Christmas 2005
Christmas was very unusual this year-- it wasn't a rushed 72 hour trip.
First set of pictures is out with Margaret and her friends. Angela, Amy, Alice, Richard. Don't ask where all the names starting with "A" came from, I have no idea. Lunch was at Thea Mediterranean at Santana Row-- very yummy!! I also discovered how loud they are. Suffice it to say exploring Valley Fair afterwards was... interesting. Amazingly, the crowds weren't too bad, even if we wandered through Best Buy, Sharper Image, and finally the Apple Store looking for gifts. Then the ambush at Sephora was sprung. Oops.
Later in the evening, the more traditional Christmas Eve activites of dinner and dessert. We had enough ham to feed us for a week and we had dessert for at least that long! A new thing this year was a large selection wine and cheese to go with dessert and the hot mulled wine we usually have. We also open one gift each on Christmas Eve, which is always fun with four families over at Erik's parents. Particularly when we get "clever" with gifts. *grins*
Christmas dinner was with more family friends. The traditional "waaaaaaaaaay tooo much food" continues- as though we possibly need to spend a 2nd night eating too much! This was the first time I saw Uncle Shaun and Auntie Maria's son, that was lots of fun!
Last batch of pictures is out with friends. Erik and Jimmie's apartment, Majed's house, then out with fellow honors block students from class of `98. I hadn't seen some of those faces in years-- and I'm surprised how many of them moved back home! I'd go nuts if I did that!
within the last set is a few pictures from an Ars Technica meet at Malibu Grand Prix. It should have involved karting, but it was sprinkling just hard enough that we stuck to minature golf and video games. Paul Bartz, STi Sev, XaiaX, Lizzard, and a few others showed up. Presumably the karaoke meet a few days later was bigger?
Took off early from the Ars meet to see Diana and some other high school friends again. Wendy and Diana are still as entertaining as ever, and I saw a few more HS friends at Gordon Biersch. Very weird seeing so many of them. The next morning before I left was dim sum at Dynasty in San Jose, where I saw more HS friends. I mean... it's good to see them and all, but it was kind of ridiculous how many people I saw. Dim sum was decent-- and expensive. I hate to say this, but I seriously missed Monterey Park that morning; the meal would have been better and it would have been half the cost!
