songs that are meant to be played "at eleven." This is, of course, a reference to the scene in Spinal Tap where Christopher Guest's character talks about how his amps "go to eleven" instead of the standard ten volume setting.

     

The NPR broadcasters then continued to talk about songs (their choices and those sent in by listeners) that have to be cranked up to full volume - songs that when they come on, you reflexively reach for the volume control. In addition to being proof (in my mind at least) that NPR is not as stuffy as some people (coughTomcough) would make it out to be, I thought that this would be a super-fun basis for an evening's festivities. It had not previously occurred to me to celebrate this auspicious date, but I do love a holiday and this seemed like as good an excuse as any to drink wine and make a special meal. I headed to the store for some wine and the fixings for chile rellenos. [I'm not sure why chile rellenos are an appropriate choice for this particular celebration, but given enough time, I'm sure I could come up with some sort of connection to the Mayan calendar's prediction that we won't see 12/12/12.]

When Tom got home, I told him to start thinking about songs that have to be played at full volume. After some serious consideration, he made our party playlist. I was allowed to contribute three songs to the eleven (obviously) song playlist. Here's what we came up with...I'm sure you won't be able to guess which ones I contributed...

{If I had been allowed more than three selections, I might have also included I Wanna Be Sedated - Ramones, Music is the Victim - Scissor Sisters, Paradise City - Guns N' Roses, and Con te Partiro - Andrea Bocelli. I'm only partially kidding about that last one, which I suppose, is why I was not allowed more selections...}

So, that was it. We put on our eleven song playlist, cranked the stereo up (to a level that was respectful of both the neighbors and the songs), poured ourselves some ($11, now that I think about it!) wine, and chowed down on some chile rellenos. Happy 11/11/11!

{Apologies for the truly horrific picture, but it was getting cold; I promise it tasted much better than it looked!}

In case you haven't had the pleasure, I give you Con te Partiro...


             

You can't tell me that doesn't deserve to be played loudly... It also makes me want to speak Italian...and possibly cry. So, in closing, I am thankful for silly celebrations and Andrea Bocelli.

Weekend Recovery

This past (four day!) weekend was exactly what I needed. {Although now it's Wednesday already and I'm just getting around to writing about the weekend.} With four days instead of the usual, miserly two, I didn't have to choose between relaxation and responsibility; there was plenty of time to be both industrious and indolent. I graded papers, cleaned bathrooms, washed sheets, bought groceries, and scrubbed floors, but I also watched movies, shared meals, took naps, drank Greyhounds, walked aimlessly, and photographed randomly. The end result was that by the end of the weekend, I felt good. Of course, there was more that could have been done, but I felt like I had struck a good balance. Bottom line-I would like to make four day weekends a regular occurrence.

One of the weekend's highlights was getting to watch Tom play some music.  I love watching him play, so was happy to brave the rain on Saturday night to watch he and Devin perform with a couple of other local musicians. Thanks to my sisters, my mom, and my friend Jaime for also battling the elements to show their support.

I have yet to figure out the best way to take pictures in the super low light that is apparently requisite for all live music performances. Sadly, what follows are the best shots of the night. Tom and Devin played first...

They were followed by brothers Billy and Bobby Shaddox whose father joined them at the end of their set.

Tom and Devin returned to the (now very crowded) stage for a few more songs with the Shaddox gentlemen at the end of the evening.

{Apologies to Papa Shaddox for hiding him in the shadows}

It was an evening of great music. I may be biased (after all, I am a pseudo celebrity now that a song bearing my name has become a fan favorite), but I thought the Riders killed it. The Shaddox brothers (and father) were a treat to watch as well.

All Things Considered...

David Folkenflik, Nell Greenfieldboyce, Frank Langfitt, Kai Ryssdal,  Steve Inskeep, Soraya Sarhaddi Nelson. I listen for their thorough reporting and insightful commentary, but I also delight in their names. Yuki Noguchi, Ofeibea Quist-Arcton, Lakshmi Singh, Dina Temple-Raston, Nina Totenberg. Because, you know, in addition to public radio, white people also really like diversity and having two last names. Who am I kidding? I truly enjoy most of the things on the list of Stuff White People Like. I hate that I am such a cliche, but come on... Hummus? The Daily Show? Oscar Parties? What's not to like? Now that I am in the throws of a food revolution, I can add organic food to the list of evidence that I am, in fact, a white person.

I digress, the point was...NPR. NPR is awesome, makes me feel smarter, and devotes only a small percentage of its airwaves to musings on the future of Tiger's career. The names of the reporters and commentators, however, do kill me, so I was embarrassingly excited when I came across this website and the Discover Your NPR Name game.  It entertained me for a moment so I thought I'd share the two easy steps for joining the ranks of Lakshmi, Soraya, and the gang.

1. Take the first letter of your middle name and insert it some where in your first name.
2. Replace your last name with the name of the smallest foreign town you have ever visited.

With that, I am Katge Artemonas, signing off.

This photo is totally unrelated other than that I saw it on the NPR website, but it's painfully cute... Someone should probably tell that guy with the list that white people also really like pandas.

Ann Batdorf/Smithsonian Institution via AP