Tuesday, December 28, 2010

Jam Pack It All In

Wow what a whirlwind of busyness since I last updated everyone! How about a recounting of the adventures shall we?

I had lunch with a friend who informed me she got her Christmas present early from her boyfriend -- two front row tickets to see the NKOTBSB (for those not in the know that’s New Kids on the Block with the Backstreet Boys on one stage at the same time because clearly one boy band is never enough) show at the Garden next June. At this point in my life I’m still a semi fan of NKOTB, not enough to want to spend hours on Ticketmaster to see them live anymore, but I still turn up their oldies when they come over the iPod airwaves its true. But my friends…well as she explained it’s the only time she gets to be fifteen again so she’s ready to go all out. I couldn’t be more excited for them to have this experience of the front row at the scream fest!

Yes this is at my wedding, don't judge me it was a gift (instrument of torture?) from my DJ, my first ever roomie.  The friends who plan to go to the show are to the right of me.

The next day I enjoyed another lunch with my mom but only after we disassembled some super heavy metal shelves on her first floor then reassembled them on her second floor. Much laughter ensued and although we rocked at it -- not a single thing broken and nary a floor scratch -- I don’t think either of us are going to be signing up for a job as a furniture assembler anytime soon. The help with the shelves was my payment for a quickie haircut. As a kid my mom used to cut my hair all the time and I totally trust her to get a nice and even straight line. Not too shabby eh?


I chatted with my Academic Advisor before he took off for vacation, reorganized my sewing stuff so I could actually get into the closet, had a drum lesson, paid my rent and donated to a whole bunch of charities for the bulk of our family for Christmas.

Then we went to my dad’s on Christmas Eve and had a fantastic evening chock full of laughter and conversation! My WSM’s son is here with his new wife and baby and it was fantastic to meet both of them too. My almost step brother is an adopted child and originally from Columbia. A few years ago he decided he wanted to discover the place he originally came from and took a trip down there to explore. Within what seemed like minutes he had met a wonderful girl, fell in love, got married and had a baby. Whirlwind romance! She and the baby (my almost nephew!) are total dolls and it was really cool to see my dad with the adorable toddler no matter how ragged he ran all of us.


The one thing I didn’t do this Christmas was get some of the presents out on time. Matt’s family lives scattered across the country so every single year I say that I’ll get things shipped in time and every single year, though it comes right down to the wire, I tend to live up to my promise. This year though was the perfect storm of overload. One gift was ordered on the 10th with expedited shipping and didn’t arrive here until the 23rd. Another was handmade and after I completed it I searched everywhere (and I freaking mean it!) for a box that would fit it to ship in but no one sells a 23” wide box that’s only 3” high. Even the large size at FedEx is too short. So the Post Office dude told me about the box guy up the street, who makes boxes to fit any package, and Matt and I went on Christmas Eve. The place was closed. Of course it was. So we said screw it, at least we can get the other items out. Late but mailed (including a sale I made on Etsy, thanks Ginger ♥ and a clutch I was shipping out for a fundraiser not to mention an aunt & uncle’s gift). Yeah well the Post Office was closed too because noon was the cut off on Christmas Eve. Then there was Christmas, Sunday and yesterday’s blizzard…but we’ll get to that in a minute.


Christmas Day I managed to just let go of all the stress from the week prior for a couple reasons. First, there was really nothing I could do about making it all okay at that point anyway. Second, wine helped. Wine helped a lot. All joking aside we had a great day at my mom’s (sadly my SIL & family were sick and we had to cancel Christmas morning brunch with them but we’re already rescheduled so barring more sickness or weather we’ll see them in January!). She made all kinds of yummy veggie dishes, had hummus and salsa with chips and then for dessert she made a pumpkin cheesecake and chocolate cake, my aunt & uncle brought an apple pie & carrot cake and I’m pretty sure my brain exploded at that point because I forgot everything else. Lots of laughs and hugs and warm conversation was had and then we came home to gear up for the next day’s journey in the snow.


Oh, the snow…

So the thing about New Englanders is that talk of a couple inches of snow doesn’t exactly scare us. We have the manpower and equipment to handle the stuff and generally the city is opened for business no matter what. So on Christmas night when we heard that the weather dudes in town were predicting upwards of two feet in some areas we knew the 26th was going to be a day of action. Up at 7:30 AM we tossed on some sweats, brushed our teeth and took our coffee on the road.

First order of business was filling the gas tank where I cashed in my winning $3 scratch ticket from Christmas woo hoo. Next we swung by Matt’s office so he could turn on his computer and pick up a bunch of stuff because there was no way he was going to try to go into the office on Monday, working from home was just a safer idea. We headed south to feed a friend’s cat & give him some love. While we were hanging out and playing with this little love whore of an animal, the snow started to really intensify and we decided we better get ahead of the storm so we filled food & water to the brim, gave a little more love, and hit the very slick road (slowly).

Because we were ahead of the storm bands, and also because we had no food in the house, we headed to tax free NH (only about a 30 minute ride from our house, don’t worry!) to do some quick in and out shopping. With plenty of toilet paper and snacks we headed back south, nervous of what the roads might look like. But to our surprise not much had fallen yet. It was only noon. They were predicting over 50mph gusts so we gathered candles and charged up our phones and laptops in case of a power outage.

At about 3:00 the snow started to fall. And at first it was even kinda pretty…


But by the time the storm had dumped its 18” on our front doorstep and rolled on out of town just 24 hours later, it really wasn’t all that pretty anymore. Truly we were just trying to come up with ideas for where to put the stuff! And we made a new best friend when our SUPER KIND neighbor came right down the street with his snow blower at 8:00 in the morning. Holla for the random kindness of others!!! He did four houses worth and even hit our driveway. There is no way to tell him just how grateful we are for such selfless help in such a tough situation. Thanks neighbor!!


Technically speaking we didn’t get a blizzard in Boston. To be classified as such you need: 3+ hours of falling snow, less than a quarter mile visibility and sustained winds at 35mph. We got the first two handled but only managed to hit 33mph on the winds. Sorry, I’m calling this sucker a blizzard anyway.


I have to go out today to finally see the box guy and get all of this stuff in the mail but before I go I think I’ll spend the $65 Gift Certificate to the CSN Stores website that I won over at Karen’s place! YEA thanks Karen, it’s quite awesome to win and have a chance to shop! I’m thinking of looking for stuff like foot warmers, slippers, fleece blankets…

6 comments:

Rosebud Collection said...

What a great time you had and fun to see the pictures..Haircut is so nice..I tell you Jenn..I don't blame you..get the heck out of here and into nice weather..There is so much more to life, than shoveling..We got about a foot and that is one foot too many..wind was something else. We didn't lose any power, thank you God..Now they say it will warm up this weekend and they are talking rain..Lord, this is too much..Rain on frozen ground, means floods..
I always think about you, when the storm starts..I know we both are in it together.
Well, glad you had a wonderful holiday and was with family..We did spend our Christmas with Cara and then Michel/hubby came with children after Christmas..others will follow if weather holds up..
Have a great New Year..ahh new beginnings..Sending you love and best wishes for the New Year..
Carolyn/Rosebud..
P.S..hope we both keep warm..

Anonymous said...

What a fun time you have been having. I agree, wine does help. :) My daughter and son-in-law are here in CA, so they missed the first snow storm. Stay warm and have a great new year!

Linda Myers said...

I love your snow. Wish we had it all winter long! We get rain instead.

Suldog said...

The snow... I had finished shoveling our front walk and the sidewalk, and was gearing up to tackle the driveway (it's 60 freakin' feet long) when I noticed snow flying up into the air outside our window. There was my landlord, bless him, doing the driveway with an industrial grade snowblower. Made my entire week, that did :-)

Almost Precious said...

Love the wedding photo. :) And your mom does a great job at cutting hair, the cut is really cute on you.

Yes a little snow goes a long way and a lot of snow gets to be an annoyance. Glad you have such a nice neighbor.

Wishing you all the very best for 2011.

Karen said...

Sounds like you had a great Christmas. I'm SO glad we don't get tons of snow here. The little bit we do get is plenty for me. Happy New Year!