My New Years resolution is to resolve to not make a resolution. I've never really been big on that sort of thing. I've probably said that before in the many years that I've been doing this blog thing. Someday, maybe I'll go back and read what I've written over the years. (I know nobody else will. Who else would want to read ten years' worth of my miscellaneous ramblings about the routine of academic life combined with the non-routine of regular life?) And no, that's not a resolution. The typing of these things is a time of reflection that I've come to view a bit like mental hygiene. Or maybe it's more like eating. Stuff goes in, stuff comes out. Somewhere in the middle, things get processed. Except that if that were true, then everything I end up typing is just waste product. Maybe it is? I don't know.
The annual return to California for Christmas happened between the last post and this one. I flew home on Christmas Eve like normal, landing in Oakland like normal, and getting on BART like normal. Except that for some reason, I didn't get on the Pleasanton/Dublin train like normal. I got on the Fremont train. (In fairness to me, so that I only look a little bit dumb and not completely dumb, both trains leave from the same place on the same platform. So it's not like I went out of my way to get lost. I just got on at the wrong time.) Since I was on my phone checking email, I didn't notice that the scenery was different until I was almost all the way into Fremont. So that meant looping back several stops and then transferring onto the right train, which probably added about 30-45 minutes to my travel, which isn't terrible.
That evening was spent at Corwin and Mandy's house. We did dinner and presents together. I got a couple nice math T-shirts (A "Name the triangle" and a "Derive Drunk"). I got to give them some educational toys (not just because I'm a nerd trying to make more nerds, but because this was something that was requested). Fun times were had by all.
The next day was Christmas at my uncle's house on my mom's side. This year seemed to be a bit more relaxed compared to other gatherings there. Or maybe it's just that there were fewer people there than other times. I don't really know. But whatever it was, the overall level of stress seemed lower which made it a much more relaxing visit. That night, my parents stayed with my grandma (who is in her mid-90s) in SF and I drove back to Livermore.
Saturday is when Justin and Janet were driving up. Some of my dad's side of the family also came over for dinner. I got to do the dinner cooking pretty much solo, which is always a bit fun for me. My parents bought a crown roast of pork as the main protein (something I didn't even know existed). It's not quite like a crown roast of lamb, which is just the lamb chops. They did the crown with pork ribs, but they also dropped a 3-4 inch piece of pork loin in the middle of the crown. I pretty much baked it like any other roast. There was also some scalloped potato, a rice pilaf that turned into more of a risotto-ish rice dish because my mom only had medium grain rice (something I didn't notice when I was planning), some green beans, a ginger-apple chutney, and my mom grilled up a couple steaks that she had meant to cook the other day. There might have been something else, but I can't think of it.
Sunday was the more "formal" Christmas gathering on my dad's side of the family. That's the "everybody" Christmas with all the aunts, uncles, cousins, and kids. I'm not going to count it all out, but I think it's around 35 people now. This side of the family has a competitive streak in them. We played a game where you had pictures and tried to name the Christmas song, one of those "find the words in the paragraph" puzzles, and then a word phrase game. Then we played bingo for gifts (instead of drawing numbers or whatever).
Monday was a trip to the Oakland zoo with Justin and Janet's family and my parents. I think the last time I was there was with Karen and Chad. It's a smaller zoo, which is nice because you don't feel the pressure of trying to get to everything. You can just go at a meandering pace and get all the way around the park in a day. Afterwards, I went to dinner with Justin and Janet while my parents met up with my mom's sister's family somewhere in Dublin. Then everyone met up again at my parents' house that evening to hang out.
And then Tuesday morning I got on BART to catch the flight home. I missed the family pictures on my mom's side of the family that evening. My brothers families took BART out to SF, where everyone met at the restaurant that my uncle recently bought ("The Celtic Coffee Company" -- which seems strange to me for a place owned by Asians and doesn't appear to have anything particularly Irish in it). But the pictures I saw of the place look nice, and the reviews seem to be good. So that's good for them.
Wednesday was a regular work day, Thursday was a half day (and I finally got out to see Star Wars that afternoon), Friday was a day of sitting around the house and resting (finished Assassin's Creed Black Flag), and then there's today. I don't know what else I'm going to do today. But so far, the morning has started off at a slow pace, getting up a little late and typing this thing up. Next week, there will very likely be a Disneyland trip of some sort, though the weather is kind of messing around with things a bit. This is a case where I'm deferring to the parents of the kids on this decision, since the kids are the ones that will decide how good or bad of a trip this will be (fussy kids = not much fun, and rain + kids might lead to fussy kids). So I'll just have to wait and see how that will play out.
Lastly, there's this BBQ Pig Lamb Goat Spit Roast Roaster Rotisserie Skewer 88 lb Motor Cooker. I won't say anything more about it for now, but I'm excited.
