a corner of biscuits and warm tea

Merry second day of Cribmas! Here's this Jingle Bell song in a Thai-folk style-- enjoy!

My birthday just passed! I never thought about whether or not I like having my birthday on a holiday until I had friends bring up this question in my adult life:

"Doesn't it suck to have a birthday during the Winter holidays?"

My answer to that has always been, "uhmm I don't know" or "I never really thought about it". Just recently, when I thought about it, I think I quite like being a winter baby! I don't mind Christmas or Yule decorations. Most of the time, I learned that I prefer the lack of attention between my social circles in real life. While most of my peers would be busy running holiday errands, I can go incognito with my special day. I grew up with having big gatherings with my extended family, so having a peaceful celebration is quite a change. Ever since I've been with Bern, my birthday traditions elevated to late night dinners and downtown strolls. For the past years, my birthday celebrations has been intimate-- that's how I like them.

This year, our refrigerator is now completely gone. I experienced a bit of headache (lack of sleep) and indigestion because I'm so used to having stored foods that requires refrigeration. It kind of made me felt physically off; ended up with a weird acid reflux. I think I am feeling a bit better now! Hopefully I'll feel Toguro-One-Hundred-Percent before New Years! Due to being super absorbed in my artwork, I tend to forget to incorporate my intensive exercises to my routine. This time, I will have to cut back my drawing schedule just a bit and start graduating myself towards stricter workouts. Between my physician and I, the way my body functions, we're hoping it's a way for me to smooth out my digestion. This should be another easy New Years' resolution for me, because it's super vital for me to have to keep up anyway.
Once I am well and our refrigerator gets replaced, I'll probably bake a cake for myself-- for a celebration do-over. Technically, the holidays are still around until the first week of January. I will be keeping our decorations up, just so I can space out to the warm rainbow lights...that's how I meditate.

Overall despite the acid reflux throat burns, I enjoyed my birthday. Bern and I looked at Christmas lights in decorated neighborhoods-- it was a perfect way to get our walking steps as our exercise. He took me to one of the best Thai restaurants in LA with outdoor seating; I ordered something simple (Pad Se Eew) because the dish has some green veggies in them. As usual, the foods came out perfect for both us.

Anyway, I hope you all are doing well and are receiving lots of love during the holidays!

Photodump:

A neighborhood with collaborative decorations (80 percent of the neighbors decorate).