The Holiday Check-list of the Non-celebrating Bunch :)

Where I’m from, everything people do at x-mas time is done on New Year’s Eve, while that specific holiday is moved to January 7th and is mostly a religious feast when people generally just enjoy a day off. Where I live, x-mas is all the hype and people enjoy days off… So we got together with three more friends from my homeland (Alex, Alex and Igor 🙂 ) to take advantage of the free days on the 24th/25th and here’s what went down:

1. Decide to use the free day for a dinner with friends: check.

That included coming earlier and chipping into the cooking process, which was part of the fun :). Besides, it doesn’t always happen for several of us to have a fully free day/evening with no set plans, so yay! 🙂

2. Stuff ourselves silly: check.

On the menu: a salad with spinach, baked pears, grapes and blue cheese; broccoli cream soup; roasted goose stuffed with apples (because screw the traditional bony Czech Carp idea! 😀 ); potato and pumpkin slices baked under a coating of gritted cheese; ice-cream milkshake for desert. By the end of the night we all could hardly breathe :D.

3. Trying pumpkin for the first time in my life (seeds don’t count): check. Like a lot!

Seriously, not sure how, but I don’t think I ever ate anything pumpkin like… ever! And now I’m actually a big fan because it tastes niccccccccccce (raw and cooked!). Besides, the pumpkin/potato and cheese thing is easy to prepare and yummmmmy!!!! Adding to my ‘to cook some day when I feel like it’ list :).

4. Play with cat: check.

Bonus: getting seriously scratched :D. She’s still a fiesty teen and gets a bit too excited to measure claw power used on human flesh 😀

5. Watch a movie, make a load of funny comments: check.

Epic film about the benefits of taking long walks, aka Hobbit (1st part)… And, of course, logic does not apply to movie scripts :).

6. Learning to play Munchkin: check.

I’ve heard SO much about that game, and now FINALLY got to play it! Reading instructions was confusing, but in the process it’s easier to get the gist of it :).

7. Staying up till 7am – playing Munchkin…: check.

We only managed 4 rounds, and next thing you know – it’s light outside!!! Seriously, best game EVERRRR!!! :). I’m now a huge fan and will be bothering my dear friends for new rounds very often :).

8. Obviously, crash over instead of trying to get home: check.

Didn’t plan on it, but glad they had a spare couch and blankets, and my travel toothbrush was still in my bag too :).

9. Have cat jump on full belly until banned from room: check, groan…

Kitty woke up when we went to bed… Tugged on my hair, jumped a couple of times on my belly (do NOT try this while being stuffed to suffocation!)… Had to extradite her into the corridor/kitchen and close the living room door in order to sleep :).

10. Very late afternoon wake-up: check.

Nothing new here :D.

11. Another round of after-breakfast Munchkin: check.

I prefer being a burglar and an elf or a wizard, although half-races are even more awesome 😀

12. Watch sequel to the movie at the theater (making funny comments…): check.

A bit more action of a slightly higher order, but still basically an epic walking film with a few fights… Such a money trap! Hobbit should have been one 3-hour film, not 3 separate 3-hour epic walking ones! (Ok, in last one they should kill the birdie… But then I bet it would also involve a lot of footwork one way or another 😀 ).

I wonder why the people in front of us told us to “shhhh!” when like NOTHING at all was happening on the screen though… Meh… 😀

13. Gobble down too much popcorn: check.

Been a while! Om, nom nom nom…

14. Down it with mulled wine at 10pm after the film: check.

It wasn’t actually too bad

15. Finally make it home just before midnight: check 🙂

Not bad for a bunch of people who don’t celebrate x-mas on the 25th 😀 😀 😀