Well its December 21, 2012 and so far, no zombies, meteors, random fires, black holes, etc. Just a swarm of frozen H2O flakes falling from the sky. After being attacked by future snowman particles I've settled in to the nice, warm in doors. Christmas is fast approaching and I am sure about half of you have put off all the shopping, hoping the Mayans were right. Now that you are still alive, a scramble like none other before is the order of the day. Just three more days until the children of this country are doused in more toys than they need, blood sugar is raised by the hundreds of chocolate consumed and at least one person gets that ugly sweater from the one family member who just doesn't get it.
The hubs and I are spending Christmas Eve and the beginning of the day with his parents and family, then back up to my family. We have a tradition where we are allowed to open one present Christmas eve night, as a sort of teaser gift. Watching every Christmas movie known to man kind and drinking gallons of hot chocolate is how the few days before the holiday is spent.
Now, what are your traditions? Do you even have a tree? How do you decorate it? What is Christmas dinner like? Do you have to deal with family members who don't know what privacy, volume or deodorant is? Share your holiday stories and traditions below.
Have a Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah and may Kwanzaa be a good time of year for you.
Friday, December 21, 2012
Thursday, December 6, 2012
Old Fashioned Christmas, London Ohio
After trudging through miles of cold, I am now toasty warm, back inside. The Old Fashioned Christmas was not what I expected it to be. There was a hay/carriage ride, some carolers, and hot chocolate or popcorn for a price or donation. It was very sparse in comparison to the last one I attended. It did leave me disappointed and wishing there had been more activity.
There was delicious hot chocolate, cookies, coffee and Belgian waffles provided by the London Coffee Peddler, or at least Mike, for the Trails of Madison County (I don't know their real name). The hot chocolate had some sort of spice in it which I am thinking is cardamom. It made it pleasantly delicious. The Belgian waffles had a light citrus flavor and made me regret getting the cookie instead.
There wasn't much of anything to look at or participate in. If you wanted to stand around for 45 minutes you could jump in a vessel drawn by horses to the other side of Main Street. But who has that kind of time while freezing your toes off. I did receive a free roll of wrapping paper, which are covering many gifts at the moment. There was pictures with Santa, for $5 and the shops stayed open a little later than usual.
All in all, it was just like a consumer's commercial all night. "Come in here and buy something" is really what it should be named. The last time I attended, there was free hot chocolate and at least 6 groups of carolers, a walking Santa, candy, cookies and all sorts of things. Now its just like a Christmas advertisement.
There was delicious hot chocolate, cookies, coffee and Belgian waffles provided by the London Coffee Peddler, or at least Mike, for the Trails of Madison County (I don't know their real name). The hot chocolate had some sort of spice in it which I am thinking is cardamom. It made it pleasantly delicious. The Belgian waffles had a light citrus flavor and made me regret getting the cookie instead.
There wasn't much of anything to look at or participate in. If you wanted to stand around for 45 minutes you could jump in a vessel drawn by horses to the other side of Main Street. But who has that kind of time while freezing your toes off. I did receive a free roll of wrapping paper, which are covering many gifts at the moment. There was pictures with Santa, for $5 and the shops stayed open a little later than usual.
All in all, it was just like a consumer's commercial all night. "Come in here and buy something" is really what it should be named. The last time I attended, there was free hot chocolate and at least 6 groups of carolers, a walking Santa, candy, cookies and all sorts of things. Now its just like a Christmas advertisement.
Rothwell's, London Ohio
After mixed reviews of this place from people around town, I decided to take my mother and try this place tonight. I heard it was rather pricey, especially for the area. Researching the menu online, it was no more expensive than Red Lobster or Ruby Tuesdays.
Upon entering, I was rather confused if the woman by the door was the hostess or a customer waiting on someone. (Seeing as how there was no hostess stand and she was wearing a jacket) The hostess stand is a wall table, by the men's restroom. We walked along a high wall to the main dining area. The bar is mostly closed off, which gives the impression of seclusion from the rest of the dining room. The tables are covered with white linen and....butcher paper. I see the idea for this, not having to spend so much money on the cleaning service, but I don't know if this works for the classy feeling they are trying to project. I had the impression that they are going for five star family restaurant, which is incohesive combined.
The menu had a wide variety of items, a long way from the eight they first started with, said one customer. The server did, what I always believe is the ultimate sin for a sever. While standing there, waiting for us to order, mom was making last minute decisions and she said that she could come back because she has another table she needs to get drinks for. As soon as I heard that, I didn't like her. That is one of the worst things to say to a customer. "Its ok, I have more important people than you to take care of" is always what goes through my head whenever a server mentions they have other people waiting for them.
I was really offended that our less than patient server gave us burnt cornbread. Yes, burnt. The bottoms were almost completely black. Of course this made it completely dry as well. It was extremely yellow and at first I thought it was some kind of lemon cake. I don't care who you are, how lazy you are, or ineptly ridiculous you might be, never, ever, ever serve anything burnt, especially to me.
We both got the daily special: pulled pork on texas toast with red skin mashed potatoes and onion rings. The pork was unbelievably salty. It tasted like it sat in cooking liquid for hours while it reduced into a salt lick. I had to stop eating it because it was hurting my mouth having that much sodium and the flavorful gravy just made it worse. It made the texas toast extremely soggy. The potatoes were rich and delightful. The small amount of gravy on them gave them a little boost of flavor. The onion rings tasted beer battered and were crispy and light. I am still debating on weather of not they are homemade or frozen. For dessert I got the chocolate lava cake a la mode. Now I don't believe these people know what a lava cake really is. When you cut into it, its supposed to be flowy, gooey, oozy. But instead, there was just melted little pieces of chocolate and it was too moist to hold up the ice cream and started to collapse and get soggy. It needed to be much denser.
The staff acted really odd in general. It was like a bunch of little school kids afraid to come over and just kept pushing each other saying "You go!". They were aloof and stayed in the kitchen as much as possible. I know the place I work, all the servers are always talking to everyone. Each other, customers, even themselves (haha) but these acted robotic.
Overall I give them 3 stars. I wouldn't really want to go back unless maybe someone else was paying for it.
Upon entering, I was rather confused if the woman by the door was the hostess or a customer waiting on someone. (Seeing as how there was no hostess stand and she was wearing a jacket) The hostess stand is a wall table, by the men's restroom. We walked along a high wall to the main dining area. The bar is mostly closed off, which gives the impression of seclusion from the rest of the dining room. The tables are covered with white linen and....butcher paper. I see the idea for this, not having to spend so much money on the cleaning service, but I don't know if this works for the classy feeling they are trying to project. I had the impression that they are going for five star family restaurant, which is incohesive combined.
The menu had a wide variety of items, a long way from the eight they first started with, said one customer. The server did, what I always believe is the ultimate sin for a sever. While standing there, waiting for us to order, mom was making last minute decisions and she said that she could come back because she has another table she needs to get drinks for. As soon as I heard that, I didn't like her. That is one of the worst things to say to a customer. "Its ok, I have more important people than you to take care of" is always what goes through my head whenever a server mentions they have other people waiting for them.
I was really offended that our less than patient server gave us burnt cornbread. Yes, burnt. The bottoms were almost completely black. Of course this made it completely dry as well. It was extremely yellow and at first I thought it was some kind of lemon cake. I don't care who you are, how lazy you are, or ineptly ridiculous you might be, never, ever, ever serve anything burnt, especially to me.
We both got the daily special: pulled pork on texas toast with red skin mashed potatoes and onion rings. The pork was unbelievably salty. It tasted like it sat in cooking liquid for hours while it reduced into a salt lick. I had to stop eating it because it was hurting my mouth having that much sodium and the flavorful gravy just made it worse. It made the texas toast extremely soggy. The potatoes were rich and delightful. The small amount of gravy on them gave them a little boost of flavor. The onion rings tasted beer battered and were crispy and light. I am still debating on weather of not they are homemade or frozen. For dessert I got the chocolate lava cake a la mode. Now I don't believe these people know what a lava cake really is. When you cut into it, its supposed to be flowy, gooey, oozy. But instead, there was just melted little pieces of chocolate and it was too moist to hold up the ice cream and started to collapse and get soggy. It needed to be much denser.
The staff acted really odd in general. It was like a bunch of little school kids afraid to come over and just kept pushing each other saying "You go!". They were aloof and stayed in the kitchen as much as possible. I know the place I work, all the servers are always talking to everyone. Each other, customers, even themselves (haha) but these acted robotic.
Overall I give them 3 stars. I wouldn't really want to go back unless maybe someone else was paying for it.
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