this month went by in a blur of baking, ugly sweater parties, peppermint mochas, a wedding, secret santa gift exchanges and a cruise to the bahamas, which made for one of the busiest, but best holiday seasons so far!
my parents were able to come visit us down in south texas, and gifted us a whole host of florida gator christmas decor i didn't even know they had. (which coincidentally i think is a true mark of adulting...when your parents think they can start offloading all of "your" things they don't want anymore!) in return, we took them to the shooting range and grabbed some bbq for lunch to give them a taste of life in texas, hosted a little family christmas eve with our annual tradition of watching "the grinch" before bedtime, and joined friends and their families for christmas day. it just so happened that this year our friend's parents were also flying in, so we were able to do a big joint meal and our families all had a chance to meet each other. with all of us and our families coming from different parts of the country, it all made for a really kinda special christmas.
hope your holiday was equally merry and bright!
break in the bahamas
sometime around thanksgiving i received a call from my boss, who wanted to know what interest [if any] would lie in a team building trip to the bahamas in december. my first question was something to the effect of "um, you mean this year?" *laughter* "yes, this year. in a couple weeks." while i was a little apprehensive about leaving right before hosting a holiday and getting caught up in the christmas travel bonanza, the week just before christmas was the only time so many of us could feasibly leave the office simultaneously - so the plan was a go!
even in south texas, escaping to the islands is a pretty surefire way to break up the frenzy of holiday prepping and we had an awesome time team-building and exploring (including one rather harrowing taxi ride) the ports of freeport and nassau - which included a tour of the john watling's rum distillery where they have the best pina coladas you can get your hands on.
there's also something to be said for traveling with a pack of food snobs, as we ended up being treated to the steakhouse a couple nights on board where in addition to delicious offerings, they had a fantastic dessert called the "chocolate sampler."
it was a wonderful few days spent on island time!
