Happy New Year!

Christmas lasts about one week here in The Gilgers Compound. Along with the rest of the world, we do the Christmas morning thing with the kids and the presents. Topped off with a fantastic ham, mashed potatoes, green beans and pecan pie kinda meal, Christmas Day is nothing short of typical and wonderfully relaxing. Especially this year when I can’t do anything and must rely on my mother and Andy to do all the work. Then, we have the Gilger version of Christmas when the Canadians descend and we have another round of gift giving and whirlwind eating. This year was weirder than last, you’ll have to ask me later what I mean by that, but it became painfully obvious that the elder generation in this family is really starting to lose touch with their children. As dementia and stress set in, Andy’s parents seem to be trying harder and harder to please us with their gifts, and can’t seem to figure out who we are and what we’d like anymore. It is melancholy and sad. It is now truly the thought that counts.

New Year’s Eve is now upon us. This will be the biggest meal of the year. Our traditional Chinese Hot Pot. I know there are those of you that are on the waiting list for this meal. Let this be our practice run, and then we’ll have you over. If we were in Hong Kong, it is possible we would be eating outdoors. I remember as a child eating at makeshift outdoor restaurants. Strings of bare lightbulbs surrounding dozens of round tables with bubbling woks in the center. We’d wear our coats and eat this two hour meal outside.

New Year’s also calls for resolutions, I suppose. I don’t make them because I never keep them, but it’s a nice idea. If I was to resolve something this year, it would be to live more simply than I do now. Not that I want to change my lifestyle, but maybe my thinking in some ways. I will never be all that plain, but it wouldn’t hurt me to simplify. I’ll start with throwing out (or freestyling) all the stuff I haven’t used in the past year. I’ve got a few weeks worth of time on my hands.

Check with me in a month or so to see how I did.