Josh and I tend to split up when we go home, since our families are an hour away from each other, so that we can spend time separately with our family and friends and then also spend plenty of the days joined all together too as our families are very close. If we attempted to stick together the whole time it would be impossible to fit everything in, since we do have different responsibilities to see different people while we are home! All in all, 2 weeks has certainly felt like enough time, but it really never is considering each day was completely booked up and there was plenty more we would have wanted to do.
It was nice being home for part of Hanukkah. We enjoyed the annual Hanukkah party up at Josh's mom's house with his brother, aunt, grandpa, my mom and my grandma. It's always a ton of great food, nice to exchange gifts, and great to see everyone!
I enjoyed catching up with old friends, which is always hard to coordinate time with while I'm home since there's just so much to do on top of matching our schedules. I got to see Rachel, one of my good friends I met from working at the Aquarium way back when, and she also lives in Florida but a good 4-5 hours away. We haven't yet found the time to meet up there so it was exciting to learn we were both back in our NJ hometowns around the same time. We spent a little time chatting in a cafe and walking around the historic town of Collingswood, and also found some great thrift finds.
Talia, my best friend/Sneems and I, of course got to see each other and catch up. We were finally able to get our moms out together for a long needed girls night so we could all be together. We got amazing sushi mmmmm, and then Tal and I had a sleepover like old times.
I got to spend an entire day with Heather AKA Scumble- my long time friend from art class back in high school. We have always remained close but haven't seen each other often through college and after because of the distance. She had her best Australian friend in town so the three of us headed into Philly for amazing pitas, a walk on south street, exploring Christmas Village at Love park, a trip to the liberty bell and Independence Hall, and a great show seeing Danielle and Jennifer perform at the Hard Rock Cafe where we also met Heather's best friend from college. We of course ended our night with a quick run through Kohl's just like good old times!
Josh and I, with our moms and Josh's aunt Sue, enjoyed a day in AC on Christmas and it was surprisingly crowded. We played some black jack, won a decent amount and had a good time. They got enough comps to cover all our buffet dinners and we of course got plenty of free drinks at the casino too. It was fun, and as always when we are with our families, a very interesting day. Much to be grateful for this Christmas.
We all enjoyed a day in Philly getting to be "tourists" for a day, on one of the double decker sight seeing buses. I've grown up going to Philly a lot, but never really had a full tour or any educational explanation of the entire city so this experience was a lot of fun. We headed over to the Franklin Institute in the evening to check out their "Animals Inside Out" exhibit. It was awesome!
I got to spend a whole weekend with my best friend Megan! We joined my mom and Josh for a day in Smithville, NJ, one of my favorite towns to visit and explore the cute and fun shops. My absolute favorite store, Butterflies and Friends, is closing (which is very sad), but the timing happened to be great that I could take advantage of their 50% off sale of the small bit of merchandise that was remaining. We had a nice pizza dinner, and then Megan and I had a girl's night with Talia and just chilled watching movies and hanging out around the house the following day watching favorites such as Frozen. What a great weekend!
My mom and I caught up with an old friend Alisha, and got to see her new house! She was in support of my new year's resolution to go vegan, and made a vegan pesto pasta dinner with eggplant and onions mmmm!
My mom and I spent plenty of time visiting my grandma, who loves when we spend time with her, and we worked with her on learning how to use her new iPad, a gift from my mom and aunt to her for Hanukkah so she can learn ways of communicating us when we are away, such as FaceTime.
There were a couple days of downtime, a chance to catch up on old shows, do a little reading, go through some old things remaining at my mom's house, and just time to relax. I also spent plenty of time contemplating my New Year's resolutions, including the need to go vegan and stop supporting factory farms; which has inspired new vegan recipes I plan to blog about often. So far it's been an enjoyable experience and my only challenge is deciding what to do with my old Ugg boots, and the abundance of dairy leftovers that were shipped with us down to Florida.
Tal and I got breakfast and to say our final goodbyes at a local Kosher style deli we have always loved. I got to say goodbye to her family, which has always been a second family to me, and they are good inspiration for me going vegan.
For New Year's Eve, Josh's family had a party and it was a wonderful night full of excitement, plenty of food, beer pong, jello shots, bonding, and a little too much to drink for some. Overall it was great to be around close family and friends to celebrate the arrival of the new year, and a good chance for my mom and I to stay busy during a time of the year that is especially very depressing for us.
We had a day to regroup and get together odds and ends before the early next day departure of a 15 hour (with a lot of unnecessary traffic in SC) drive south. There were a few things I didn't get to do that I would have liked to while home, including gathering clam shells from a secret spot along the Jersey shore which I use for painting. My mom knew I needed them, since I haven't yet found an abundance of bleached white clean shells just piled along a beach somewhere in FL, so she drove me down to Malibu beach where I filled 3 tote bags with these shells (and earned many odd glances and questions from passerbyers as to why I would want so many of an identical shell). Either way, I'm fully stocked now and ready to paint!
Our drive back was treacherous as it always is, but we managed. With a fully loaded car, and plenty of things that had to be left behind, the dogs had limited space but they survived too.
We finished off our weekend with a hike at Paynes Prairie and a ton of alligator sightings, along with some cleaning, reorganizing, and food shopping (which included only vegan foods and ingredients of course). We also got to stop by my new favorite cafe and ice cream shop.... Karma Cream!
This year is off to a great start, and I hope yours is too! Remember to only include positivity in your new year and remind yourself of the positive changes you hope to make (which in actuality we should be making every day, but the symbolism of a new year really reminds us to to get our butts going on these plans and changes!). Good luck!
Talia, my best friend/Sneems and I, of course got to see each other and catch up. We were finally able to get our moms out together for a long needed girls night so we could all be together. We got amazing sushi mmmmm, and then Tal and I had a sleepover like old times.
I got to spend an entire day with Heather AKA Scumble- my long time friend from art class back in high school. We have always remained close but haven't seen each other often through college and after because of the distance. She had her best Australian friend in town so the three of us headed into Philly for amazing pitas, a walk on south street, exploring Christmas Village at Love park, a trip to the liberty bell and Independence Hall, and a great show seeing Danielle and Jennifer perform at the Hard Rock Cafe where we also met Heather's best friend from college. We of course ended our night with a quick run through Kohl's just like good old times!
Josh and I, with our moms and Josh's aunt Sue, enjoyed a day in AC on Christmas and it was surprisingly crowded. We played some black jack, won a decent amount and had a good time. They got enough comps to cover all our buffet dinners and we of course got plenty of free drinks at the casino too. It was fun, and as always when we are with our families, a very interesting day. Much to be grateful for this Christmas.
We all enjoyed a day in Philly getting to be "tourists" for a day, on one of the double decker sight seeing buses. I've grown up going to Philly a lot, but never really had a full tour or any educational explanation of the entire city so this experience was a lot of fun. We headed over to the Franklin Institute in the evening to check out their "Animals Inside Out" exhibit. It was awesome!
I got to spend a whole weekend with my best friend Megan! We joined my mom and Josh for a day in Smithville, NJ, one of my favorite towns to visit and explore the cute and fun shops. My absolute favorite store, Butterflies and Friends, is closing (which is very sad), but the timing happened to be great that I could take advantage of their 50% off sale of the small bit of merchandise that was remaining. We had a nice pizza dinner, and then Megan and I had a girl's night with Talia and just chilled watching movies and hanging out around the house the following day watching favorites such as Frozen. What a great weekend!
My mom and I caught up with an old friend Alisha, and got to see her new house! She was in support of my new year's resolution to go vegan, and made a vegan pesto pasta dinner with eggplant and onions mmmm!
My mom and I spent plenty of time visiting my grandma, who loves when we spend time with her, and we worked with her on learning how to use her new iPad, a gift from my mom and aunt to her for Hanukkah so she can learn ways of communicating us when we are away, such as FaceTime.
There were a couple days of downtime, a chance to catch up on old shows, do a little reading, go through some old things remaining at my mom's house, and just time to relax. I also spent plenty of time contemplating my New Year's resolutions, including the need to go vegan and stop supporting factory farms; which has inspired new vegan recipes I plan to blog about often. So far it's been an enjoyable experience and my only challenge is deciding what to do with my old Ugg boots, and the abundance of dairy leftovers that were shipped with us down to Florida.
Tal and I got breakfast and to say our final goodbyes at a local Kosher style deli we have always loved. I got to say goodbye to her family, which has always been a second family to me, and they are good inspiration for me going vegan.
For New Year's Eve, Josh's family had a party and it was a wonderful night full of excitement, plenty of food, beer pong, jello shots, bonding, and a little too much to drink for some. Overall it was great to be around close family and friends to celebrate the arrival of the new year, and a good chance for my mom and I to stay busy during a time of the year that is especially very depressing for us.
We had a day to regroup and get together odds and ends before the early next day departure of a 15 hour (with a lot of unnecessary traffic in SC) drive south. There were a few things I didn't get to do that I would have liked to while home, including gathering clam shells from a secret spot along the Jersey shore which I use for painting. My mom knew I needed them, since I haven't yet found an abundance of bleached white clean shells just piled along a beach somewhere in FL, so she drove me down to Malibu beach where I filled 3 tote bags with these shells (and earned many odd glances and questions from passerbyers as to why I would want so many of an identical shell). Either way, I'm fully stocked now and ready to paint!
Our drive back was treacherous as it always is, but we managed. With a fully loaded car, and plenty of things that had to be left behind, the dogs had limited space but they survived too.
We finished off our weekend with a hike at Paynes Prairie and a ton of alligator sightings, along with some cleaning, reorganizing, and food shopping (which included only vegan foods and ingredients of course). We also got to stop by my new favorite cafe and ice cream shop.... Karma Cream!
This year is off to a great start, and I hope yours is too! Remember to only include positivity in your new year and remind yourself of the positive changes you hope to make (which in actuality we should be making every day, but the symbolism of a new year really reminds us to to get our butts going on these plans and changes!). Good luck!
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