December was a pretty busy month for Kath & I. In addition to our regular monthly meetings (Scouts for me, sorority for Kath), we hosted a family Christmas party and took a week-long vacation to Florida. Of course, before we could do any of this, we had to decorate the house for the holidays. We bought a Christmas tree from a local Boy Scout troop and the necessary accoutrement (stand, lights, skirt) elsewhere. Once the ornaments were dug out, we got the thing up and decorated pretty quickly. Mama lent us a tree topper and we were good to go. Here's an iPhone shot of it with most of the ornaments on board. (We added more as we received them as gifts.)
For our first Christmas in our first house, I think we did a pretty good job of decorating. Turns out we've collected a fair share of Christmas decorations from our families over the years and it all came in handy this year. Being that we were the couple with the newest house in the Nay family, it was our turn to host a family Christmas party. We set the date for the evening of the 20th, just a day after my Mom's Annual O'Leary Family Christmas party at her house. Well, the weather intervened and by intervened, I mean it dumped a foot and a half of snow all over the East coast, including the greater Philadelphia area starting on the 18th and lasting until the morning of the 20th. (Up on the left is a photo of Sandy in the path I had to dig for her so she could get into the yard.) So Mama's party was moved from the 19th to the 20th and from her house to ours. Despite late starts and the weather, I think both parties went really well. We hosted the O'Leary's from around 3 to 6:30pm and then the Nay's from 7:15 to around 9pm. (Up on the right is a picture of Kathy and I with my Nana during the O'Leary portion of the party.) We had far too much food (better than too little) and all of it was really tasty. I don't think anyone left hungry. The only real problem was the snow. That and the fact that we bought a house with a nice, long driveway. Oh, and the fact that we DIDN'T buy a snowblower. Dumb move. Oh, and we only have one shovel. Even dumber move. After 4 hours of shoveling during the storm on the 19th and another 1.5 hours on the 20th, the shoveling was done and so were my back, shoulders, and arms. Consider the lesson officially learned.
About 48 hours after the holiday party ended, we left Pennsylvania for warmer weather. Departed at 11:30pm on the 22nd and arrived at Kathy's folks place in Venice, FL around 6:30pm on the 23rd. It was a long drive but an extended stay in warm weather quickly made up for it. We enjoyed a week of warmth, sun, fresh orange juice, good food, and general relaxation thanks to the generosity of Kathy's Mom & Dad. I should mention that during the week, I especially enjoyed taking lots of photos with my Pentax (using my new tripod and remote), mornings with Kathy's Dad (a.k.a. "Mon Capitan", a.k.a. "Fidel") at the Flying Field (On the left is a shot of one of his planes flying by), smoking a Padron Anniversary 1964 Pyramid on a warm evening, and our visit to Cigar City Brewing Company in Tampa (shot on the right of their brewhouse and a few fermenters). We left for home at 10pm on the 30th and parked the car in our driveway (now empty of snow) at 4:30pm on the 31st. With a quick visit to my parents later that evening to pickup Sandy, we were all home by 11pm and needless to say, thoroughly exhausted. So much so that we were asleep before the ball dropped and missed the beginning of 2010. Hopefully it won't hold a grudge.With a cup of coffee in my hand and a warm blanket (and dog) on my lap, I checked the temperature online today. The high will be 42 degrees but feel like 35. Suddenly the long drive to Florida looks much shorter. In my mind, I'm already planning our next visit.
