Christmas Weekend

Welcome back to the world of blogging! I had a great Christmas Weekend and I sincerely hope that you did as well.

Friday consisted mostly of getting my crap together and making the two hour drive to my parents home. Really nothing to speak about, except for dinner. We had our typical night before Christmas Eve dinner of shrimp. BIG SHRIMP. Surprise, surprise, I had to cook them. It is nothing, really. I enjoy shrimp (as my parents well know) and I have literally hundreds of recepies involving shrimp. But there is on simple recepie that my family enjoys, so that is the one I made. (Garlic, butter, garlic, lime juice, garlic, white wine, and did I mention GARLIC?) So, we are a family that likes garlic.

Really, Friday night was about hanging out with the family. My brother (Water Rat), his wife, his son, my parents, and me, oh, and the cat of my brother's family. My nephew is so damn cute, pain in the ass at times, but cute. You know, the terrible twos. What more can you say? Pop got to open his birthday presents and I was given an early birthday present from my brother. A dozen Mallard Decoys (6 Drake and 6 Hens) , all of the accuments that go with them, and a feeding duck butt. Anyway, Mom, Water Rat and I stayed up late just talking and drinking. Finally crashing around midnight.

On Saturday, Water Rat and I were up at 0400. We headed out to Mendota Slough to do some duck hunting. The previous present made for a much better experience. We got set up in the dark and waited for the start (half hour before sunrise). Initially, we missed some good oportunities. It looked like we were going to get skunked for the day, but Water Rat got two Ruddy Ducks and I took down a Green-Wing Teal. There were a lot of things that we could have done differently to improve our chances, but I didn't have the gear. (Something that I am going to rectify soon). There is a whole lot more to this story, but I don't want to bore you with the details. But will do so if asked :).


Saturday night, we had our normal Christmas Eve dinner. 1 lb lobster tails. Mmmm. Following dinner, we opened presents. I know that it is not Christmas Day, but that has always been the tradition of our family.

This morning, Santa hit the family hard! The nephew got a ton o'toys. I got a couple of new books (Everyone always gets at least one book), some clay pigeons, some garlic and jalapano stuffed olives, a dvd and an orange (something that Santa gives everyone as well).

Water Rat, his wife and son packed up to go to her parents house for Christmas presents with her family. I, meanwhile, packed up my new stuff to prepare to go home. I wanted to get on the road and home before the traffic got too bad. Good thing that I left early, as it started to rain on the way home. The only thing worse than weekend drivers in the rain is holiday drivers in the rain. Well, there are worse...

All in all, I had a great weekend.

As I raise my Guinness to the sky, I wish you all had the same merriment as I.