31 December 2006

the holiday wrap-up

I'll try to include as much as I can, but keep this brief. Here's the Christmas/New Year's rundown:

The Christmas
• Stef came to town the day before X-Mas Eve
• We did her exchange with both sides of my family
• Drove to Stef's house for that night to watch X-Mas movies
• Spent Christmas Eve morning at her place, did our exchange
• Stefy got me a framed poster from It's a Wonderful Life
• + tickets to see Seinfeld & a cool Guster guitar string bracelet
• Tim and Teri gave me a really spiffy new peacoat from Banana
• I drove to Aunt Julie's for Christmas Eve night
• We had dinner and played lots of games (mine was a hit)
• Did midnight mass @ St. Casmir, and made it to bed by 1:30
• Had my Christmas morning gift exchange at my apartment
• Too many gifts from mom and Dan to mention
• Went over to dad's house by mid-morning for Christmas day there
• Did my exchange with the Pohl clan; again, lots of gifts there too
• Taught Morgan how to play Mario 3, watched A Christmas Story
• Came home (mom and Dan had already left), collapsed

The day after Christmas
• On the day after Christmas I drove back to Stef's house
• We went to see Dreamgirls with Teri that afternoon
• It's a good flick, but there's no way it beats The Departed in my book
• Basically just hung out for the rest of the day

The trip to Naples
• Wednesday the 27th was our travel day to Naples
• Pretty smooth flight; we passed the time watching Friends episodes
• Made it to Florida about a half hour later than expected
• Trouble with the car rental service set us back another half hour or so
• Trouble getting off at the correct exit cost us some more time later on
• By the time we checked in at the condo, dinner plans had to be scrubbed
• Originally we were meeting up with Vicki; instead, we went to Cheesecake
• Great dinner + the last opportunity for pumpkin cheesecake = heaven
• Made it back to the condo well after 10PM, collapsed

• Tim and Teri did some condo shopping in Naples on Thursday
• That left Stefy and I to enjoy the lovely weather at Vanderbilt beach
• It was a little crowded and only in the upper-70s, but it was wonderful
• Eventually met up with Stef's folks for dinner in downtown Naples
• Vicky and Tom were able to join us this time; we had another great meal

• Friday and Saturday run together in my mind
• Basically, it was just more great weather and more lazy beach bum time
• We did see Rocky Balboa on Saturday night as a group, so that was fun
• The movie couldn't help but be a little lame, but we were all glad to see it

New Year's Eve
• We all went out for some last-minute condo shopping on Sunday
• Tim and Teri had narrowed it down to three places
• Each had plusses and minuses, but one eventually stood out
• Stef and I went to the beach with Teri afterwards to relax for a while
• Teri spent some time on the phone trying to put in an offer on the condo
• By the time we needed to get ready for New Years dinner, they had a deal
• This just gave us one more reason to celebrate on New Year's Eve
• We all went to Mr. Kousis' (sp?) pad @ 8PM for his par-tay
• A friend of his fixed this dinner for all of us that was to die for... mmmm
• We all basically ate and drank and played games the whole night
• Overall, we had a great time at the party
• As always, it was nice to be there for my New Year's smooch from Stefy

The end of the trip
• Monday was our shopping day since it was a little gloomy outside
• We went to this really huge outdoor mall for the afternoon
• I didn't really buy anything, but it was nice to get out and walk around
• Our checkout time on Tuesday was between 10 and 11, our flight @ 1:30
• The plane ride was smooth and uneventful

I spent most of Wednesday at Stef's, and we did some shopping at Somerset. It didn't take me long once I was finally able to get into a J.Crew to burn through the big gift card my mom and Dan had given me. I bought a new pair of blue slacks and a shirt to go with them. After our little shopping excursion we went to see The Pursuit of Happyness, which was great (highly recommended). We got back to Stef's at close to 5PM, and I pretty much hit the road after that.

Today was my first day back at work in two weeks. It's always hard to get caught up after being away for so long, but I think I'm back in the swing of things.

I have a boatload of pictures to share, but most of them are on Stef's camera, so as soon as I can get my hands on them, I'll make sure to post them ASAP.

Anyway, that's it for now. As you can tell, it was another wonderful Christmas and New Year's. Many thanks to everyone for all the wonderful gifts, and again to Stef's folks for including me on another family vacation. I hope everyone else had a great holiday too!