The Smith Family Christmas

The day after Christmas I rented a car and drove to New Haven, CT where I met Rob. From there we traveled onward to his grandmother's house for a few days. All of his grandmother's kids and their children come a stay for a few days after Christmas so I was able to be there for the majority of the celebrations (read homemade delicious food).

Apparently they were awaiting my arrival before beginning the present opening tradition they have there. I was excited that they had waited because I always hear about these silly exchanges that happen and now I got to take part in it.


They start with the serious gifts and then move onto some funny gifts, referred to as the grab bag. Everyone draws numbers for the grab bag exchange and then when your number comes up you pick a gift from the pile, if you don't like it you can exchange it for a gift that you might like better that someone already has opened.

We hung around for a few days and watched some movies, went shopping, and ate a LOT of food. I even got to meet two members of the family I didn't meet last year, Uncle Steve and Danielle. I can say I am happy to be becoming a part of this family. :) However sane or nuts that makes me, I stand by it all the same.

Christmas Travels

My Christmas was white, just as I was hoping for. It just doesn't feel the same without it. Christmas day I spent with my family in New York. The morning was spent at my parent's house and then the afternoon was spent at my brother's house.

Bella's first Christmas. Bella is my parents new kitten they got about a month ago. She is a little skiddish and still doesn't have table manners (she pulled off some chicken from the platter as we were clearing the table tonight), but she is a cutie.

Dinner setting for 11 for lunch at our house. My dad made prime rib steaks which we combined with a lot of Polish food. It was an interesting mix of food but there was plenty of it and a nice visit with cousins and people from church.

Everyone awaiting their treasures from the family exchange at my brother's. The rule is: you can't buy anything new and it's better if you are getting rid of things you don't want. Surprisingly, most people walked away with something they liked. Just goes to prove, one man's trash is another man's treasure.

Christmas Eve

Christmas Eve started with a family gathering at my aunt's house with all of my 30 some odd cousins. There are a lot of little ones that I am having trouble keeping up with. It was nice to see the family again even though I only see most once a year.

Later that night, I was able to meet up with Josh and Ryan and his friend (whose name escapes me at the moment) at Denny's. It's kind of hard to find a place to meet on Christmas Eve (especially for dinner), but three cheers for Denny's being open!!!

I enjoyed my French Toast Slam and about 6 cups of coffee. Just as an FYI, if you drink that much coffee at dinner, you may or may not be wide awake until about 2am. I am just saying, you may want to think twice about such consumption.

But I enjoyed getting to see some friends again and that's all that matters. :)

Merry Christmas!

Here's wishing you all a Merry Christmas!!

Sadness in the Snow

So I am back in New York for a few days. I kept telling everyone how much I missed snow. This may have been a little bit of an exaggeration now that I think of it. Today, it was 20 degrees out with the wind whipping and snow falling. This was not fun to be out in. Of course I was not dressed properly either.

Unfortunately, I had a funeral to attend this morning for my step-mother's mom. Hence the reason for not being dressed properly to combat the cold weather conditions. Her mother has been sick for a while and has spent the last 8 months in a nursing home. It was sad as with any passing of a loved one, but all the same, she knew it was time. At least she can rest peacefully now.

I played chauffeur today and got my snow driving skills back in a hurry. It was the very opposite of driving in Atlanta. Hopefully the roads will be clear for all of the long drives I have yet to do this break. Here's hoping.

Ding Dong Done With Work

Today is a big day for a few reasons. First, I have taken vacation next Monday and Tuesday to extend the year end shut down to span two full weeks. Awesome. Secondly, I am done with classes for this term. And finally, it marks the end of my first quarter (first rotation) of OLDP.

These last six months have been... well, I am not even going to sugar coat it. They were pretty terrible. Although, I will say, unfortunately, I think Mr. Pennock has it worse than I did. I can sympathize with him.

Stress was my worst enemy. What was a little creepy was when I got a health tip passed down to me at work about stress. It listed all the known side effects of it and I had every single one. Wow. That can't be good. Between the job assignment, class work, and all the stuff in between, it was just a bit much to deal with and stay on top of it all.

The bitter sweet outcome is even though I did not enjoy my first assignment and would not care to repeat the experience, I learned from it. As for the class work, I can't say I learned much from it, but at least it's one down three to go.

I am looking forward to bigger and better things in the new year. Hell, I would just be happier with better. We can work on bigger later. :)

Shopping in Decatur

Today my co-worker Sarah invited me to go shopping with her and another friend in Decatur. There are a whole bunch of little boutiques and what not to poke around in. In my experience, window shopping can be as fun or more fun than the actual purchasing so even if I didn't buy anything, it was bound to be fun.

We started at Taqueria Del Sol for lunch. They were cheap and tasty! I especially liked their shrimp corn chowder. Delicious! We meandered through some shops near that restaurant and then picked it up and drove to the other side of Decatur.

On our way there we made a pit stop at the factory store for Paddywax candles. Apparently these are ridiculously expensive candles. The ones here are probably not the exact color or what have you, but are a fracation of the cost. As if you could tell.

We finished up our shopping and headed back. I picked up some last minute Christmas gifts and enjoyed being out and not in a mall. The weather behaved enough and didn't get too cold. Hooray holidays!

Going Paperless

I am starting early on my next year's New Year's resolution. I have given up on this years and feel like a good start to the next year is just as good as any. At least that's how I am keeping score in my head.

I have decided to try to be more green. To try and think more about being green and what changes I can make. We have already made quite a few changes already in the house and in our daily routines, but where to go from here?

Growing up I was taught to keep bills like my parents. Write the date you paid how much and check number, then keep bill. Of course, I was never instructed on when to get rid of the bills. Only recently did I figure out that I can get rid of those bills from 2004. Oie... As if I need a record of paying my gas bill in Virginia!

Shortly after starting out on my own I discovered this free feature on my banks website; online bill pay. It took some convincing that this was the way to go. The way I had been taught made sense to me and putting faith in electronics was never my strong suit. I started off with one bill and then as I discovered how fabulous this was, I switched all of them over. But I was still getting the bill in the mail to tell me how much to pay. At least I was saving on stamps.

Going paperless used to mean having a log on to each site with your user name and password and trying to keep up with each one. And that's mostly what prevented me from switching. I don't have enough room in my head for 5-10 additional passwords and to remember to check once a month.

As I was paying bills yesterday I discovered another brilliant feature with my new bank (Schwab Online - love them). I can sign up to have bills sent to them and review them on their website. Awesome! I switched the ones I could and will be figuring out how to deal with the rest. More than half have been converted.

So I have made another small step into the world of green. I hope as the year goes along I can find other ways to implement green ideas. Slow and steady I make progress forward to hug a tree and save the planet.