The Holiday Break - Bob's home!

Bob arrived at about 4:30 on Sunday afternoon - yay!!  We celebrated by going to Cantina Feliz, our new favorite Mexican restaurant.  The next day, we started our movie marathon: first stop, Life of Pi in 3D, a book that I teach to my sophomores.

The movie did not disappoint - it was visually beautiful and really followed the storyline in a good way.  The only down side was that Bob, having read the book and seen the movie, now comments whenever I'm in a tizzy over something, "What would Pi Patel think; how would he feel about this?"  Grrrr.

Bob in his 3D glasses enjoying a HUGE container of popcorn

Afterwards, we headed to Iron Abbey Brewpub, yet another great place for good beer!  We chose some really interesting types of beer and had some yummy brussel sprouts with chorizo and duck sausage.

The draft beer selection - awesome!

The menu

Me with my Kwak beer - fabulous glass, no?

And then some Dupont beer.

We arrived back home early evening (we'd gone to a matinee) and enjoyed some Wallander on Netflix before going to bed.  Oh, and guess what happened before we fell asleep!

Snow!

The next day was Christmas - we chose to celebrate with Chris and Frank by going back to the same theater to see The Hobbit in IMAX 3D and then have dinner at NaBrasa, a Brazilian steakhouse.

The move was 2 hours and 40 minutes long -- and two more movies follow this one!!  I think Peter Jackson has gone a little off the deep end.  I mean, I loved reading the book, but NINE hours worth???  The movie was good but not great.

Bug 3D glasses.

The family looking kinda weird in their 3Ds...

The steakhouse was an experience - somehow I thought we could order off a menu, but I was so mistaken.  It was a set price for dinner; Bob was not happy.  However, he made the best of it by eating LOADS of food.  The "boys" like the place; so did I.  We may end up doing this again next year; hopefully, Bob will be reconciled to that by then....

On the 26th, I was supposed to see Les Miserables with Nancy and Rudi; however, the weather was too uncertain, so we cancelled.   They dropped by for a visit, though.

The very regal Mrs. B.!

 So it was a relaxed day of getting ready for the crowd on December 27 - we brined the turkey (which was a very lengthy and arduous process) before going to bed.

The morning of December 27 found me cooking - yams, green bean casserole, stuffing, turkey, and, later on, potatoes.  We had 13 people at the dining room table and 6 people at the kitchen table.  

Blurry view of a room full of presents!

After dinner we opened a myriad of presents.  We had decided to give Kelsey Sam's autographed Redskins shirt (autographed by Art Monk compliments of Lynne Holmes) -- and she and I both cried, something which she assured me she never does.  The Rybicki family stayed over so that we could sign documents for Dad's estate the next day.  We had a really great time with the family!!

On December 28, the Rybickis and Cassels drove to King of Prussia, and what was supposed to be a 30-minute event turned into 2 hours.  We didn't realize that the estate was finally being distributed, so we had to go to the bank (after the lawyer was 1/2 hour late with no apology!) to finalize the checks.   So Connie and Steve got stuck in horrible Friday afternoon traffic back to Virginia while Bob and I hand-delivered the checks to Judy and Fran.  We got back home by 5PM and had delicious leftovers.