We're coming to the end of another holiday season with New Years Eve tomorrow night. The end of 2013 has been tough and hectic at times and while I am sad to see it end, I am also looking forward to the new year and lots of fun things we have planned. We got back last night from our Christmas trip to Michigan. Of course no trip would be complete without some kind of dangerous driving condition and we had a white knuckled drive from Detroit to Jackson after we arrived to an ice storm. We made it safely and the roads just began to freeze after we arrived and stepped outside the car to a sheet of ice on the ground. Rough.
I also continued my yearly tradition of getting sick just before, on, or after Christmas with a fabulous cold that knocked me out for the last three days of our trip and caused me to miss some very fun parties. There is nothing quite like an airport when you're sick. The travel gods were smiling on us and Sean was upgraded to first class. He insisted I take his seat so I had a very comfortable ride and all the hot tea I needed. However, that must have used up all our good travel karma because we arrived in New York to an absolute downpour and no cabs to be found at the airport. After waiting for over an hour in a long cab line that was hardly moving, we decided to take the bus to the subway. Two hours later we finally made it home. It took us as long to get from LaGuardia to our apartment as it took to get from Detroit to New York.
Bookended between those two lovely travel experiences, we had a great trip. It was wonderful to see so many family members and friends and get to spend lots of quality time together. We also had the special joy of spending Christmas morning with our nephews. Watching a three year old be excited about Christmas takes it to a whole different level of awesome. We had so much fun playing with Jack and all his new toys and cuddling Hudson who is basically the cutest four month old ever.
This will be a low key New Years Eve for us. Sean and I are spending the evening at home and both working tomorrow. I have plans for a special dinner and Mario Kart tournament and we're hoping to catch the Rose Bowl for a Spartan victory on New Years Day. Here's to a wonderful new year!
Monday, December 30, 2013
Wednesday, December 18, 2013
Hello there, December
December really snuck up on me this year because Thanksgiving was so late and now here we are one week away from Christmas. I haven't looked at any store windows or visited the tree or one single Christmas market and that's just the way it is going to be this year because there isn't any time left. Our weekends have been booked with gift shopping and holiday parties and lots of studying for Sean (finals! grad school! isn't it wonderful?).
A word about holiday parties. I don't know if this is because we moved to New York at the same time we were becoming "real" adults or if this is solidly a New York thing, but holiday parties are a big. deal. in this city. Maybe you can also expect to be invited to six holiday parties in other parts of the country or maybe it is just New York or maybe we just have festive friends? Regardless, there are always lots of fun holiday events to attend for work or for friends and you can quickly develop what I call holiday party fatigue. Otherwise known as, what do I wear to these parties and why aren't rain boots appropriate because there are huge piles of slush in the street. There seems to be a lot of social pressure around holiday parties and every year it is an interesting social experiment to witness. Luckily these parties usually come with delicious food. The end.
Some things to note in December:
-I went to Chinatown for the first time, it was a strange place! Thanks to Sarah for getting me down there despite my pleading to not go. It was snowing and decorated for Christmas and we visited a few bakeries and I ate too many red bean pastries and many people on the street asked us if we were looking for designer handbags. We probably should have said yes just to see where they would have taken us.
-Sarah also got me to go to another opera at the Met. We saw Falstaff which was thankfully less than 4 hours. I'm a sucker for anything at Lincoln Center and it beats watching TV on a Monday night.
-Sean and I tried a great new restaurant on the Upper West Side, Red Farm. This is their second location in New York and we have been eyeing it for weeks waiting for dinner service to start so we could find time to go. It finally did and it was delicious! We went on a Tuesday night and it was pretty packed, which I think is a good sign.
-We have watched all the good Christmas movies and we watched them early so we have been left with whatever wierd movies are available for Netflix streaming. This includes but is not limited to movies that were made to air on ABC Family. Yep.
Now there is a lot to do before another trip to Michigan. Big plans include putting Christmas music on my phone for the trip and charging my Kindle. Flight delays will not get the best of me this year!
A word about holiday parties. I don't know if this is because we moved to New York at the same time we were becoming "real" adults or if this is solidly a New York thing, but holiday parties are a big. deal. in this city. Maybe you can also expect to be invited to six holiday parties in other parts of the country or maybe it is just New York or maybe we just have festive friends? Regardless, there are always lots of fun holiday events to attend for work or for friends and you can quickly develop what I call holiday party fatigue. Otherwise known as, what do I wear to these parties and why aren't rain boots appropriate because there are huge piles of slush in the street. There seems to be a lot of social pressure around holiday parties and every year it is an interesting social experiment to witness. Luckily these parties usually come with delicious food. The end.
Some things to note in December:
-I went to Chinatown for the first time, it was a strange place! Thanks to Sarah for getting me down there despite my pleading to not go. It was snowing and decorated for Christmas and we visited a few bakeries and I ate too many red bean pastries and many people on the street asked us if we were looking for designer handbags. We probably should have said yes just to see where they would have taken us.
-Sarah also got me to go to another opera at the Met. We saw Falstaff which was thankfully less than 4 hours. I'm a sucker for anything at Lincoln Center and it beats watching TV on a Monday night.
-Sean and I tried a great new restaurant on the Upper West Side, Red Farm. This is their second location in New York and we have been eyeing it for weeks waiting for dinner service to start so we could find time to go. It finally did and it was delicious! We went on a Tuesday night and it was pretty packed, which I think is a good sign.
-We have watched all the good Christmas movies and we watched them early so we have been left with whatever wierd movies are available for Netflix streaming. This includes but is not limited to movies that were made to air on ABC Family. Yep.
Now there is a lot to do before another trip to Michigan. Big plans include putting Christmas music on my phone for the trip and charging my Kindle. Flight delays will not get the best of me this year!
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