Much Overdue Christmas Break Blog

It's funny how quickly the mind can readjust to different spaces. Being back in the South over the holidays reminded us how used to the city ways we already are. Our first night back, in Sam's parents' guest bedroom, the silence was literally deafening. None of us could sleep it was so quiet, including the dog! I know, pitiful. All night Ellie would jump up and start barking everytime she heard the paperboy, the dog next door, or any other now strange noise. In the city all the noises kind of blend together into this cacophony (yeah I said it) of white noise that we've become accustomed to. I think I literally slept 3 hours that first night. The next morning, I marched promptly to the basement and found an oscillating fan to install in our room for the weekend. We all slept like babies for the rest of the trip.
Here's Sam wearing his new snowboarding helmet on "Lexington Christmas Morning."**
**was actually December 26th, but we just pretended like it was the day before. Doesn't this make you think of Mike Myers back when he used to eat lots of chocolate and drag that jungle gym down the street?



Here we are covered in Christmas loot.


Another crazy thing about being out of the city was that there seemed to be so much extra space everywhere. It almost seemed criminal. Look at that spare 1/2 acre of land! we would gasp as we drove by. The only open land here are the parks, which are filled with people and dog poop. This unused land seemed to be going to waste when it would house or feed several dozen people where we live now. The first time I saw a Wal-Mart parking lot again I almost fell out.* (*Southern term. When in Rome...) The parking lot, again, seemed like a ridiculous waste of space. I know this is normal to 95% of the people reading this, but I'm telling you it looked very strange from where I was sitting.

Here's a pic from Nashville Christmas* (*Actually on Dec. 31st) of Sam in scary ski mask.


Me concentrating really hard on celebrating New Year's Eve at the Barrett's.



The only thing Sam wanted to do while in Nashville was eat at our favorite sushi place, Sam's Sushi. Sadly, we have not been able to find a suitable equivalent in New York yet, and it's possible we never will.* (*It has to be close to impossible to make a profit when 4 people eat for $20. The same amount of food in NY sushi joints and most places runs over $100).
Here is a picture of Sam just before he enjoyed his spoils. It was just as perfect and Sam (sushi making Sam, that is) was just as grumpy as we remembered.


**it's also possible that all the extra space, hats, and cheap food in the South made Sam temporarily crazy.

On the way back up, we drove through the most beautiful frozen valley in Maryland. There was ice on all the trees, and I felt like I was on the planet Hoth in Star Wars or some similarly named frozen planet. Quite otherwordly indeed.