We have returned to the dark, gray-and-white winter from warmer, sunnier Houston. The midwest is welcoming us home by snowing.
Relatives seen: 12. Much thanks to the San Antonio folks for making the trip!
Lemons brought back: 5. Plus an eggplant.
Lemons still growing in my parents’ back yard: Dozens. Also, several huge, juicy oranges.
Types of meat eaten at Tradicao, a Brazilian restaurant: Six–filet mignon, the house special beef, salmon, chicken wrapped in bacon, pork with parmesan, and some other kind of beef.
Piano pieces played: 3. Canon in D, which I’ve finally relearned from my fifth-grade lessons; O Come All Ye Faithful, which I’m still working on; and The Swan from the Carnival of the Animals, which I just bought from musicnotes.com when I decided I want to keep playing the piano.
Books read: 2-3. A fluffy mystery (Death Threads) and the second Diary of a Wimpy Kid book, which I borrowed from the first-grader on Christmas Day. Plus most of Character, Emotion, & Viewpoint, which I thought I had read before but seem to have been misremembering.
Present-opening events: 3. Once with the San Antonio group, once with just my parents, and once with the nephews.
Movies seen: 3. The Hobbit was really good, barring a few false steps (too much action). We watched Psycho and Plan 9 from Outer Space as well. The less said of the latter the better.
Types of cookies eaten: 6? As always my favorites were my mother’s Mexican wedding cookies. I also liked my aunt’s frosted lime-flavored Christmas trees and my sister-in-law’s mint brownies. I’m glad I didn’t do any baking of my own this year.
Recipes sampled from Modernist Cuisine at Home: 2, microwave-fried parsley and eggplant parmesan.
Stories revised: About a half.
Novel scenes written: Approximately 5, at varying levels of detail.
Times I wondered how we could fall of a cliff if it’s looming over us, which means we must be at the bottom of it: At least twice.
Raccoon invasions in our absence: NONE
Happy New Year! May your 2013 be full of food and books and empty of raccoons.
So glad the brownies were a hit! I don’t think I had food of any kind that I did not enjoy with y’all. Wait. There was the piece of beet that S fed me at Tradicao. Ick!
We very much enjoyed your visit. Sorry you didn’t get more time with the t(w)eenagers this year. My long term goal is to make it up to visit you two in the next decade. (gives me time to finish school)
Come in winter. 🙂
Is this so you can teach the nephews how to shovel snow?? I will bring the camera for that one. 😉