And so Christmas Day arrived. We woke up and played three games of Rummikub. Mom won all three. And I love how she acts all surprised when she wins. She knows what she's doing the whole time. The wild cards always seem to fall right into her hands. Luck may have something to do with it. But I doubt it.
So we grabbed breakfast at Skylark Diner, featured on DDD. Mom got one of my favorites, the banana fosters waffle. I went with pumpkin pancakes with sausage. I was quite impressed Dad went with just sausage and a toasted bagel with jelly. I wound up eating half the waffle, but gave Mom one of my two pancakes. Throw in the fresh OJ, and that was an outstanding way to start the day. But with a special dinner coming later that night, I was just hoping I hadn't overeaten.
I noticed the roads were a little bit crowded for Christmas. Very few places were open, but people still seemed to have somewhere to go. We left for the Sands Casino in Bethlehem, PA around 2 PM, taking Rt 78 about 75 minutes west. Christmas in a casino. Bethlehem, is a town filled with steel mills, and I was wondering how a hotel/casino got in there. The hotel is not done and there is very little shopping available right now; I found out those and other amenities, like loft apartments and a performing arts center, are coming later on. But we walked into the casino and I was struck by a few things. The casino reminded me of Vegas in terms of the machines, but there was much more room to walk around. The Cobalt and Infusion bars in the middle radiated with ice blue and lava red light, respectively. The ceiling has a very industrial look to it, it reminds me of a fancy warehouse, if such a thing could possibly exist. And it was one large rectangular-shaped room with the restaurants located on the outside against the walls. I also liked there were non-smoking sections as well. One whiff of one dude's cigar and I was ready to run for the hills.
Now dinner was supposed to be at Emeril's Chophouse. I was very excited to go. But Dad wanted prime rib and the only place to get it was at an Irish pub. So we went there, and while I enjoyed my leg of lamb, mashed potatoes, and asparagus, it felt like a good meal that I could get in other places.
But I did get to Burgers and More, Emeril's other eatery in the Sands, for dessert. Mom and Dad were already stuffed, so they got coffee. I ordered a bananas foster shake. The shake came out nice and thick with a strong banana flavor. Excellent. Not sure if there was any rum in there, but...
Oh and I lost $40 playing poker in 20 minutes.
On the ride up, I played Christmas music. Going home, it was a lot more 80's and 90's music that Dad likes. For Mom, I did do a pretty soulful rendition of "Tired of Being Alone." Maybe I will do it publicly one day...
Then came more board games. Sequence" Mom won three, Dad one won, and I somehow won one, though the game went right down to the last card. Pulling that off was like a tooth extraction. We played one more game of Phase 10 and I finished so far behind Mom (what a shock!), it was scary. To close it off, I played "I'm a Loser" by the Beatles. It got a pretty good laugh. I wasn't that upset, but my lack of luck became ridiculous after a while.
We closed the night with all of us watching two episodes of "Law and Order-Criminal Intent." It was Dad's first time watching the show and I think he has another show that he will soon be hooked on.
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