Christmas!

SMS and I had a great first Christmas together!   I woke up early like a little kid- I was excited to open my presents!  We made coffee and exchanged gifts.  SMS was super-thoughtful.  I got Jerusalem (the cook book), special ear plugs (to hear voices while protecting my ears from the otologic drill!) and some clothes.  I got him some clothes from Outdoor Research, some shoes that don't really fit (whah), a photography book and a chocolate orange.  Mom and Dad "surprised" me with an awesome convection oven that I used today!  I made a clementine cake from Smitten Kitchen (gluten-free) with a chocolate ganache adapted from my new cookbook!  During the course of this, I tripped the kitchen circuit AND transformer since I was trying to extract 3 times the electric limit while running the convection oven and George Foreman with the waffle maker plates at the same time.  While this was a little ridiculous, I did impress SMS by rattling off the formula that Watts = Voltage x Amps.  How do I remember these things?!?!  And why don't I apply them?



I also got to talk with my whole family today!  I was so happy!  We almost missed each other because their dinner went long (a Messmer dinner long?  Shocking!!!) and SMS and I had a Japanese lesson today at 1:30 (nerd alert!).  I missed the first half of the lesson to talk with them but it was well worth it.  Everyone has had a great time in the Bahamas and while it has been so amazing to be in Japan with SMS, I still am a little sad and miss my family.  Emotions- complex little guys!

We also got to talk to Stacy and Michael which was great.  I'm so happy that I get to connect with family and friends even though we're so far away.  It may sound trite but it's profoundly true.

After the Japanese lesson, we headed to the XO and Beth Weber's house for a great Christmas party.  SMS and I had a wonderful time and talked to a really delightful group of people.  Work talk was at a minimum and both of us had a really nice time.  It's great to go to a party accompanied by my husband!

Then we headed home where I updated the blog and SMS worked on his kanji.   No wonder his Japanese is so much better than mine.

(The picture above is from our paperculture.com Christmas card proof.  I heard about the site on the internet and was super happy with our cards, especially that they were delivered so quickly!)