Ryan Prins' Blog

Last night I had a few friends over to celebrate what I liked to call “A Very INFO Christmas.” It was just a little gathering of friends for some food, gifts, and good times. A good way to start the break if you ask me.

The evening began eating some little finger food stuff (shrimp cocktail, turkey/swiss wraps) while Trevor was making the potatoes for dinner. Once those potatoes were ready, we began to eat. On the menu was ham, garlic mashed potatoes, green bean casserole, stuffing, and cornbread. We didn’t eat quite as much meat as I had planned, but that is alright. That just means that I’ll have a bunch of leftovers. Which I took advantage of today!

But, dinner was really good. We had a bunch of wine (merlot, shiraz, pinot noir) and just sat and talked about whatever we wanted under dimmed lights and candles. It was pretty cool. The food ended up tasting really good. I was worried about the ham not being good, but it ended up tasting better than I had imagined. The potatoes that Trevor made were also very good, if you didn’t get a garlic clove in your mouth. And, of course, you can’t forget Jamie’s green bean casserole. That was quite tasty as well.

Yeah, just sitting there during dinner made me realize a bunch of things. Things that were just sitting in my mind and just needed solidification. Well, last night did that for a bunch of those things. I can just remember when I came from Minnesota my freshman year and I knew nobody. Now, I have meet all of these great people and I just can’t imagine leaving them. Ah, a personal tangent…

After dinner we reached the first level of food coma. So, how to cure that? Secret Santa gift exchange! Yes! Before tonight David called everybody and told them who their secret Santa was. I was picked to have Kathryn as my Secret Santa. I had a hard time trying to figure out what to get her. Well, besides the obligatory condoms and shaving cream. But, that’s kind of an inside joke. I think I ended up doing alright though. But, I just couldn’t stop laughing when she was opening it. She pretty much had me pegged at the shaving cream. Oh well, I got the desired reaction.

My secret Santa was a mystery after opening the first gift. I really didn’t know who it was. Well, this might be because I got a princess play-doh set. So, it really could have been anybody. However, after opening the second gift, I knew exactly who it was… Anthony! With his obsession with nerf guns and super-soakers, I knew it had to be him. But, now I have a weapon to shoot at people in class when they ask stupid questions. So, be warned!

Once our food coma had lowered back down to acceptable levels we headed back up for dessert. Jamie had brought a cherry cobbler, and Teresa made this really good Filipino dessert (forgot the name). We, again, just hung out at dessert, eating a little bit of everything and just relaxing. However, they still wanted to do more. It was suggested that we watch a move, so we did.

We popped in Rounders to watch while our stomachs took a break. Kevin promptly feel asleep on the couch while at the same time looking like he was watching a move. It is a talent, really. But, it was good to just relax, after I finished the dishes of course. However, once I laid down in front of the fire I just was beat and ready for bed. But man, I really like Rounders.

After the movie was over, it was time to say goodnight. Everybody was headed out and it was off to bed. I was running on around 5 hours of sleep and come midnight I really did feel it. But, sleeping until around noon today fixed all of that.

Overall, I really had a great time! I was worried about the food, but it turned out just fine. I know some things that I would do differently, but I don’t think that I’ll have to worry about that for a while. The next big thing coming up is New Year’s. So, we’ll have to see what happens there… But first I need to finish cleaning my place up.

Images: Images from last night can be found here.