I remember at the beginning of the Christmas season being really stressed out about not being able to get everything on my Christmas bucket list done. There were so many presents to wrap, movies to watch, and baked goods to bake. However, I was more afraid of not living in the moment and taking in every experience to the fullest than of not doing everything perfectly.
After working two days in DC post-NYC trip, Mike and I set off for Christmas in North Carolina with his family. I felt extremely welcome by every one of Mike's family members. Some of my favorite memories of the trip:
Wrapping all of the presents in the back of the car including a very large cotton candy machine that Mike thought was fitting for his sister.
A toffee Mike's mom makes with caramel, chocolate, and saltine crackers. It's phenomenal.
Watching Love Actually on Christmas Eve and Mike quoting lines from the movie the rest of the weekend.
A photo shoot with Mike's sister after we opened matching pajamas on Christmas Eve.
Listening to Mike's grandma explain how she can manage to get 12 dishes for one meal all done and ready at the same time. I am in awe of her.
Meeting Mike's god-parents and being welcomed into the most warm, southern home ever. (I was also sent home with a plate full of desserts.)
Eating at a local brunch spot in Chapel Hill and introducing Mike's mom and sister to grits with butter, pepper, and sugar. Even better when free:)
Les Miserables! (summary: it is worth dealing with the Russell Crowe for the Hugh Jackman).
And here are some pictures:
Yeah. I'm really bad at photo shoots.
PJ pic!
Christmas Day.
Tomorrow is my birthday! I can't believe I'm going to be 26. Seriously. But 25 has been so great to me and I can't wait for what 26 has in store. I love that my birthday only comes 3 days after a new year.
Get excited for New Years and birthday updates coming up!
The past few weeks have been the most marvelous whirlwind. I will probably post several blogs over the next week to devote the appropriate amount of attention to each adventure. Trying to be patient with myself as I play catch-up!
First up: NYC.
Mike's Christmas present to me was a trip to New York City: a place I have never been before. He had planned for us to see a Broadway show and to experience the city in the two days following the finish of his exams and preceding our trip to celebrate Christmas with his family in North Carolina.
We left DC Saturday morning on a bus. There were some good and bad things about this bus trip to NYC. We were blessed to be able to sit by (I really don't think I'm exaggerating) the absolute cutest baby in the world. A 5-month old baby boy and his parents sat in the seat across from us for the entire trip and whenever he was alert and not nestled passed out in a blanket he would stare at us making faces and smiling, trying to figure us out. He was the most well-behaved little boy and we didn't have the easiest trip! Our bus had two issues (one mechanical and one switching drivers) which led us to being 2 hours late into the city!
When we finally made it, we had just enough time eat and stop by our hotel (which Mike found on Priceline and looked like something you might see in a movie about Christmas in NYC) before heading to the Broadway show. I was so excited to see "Newsies!" because Kelly loves it and that's a pretty good indicator of things I will like. I still had no idea how much I would love it! My favorite parts were the lead actor and the choreography and just the energy of the show and audience. My least favorite parts were the way some supporting roles were acted. Overall, I swear I could see the show over and over and still come away with a huge smile! This is where Mike was introduced to Post-Broadway Kels, a lot like Post-Running Kels.
Spinach Roll and Hawaiian Pizza for first NYC dinner
Newsies!!!
After the show, we walked to Times Square and went into Sephora where I bought makeup (it was open until 1am!!) and Toys R' Us where we played for like an hour. Then we went to Papaya Dog where we got hot dogs and a mango slushie that Mike insisted he liked and bought some framboise lambic, a favorite raspberry beer.
Times Square! Where the ball drops.
Me next to the T-Rex in the Jurassic Park section of Toys R' Us.
Mike being a better Hulk than the Lego Hulk.
The next morning Mike and I went for a run in Central Park early. We had a bus out of the city at 7pm so we wanted to take as much of it in as possible. Well, running 6 miles will help with that (also it was in my half marathon training). We found the place where runners run in the park and didn't feel so weird as when we were running down the streets. Mike seemed to find every hill in the park and I made up a motto for him "Mike Johnson: Ne'er was there a hill he wouldn't assay". I think he liked it.
Getting back to the hotel, Mike told me he was going to take a shower and that he had ordered room service. I had never had room service before so I asked him what I was supposed to do and he said just answer the door. I thought it was funny because the night before we had been talking about how expensive room service was, but I just assumed he was really wanted to order room service. When the door rang and someone said "room service", I opened the door to find my sister Courtney (who lives in the city) standing in the doorway. After getting some information out of her, I found out that Mike had contacted her to meet up with us on our brief stay. Courtney had told me she was going to be home in VA for Christmas by that weekend, but apparently by entire family had been in on the surprise.
Courtney was actually leaving the city that afternoon to go home and so we had a brief brunch with her in the city at this place called The Pig, an Irish bar we'd stumbled upon. They actually had an awesome brunch with homefries galore and each brunch order came with a free brunch drink. The bloody mary was memorable. Courtney and Mike bonded over making fun of me for the same things and I was just in awe of how well Courtney knew the city and how much she has grown up there.
A happy brunch!
Saying goodbye to Court. It was very windy.
After Courtney left, Mike and I went to the Top of Rockefeller Center so I could see the WHOLE city! Then we went to the bottom(?) of the Rock where Mike introduced me to Brookstone: a store with lots of cool and innovative things. We also saw the ice rink and Christmas tree and we witnessed a guy proposing to his girlfriend on the ice with everyone watching. So cute! Then we went to a market for a couple of hours to do some Christmas shopping and into a mall where Mike found ANOTHER Brookstone. :)
View of Central Park from the top of the Rock.
A nice lady offered to take a picture of us.
Just enough time for a nice Chinese food dinner of pan-fried noodles before getting on our bus back to DC thoroughly exhausted. What a wonderful introduction to The City That Never Sleeps:) I can't wait to go back! However, I do appreciate DC in a new way now:)
Last view of the Rockefeller tree before getting our bags from the hotel.
Friday, Mike and I had Dangerously Delicious pies for dinner (a strangely delicious curry tofu pie, a yummy pork bbq pie, and pumpkin pie with fresh whipped cream!). I can't believe it took me this long to try Dangerously Delicious. Then we went to see the Hobbit. I won't spoil the movie for you, but there was a lot of walking and eating and Howard Shore. Gollum stole the show, per usual. The highlight of the movie for me was when Mike got a free popcorn voucher with his Regal card and, since neither of us wanted popcorn, he let me go to the cashier and tell them to give it to the next person who came to order popcorn. Popcorn is $6.00!
Of course, Gollum still creeps me out and, when Mike found that out, of course he began talking like him. Bane, Tommy Wiseau, Gollum....he's not limited by creepiness.
http://purplepond.files.wordpress.com/2012/02/gollum.jpg
Saturday involved a 7 mile run with MJJ to the TJ memorial (I'd also never been there). I had only wanted to complete 6 miles (never the overachiever in my half marathon training plan), but apparently MJJ is a track star who never trains then always outruns me. Steph W. and Josh also had scheduled a day-long LOTR (extended edition) marathon complete with 7 hobbit meals. I am distraught I was only able to attend a portion since my sisters and I always dreamed of daylong LOTR marathons, but I got to see Aragorn re-gain the throne, eat some of the best pot-roast ever, and my faith in Peter Jackson was momentarily restored.
Sunday was a Secret Santa gift exchange with the GGSS crew. Sara got me an absolutely adorable bracelet and gloves...what she does not know is that earlier that night I was searching through my jewelry for a gold bracelet because it would have gone with my outfit and I realized I didn't have one at all! Mind-reading Santa! This was also the night Noah's birthday was being celebrated with a rendition of Jesus Christ Superstar, a Broadway musical I'm unfamiliar with (what else is new?) so I was able to reprise my role as an audience member while all of my talented friends entertain me through their singing and dancing. After a lovely dinner at Emily's and discussing the Redskins' win, the weekend was over.
And here I am. Monday again. Five days until vacation. It's gray and balmy outside. DC weather as weird as ever. But Christmas is coming.
I was convinced today was Friday. No matter how many times I was reminded it was Thursday, some part of me really wanted it to be Friday. It's not like I didn't try my hardest to make that happen. Yesterday I scheduled an appointment with a student for today and today when that student showed up, I saw that I had put them on my calendar for Friday. Sigh...
Despite it not being Friday, I woke up this morning feeling just really good and thankful. Do you ever have a morning like that? Where you wake up and you just feel like you should be thanking someone for the morning? Today was that morning for me. In fact, so much that I texted my sister Kim, "Do you ever have a morning where you wake up so thankful and happy that you have to thank someone for it?" My youngest sister Kim, God bless her, is a person I know I can always go to with my impulsive emotional rants and feelings never having to censor myself. Sometimes she responds, depending on how long my rant is, with a "you're overwhelming me again" or sometimes, like this morning, she responds in the affirmative with a "yeah". Victory! Whenever, Kim identifies with one of my random thoughts, it means I could be on to something. Anyway, yeah, I had no reason to be feeling all thankful this morning. I accidentally set my alarm too early (thinking it was a Friday when I had to go in at 9am instead of a Thursday when I have to go in at 10am). I snoozed my alarm no fewer than 3 times which meant none of my extra sleep really counted as quality. And I had A TON of work to do today.
BUT I am so thankful for each and every one of my students. I never dreamed I could be so happy doing something that isn't "counseling", but my students teach me things I don't know every day and they challenge me in ways I haven't yet been challenged. I am so thankful for the past 4 months in which I've slowly adapted to living in a city which is, honestly, something I never thought I would do.
Maybe Christmastime will do that to you....give you random thankful moments. I had the day off on Monday and I was wandering around Chinatown exploring the city, which I feel safe enough to do in the daytime. I was stopped by a guy with the UN Refugee Agency asking for monthly donations. Well, first he tried to help me figure out how to properly work my new iphone since I looked lost, but then I asked him to tell me about what he was doing there that day and he told me about all of the refugees fleeing war and famine in the world and I had heard about Syria, but what about Mali and Somalia and all of the other stories that aren't covered by our media?
There is this other side of thankfulness. It's the recognition that you are blessed and that you have the ability to bless others.
"Good friendships are like breakfast. You think you’re too busy to eat breakfast, but then you find yourself exhausted and cranky halfway through the day, and discover that your attempt to save time totally backfired. In the same way, you can try to go it alone because you don’t have time or because your house is too messy to have people over, or because making new friends is like the very worst parts of dating. But halfway through a hard day or a hard week, you’ll realize in a flash that you’re breathtakingly lonely, and that the Christmas cards aren’t much company. Get up, make a phone call, buy a cheap ticket, open your front door. Because there really is nothing like good friends, like the sounds of their laughter and the tones of their voices and the things they teach us in the quietest, smallest moments." -Shauna Niequist in "Bittersweet" For me, the Christmas season always starts out with such anticipation. I can't wait to watch all the movies (I have a set lists of Musts), bake all the cookies (well and cupcakes and muffins), and do basically all of the things they do in the movie Elf. [For instance my Christmas bucket lists looks something like:
All the movies: Elf, The Holiday, Love Actually, Muppet Christmas Carol, all of the old school Rudolphs and Frosties (except not the ones where they bring in baby new year or jack frost)
Bake the classics: the peanut butter cookies with kisses in the middle, gingerbread, snickerdoodles, and just like all of the Christmas-decorated cupcakes I see on pinterest.
Go look at Christmas lights!
Find the best hot chocolate in the city! (or a really good one)
Go see the big Christmas trees!
Find an occasion to wear my Christmas sweater!]
Then comes the end-of-the-semester crunch. I should be used to the this by now. I've been in higher education (either as a student or now a young professional) for long enough to know that the time from Thanksgiving to Christmas is always just a blur. No, I don't have exams, but all of my students do....or they are trying to complete their theses papers in time to graduate. Thank goodness I no longer have to experience that kind of stress, but it is easy to get caught up in the stress of my students, the stress of the impending holidays (searching desperately for a way to squeeze Christmas present money from my budget), and the stress that comes with lots of traveling to see as many loved ones as possible in a short period of time. It's easy to let things slip by during this season: sleep, working out, breakfast, and friends to name a few things. And I can find lots of excuses. It's too dark/cold outside. I have too much to do. Too many Christmas parties to go to. Too much potluck food to cook. Too many things to pay for. However, in the midst of all of the parties and running around, I'm still stressed and still cranky and I don't know why because it's Christmas and you're supposed to be joyful and triumphant!
If there's one thing I know about myself, it's that whenever I'm really cranky it's probably because I'm hungry. (I need to snack at regular intervals for optimal functioning.) Well, I think that's why this passage from Shauna's book Bittersweet(Yes, I know I quote this author ALL the time and I'll probably never stop) has really stayed with me over the past week. Although I feel surrounded by festivity, parties, events, plans, and preparations for Christmas, I also feel a little cranky, a little irritable, a little hungry, maybe even a little lonely. I think this yearning is almost inherent in the advent (also winter) season for me, but that it's also indicative of that I'm investing time into the wrong things. I may be spending lots of time with people, but is it quality time? Am I being present? Christmas is not an excuse to stop being genuine, to stop investing in our family and friends because we're too concerned about what we're going to give them from Etsy or the DIY gift boards on Pinterest. We have an incredible gift to give others and ourselves already: just being present and pausing to really experience one of the most wonderful times of the year.
Fun Fact: Apparently Founding Farmers had their chicken and waffles with eggs named the Best Breakfast by Food Network a couple of years back. And now I am hungry.
"When life is sweet, say thank you and celebrate. And when life is bitter, say thank you and grow."- Shauna Niequist
Besides the things I am thankful for every day: my health, my family, my friends, my job, a career where I feel fulfilled and very happy, I realized how grateful I am for a few other things I don't normally think of this past week.
Spare keys. I almost didn't make it home for Thanksgiving due to locking myself out of my apartment (typical, I know). While the story gets a little more complicated than that, the main point is that the incident really just led to more quality time with people before leaving for home.
RG3. The Redskins beat the Cowboys on Thanksgiving Day. It was the best first half I've seen played the Redskins in a long time and, in spite of a rough season (as always), I've never been more proud and excited for the team.
Moms. My mom made the entire Thanksgiving meal for our entire family and sent me back home with tons of food. Mike's mom told me I didn't wreck Thanksgiving and was completely supportive when I had locked myself out of my apartment and delayed her departure for Thanksgiving. I'm so thankful for moms.
Constantine Maroulis. I also had the opportunity to see Constantine Maroulis in Jekyll and Hyde at the Kennedy Center and he was amazing! The rest of the show was a little ehh, but it made me feel like a person who actually goes to see shows a lot when I could critique it a little.
Music. Pandora Christmas station is all I listen to at work. All day. At night I listen to WASH FM's Christmas station and I listen to Delilah talk about love and stuff in her soothing voice and the callers all make my heart so warm. I've been listening to new Paper Route lately, too, and Relient K's Let it Snow Baby, Let it Reindeer which is a holiday staple. I'm going to a gospel Christmas concert next week put on by my university's choir and am excited for that. There are no holidays without music.
I can't believe tomorrow is December! And this Sunday is the first day of Advent!
If you haven't seen this yet, you need to. Because everyone needs to see a little girl sing horribly into a turkey leg once in their lives.
So today is my last day at work before Thanksgiving break and, I must say, it's lovely being able to go through the holiday season without stressing about papers or finals. WONDERFUL. So like, I just get to eat and have fun and not go to work and that's all?! There's nothing else I SHOULD or NEED to be doing, but won't and will beat myself up for it later? What is this.....
Sadly, I won't be gorging myself on as much Thanksgiving food as I normally do: it's normally just a day-long snack fest while watching football and movies with some napping in between to mix things up. (I do normally run in the morning though!) No, this Thanksgiving I will be a little more cautious as I had the stomach flu last week and have not been feeling 100% since. I pretty much have the world's most sensitive stomach on a good day, so Thursday I will probably enjoy cooking for others more than I will sampling everything-even-the-questionable-stuff.
This past week, my friend Adam's band also released the first single off their upcoming album, CALIFORNIA GOLD RUSH! It is seriously amazing stuff. Adam is so talented and I can't wait until the whole album comes out next year, just in time for spring break road trip playslists!! YES! You should check out his song and then buy it on itunes. Support local artists, for realz. Audiostrobelight's facebook page and link to their latest single!
Sunday, I got to see Breaking Dawn with Steph (strange sense of closure!) and I've discovered my favorite snack and meal (thus far!) in Chinatown. The best snack ever is an Angel Food smoothie with no sugar from Smoothie King and the best dinner ever is an avocado, tomato, and swiss cheese crepe from the crepe place in Chinatown. (Though this is like the only crepe I've tried from there, I still think it's the best!) The guys who run the crepe stand are super sweet, too. Actually paella from La Tasca could probably rival the crepe, but anyway.......
My grand plans for Thanksgiving are as follows: Middle sis in in NYC and came down this past weekend to visit (leaving behind a lovely black bomber jacket accidentally) so she sadly won't be home:( Youngest sis will be house-sitting part of the time:(, but her and I have prioritized watching The Santa Clause together while she's home. Lauren (one of my best friends from elementary/middle/high school....we were cheer captains together) and I are going to watch Love Actually and catch up on all of the things that close friends catch up on when they haven't seen each other for a while. I also plan on watching the Redskins beat the Cowboys! Hopefully, I will be cooking with my mom all day learning her tricks of the trade since I realized I don't yet know how to make an apple pie from scratch and real apple pies are pretty crucial to my existence. I want to be self-sufficient and able to bake an apple pie should I find myself in a moment of need and/or desperation. Friday, I am going to the Kennedy Center with Mike's family so that should be fun and I'll let you know how that goes.
Expect a post of things I am thankful for in a few days because, ultimately, that's what Thanksgiving is about and my favorite part of the holiday.
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