A New Tradition is Born

We laugh about the scene in "A Christmas Story" at the end when they go to eat Peking Duck on Christmas Day because the Bumpus' dogs ruined their dinner. Tonight we were Ralphie's family, minus the Bumpus' dogs.

My brother was supposed to come out from Wimberley, but earlier this afternoon let me know that he and his wife were not going to make it. We were going to do fajitas for dinner. Called Los Cucos only to find that they closed at 3PM, so no fajitas. Grrr. I still have a couple errands to run - pick up Craig's prescriptions, get a few last minutes stuff for breakfast and dinner tomorrow, and run to the Post Office to mail stuff once more. (God bless the automated mailing center!) Catherine and Craig explore dinner possibilities while I am gone. I suggest that it would be nice if I did not have to cook or clean dinner! (hint hint!)

Upon my return, we review the options and decide to go to Sakura, a Japanese steak and sushi place nearby. Gary really does not want to go, but we remind him that he said we could decide what to do, so he grumbles but gets changed. ;-P At the restaurant he is somewhat frustrated by the menu, not being familiar with this type of food, so Catherine and I suggest things to try. He ends up ordering hibachi chicken and shrimp, and even trying a little of Catherine's sushi.

In all it was great fun, watching the guy prepare our food, but even more fun watching the faces of the little kids at the table next to us. There were 4 of them, none older than maybe four years old. One of the girls had Shirley Temple curly blond hair, a bee sting mouth and huge brown eyes. She was the most fun to watch as the chef prepared our food. Her eyes almost popped out of her head!

So we have Chinese food the day before Thanksgiving and now Japanese steak and sushi on Christmas Eve. Tomorrow we will do our Christmas day ritual and go see a movie - probably Marley and Me. Back to straightening and wrapping. Oh another tradition in our family http://www.noradsanta.org/en/home.html (Tracking Santa) I remember listening for this on the radio long ago and far away. Sigh!

Ho Ho Ho!!!