A Riveting Udpate (okay, not really)

An apology must be said for the severe lapse in posting. We took off for our Thanksgiving Tour de Northeast and I got back to the shocking, although not completely stressful realization that I had exactly five days to write an access brief, read a book and write a book review, and write an institutional policy paper. I must admit how much I had procrastinated, and how strange it was that for the first time, I wasn't freaking out about it. I managed to do a lot of other things with my time besides working on everything 24-7 and that was nice.

And my word, my husband is a rock. I finally decided that having to pack up all my stuff to work at the library or Starbucks was not worth it, and I would just work on zoning out the TV and anything else he managed to do while I was home. You know what he did? He managed all of the dishes and apartment straightening, made me a hot chocolate, and found a pair of headphones with the longest cord in history and camped out in our orange chair with a blanket and watched his favorite shows. We both made out in that equation, and it was awesome.

I feel as though so much has happened in the last two weeks, I don't know where to begin letting you in on the details. We have pictures, too, but Cliff keeps leaving his camera at work and that does me no good for uploading - soon enough, soon enough.

I like bulleting, so we'll try this. Here's what seems significant to share about our last two weeks, including holiday and general life updates:

• Cliff's parents came in for a pre-thanksgiving dinner at Buca and it was wonderful; he managed to inform them of me need of a few new hairstyling tools and they surprised me with a "Thanksgiving Gift" - can you believe it? (okay, maybe if you knew it was a Chi and a Chi professional ceramic ionic hairdryer, it would seem more significant)
• We took to the airport on Wednesday for our flight to Baltimore and were pleasantly surprised by the lack of lines and the fact that it took us 3 minutes to get through security and our plane wasn't delayed.
• After arriving to Baltimore, Dad and Sue picked us up and we stopped at a hotel en route to New York, woke up at the crack of dawn on Thanksgiving Day, and made it to New York for time with the family.
• We had a great time in New York with the family! Here is a map of our adventures, with the places we spent most of our time in blue and places where my family lives in turquoise (and in case you don't know New York City geography very well, this might help):

• Cliff met 48 of his new family members, and unfortunately another 8 we were not able to see. This included my 93 year-old great grandmother, 14 great aunts and uncles, and I've lost count of how many second cousins and second cousins once-removed we saw. But they were all in fine spirits and it was great to show and introduce Cliff to another part of who I am.
• After two days in NY, we drove back to MD and had a great time, as usual, with our family there, though we weren't able to see everyone.
• Monday found us flying back early to Nashville and starting off a busy week, including our men's and women's groups, our FPU graduation, lots of schoolwork, and some Christmas festivities.
• We got our first Christmas tree (pre-lit!) earlier last week and set Wednesday aside to set it up and decorate it, complete with beaded garland, candy canes, and our collection of ornaments from the past few years. I got a little excited and bought us stockings, a tree-skirt, a star for the tree, little snowmen figurines, and some crafty things to make a wreath. That night the Rockefeller Christmas Tree lighting special was on and we ate some of my (to die for) homemade chili. It was perfect.
• This weekend we went to Atlanta for the SEC Championship to see UT take on LSU. It was crazy, all the festivities they have surrounding a conference championship. I love donning my orange and white - there's just no other feeling like it, except maybe blue and red (but not black and gold). We enjoyed the trip down and our time there, despite the loss. I mean really, Saturday was just LSU's day and last night's BCS Bowl announcements confirmed that.

It's been a few weeks of family, football, and holiday preparations and we wouldn't trade it for anything. Christmas Eve Day is in three weeks and that couldn't be more exciting. Seriously...