Selene and I were actually just having this conversation recently: if I were ever living in another country, what sorts of things would make me feel nostalgic for the USA? Music? Food, perhaps?
We were rewatching For All Mankind—which, if you haven’t seen it, is a pretty damn good show. It takes place in a reimagined world where Russia was first to the Moon, igniting a new space race that ultimately led to faster advancements in technology and the colonization of Mars. Stop here if you don’t like spoilers. One of the characters, a NASA director, defects to Russia. After a few years, she returns to the United States under diplomatic immunity. What does she do? She orders a cheeseburger.
Yeah, I think I can get behind that. Cheeseburgers it is.
Good morning and happy Monday, friends!
I hope you will please forgive me, but I took a Christmas vacation from writing. Also, at the very moment you’re reading this, I probably don’t even have internet. Despite that minor difficultly, I’ve scheduled this post to go out as per usual.
With all the craziness going on this year, I didn’t have time to record a full song for the holidays. I did, however, make this short rendition of O Christmas Tree. If you’re still feeling a need for musical Yule energy, you can review some songs from previous years.
Any suggestions on what I should work on for next year? Let me know!
Here’s where I’ve been this past week…
I got some new, cool books to dig into from Llewellyn.
I sampled the worst cotton candy flavors ever.
There’s actually 5 of them. This is by far the most abhorrent, but the hot chocolate and candy cane flavors were also quite dreadful.
Selene cooked a wonderful Christmas Eve dinner of Cuban pork, which we shared at home with the kiddos.
On Christmas morning we woke up and opened presents, then went on a long drive to drop off the kiddos.
On the return home, we decided to stop at a Chinese restaurant. I had one in mind that we’ve been to before and really, really enjoyed… and Google said they were open. Unfortunately, right as we pulled up, they decided to close for two hours. We were now faced with a dilemma: do we just go home? Or do we relocate to another, unknown Chinese restaurant?
Well, we went for the latter. A new adventure! A new restaurant! A new experience.
It was not good.
Despite the poor food quality, there was almost constantly a crowd of 20 people standing by the door. And the entire restaurant was packed. They may have just been having an off day due to the Christmas rush, but I can pretty much guarantee that we will not return to find out.
The next day, we spent time with friends and their animals—goats, sheep, chickens, dogs, and even a tiny horse. It was a very pleasant change of energy.
Have you ever wondered how it would feel to basically have an entire petting zoo in your back yard? Well… that’s what it was like.
The next day, we took a break. Less chores. Less doing things. We just grabbed some tasty lunch and hung out.
We also watched the new Frankenstein movie. It was enjoyable, but I don’t think I would ever rewatch it.
Anyway, as I mentioned above, I am going to mostly be without internet for a few days. We’ve disembarked on a short cruise—a well-deserved trip after a year of hard work. We have much to be grateful for, but we shall return right before the new year so that we can celebrate the transition from 2025 to 2026 in ritual, as we have for the past several years. I’ll be sure to bring back lots of pictures to share with you in next week’s update!
And now i must depart. Bon voyage! Stay tuned for more soon!
Aerik Arkadian 
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