Christmas in Prague

Not quite Christmas, but the week before.

So long story short – my company kinda messed up my vacation days in my favor, and I needed to burn a bunch in a hurry. My in-laws and ARR had been campaigning for him to visit them for a few days. But Chuckro couldn’t take an entire extra week off this time of year. So he suggested (since I like traveling more than he does anyway) that I just go somewhere that I wanted to go to that he was less interested in.

So. Prague at Christmas! ( Oooh all the food )

The rest of the holiday activities

When I got back from Prague...we went into holiday overdrive.

- Saturday: Fancy dinner #1 with Chuckro's parents. Smoked lamb AND chicken.

- Sunday: had vague plans, managed to throw out my back wrapping presents of all things. Spent most of the day on the couch.

- Monday: Took ARR to the Museum of the Moving Image for a screening of Muppet Family Christmas. Made a lot of stop animation movies. Blatantly stole Icelandic tradition for the evening - everyone got a new book for Christmas eve, and we spent the evening in bed reading and eating chocolate. (After having Chinese food for dinner, as a nod to Chuckro's cultural heritage.)

- Tuesday: Had friends over for Christmas dinner (fancy dinner #2), featuring a return of the smoked lamb in a shepherd's pie, plus pears poached in port.

- Wednesday: Drove down to my folks in southern PA. Visited Winterthur, where ARR played in the children's garden with Grampy while my grandmother and I took the house tour. Fancy dinner #3 featured a reprise of Thanksgiving dinner.

- Thursday: Wine dinner! Spent all day cooking. First course: fried halloumi with spiced dates and pears. Second course: fennel, orange, and olive salad wrapped in serrano ham. Main course: braised short rib with jeweled rice. Dessert: nougat glace served in choux paste swans with pistachio praline. (Fancy dinner #4.)

- Friday: Visited the Choo Choo Barn in Strasbourg as well as Kitchen Kettle Village. Ate too much jam.

- Saturday: morning with my parents, then drove all the way up and out to Long Island for fancy dinner #5 with Chuckro's dad's family.

- Today: two different supermarket runs.

- Tomorrow: Work, then some friends' New Year's Eve party.

- Tuesday: New Year's Day open house. Not a dinner...just a fancy meal.

In January, among other things, we have two different weekend days at which we will go to not one but two different parties on the same day. Also, potentially an unexpected wedding. (Long story.) That's not even counting my own birthday. Oy. Very oy.