Holiday winding down

Happy New Year! Time to write "2011" in the date field. Wow. This year, Alan and I will have been married ten years and I will turn 45. Yikes. Of course, Alan turned 47 yesterday, so we are all getting older.

The first week of this year's holiday season was *busy* with both sides of the family. We spent Sunday through Christmas morning on Long Island. Decorated the Christmas tree -- which was gorgeous -- ran errands for Mom and spent lots of time with the kids. On Wednesday, we took Trevor, Pierce, and Avery on a long walk around Planting Fields before heading back to their house to exchange presents with Henri's family. Our gift to the kids -- a tabletop slot hockey game -- was a huge hit and proved to be a very fun game indeed. Alan clearly has played many, many hours! Suz and Jim hosted us for dinner at Suzy's Christmas Cottage and that was a lot of fun and very tasty!

Then Thursday we took the kids into the city for the Angler's Club Family luncheon. Henri couldn't attend because of his knee, so piled them into the Prius, and headed into the city to meet Jacques, Jenn, Adele, and Suzy for a delicious lunch of pheasant pot pie, venison meatloaf, and chicken fingers. All the kids got an ornament that was a glass ball with a dry or wet fly in it. After lunch, we joined the rest of Manhattan heading out of the city -- what had been a 20 minute ride heading in was more like a 2.5 hour trip going out. To pass the time, we sang Christmas Carols that we then posted to Facebook for Henri's viewing pleasure. Thursday night dinner was a quiet one at the club with Mom and Aunt Mary.

Friday was our last day on LI. Lots of errands, including mailing the Quimby Country Christmas cards that I finished Thursday night. Pizza lunch with Jacques and Henri and the kids and then I headed over to Jenn and Jacques' house to help them get ready to host Christmas eve. They have a very cute rental house on the former estate of one of the Marshall Fields family members. In a curious twist, the current owners gutted the estate mansion, selling off all of the interior materials and fixtures, to pay for the property. Dinner was lamb chops, mashed potatoes, salad, with lemon mousse for dessert. Quite yummy.

Christmas morning, we got up early and stopped in at Henri's to see the kids in their pajamas and to say goodbye. It was then time to hit to road for Philly. As you might expect, there was no traffic Christmas morning and we drove through Manhattan in about ten minutes. Kind of eery, actually. Pulled up at Steve's just shy of the 11am brunch event. Presents had been finished since about 7:30am and were even put away! The kids got video games for presents and they were very interested in them, although we did talk Clay into trying out his new bike outside. Mid-afternoon we headed over to Nancy's where we were spending the night.

In the past two days, the news had been full of the weather -- and specifically, the storm approaching the Northeast. Our first hint of its effect on us happened when I went to check our flight out on Sunday afternoon to find it had been cancelled. The automatic booking option on the site was already overworked and calls to Delta were not encouraging. They thought they could get us out....Wednesday. Oh well, dinner was ready -- we'll figure it out later.

Sunday morning dawned and, as the morning progressed, it became more and more evident that the storm was really going to be a problem -- for awhile. After much back and forth, we decided the best option was to drive back. Only issue was that the shortest route down I-95 was directly in the storm's path, so we would have to take a longer, more western route via Harrisburg and down I-81. The roads were fine although there were flurries and periodic times when visibility wasn't optimal. One of those grey, soft winter days. Just how you want to spend the day after Christmas!

Once we hit Virginia, we decided to call Frank and Sue to see if they were at their ski house which wasn't all that far off of our path. We reached Frank who told us they had been at the house -- last night -- but now were back home and why didn't we come stay with them for the night? It would mean backtracking east and a longer trip but a night with friends at their lovely farmhouse sounded worth it, so at Staunton we headed east on I-26 towards Charlottesville. This leg was by far the worst of the trip -- it was dark, we were tired, and we were gaining elevation and heading towards the snow. A long hour and a half later, we pulled into their driveway on fumes. Never has a house looked so welcome and we eagerly entered for dinner and then bed. I think I fell asleep in about 15 seconds.

The next morning the sun was up and shining and we were on our way by 9am. The roads were full of holiday travelers and truck traffic, so while we made good time, it wasn't easy driving, especially as we approached Atlanta and the sun was setting in the west. But we finally made it. Home -- it felt very good. And, looking at the news reports, we made the right choice. Those airports looked awful.

A quiet week culminated with a peaceful birthday dinner last night that was also Christmas because we never got around to it! No, with the hoppin john on the stove, and the Winter Classic to come tonight, the holiday is winding down. January here we come.