Catching Up

Friday, January 11, 2008
Chloe, Uncle John and Lizzie.


Matt and Chloe checking out the new guitar on Christmas morning.


PaPaw, Aunt Deanna, BeBe, Uncle John and Chloe at the Botanical Gardens train show.


Happy 2008!! New Year's here wasn't a huge celebration. In fact, it was quite the snooze-fest - all of us in bed at 9:30 p.m. I never think of myself as old, but man, I am not as young as I used to be! I am just knocking on the door of mid-30s and already I am going to bed on the most festive night of the year at the same time as lights out at the elderly care home! I guess I will just have to rock it out to 10:30 p.m. on Chinese New Year next month.

Christmas really took it out of me. My parents, sister and brother-in-law came for the holidays. We had a great time but we also had a series of unfortunate events-one after another-that took the wind out of the sails. It all began with the "skunking" and just continued on.

On Christmas day, my Dad checked on the turkey and had the disposable aluminum pan collapse, spilling turkey grease in the over and creating a grease fire in the kitchen. Fortunately, no damage was done (except for a 3 hour clean out on the oven) which was amazing. My Dad and I were the only two in the kitchen and I was mesmerized by the 4 foot flames shooting out of my oven. It was amazing that my Dad wasn't injured. We did get to enjoy Christmas dinner and turkey until I went down to the basement to discover sewage spewing out from the pipes. What a holiday surprise! Matt and my brother-in-law John got to spend the day after Christmas snaking the line to clear the blockage. It was also the day after Christmas that I discovered that the 3-month old hard drive on my laptop was fried taking with it the newsletter I design for Newcomers. The newsletter I was supposed to drop off at the printers that day. Later in the week, Matt, John and Chloe went out for a drive in the Porsche and Matt was pulled over by a local policeman for speeding. He came home with a ticket for failure to possess a copy of his driver's license (which was a lucky break). There were a few other incidences, but they deserve posts all unto themselves.

As for the holiday itself, it was nice. Santa brought Chloe all that she wanted and more. Our attempt at a smaller, cheaper Christmas failed (mostly thanks to BeBe and the vast quantities of presents she had shipped to our house). Eventhough Chloe requested and got an i-Pod and a guitar, the biggest hit was the keyboard/microphone combo that she got from BeBe and PaPaw.

During the visit and in between the annoyances we were able to get in trips to the NY Botanical Gardens train show, NYC, a visit to my favorite spa in the city, and a food tour of Chelsea Market which we all loved so much.

Now that the holidays are over, my laptop is back, the ticket is paid, the pipes and basement are clean and working, we are settling back in and getting back into the swing of things.

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