What we did on December 25th

While the rest of the world (or so it seemed) was quietly celebrating Christmas, Rik and I had a great day with friends.

I went to synagogue in the morning and got to hang with my peeps. The volunteer Shabbes Chefs had made Chinese food for lunch! Rik took the dog for a long walk and then had a nap. (See "Jewish Christmas: Why Jews eat Chinese on December 25".)

After shul we went over to friends and played Scrabble and Pictionary, ate cookies, drank tea, and shmoozed.

For dinner we went to Chiang's, our favorite Chinese restaurant. Given the huge, noisy crowd and despite the fact that we pre-ordered our dinner, everything was still slow. But delicious! Next year we go for lunch instead of dinner and we will pre-order our meal.

What we enjoyed:
Vegetarian hot and sour soup and egg flower soup
3 orders of vegetarian spare ribs
Whole tea-smoked duck
2 orders of vegetable mu shu
Spicy and garlicky green beans
Spicy and garlicky eggplant
Green onion pancake
2 orders of rice cakes with chicken and vegetables
AND
a whole flounder prepared especially for us in the salt-and-pepper style (It was so beautiful, I should have taken a photo.)

After dinner we headed back to the G's for dessert and general hanging out. We got relationship advice from the teens, shared recipes, drank coffee and relaxed.

It was a lovely day. I hope yours was at least as much fun as ours!