It’s almost the end of January, and looking back on the last
month and a half, I have absolutely no idea where the time has gone. Christmas
came and went, as did New Year’s. My hubby has gone back to South Africa, and
now it’s back to business as usual. But the last couple of months have been a
blast.
Anyone that knows my family can tell you that we aren’t
exactly the traditional sort. This trait extends to “family time” as well. The only
continuity between holidays from one year to the next has been that we always spend
them at my house. This year, we changed it up and spent the time at my
grandparents beautiful, brand new home.
The food was great, the company was hilarious/ridiculous (as
usual), and a major bonus- almost all gluten-free food (always something to
celebrate).
On New Year’s Eve, we strayed from tradition yet again.
Instead of doing the usual, sit on the couch>watch the news until the ball
drops>drink some champagne>go to bed (like losers), we decided to shake
things up. I came up with the BRILLIANT idea to play minute-to-win-it.
Priceless, by the way.
Once I got past the stress of everyone screaming and telling
ME how to play the games (even though I wrote the rules…) it was fun… save for
the hyperventilating (I was a liiittle anxious).
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| Tissue snow |
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| Happy New Year! |
With Vaseline and cotton-covered faces, the light-headed
contestants blew, scooped, balanced, ponged, and swung their way to victory. During
the last challenge, Marshmallow Stackers, someone (who will not be mentioned)
kept cheating and screwing everything up. As frustration peaked, one lonely
marshmallow flew... and it was on like Donkey Kong.
Needless to say, we were cleaning up marshmallow goop for days.
It was a great time. The people were a little nuts, but
still, fun stuff.
After cleaning up, we scrambled to the kitchen to pour some
champagne with only seconds to spare. We counted down to the New Year, hugs
went all around, and then slowly, everyone made their way home.
Once the holiday excitement had waned, it occurred to Miguel
and I that he only had 9 days left until he left the USA yet again. So the next
week, my lovey and I took an impromptu trip to Atlanta for a mini-vacay before
he headed back home. Funny enough, we have traveled thousands of miles and
moved across continents together, but have never taken a road trip that lasted
longer than 2 hours.
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| On our way to the Georgia Aquarium |
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| Creeper kid... |
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| Gary, a volunteer, gave us an impromptu tour of the whale fish tank. |
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| White alligator |
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| Grouper... bigger than Miguel |
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| Piedmont Park |
It was awesome to just get away by ourselves and spend some
quality time together. Although it’s horrible being away from one another, we
have memories like this that we can look back on that keep us going. Hopefully,
someday soon, he will be next to me as I write about these great times, rather
than having to read them from 8,000 miles away.
