Vacay is over!

Well, we've returned from our Christmas vacay. Back to the house and the cats who are now attached to us like velcro, because they totally didn't think we were ever coming back. I had flown out alone last Tuesday, and Brian joined me after a midnight-noon drive up from NC. I couldn't believe that, I didn't know he was planning to do it in the middle of the night. I called him at 10 am the day I expected him to leave and asked where he was, to which he replied "Connecticut". To which I replied "bullshit". However, it was true. Doing it that way really saved time, because generally we sit in solid traffic from Virginia through Baltimore.

We went to the Outback for Brian's birthday with my parents and brother Jim, Matt and Mel, and college friend Marc who I only get to see at Christmasses when he's back visiting his family in Mass. Yum, delicious cinnamon pecans in the chopped salad. Then back to the house for some additional fun. We played 'Name that tune' or something like that, one of those board/DVD games. I'm sorry, it sucked. It did. And I'm not just saying that because I lost, Marc. Those DVD games have so much promise but then so few questions actually use the cool DVD part. The rest of the time you're just sitting there trying to get to the DVD questions. Booooooring. Sort of like 'Scene It', another boooooooring game.

The rest of the trip was filled with shopping, eating, and playing of video games. We played this bizarre game 'We love Katamari' which has a really silly premise (you go around with this sticky ball and roll things up) but was totally addicting. With Matt/Mel we played 'Karaoke Revolution Party', brought to you by the same wonderful people who bring us my favorite game, 'Dance Dance Revolution!'. For the record, when I launch my rock star career, I'm going to be starting by singing only Blondie songs. Because I'm AWESOME.

My parents took us to dinner at Smith and Wollensky, a fancy steakhouse, which is newish in Boston. How lucky a vegetarian I am to have gotten to go to TWO steak places for dinner! The food was good - I picked from the sides we ordered - but the service was TERRIBLE. Absolutely terrible. They guy screwed up our orders several times, and was real snooty about it when we tried to get them fixed. But. I did get some truffled mac and cheese which was great. I'm eating it for lunch today, in fact! You know how I love me some truffle. Oh, you don't? Well, I do. Love.

Drove back on Tuesday, all in one day. We woke up at 3:30 am and left the house by 4 am. Hurrah.

The whole thing went as well as could be expected, I guess. Upsetting, but we all survived. The one thing I can say about this whole horrible experience is that it has brought the family even closer together than we were before. So, thats a silver lining, I guess.

Also, we got a Dyson from my parents! So, come on over and clean!