"We Really Must Get Together this Year"

Funny thing about today's short story is how relevant it is to me.  Eddie and I were just sure we could design and send out the cutest holiday cards this year.  We placed our order with Kodak Gallery and received half of our order in just a few days.  The other half of the order - the important half containing our holiday cards - never came.  Turns out they shipped to my old address in Irvine.  I tried to get in touch with the current renters down there, but had no luck so I finally broke down and re-ordered a set of the cards.  If we can get them sent out tomorrow, there's a chance some people may receive them before Christmas Eve. Maybe.

On to today's festivities.  Work passed by without incident.  Chris came down to sample our wines and pick up a few bottles for the holidays so that was nice.  After work, Eddie and I drove down to the Old Spaghetti Factory to meet up with the Maciejewski family for dinner.  Unfortunately I didn't get the memo about the venue change so we drove around town for 30 minutes looking for an address that I assumed led to the Old Spaghetti Factory when it was something else entirely.  The family was all done with dinner by the time we realized our mistake and arrived at the Chinese restaurant.  But at least we had five minutes with them to say hi.

After dinner, Chris, Eddie, and I headed back to our apartment to meet up with my cousin Baron and his wife, Heidi (and their newest baby boy).  The six of us headed to Deschutes for some drinks and conversation.  I had never met Baron & Heidi, but he is a cousin from the Texan side of my family.  He and Chris had some fun old stories to share about the family in Leakey, Texas and I had a blast getting to know Baron & Heidi.

I stayed out far later than I should have considering my long day at work and the fact that I have another early start tomorrow.  But it was definitely worth it.  So very quickly, I'll wrap up with my media mention.  I finished reading Gordon Ramsay's Playing with Fire.  I mistakenly assumed this was his autobiography.  And it is - of sorts.  But it's mostly focused very strictly on his culinary career.  Of course any biography with him as the subject would have to center on his career, but this was almost in a way, a how-to book for wannabe restauranteurs.  The last page in the book talks about his true autobiography which is Humble Pie so I'll have to add that to my reading list.  I still enjoyed reading PwF, but it was a bit hard to follow since it was only loosely in chronological order.  I'm not familiar with all of his restaurants so it was hard for me to keep up with the timeline of restaurant openings since he bounced around quite a bit.  It was still a fun read though.  Each word I read I pictured in his voice.

Meeting new cousins

Sharing stories over beers

Wish night didn't end