A Very Merry Christmas

Christmas celebrations are almost done.  We've got one more family dinner today and then we are finished.  Luckily, this one does not involve a gift-exchange.  It's just dinner.  Good dinner, too!  It's with H's extended family and is my favorite dinner of the Christmas season. 

Since H is chinese, the dinner with the extended family is a Chinese dinner.  But this isn't your Mandarin buffet or Chinese takeout style of dinner.  This is a sit down meal at a fancy Chinese restaurant with lots of fancy dishes.  There is always some sort of seafood.  Shrimp, scallops, fish.  Then there will be chicken.  Usually a whole chicken chopped up into pieces.  The bone are left in and the head is usually still on the plate.  Sometimes we order peking duck.  The whole duck is brought to the table and sliced by hand in front of you.  Then the rest of it is taken back to the kitchen where the remainder of the meat is chopped up and stir-fried.  Of course there is rice. 

There is lots more, but I can't think of what else we usually order.

Christmas with my family was good.  The gift exchange is always a bit unruly, but that's to be expected when there are 15 people opening presents at once.  My brother-in-law bought me two knitting books.  Stitch'n'bitch Superstar Knitting and Modern Top-down Knitting.  Both were absolutely perfect.  I've wanted the first one since it came out, and the second one was a pleasant surprise, since I've often thumbed through it at the library and had been thinking about picking it up.

My mother bought me yarn.  I will admit to being a complete yarn snob.  I tend not to enjoy it when other people buy me yarn, since other people's opinion of what is good yarn usually differs vastly from my own.  Nevertheless, the more I touch and fondle it, the more it has started to grow on me.  At first, I had no idea what I would make out of 5 balls of bernat boa (in the colourway "Bright Glitter", no less).  But it didn't take me long to envision it as a hat, scarf, mittens, and possibly shawl.  All of which would be made for and enjoyed by ME!  I don't do enough knitting for myself.

I almost cast the hat on last night, but a (very!!) stern glare from my husband told me that probably wasn't a good idea.  It'll be a hat for next winter.  ;)