Sabbatical

So my two week sabbatical has been quite the ride.  And now that I have internet again at my apartment (thank you Verizon, your service isnt many steps above the dreaded Comcast) I am ready to update all you bloggies on what has been going on.  I felt like I got almost everything done that I needed to and got quite a bit of down time and relaxing in as well (oh running too!).  So here goes my holiday happenings and (extremely) marvelous two week vacation from work,


We begin with B's work christmas party at the Ritz.  And might I add that regardless of the stature of your once a year party GT, it is not ok that you cut a day out of our Disney vacation and rearranged our flights just so you could have him in TX 3 days before his vacation was over.  Not ok, but thanks for a great party!

We'll progress on and five hours up the road to Pittsburgh for a nolf family christmas affair.  Thank goodness the snow held off! On the way home we fit in a MD talley party and some celebrating with the eickels with champagne and a light show.

Celebrating Christmas with Bran was a highlight, complete with homemade lasagna (not made by me!), pictures with Santa, and some wonderful gifts exchanged- we are so lucky!

I spent a lot of time in Fredericksburg and got to christen one of my top 2 gifts- my brand new kitchenaide mixer! My grandmas were the bakers in my family, and the torch has pretty much been adopted by me.  Grandma got me a beautiful, perfect cooking companion- in bright red! It's first recipe was my dad's favorite cookies he ate growing up and I got to make them with the one and only lauren skin.  We had a great time making 9 dozen cookies and reliving our days of watching movies at my parents place.

The old high school friends all got together one night and it was a sight to be seen.  We were almost 100% in attendance, but even though we were missing a few cruital participants we had a great time.  It felt like so little time has passed even though so much has changed in the last 7 years!

Of course the annual Christmas eve family picture extravaganza happened complete with cheesy christmasy accessories (thanks in part to a trusty tripod), and a little twist on the extended family celebration christmas day picture... tacky Christmas sweaters thanks to my mom's extensive collection.

Next up would be my dad's 60th birthday celebration, but that deserves it's own post so we'll table that one for now.


I spent a quiet new years with B this year and it was just great.  Dinner out then fondue and Dick Clark with party poppers... even just sitting and doing nothing with this kid is a highlight of my life.  Happy 2011... here's to another great year my friends...