Merry Simulated Christmas!

"Laura" came down to visit this weekend before she went back to her family for Christmas, and we had a lovely time. Friday night we hosted our office Christmas party at my house, which was a lot of fun. I had the place all nice and decorated for Christmas, including a pretty decent-looking tree. (Unfortunately, the only way I know how to string lights is the super-anal-retentive way my dad does it, where he goes up and down every individual branch with the lights rather than just draping them around, which I tried but just didn't look right, so I needed 400 lights for a little 5-foot tall tree.) One of my co-workers and his wife brought some really good cheese, and when he told me at the end of the night that he was leaving the leftover cheese with me I assumed he just meant the stuff that was cut up on the serving plate. But no--I now have like four pounds of cheese in my refrigerator. Yum, yum.

Saturday we fixed my sink--it refused to drain properly. Poured Draino in there, took the plumbing apart, and finally had to go to Leroy Merlin (basically an Italian Home Depot, except that given the name it's probably not actually Italian) to buy some new pipes and some super European-style Draino, which got it working again. We also went downtown to Christmas Alley where they sell more Nativity sets than you've ever seen in your life. They also happen to be the largest (self-contained) Nativity sets you've ever seen in your life. Very impressive.

Yesterday we had "Simulated Christmas," since we weren't going to see each other on the actual day. It was very nice--got up, went to church, came back and had brunch, and then opened presents. I made out quite nicely: got some outstanding Italian cookbooks (which will serve me very well here, but even better in law school, I think, when the only Italian "cuisine" is at the Olive Garden) and a very nice, fashionable, trendy European-style zipper cardigan. Good stuff. And then we had a nice dinner of Cornish game hen (my contribution), sauteed spinach, squash, and homemade cranberry sauce (all her contributions).