Holidays and Happenings

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).

Tissue snow

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. 

On our way to the Georgia Aquarium

Creeper kid...

 

Gary, a volunteer, gave us an impromptu tour of the whale fish tank.

White alligator

Grouper... bigger than Miguel

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.