Brrr, it’s so cold in Raleigh this week! It was 15 degrees when I left the house yesterday morning and it’s been so cold all week. Damn you, arctic air! I know they have it much colder in the Midwest right now, but damnit, it’s supposed to be cold in the Midwest! haha anyway, Jay and I should be used to the cold right now, I suppose, because we spent a week at home in New York with my family. It was a nice way to end 2013 and ring in 2014. I know it’s been a while since I’ve done a blog post, but January is my busy time of year at work and it tends to leave me brain dead and creativity dead. Add in the early effects of pregnancy brain and it’s a recipe for laying on the couch at night instead of blogging, haha. So, if you’re still interested, here’s the round-up of our visit home to New York for New Year’s.
I went up in the evening on Saturday, Dec. 28 and Jay joined me late on Monday, Dec. 30. We had a fun week, seeing movies since it was too cold to do much (I saw The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug for a second time with my sister & dad, then Jay and I went with my parents to see American Hustle) and hanging out with friends and family. My family has a very longstanding tradition of going to dinner together as a big group on New Year’s Eve before everyone splits up to do whatever they’re going to do at midnight. I grew up in a very family oriented environment, so us being together for dinner on New Year’s Eve to celebrate the end of a year has always been something I’ve looked forward to. It’s been several years since I was there for NYE dinner and although it was sad to not have Grandpa there with us, it was really great to get to be there with everyone this year. After dinner, Jay and I went to my friend Tricia and her husband John’s house to ring in 2014. It was awesome to get to hang out with Tricia and John. They just welcomed their son Declan in September, so they were able to give us a lot of tips and reassurance that all was going to be okay. We had a great time.
New Year’s Eve 2013 Family Dinner. I looked (and felt) exhausted at 8 p.m. but go my second wind around 11:30 p.m., haha.
On New Year’s Day, it was back to my grandma’s area for our other yearly tradition: New Year’s Day brunch. Last year, I kicked off the 642 Things to Write About Challenge by sharing our family tradition of writing down our resolutions on slips of paper and putting them in a Coke glass for safe keeping until the following year. I was a little sad because we didn’t do that this year (elephant in the room), but that’s okay. I’m glad I talked about it last year. 🙂 Change is a part of life. It’s all about how you adapt to it. After brunch, Jay and I visited my cousin Matt & his fiancé Jenette’s brand new apartment that they just got together and then hit up the mall, where we totally took advantage of this awesome parking spot:
I know it probably doesn’t exactly count if you don’t look pregnant and plenty of people in the parking lot thought we were just assholes taking advantage of an empty parking spot but damn it, if I can’t drink for 9 months then I’m sure as hell using a parking spot reserved for expectant mothers! After the mall, we hung out at with Grandma for the rest of the day…and ate more. There was so much eating and so little physical activity that week that it’s a wonder my belly didn’t pop out from the non-stop gorgefest that week.
We were snowed in for most of the day on Friday, Jan. 3 but ventured out that evening for another big family dinner at Shiro’s, my favorite hibachi restaurant. If you’ve been reading this for a long time or listened to early MetroBuzz episodes, you may remember that Uncle Lou and I used to have “Hibachi Night” once a week and meet at Shiro’s. Ah, those really were good times. Anyway, it was my sister’s new boyfriend Chris’ first trip to Shiro’s, so naturally we had to embarrass him by telling the waitress that it was his birthday so they’d give him a funny hat and sing to him loudly in Japanese after dinner [video]. Fun, fun, fun. After dinner, my dear Pookie and her boyfriend Charlie met us at my grandma’s house and we hung out with them for a while to catch up.
On Saturday, Jan. 4, it was our last fully day in New York. We went out to lunch in Cold Spring Harbor with Uncle Lou, then ate dinner at home with my mom, dad, and sisters (I wasn’t kidding about all the eating). We finished up the night introducing everyone to Series 1 of Sherlock. We left mid-morning on Jan. 5 and were back at our Raleigh house by early evening. All in all, it was a really nice trip home to New York and I can’t wait to go back and see everyone for my 30th (eeek) birthday in a few weeks.
How was your New Years? Anyone make any good resolutions this year?
