Gareth and our nephew, Alex, have gone on a grocery run, which means that I have just a few moments to sneak in a New Year's post here.
Since our last Sacramento visit at Thanksgiving, when they managed to hold a web videoconference with Dave (my brother-in-law in Wales), they've been obsessed with perfecting the technology... we held a successful 3-way conference over the holiday, and even got to chat online with Gareth's mum and dad on Christmas Day (which really was kind of thrilling; the looks on their faces as they saw our home and our tree and our daughter bouncing around the living room was worth all the hours Gareth and Dave spent getting it together). But the downside is that as my laptop is the only computer we own that seems to work with the technology, I've had very little access to my own machine. So I'm posting this as fast and furiously as possible, before the menfolk return.
The holidays in our family follow a predictable pattern. Each year, my sister and brother-in-law and their three children drive down to Los Angeles a couple of days before Christmas and stay with us overnight before heading to San Pedro for Christmas Eve and Day with Mark's family. On the 26th, they start the drive back, stopping at our home for our annual Boxing Day party before they leave for home on the 27th. Then, we make the trip north to spend New Year's Eve with them and Mark's brother, sister and sister-in-law. The only exception to this pattern is during those years we decide to spend the holidays in the UK with Gareth's family (as we did a year ago).
So once again, I'm posting from Sacramento. This year we had a little excitement in the fact that Mark's younger sister has become engaged, and we were going to meet her fiance. Also, our friends Maggie and Junior decided to make the trip for the first time in five years. We had New Year's Eve reservations at our favorite local Japanese joint, Mikuni, and M & J decided to surprise Linda by just showing up there. Maggie took a great picture of Linda when she finally saw them and she promises to give me a copy. Unfortunately, it's not a digital pic, so I probably won't be able to post it here.
Linda's house is just a little bigger than ours, which means it really doesn't have the room for ten adults and four children (and their teenage friends) to comfortably spend the night. This has never phased my sister, who is a generous hostess and really does feel that the more is the merrier.
Maggie and Junior wisely reserved a room at the Roseville Marriott Courtyard, and I begged Gareth to do the same, but he balked at that, accusing me of becoming antisocial and curmudgeonly in my old age. This is an assertion I cannot deny, except I think I've always been that way and am only less energetic now - thus less able to muster the appearance of being "easygoing" about the lack of privacy and inconvenience entailed with living out of a suitcase that must constantly be shuttled about.
So as midnight passed and the effect of so much sake and champagne (and our advancing age) made us long to call it a night, we were faced with the fact that doing so would put a damper on the party (as our designated bed was to be the sleeper sofa in the living room). Linda told us we should just pull the thing out and lie down (while the party continued around us), but neither Gareth nor I felt that was a suitable solution to the dilemma, so we tried not to nod off while we waited for the rest of the group to catch up with us... and after another hour or so, we were both pretty cranky. The only thing that brightened my mood was after the others finally retired to their own sleeping areas, my husband whispered that he should have listened to me about the hotel.
It's amazing what a difference those three little words ("You were right") can make, especially at the start of a New Year. I was immediately happier and I got to accuse my husband of being the curmudgeonly one.
It is now nearly 6:00 p.m. We've spent the rest of the day drinking the coffee and the champagne we somehow didn't polish off last night, and eating our way through the Costco munchies Linda stocked up on in anticipation of this weekend. Tomorrow, most of the gang will be leaving - but Gareth still has another couple of vacation days left, so we will be driving home on Monday, thereby beating the holiday traffic back to Los Angeles.
Ahh, the boys have returned from the store and I must relinquish my computer again. At least, I've made my first post of the New Year and can now relax...
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