Christmas 2011

My family spent Christmas in Richmond this year. My parents and Ryan flew out from the West and the four of us stayed at a hotel downtown by the state capital. Here's how the holiday went down:

Thursday after work I drove to Richmond and met the family at my grandparents' house. Then my parents and I went to our hotel for the night, and Dad and I walked to Capital Ale House for a beer.

Friday morning Dad and I went to the airport to pick up Ryan. Then we wrapped a bunch of presents before meeting up with the whole family (including Grandma!) for pizza near Carytown. After that my parents and I visited the art museum, where I finally got to see the giant whale! After that my parents dropped Ryan and me off at the hotel for naps. Friday night the four of us saw the lights at the botanical garden, then had pho for dinner.

Saturday (Christmas Eve) I got up early-ish to go for a run, then we went to the grandparents' house where Mom got to work cooking posole, I made cookies (Sunni helped), and Dad and I ran last-minute errands, including stopping at four different stores looking for eggnog. Saturday evening we all went to church at 7, then went back to the house for our traditional posole dinner.

Sunday (Christmas) I woke up earlier than planned (too much Christmas excitement I guess), so I got Dad up to go for a Christmas walk with me. Then we headed back across town to the house, where cooking was underway. I made rolls. Everyone (including Grandma!) came over for lunch, which was delicious Beef Wellington. Then we opened presents. Later in the afternoon my family headed back to the hotel for naps, and once rested went back to the house for more eating and hanging out. I finally ate some pie, and we had a fire in the fire pit out back. Josh had joined us by this point, and he and I performed a song ("It's Cliched to Be Cynical at Christmas") for my family with his ukulele.





Monday we slept in a little, then Dad, Ryan, Josh, and myself went for a long walk downtown. We walked along the canal and then back through Church Hill, and everyone (including Ryan, despite what me might say) had a good time. After the walk we ate lunch at the Tobacco Company. That afternoon we went to the mall (a mad house) so Ryan could get new house slippers, and that evening lots of us saw Tin Tin.





It was a pretty good Christmas, I'd say.