This year we celebrated a much quieter Christmas than I'm used to. But it ended up being a lot of fun, and I got to spend some quality time with my brother.
He came over in the early afternoon on Christmas Eve and we went down to the Kennedy Center for Kevin's mom's Christmas concert. Kevin usually drives to these concerts, so it probably isn't a huge surprise that I got very lost. I missed my exit and ended up doing a big loop, crossing the Potomac three separate times before we finally found our way into the parkign garage. Luckilly, we had planned to arrive half an hour early. We ultimately made it to our seats a few minutes before the concert started.
The concert was lovely, as always. It didn't include music from any other countries this year, but that turned out to be a timing thing. A choir visiting from the Phillipines performed with them on the Gala Night, the main concert event, but elected not to stay for the Christmas Eve concert. Instead, we got some fun performances from a trumpet soloist.
After the concert we went to a friend's house for champagne and appetizers for a couple of hours. The group was much smaller than normal, as Kevin wasn't the only person unable to spend Christmas in Virginia this year. Then it was back home for a dinner of sausage and pasta and movies and wine with Connor.
I got him to watch Pride and Prejudice, which I've been wanting to rewatch for a few weeks now. Then we started The Tenth Kingdom, but Connor fell asleep before long, and I wasn't too far behind him.
On Christmas morning, Connor and I slept in until after 8, probably the latest either of us has slept on Christmas. Then we opened presents and made pancakes and called dad while we took Kina for her morning walk. After that we dove back in to The Tenth Kingdom. It was on in the background for most of the day while we visited and worked on a puzzle.
We met up with Pat for an early dinner at a nice Chinese restaurant in the area. The place was unbelievable crowded, even during our 4:30 reservation. But the food was well worth the wait, and it was a nice change of pace to go out on Christmas instead of cooking and facing a heap of dishes afterwards.
After dinner, Connor and I went back home and finished The Tenth Kingdom, then rounded off the evening with a few episodes of Angel, which Connor always preferred to Buffy. Overall it was a really nice, lowkey Christmas. I'm glad I was able to spend it with the family I had here, msotly hanging out in my pajamas and watching old movies. All things considered, it was about as perfect as it could be.
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