We ended up having Christmas at home for a change, which was nice in a relaxing way. We're usually driving within a day of Christmas on either side down to relatives in MA and CT, so it was a relieving change of pace just to stay in Brunswick. Unfortunately, the reason for the change of plans was that grandparents weren't feeling well and weren't up to entertaining guests, but yeah. Instead, the week consisted of nuclear family. That, and far-flung friends, cookies, guitar, Joshua's, xc skiing, LL Beans and other shopping, my final acquisition of flannel-lined pants, and such.
Brunswick got a huge blizzard on Sunday the 21st. We had been at the Syphers' for our annual Christmas get-together, and I had to drive us home by interpolating the road between telephone polls and street signs, sometimes with my head out the window to try to see more than five feet in front of me. The minivan got stuck a couple times on our road and did not make it up the hill. We abandoned it for the night and trudged home in high spirits.
I saw Emmy on the 22nd for the first time in...a while. Seems to be doing pretty well out west in TFA.
Christmas Eve we made fondue for the first time in a while, which we used to do this season more frequently. We went to the evening service at church, which was the first time I'd been there in probably close to a year. Things look the same, and the music was great, as always. Corinne was around for only a couple days too, so a bunch of us hung out at her house later in the evening. Pat got up a few days earlier, Glenn was in town for a few days, Peter was up from Portland, and others. I got back home late and thought about how anticipatory this night was when I was younger and how great the Christmas tree looks in the stairwell.
We had to get up at a reasonable hour in order to do presents before a brunch with relatives in Yarmouth. Gifts were exchanged, paper was torn, kitties were buried, good times were had by all. Brunch was delicious too. The rest of the day was pretty sedated, as Christmas should be, then we had dinner at the Fitzgeralds'. I also got to try out their hot tub for the first time, which was great. It reminded me of wading in hot springs in Iceland while a winter storm brewed overhead.
Although the snow started to dissipate after a few days, it was a very white Christmas. It would have been disappointing otherwise.
We ended up going down to Reading on Friday just for the night to see my grandmother, who is doing well. Back up to Maine Saturday evening in time for a late-night yurt party at Martin's. Elizabeth was back from Russia for a little while, so it was good to see her. Get-together at the former governor's house on Sunday. Finished up the endnotes project on the 29th (minus a little emergency fixing on the other side of the calendar bump).
New Years Eve Jay and I made chili and had a handful of people over for dinner, which worked out really well. We all then piled into the silver bullet to head down to Portland to Peter's new apartment for a jolly ol' time. The tv wasn't working, but someone (probably somewhat arbitrarily) counted down to midnight and champagne made its way around the rooms, so that was fine by me. We all crashed and were awoken finally by people making a big pile of scrambled eggs and bacon. The leftover cornbread from the night before was pretty tasty too. The rest of the day was pretty low-key, as I suppose the day often is. I may have watched Tron, or something equally as exciting (who knew the Dude is in that?).
The family headed down to CT on Friday the 2nd since my grandparents were feeling better and it was one of the few time periods that would still work out. We had a really nice time, spending a good amount at my uncle's for a change, enjoying his new HD setup with I Am Legend, Spider-Man 3, Goodfellas, and the requisite spirits. We were only down until Sunday before heading back up to Maine, stopping to see my aunt and uncle outside of Boston for an hour or so.
Since then, I've basically just been trying to do some work stuff, chilling at Little Dog most of yesterday before bringing Johanna to her lesson and playing some trios with her and Dave. Dave also gave me the name of a group he used to play with in DC, so I'll have to look into that once I get settled. And my birthday is coming up on the 8th!
Amanda's coming early tomorrow morning, which is great. She managed to get a few days off in between training and normal scheduling for the cafe job that she recently acquired for the time before abroad. The snow is a little scarce right now, but we're supposed to be getting several inches tomorrow. It shouldn't affect travel plans.
Glenn left the 28th, Martin headed up north for the hut job on the 29th, Corinne the 1st, and Patrick had to report back the 4th. It was good to see people while there were here, and now people are scattered across the world again. It will become increasingly rare for lots of people to be back home at the same time, even for holidays.
The tentative plan is still to be in DC before inauguration. Staying with Amanda's family will help to minimize the money bleeding out of me in the absence of any significant incoming revenue. It will be helpful to be on the ground again for the foreseeable future, and I'm looking forward to finding stuff that will help to fill the time and the resume, even if not the bank quite yet. We'll see.
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