Adventures of LaurenHoya: December 2020 - the end of a weird and terrible year

Alas, December. Bye-bye 2020.

I started getting into recipes from What's Gaby Cookies - this butternut squash pasta is pretty good.

Miriam, always a sweetheart who is in the way.

Soup, bread and royal gossip.

Love that year-end Spotify data. This is not a surprise.

Been a long time since we had sushi. I'm always skeptical of sushi takout, but this is right up the street and it's pretty good. And of course it cost way more than expected.

Now Leo's turn to be in the way.

We got new artwork! Big space to fill above the sofa, and Juniper Print Shops has the perfect inexpensive solution. They print large and you buy an Ikea frame. I think I tried to order the frame online, and it was going to take like 9 weeks or something, so I sucked it up and made the drive to Draper.

Another Gaby recipe hit - chicken tortilla soup. It's all about those fried tortilla strips on top.

My loves.

Time to put up the Christmas tree. Last year the kitties were not really interested - they just hung out below the tree. This year is a different story. Leo climbs the thing and settles into branches every day. Sign. Cats be cats.

Time to make some Christmas crack - also from Gaby. Except I really wanted the red and green Christmas m&ms. They were nowhere to be found.

I stocked up on puzzles and a puzzle mat, so I could make it through the long winter.

No puzzle eating for you, little demons.

Just tree eating.

My friend shared a story on social media of her friends, who've been looking after this stray shop cat that hangs around, and one day the poor cat showed up after a gnarly fight. He wasn't in good shape, so they took him to the vet multiple times to get him healed up. We sent them a few bucks to help this cat, and in return they sent us a cool sticker. Sweets now has a good home.

This cat also has a very good home. Preferably in boxes that are just a tad too small.

Ramen takeout from Tosh.

I was influenced! Two instagrammers I follow bought this boots, so I had to get some too. I love them.

Snow is pretty, sorta.

I'd usually rather be inside doing puzzles and being warm.

Anthony visits refugee families as part of his work, and sometimes they send him home with tons of food. Arab hospitality is unparalleled.

When's the last time you made a huge platter of food and sent it home with a stranger?

Tara Teaspoon had a sugar cookie recipe that I wanted to try - it's ginger almond flavored. Only took me like 3 whole days to bake and decorate, but I think I succeeded! They look good and they tasted good.

Mim's bread is a new thing around town - had to get an order of delicious bread delivered to my house.

The usual.

Friend Cher is starting up a bakery and went wild with holiday treats. She made so many kinds of cookies!

Kitties in boxes and bags.

Belly rubs.

When it's cold, sometimes you just need pho from Oh Mai.

Avo toast with that Mim's bread. Amazing.

Anthony went on caving trips. It's his new thing.

Kitty in a basket.

I think one of Anthony's friends was in town and we got breakfast from Roots.

My little sleepy.

Kept up my reading kick this year!

Our church congregation did luminarias for the neighborhood. We had people sign up for however many bags they wanted, and one evening all the youth, plus some adult help (including me), stood outside in the cold for 2 hours to make like 1000 of them. People picked them up just before Christmas, and the neighborhood lit them all on Christmas Eve. It was really beautiful to see.

I've had these plates for years now and barely used them. Gonna change that this Christmas!

We ordered Christmas Eve dinner from Provisions. Short ribs and salad.

We exchanged our gifts.

I really wanted a fancy shower cap. I'm over my ripped up basic plastic ones.

Anthony gets to make his own hot sauce. He puts it on everything.

Christmas Day we masked up and went to visit family. We'd been skipping other holidays, but everyone agreed to do masks for Christmas, so we made two short visits to my brother's fam and Anthony's family.

Pajamas for little girls.

Blocks and cars for little boys.

Maybe he approves?

Now to the Roberts.

I had Anthony's brother in our gift exchange - I got him the bacon man crate. He had to open it with a pry bar.

Mom and Dad mailed us tamales from Tucson - so we had a Christmas tamale feast.

I worked on puzzles and watched bad tv the rest of the day.

With a few days off, we went on an adventure up to the Spiral Jetty.

It's out in the middle of nowhere.

The jetty itself is fine, but I had more fun looking at the salt crystals and playing near the water.

We also stopped at the Golden Spike - where the transcontinental railroad was joined in 1869. Two companies were building towards each other, but they went 250 miles past the other because no one had designated a meeting spot.

I did a little hike and listened to an audio tour about it. Fascinating. One set of tracks went through here.

One of my Christmas gifts was a gift card to World Market, so I had some fun one day.

Favorite drink when I was 10. The raspberry tasted okay, but the cherry is not good to me anymore.

We tried to get Chick Queen one day for lunch, but they were sold out. Off to Stun Cube instead - solid Korean food.

Then I guess one day I made enchiladas. Also somewhere in here I met up with my boss for a lunch at Rawtopia. It's delicious, and it made for the second time I'd ever met my boss in person, which was nice.