home for the holidays - revisited

This was officially my first year 'traveling home for the holidays'. I was stuffed onto a jam-packed plane, amidst tempting offers at $500 vouchers to take another flight. I thought about it in a fleeting second as I was boarding and realized how badly I wanted to go home and that they'd have to up it to maybe $1000 for me to consider it seriously. :) The flight was pretty tight, but I got this cool airplane shot.

Luckily, even though I went through Chicago and was scared of inclement weather, I made it out of there and to Boston with a slight delay. All seemed swell. Sandy was there and waiting, and I just had to grab my bags........wait, where the 'F' is my other bag?@! Apparently it was left in Chicago. They told me they would deliver it the next day to my parent's house in NH. Of course this was the bag with ALL OF MY GIFTS IN IT! All I could think of was fighting with AA all week long in a struggle to get a hold of my luggage before I had to go back to CA. BUT, worrying was unnecessary because they delivered it promptly the next morning, everything still in tact.

As I walked into my parent's house, I might as well have just been visiting from Boston. The only difference was the shiny new hardwood floors. Everything else was status quo. It was good to just be around my family though, talking to them in person and seeing their smiling faces. Plus, I came bearing a cold and it was comforting to be at 'home'. Thanks to Jerry I started my 'resting' immediately by staying up till 1am mindlessly and compulsively working on a puzzle in the basement.

Per usual, Christmas eve was spent going to the relatives after a quick stop off at friends of the family's house. This is where I always rock at least one toasted almond cocktail. Sooo good! All in all the whole Christmas eve ordeal was sort of surreal. Perhaps it was due to being jet lagged, slightly sick, or just not being fully in the holiday spirit. Either way, Christmas day was nice with the family, opening gifts. I got this super hipster Chrome bag that I've been dying for - it's waterproof and gives me street cred. But seriously, my old bag basically had the structure of a wet paper towel and was just waiting to disintegrate. Plus I got a DVD burner for my computer and a mango cutter - which completely rocks! Have you ever tried cutting a mango? It is not easy, but this cores it so simply. Seems frivolous, but if you like mangoes, it's worth it. I got a bunch of other great gifts too, like some artwork in hand painted frames, fishing rods, ski pass, word games, birdie salt and pepper shakers...the list goes on. Brag brag brag :)

After the holiday dinner, the rest of the day was spent with friends. It doesn't get better then that. Which leads into the day AFTER Christmas! The Potluck Party! How fun. I was so looking forward to this mostly because almost everyone was able to make it minus some NYC folk :(. Even Patrick made it up from MA to say hi. I feel it was a success. Everyone cooked food and brought it over. I don't think there was anything we didn't like. Plus we raised over $300, which is now over $600 with Jerry's company's match plan for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society. Not only that, there was game playing! See how excited, anatomically correct and shocked everyone looks?!
I hope we keep doing this every year, and knowing that I feel that way probably means it will happen! mwahahaha!

Thursday I headed down to Boston with Sandy. It was good to bop around Harvard Square together, do a little shopping, check everything out. Afterwards Gary and I caught up at Fugakyu! I absolutely LOVE their sushi and it was delicious! Plus on the drive to Erikka's house in JP we saw this! Then I got to see Erikka and Jason's new apartment in Jamaica Plain. It is great, and so perfect for them. I liked the handmade ornaments and decorations. There were also lots of little things showing both their awareness of being green - cloth napkins, natural soap and toothpaste, etc... Plus Erikka let me use Jason's pillow! (shhhh...) It was super comfy. Erikka and I spent some time walking around downtown JP and playing games. It was great just hanging out together, as always.

Friday night I got pizza on my way to Tom and Marna's. The cool thing was I was just walking by a place, and got a slice and it was good. It's tough to find good pizza in SF, although I've been pleasantly surprised a couple times. It was nice catching up with T&M and they even let me borrow one of their vehicles for the weekend so I could bring up my storage items from their basement to my parents to get ready to ship out to me.

Saturday I got to catch up with Greg for a few, drop by James's football watching party then chat with the lady's up at Char's parents. I wish there was a tape recorder for the conversations we had! I think I ate half of Charleen's food while I was there.

Then Sunday I headed back to Somerville. Got to go bowling at Sacco's Bowl Haven! It was the perfect ending to my stay on the east coast. That night it started sleeting and got really cold and it sort of made returning to SF a little easier.

Being home was really nice. I totally enjoyed hanging out with people and catching up. I feel really lucky to have such a good group of friends. It makes me sad to be so far away sometimes, but I know that we are always there for each other however we can be, no matter what, and that's pretty fricken' awesome.

I realized I didn't take nearly enough pictures while I was home, so if anyone has pictures from while I was in town, please send them! Thank you!