Peaceful Night

Last year at this time our family Christmas adventure in China was winding down.  Our tour guide "Jack" had a lot of endearing Chinglish phrases which have remained in circulation amongst our family.  For some reason the English-to-Chinese-to-English translation of "Christmas Eve" comes out as "Peaceful Night," so every time we got back in the tour van on December 24, Jack would greet us with "Peaceful Night!"   The greeting of the day on the 25th was "Creeshmush Day!"  One of our favorite phrases originated from a discussion on China's one child rule.  Our family with 3 children was quite a spectacle, and as Jack summed up, "More babies, more power, more happiness."

Back to Peaceful Night...  My family squeezed in an early celebration after my final exams, before I left to spend two weeks in beautiful sunny southern California.  Eggs Benedict was a must for brunch, and I poorly tried to explain to my mom why I immediately started laughing when I unwrapped a Margaritaville mixer.  Of course we love it and can't wait to make delicious margaritas but I couldn't get this guy from Sur La Table out of my head.

After exchanging gifts around the Christmas tree we went out to Black Salt in D.C. for an amazing 7 course dinner with wine pairings.  The real amazing part was remembering to take pictures after that much wine!

Kumatomo oyster & caviar / Amuse Nicola Feuillatte Champagne, NY | Seared Tuna & Sashimi / Nautilus 2012 Sauvignon Blanc, Marlborough, NZ | King crab, scallop, & pumpkin ravioli / Sandhi 2011 Chardonnay, Santa Barbara, CA | Pan-seared rockfish & shrimp risotto / Domaine La Ricoune, CDR, FR 2011 | Wahoo / Napa Cellars Syrah 2010 Carneros, CA | Warm caramel apple cider & Ginger Bread | key lime pie, flourless chocolate cake, & butterscotch ganache / Chateau de Cosse 2010 Sauternes, FR

Peaceful Night in SoCal was spent going on a date to Cinépolis to see the Hobbit.  This is how movies should be watched!  My husband and I sat in adjoined fully-reclining armchairs as we were served drinks, sliders, truffle fries and quesadillas (I refuse to outgrow the kids menu).

My husband had duty on Christmas Day, but we made the best of it as I accompanied him onto the sub armed to the teeth with Christmas cookies.  The guys on duty enjoyed their goodie bags of Christmas cheer, and the chocolate crinkle kiss cookies were a huge hit.  I sat in the wardroom watching Christmas movies while he worked.  When he was just about finished with his rounds I overheard from the pantry that someone needed medical personnel.  A newly qualified submariner had jumped in excitement of finishing his quals and cracked open his head.  Who jumps on a submarine!?  "Doc," the sub's independent duty corpsman (IDC) was on vacation, but fortunately the cooks are trained in first aid and were able to help him out.  I stood by armed with lots of knowledge of biochem and pathology, but somehow that wasn't helping the profuse bleeding.  Anyways, Seaman Jack-in-the-box got all patched up and headed to a real doctor to make sure his noggin was okay.

Since we still had some daylight when we left the sub I insisted we go to the beach.  It turns out I was not the only one with the idea of going to the beach on Christmas, but it was fun nonetheless.  After the beach we enjoyed a lovely Christmas dinner with some friends from the boat.

Once he was actually on leave we headed to Las Vegas to visit with his parents.  We caught up on some R&R, and he spent a day looking at cars with his dad while I went for pedicures and shopping with his mom.  We couldn't leave Vegas without stopping by the casino, so our last night in town we tried our luck.  I started with $20 in the slot machines and cashed out when after a few machines and I was still about even.  He played blackjack for a while, but sat next to a guy who was screwing up the table for everyone.  After this guy hit on an 18 and made him lose a good bet, we were done with blackjack.  We played a couple rounds of roulette and came out a few dollars ahead.  I decided to try my luck on the slots again and turned my $20 credit into $52!  You may call this luck, but I skillfully choose my slot machines based on the majesty of the sparkly animals illuminated on the screens.  These gains nearly made up for the blackjack losses and we decided to cash out.  We were a total of $5 down and agreed we got a good value for our entertainment.  On the way out the door we spotted a Lord of The Rings slot machine that we hadn't seen before.  We decided to gamble $4 on a single spin and came out with $15 more!  Gambling is certainly more fun when you are winning.

Husband said the fashion police were going to arrest me for wearing gray shoes with my black dress.

We headed back to San Diego for New Years Eve and enjoyed a fancy night out with friends at the Hilton.  Somewhere in there we had some adventures at San Diego Zoo's Safari park, a hike at Torrey Pines and catching up with most of our friends in San Diego.  Needless to say I was not ready to come back to snowy Maryland and start school again tomorrow!

Safari Park

Torrey Pines