On the 21st of December, Jessica and I flew to California to visit my family. Today is the 1st of January, and we are flying home now. I have said many times that I never feel hungry when I visit them.
The first thing that we did is go to an Asian restaurant, a buffet called Tomi. It is our favorite. The sushi and everything are good. A foreign student named Shuto lived with us, and he gave authentic reference of sushi, relating the restaurant's sushi to Japanese sushi. The main difference is that Japanese people don't put sauces on their sushi. Thomas Hicken, Maritza Hicken, and Judy McNally joined us. We arrived home surprisingly very late. Trevor and I were unable to record our podcast.
We recorded our podcast the next day. The podcast was our final one with using a phone call recording app. We upgraded our audio recording equipment.
On Sunday, it was nice to catch up with everyone in my ward. Most everyone is well. One sister name Phillis Thevenin Forsyth, who home taught my family, is in a depressing rest home according to Judy.
We were looking forward to grill cheese sandwiches, hot chocolate, and Kimchi on Sunday.
I enjoyed my vacation because it felt long, but I am having a hard time recalling what we did. We played Pokemon Monopoly a couple times. I believe on Tuesday and Wednesday. Trevor bought dad a small figurine of the Pokemon Kangaskhan, since it is his favorite Pokemon. It arrived on Sunday, and I told dad that Trevor would like dad to open it to play on Sunday night. He opened it on Monday night, and he was too busy to play on Monday night. Shuto won the first, and I won the second. The overall theme or path of both games were similar. Shuto and I battled it out at the end. I had the bottom half of the board, and he had the top half. There were a couple thousand dollar purchases of property, which was unique to the second game. Shuto almost bought a property for 1300 dollars, but Jessica could not back up that she actually had the money to make the last bid, so we redid the bidding session. Shuto did want to try to beat me again. I won because I had hotels/poke markets on eight properties, and he kept the three green ones. Shuto didn't want to play again afterward. I tried to teach him Go, but my merciless behavior in the game probably discouraged him. We didn't finish the game.
The main activity for a couple days was eating out. On Christmas Eve, Thomas and Maritza hosted the family for an Ecuadorian tradition dinner. The tradition was having turkey. They cooked a unique stuffing. After dinner, we went caroling.
Caroling was more enjoyable than previous years because we had the following ten singers: Shuto, Kai, Maritza, Thomas, Mother, Father, Jessica, and I. A couple people told us that they have never seen caroling their entire life's, and others said that Christmas would not be Christmas without us caroling to them. Thomas and Maritza was punctual about leaving home early at the caroling, Christmas, and New Years events. We probably visited additional households equal to that which Maritza, Kai, and Thomas, when they joined us for after they had left.
On one of the mornings we watched "Star Wars: The Raise of Skywalker" in the theaters, since Shuto wanted to. The force awakens was too conservative. The last Jedi was too liberal, and JJ Abram's structure brought order to the second chaotic film, giving him a lot to work with. JJ Abram did not direct the second film. It was a good ending to the trilogy of trilogies. It felt like a Star Wars film; unlike any of other films, since Disney bought LucasFilms. The main reason that it felt like a Star Wars film is because the resistance creativity destroyed the dark side. Most everything else felt odd, which was not unique to the franchise under Disney.
Another movie that Jessica and I watched is John Carter of Mars. This film's science fiction was a lot more original that the Star Wars films. I enjoyed it. The only thing that I don't like about PG-13 films is that blood of aliens or fantasy life does not count as gore. Jessica has been talking about watching the film for years, but I was never interested in watching it, since she already watched it previously; however, there was a charm to the film that I saw in a scene of it that got me interested.
We went to Phil's Fish market on Saturday, and dad recommended blackened scallops. I enjoyed it. The flavor was unique. I am using the word unique a lot in this entry. I wonder if blackened meats have a similar taste, or if it is a style of cooking.
We slept in on Christmas Day. We got a orchid for mom and a pair of socks with mustaches on it for dad. My father has had a mustache ever since he returned from his mission. We had a Christmas dinner with Maritza and Thomas over, watching a YouTube video that the church produced of the birth and childhood of Christ.
We also had a party for New Years. It was unique because every guest left by 9 PM. We made spring rolls and lumpia. My role was mainly unwrapping the wraps, and deep frying them. I realized that I deep fried the spring rolls the majority of the time over all these years. Judy, Leslie and Dougal Harris, Ron and a Filipino sister, a Hispanic sister also came.
On the previous day Joanna Salas and her husband Andre came for dinner. It was good to catch up with her. It was a little awkward because we did not set up a plate for the husband at first. I had to rush to get that. We have not spoken in years. She was my first close friend, who was a girl.
My parents love to walk on Sundays. On a free day, Jessica and I went on a walk to the Capitola Village. We were surprised to find a Zero Waste store, and we came back the next day to purchase somethings, since we left our wallets behind the previous day. We try to practice Zero Waste.
After we toasted grape sparkling Martinelli's to the New Year, I told Shuto that I am probably not going to see him again; however, he proved me wrong by joining us on the drive to the airport. He typically sleeps in late into the afternoon. Shuto is very friendly. I think that we had a good friendship.
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