Christmas in Virginia

A good friend of mine invited me down to spend Christmas with her family in Virginia, and I had a fantastic time down there. I won’t try and hit everything, but here are some of the highlights.
So much food, and so good! Sarah has a large family that has lived in the area for quite some time, so the gatherings were big, the parties were fun, and the food just kept coming. I really got to eat some fantastic stuff while I was there.
Her family was extremely generous with me. Sarah had warned me a few times that her family was a strongly loving, closely knit, and highly opinionated bunch, and that I might have to put up with some ribbing. But honestly everyone there seemed to accept me just fine, including her mom, dad, & brother. I went around on one afternoon with her Dad for awhile, and even the neighbors that we ran into were hospitable and gracious. It’s nice to see that southern-style hospitality is alive & well down in ‘ole Virginia.
Much of the time we spent just relaxing. Slept in late, drove around her county, got to see some beautiful country. Sarah took time to show me the area, places where her friends & family lived, where she grew up, etc. Much of the area there in New Kent County is extremely beautiful, and I remarked more than once how I could see why some of the first settlers just decided to stay there after they got off the boat.
We also watched some movies, among them Kubrick’s Dr. Strangelove. Which was, I would have to say … weird. Saw part of the earlier version of Casino Royale and I’m not a huge fan of Peter Sellers, though I respect his abilities. But the movie itself felt very strange, especially the oddly abrupt ending. I felt I couldn’t get a good sense of exactly what the director was trying to say, other than perhaps a theatre of the absurd type of thing. Sarah told me his other films also tend to be kind of weird and have abrupt endings, so though I’m glad I saw this one, I don’t think I’m going to make an effort to see any of his other films.
We made our way back on the Weds after Christmas, on a bus that went between the Chinatown in DC and the Chinatown in NYC. (We’d driven up to DC from Richmond with a friend of Sarah’s) Sarah told me when we left that her mother had given me a standing invite to come back again, which was sincerely meant and no small thing, and I appreciate it fully.
It was a great time and I was glad for the chance to do it. Most of all I want to thank my friend Sarah for extending the invitation to me and for the great time I had getting to hang out together. All in all, a great Christmas.

( Additional Note: I was originally planning to do another entry on New Year’s Eve, but honestly it was a bit of a let down. I wasn’t planning to go down to the ball drop in Times Square, and so I met with some friends at a party up here around the campus. But I wasn’t feeling well that night and came home to go to bed early. So that part of things was pretty tame.
I did end up staying up late and calling a friend back in Seattle who had to work that night and wasn’t able to go out; that turned into a fun and slightly silly conversation given how late it was, and that we were both tired. Sometimes the simple joys in life far outshine any amount of excitement in Times Square. )

( Second Additional Note: This picture doesn’t totally capture the the essense of either the warm holiday spirit or the beautiful countryside that I found down there, but it was just too cool to not post up, mainly because they have an aviation museum with an SR-71 parked outside. I mean come on, how cool is that? )