Just home from a wonderful Christmas tapas lunch with my friend Juan at Albarama. It’s been awhile since we’ve seen each other and so we made sure to get together during the holidays. It was great to catch up and have some great food and nice wine – I bet even ol’ grinchy Sledpress would have had a good time. Which just goes to show that she’s been doing this Christmas stuff all wrong…
casa azahar 
No one dares “go” anywhere like this during the Christmas Season in D.C. You take your life in your hands patronizing any place of public resort; you would think every place of business was one of the lifeboats on the Titanic. Grinching and staying home is the only sane reaction. Maybe it’s a US thing…
LikeLike
There are lots of bars here that have company Christmas party lunches going on this week, but those tend to be smallish (up to a dozen people) and really quite nice.
Yesterday Juan & I met up around 2.30 and I was pleasantly surprised to find there was still a nice table available at Albarama, though about half an hour later the place was packed out.
I think you’d actually like Christmas here. But even in Canada I never experienced any of the nightmarish Christmas episodes you’ve talked about. Ever since I left home and could do things as I wanted, I’ve always kept Christmas in the manner that I liked best, not paying attention to obligations.
This year we’re not doing presents, which is fine. I’ve got casa az prettilly decorated and have got out my favourite Christmas films to watch. It fills me up, all this love stuff. I guess in a way I’m making up for all the very unmerry Christmases I had as a child, but that also feels good to me. I get to choose. This is mine to share as I like. And I won’t ever let anyone take Christmas away from me ever again.
LikeLike
All I think I would really like would be a return of the feeling that you got when school was out and there was less pressure on you at least some of the day; I used to hide behind the tree and read under the colored lights, which was nice.
LikeLike
All of that and more is within your grasp, if you chose it … school has been out for many years. Same goes for awful 80’s parties. Why hang onto old icky Christmas memories as an excuse to hate Christmas?
Anyhow, I am loving this Christmas Eve…
http://twitpic.com/3j618m
LikeLike
Alas, we’re now grown up and I’m not sure the pressure will ever be off again. And my last “please God kill me now” Christmas was around 2001, I think. The only real solution is to stay home by myself, which is almost as peaceful as reading in the tree lights. But I’d share a glass of cava with a cat, within the bounds of discretion, of course.
LikeLike