use real butter

We got home shortly before sunset after tele in the morning and xcountry in the afternoon, and proceeded to make a giant plate of goodies to nosh on: prosciutto, boursin, havarti, smokey oysters, sardines, and baguette. I also made some slushy cocktails since this entire day was associated with water in frozen form. For Jeremy, I made a mudslide, and for myself, a lava flow [Edit:: I just realized that both of these drinks are named for geomorphic events – woohoo!]

lava flow: piña colada topped with strawberry daiquiri

It’s past midnight on the east coast. Best wishes to all in the coming year. Happy New Year!

We managed to get to the Fairmont Hotel for afternoon tea today! The little plates were very nice.

starting with a plate of finger sandwiches

next was a perfectly baked currant scone with devonshire cream

**Jump for more butter**

We made it to San Jose without a hitch no thanks to United Airlines, but plenty of thanks to mystery UA ticketing agent who processed my “required” check-in ahead of a few hundred people waiting in line.

I managed to pick out a real winner of a sushi joint this time based on some local web reviews. We took Grandma to Umi Sushi in San Jose. Oh wow – that food was so good. I mean, this is almost on par with Ai. This will be a repeat restaurant for sure.

sashimi lover’s plate

special rolls

They had a huge selection of special rolls and a number of sushi items with poki. Delish! Grandma was digging it too. We checked into our hotel after lunch and took a nap since we had been up since 3:30 in the morning.

In the evening, we took Grandma to a party at my mom’s cousin’s house. There was so much Chinese food! It was really good, except we were still recovering from our sushi lunch. I don’t know how we’re going to survive this weekend.