We scheduled a new paint job for my lab this month, which gave us an excuse to have our holiday outing at Dumpling House followed by bowling and billiards at Memorial Union. We also had our department’s first in-person holiday party since 2019, which got my lab members cutting up the dance floor. At home, we spent most of our weekends hibernating from the cold with big pots of beef stew, bun rieu, and spam soup. We did a little shopping in Natomas for craft supplies from Michaels and sweets from Cost Plus, filling on pork adobo and lumpia from Roline’s along with massive halo-halos. Last Friday, we joined Liam’s family at the Theatre of Lights show downtown. I arrived late from clinic to inhale a few dumplings before taking in the exciting showdown between Santa and Jack Frost, followed by hot chocolate and a rowdy mini train ride for the kids. Since Melody and I were both on call, we spent our Christmas holiday weekend mostly at home also, except brief outings for hot pot, dim sum, and pastries. Westley was content diving into his new Lego Boost robot and Speed Champions racer sets, while I immersed myself in HBO’s House of the Dragon and FromSoftware’s acclaimed Elden Ring game. Between collecting runes, discovering sites of grace, and painfully dying again and again, I was both humbled by the combat challenges yet addicted to the wonder and discovery in the beautiful open-world setting. We left my poor wife wrapping dumplings and baking sticky buns all by herself. But between Westley’s Lego-building, Melody’s cooking, and my gaming, we felt like we each got a chance to enjoy our Christmas break in our own favorite ways.