Update on the ground, Sandy edition

Note, I wrote the following on 11/2 but was unable to get internet to post until 11/4, there is an update at the bottom

I flew back to NJ on the red-eye from San Francisco last night. Things here are about as I expected, wide spread power outages, but people getting by alright. Many people have generators after last years storm.

Personally, my parents have been without power since the storm hit on Monday. They had my grandmother over then since they have a generator and brought her back home once she had power again. Still no power here, but the generator runs everything, including the water pump. We just don’t have TV/Internet. My dad was pretty excited I was bringing the internet home with me via my smartphone. Rest of the family either is back on power or also running a generator as far as I’ve heard.

LBI is almost definitely flooded, they say the ocean met the bay, but the island is still closed off, so haven’t been down to check on the house yet. By a miracle my Aunt Linda, who always floods, hasn’t so far so hopefully won’t.

My mom is back at work, as Flemington is back on power. My dad is hanging out at home with me (and picked me up this morning) as the port is still closed. Note, port Newark has been closed without power for days. Be cautious buying refrigerated goods in your supermarkets for the next week or so– everybody, not just NJ (your food/everything comes from here). The stuff should all be thrown out, but who knows.

The only thing that caught me off guard was that NJ seems to be going through a gas crisis. I had seen photos of people lining up with their gas cans at stations, but didn’t really internalize the extent of it until this morning.

This morning my dad drove me to several bagel places before we found one open with power, a Dunken Donuts with a line out the door. Some people were getting breakfast for their whole families. Everyone was talking about gas. The guy in front of me had driven from two counties over, without finding an open gas station until the one across the street, where he waited two-hours for gas. Another waited an hour and a half yesterday, only to have them go dry before he got any. My dad drove far out west into PA until there were no lines, but he only has two gas cans so could only buy 10 gallons after that drive. He drove eight hours looking for more cans, can’t find them.

Many gas stations are just closed with the power out. You need electric to pump gas. Some are using generators to pump, but running dry with the demand.

The guy at Dunks was apologizing for not having ice for iced coffee, or cup holders, or various other things. He hasn’t had any deliveries. I would guess no deliveries would have to do with a lot of issues.

Update from 11/4
This morning my mom and I went out to do some errands, rather than sit at home and stare at each other all day. We found Clinton had partial power back but most places did not and were still closed. So not only is there no TV/Internet at home, there is nothing open outside. With nothing else to do we were forced to do yard work. We made about an SUV-sized pile of branches that had fallen in the yard, not counting larger ones that went into our firewood pile. There are still many more out there, we were just tired and it was getting dark. Plus a few trees that my dad will need to cut up before we can clear.

About an hour ago the electricity came back on here. So we are back to normal. We were able to do most things with the generator, but you hate to waste gas running non-necessary things and my dad has to turn it on in the morning. So tomorrow morning I’ll be able to wash my face and brush my teeth without boiling water on the wood stove.

The gas shortage is a real thing and the governor, Chris Christie, has mandated an odd/even gas purchasing rule that started today/Saturday. Basically the last digit in your license plate number determines if can get gas on odd or even days; even plates can go on even days, and vice versa. Personally we are about 10 minutes from the PA boarder so it will not effect us, even if we need gas on an off day, which now that we have power should not be an issue.

I checked on LBI and they are still evacuating and not letting anyone on the island. They hope sometime this week to let homeowners in for a few hours to get some essentials. No word yet on when it will be open for people to do cleaning and repairs.

New Jersey Pit Stop

As much as I try to deny that I live in New Jersey with my parents, it is my legal address and where most of my stuff is (though I’m getting more and more to Rome). I much prefer more romantic version, where I’m a transient nomad going from city to city. Spending about half of my time in Rome and the other half, when I’m not legally allowed to spend more time in Italy, even though my fiance is Italian, traveling to various places.

It’s pretty exciting sounding when I put it like that!

Anyway, I had to come back a bit early from my summer in Rome for an appointment with the Italian Consulate or Newark. I have been working on my Italian citizenship for years (blood citizenship through my great-grandfather) even before I made plans to marry an Italian. Actually, probably could have saved a lot of time and money if I knew that was going to happen, but at least this way my mom gets dual citizenship, too. I’ll sum up that whole experience when it’s finally over in it’s own post. But the relevant part here is last September, after preparing for ages, holding the appointment for almost a year, reading everything we needed 10 times, they turned us down for something that they did not say they needed. At least Newark didn’t write down that it was needed on their site/forms. New York actually did I saw latter, but I apply through NJ where I’m a resident. When we got turned down last September I immediately made the next available appointment… for the following September. At the time, a year ago, I didn’t realize I was going to chop up my travel time so badly and I would have to fly home early for it.

I flew home Monday the 17th, our appointment was the 18th. We had a great person go through our application and they accepted it! I think if we had gotten her last time, I may already be an Italian citizen. Getting past this step means the consulate accepted the application, but it still has to be sent to Italy and actually accepted. Then in a few months we should be dual citizens and can then get passports just like American citizens get passports. I hear they’re wicked expensive, but at this point, I would probably pay anything.

So exciting!

Then that Saturday I got all my five bridesmaids together to go bridesmaid dress shopping. It was the first time everyone got together– which was the best part! We picked a dress at the end of the day, only to have them call a few days later and tell me its not actually available in the color I want. So, back at square one. Still a fun day.

Sunday, September 23rd, I turned 27. It’s so weird cause I was just 24 (barely, but true!) when I quit Adobe, packed up my apartment, flew to Vegas, and set off on my gypsy adventure. Those older that 27 can scoff all they want at that age, but I still don’t feel 24 anymore and the fact that this time has gone by so quickly but I can still physically feel myself aging is so horrifying that if I had a real job to quit again now, I just might do that. As it is I’m sort of out of radical early mid-life crisis actions.

Since I had just spent the day before with my best girlfriends, I was in the mood for a chill bday. I went into NYC and spent most the day with Danny G, Brian G, his GF, and Matt H. Brian and I have the same birthday and Danny had just moved to NYC, actually really close to Brian all in the East Village. Fun day!

When the night was finally over I found my [mom’s] car had been towed back in Hoboken. I had to walk a bazillion miles on already sore feet and pay a million dollars to get it back. The spot I parked in was apparently an individual’s reserved spot on the street. I didn’t know that was a thing!

During the week I got a bit of wedding stuff done. Then we had a jam packed weekend. My cousin Marc and his new bride Vivian just bought a house. They invited my parent’s and I over Friday for dinner to come check it out. Saturday his sister Michelle had a birthday party for her oldest, Eight-years-old already! Then Sunday we did a little combined birthday dinner for my uncle and I with my mom’s side. Monday my matron of honor went out with me to do some dress research. We found two beautiful dresses and now it’s just a matter of choosing.

Now, after those two crazy weeks back home, I’m off to California! I’m spending the month of October in my old stomping grounds, San Francisco, staying with the lovely Jenna H. I’m super excited to see old friends, drink beers, and not be home in NJ!

Adventure!

Home in NJ

My time back home has come to an end. This was a long stay, September to January but it was full of good stuff. I went to the Jersey Shore with my family, New Orleans with my mom and aunt, to California with Daniele, and twice to Boston.

In between my time in New Jersey was full or family parties, holidays, birthdays, seeing old friends, and as always, trying to organize all the junk I have stored at my parent’s house. I spent more time in NYC this time. Some credit for that has to go to my Aunt Linda who has been spoiling me bringing me to plays like Spiderman.

We also lost our forever puppy, Lady. I’m glad I was able to be home when it happened. We had 15 great years together.

Now I’m off again to Italy. Three more months before I get kicked out again.

Pictures from NJ:
https://picasaweb.google.com/111221349198606775660/20110923HomeInNJ

Other albums from the trips mentioned:
https://picasaweb.google.com/111221349198606775660/

Daniele Visit to NJ

The last part of Daniele’s visit was almost two weeks staying around NJ. Last time we did not spend much time here and I wanted him to see more if we might move here someday.

Wednesday.

Our redeye from San Diego got in to Philadelphia Wednesday morning. This day was just meant to be a recovery and unpacking. I also planned to help my mom prepare for Thanksgiving. I committed Daniele and myself to making the now traditional “leaf cookies”. My mom was cooking for my dad’s whole extended family which can be anywhere from 40 to 60 people, and since many don’t reply to her invite she is normally cooking for almost that wide of a range. She makes all the traditional turkey fair with stuffing and cranberry, as well as sides including yams, mashed potatoes, her own hand-made bread, and two salads. She also makes Italian dishes: baked stuffed shells and meat balls. We start with a large antipasto course served from when the first guest arrives until we serve dinner, as well as the usual chips and dips and all sorts or drinks.


(Leaf cookies from last year, I don’t know if I took a picture this year)


(Daniele with the antipasto we served Thursday)

My mother starts way in advance planning and preparing, but as you can imagine she is very busy the day before cooking what can be prepared in advance (most of it). So imagine what it was like when our power went out on Wednesday afternoon. And then stayed out.

Our power was out for hours, despite there being no storm or any sign of what would cause an outage. Eventually I convinced my dad to make some calls. What if it doesn’t come back? No one else can do Thanksgiving on such short notice, and if we don’t host it, all this food will go bad. He called up a buddy of his who had just bought a brand new generator (he had been one of those effected by the outages during the October snow storm and hurricanes that came through NJ this Fall). My parents went to pick it up late, when the friend got back home. They got back around 11pm and our power came back on at midnight. All that for nothing, but better safe than no Thanksgiving!

Thursday.

Daniele and I had waited to tell anyone about our engagement until today when we planed to tell everyone together. Daniele was meeting most of my family for the first time today, so it seemed nicer to do it this way rather than me tell everyone alone that I plan on marrying that guy I’ve been dating that they still haven’t met. Also we could tell everyone at once and then everyone knows, rather than gradually all finding out from the grape vines. We were basically using the holiday for an old fashion engagement party. The revealing happy news and celebrating together type, rather than the having a party to celebrate another party type.

I told my grandmother first because I knew she would be annoyed at being kept in the dark this long, I could at least give her that. She was all excited. As family members arrived I hung around by the door and introduced Daniele to them as my fiance. Also I was wearing my ring for the first time to a family event. But I guess Grandma was expecting it more or is just generally more quick on the uptake than my Aunts and Uncles because they just gave a “nice to meet you” and moved on to the food. No one noticed anything until dessert when my Aunt Morreen finally noticed the sparkle and the gig was up. The news quickly spread throughout the house and the congratulations followed. Apparently my grandma had been dieing all day that no one was noticing and kept trying to prod her other two children into looking at me better. Special mention for Vivian, my cousin Marc’s fiancee, who actually did notice and asked Marc if I was engaged earlier in the night and was told no. I feel a little bad about not letting Marc in on it, especially since he told me before he proposed (actually he told everyone he knew), but I couldn’t be sure he wouldn’t tell his sister, who would tell her mom, would would tell her sisters, and so forth.

My Aunt Linda pulls a double hitter on Turkey Day, eating first with us then dessert with our cousins on my mom’s side. I told her to let that side of the family all know so now everyone found out today.


(My mom with the turkey)


(These guys are adorable)


(You can’t see there is actually much more on the buffet table to the right)

Friday.

Daniele and I planned to do some Black Friday shopping, but we weren’t very serious about it. We woke up at a reasonable hour and went to the Garden State Plaza where the door busters were all over and only other casual shoppers like us lingered. The sales were not anything impressive, maybe early in the morning they were. I’m going to take the hipster approach here and say Black Friday just isn’t as good since it became mainstream.

We had been invited to dinner at my Aunt Terry’s house. I was really hoping we would have a chance to also see my mom’s side of the family, and they were all coming over my Aunt’s for a Turkey Day leftover dinner and to wish my cousin Donnie, Uncle Greg, Uncle Harry, and Aunt Linda all happy birthday.


(4-way birthday)

Dinner was really great. It was a little less hectic than the day before (or even other holidays with this side). I also think Daniele fell in better with the Italian relatives.

Saturday.

Saturday we had what my family calls “Second Thanksgiving”. (Didn’t we just do that yesterday? No, didn’t count.) Second Thanksgiving my Uncle Larry cooks another whole Thanksgiving dinner, this time for closer to ten of us, and we celebrate my Aunt Linda’s birthday. Unlike the first time around, this is a sit down meal served in courses. While my mother puts everything on buffet trays and lets people take what they want; my uncle, on the other hand, fills your plate over and over again; then asks– don’t you want seconds? I used to be saved by skipping the actual turkey, then he started making a bigger pasta course; a few times he has made me my own pizza. Then we have dessert where often there are as many pies as people.

I end up eating more at Second Thanksgiving than actual Thanksgiving. Luckily my Uncle Larry is a very good cook, especially when making recipes he’s made before.


(Look at the perfect meringue!)

Sunday.

While we were having dinner Saturday we were getting text message updates about my cousin Corrine, who had been due to deliver her baby. She gave birth to a baby girl, Cella, that night.

Sunday morning Daniele, my mom, and I went to the hospital to visit the proud new parents and little girl. While we were there Lori, Tim, and Kayla came by as well as my Aunt Linda. It’s always nice to see them. Corrine was so cute, not only did she text us all announcing her own labor, she had favors she handed out to all of us baby visitors. Amazing!


(Sisters)

That afternoon Daniele and I met up with Lisa. We went to Cheeburger Cheeburger, which is one of Lisa’s favorites and I knew Daniele would love the “American” food.

After we went back to her and Brian’s place and played some kinect. I had actually never played one. It was really fun!

Monday.

We went to the Spruce Run Reservoir, very close to my parent’s house, to show off some of the natural beauty here in NJ. It’s a nice park with paths, a big lake/reservoir, camp and picnic sites. Plus there are always a lot of deer running around.


(Daniele and Kait in Spruce Run State Park)


(Spruce Run State Park, Union Township, New Jersey)

In the evening we went to Verona to join in on Marc and Vivian’s regular poker game. My other cousins John and Robby and my Uncle Rob were there too. It was a good time. Daniele liked Verona, so that’s a bonus.

Tuesday.

We spend all day Tuesday doing work research for Daniele. He has a masters degree in Emergency Care and 6 years experience and an ER Nurse. I had truly believed that as an experienced Emergency Room Nurse, one of the most in demand jobs in the US, he would be able to get a Working Visa. Apparently I was completely wrong.

Following my Aunt’s advice, we concentrated on the larger medical centers. I called various people in HR and ER Nursing departments. The nurses typically didn’t answer, the HR women were some of the hugest bitches I have ever talked to in my 26 years. The nicest women I talked to told me straight up that they used to issue working visas, but they are not right now and she doesn’t know if that will change. The most horrible and cruel women I spoke to throughout the day was a human resources employee in the Nursing Department of Newark Beth Israel Medical Center. This is a very large hospital. To quote them, “[w]ith more than 800 physicians, 3,200 employees and 150 volunteers, the Medical Center has over 300,000 outpatient visits and 25,000 admissions annually”. I asked her if she could tell me anything about the process of foreign trained nurses coming to work at Beth Israel and she insisted there were none. I pressed this because it seems downright impossible that such a large employer could fill its workforce 100% with natural born US citizens. Maybe in a land-locked state, but NJ is rather diverse. Personally, I have never had a job where I have not worked with some foreign born and/or trained coworkers since I was an assistant dance teacher in high school at a single instructor studio. This woman insisted she had never met a nurse who was foreign, and was not nice about it. Is that consistent with anyone’s anecdotal experience? I’ve found *most* nurses I encounter are foreign.

Based on these calls, it seems Daniele can not work in the US without being a citizen, so it seems we can not live here until we are married and have started that process. There have been a few suggestions that we get “married” quickly now and have the wedding we want later. I hate this idea and think it is contrary to what a wedding should symbolize– the celebration of the beginning of a marriage, rather than a big party where two people justify putting themselves in debt and demanding to be the center of attention. If we were already married, that is really all we would doing (and it would be much harder for me to justify the attention I expect that day *grin*). The mere fact that this seems like a viable option reflects poorly on the state of American marriage and citizenship.

Wednesday.

Today they lit the Rockafeller Christmas Tree. Daniele and I went into the city to check it out. We first went to Rockefeller Center to check out the stage and tree. There wasn’t anything going on, so we went to do other things.


(Stage for the tree lighting show)

We did some midtown Christmas time stuff, like the Macy’s window displays and the tree in Bryant Park.


(I made this in a Macy’s window!)


(Daniele in front of the Bryant Park NYC Christmas Tree)


(Macy’s Christmas window display)


(Daniele in Times Square)

Daniele wanted to check out this neighborhood in Brooklyn, Bensonhurst. It has a very dense population of Italians. I didn’t believe it would be anything special, lit any Italian neighborhood. But in fact there was a lot of Italian writing and people speaking Italian that seemed to have been born there.

We got back to the Rockafeller area only an hour before the show was supposed to start. However we did have the slight advantage of having scouted out the area in the morning. The police had set up those barriers to control pedestrian traffic. They corralled us considerably around the square and forced us to enter from another side. Unfortunately they were either just messing with the tourists or genuinely not talking to each other because one cop forced us all one way, across a street. Then the cop there just said “I don’t know why they are sending you all here, you have to go that way”, that way was back around and though the line a second time. We did it again, and then it was pretty open and we filled in shoulder to shoulder with the other spectators. Thank goodness they were all really nice and joking about being squished in there. Sometimes when people are pushing me I just can’t stand it, but everyone was nice. Packing in tight, but not trying to push ahead of each other. We were about 15 feet from the corner of one of the buildings on the square. That building blocked our view of the stage, that would have been facing us if we were just a little more ahead. We could hear the music and there was a big screen across from us where we could see the show. So we just watched the show on a screen anyway, but it was an experience. When the show was over we were able to get into the square and take some pictures. There were people waiting to get in that had been much worse off than us. Over all the whole experience was much better than I imagined.


(Kait and Daniele in front of NY Rockefeller Center Christmas Tree just after it was lit)

Worth noting, the crowd was probably a bit smaller because Justin Beiber wasn’t there. He was supposed to perform live, however the president ended up being in NYC that day. And apparently the city can’t handle both Obama and the Beibs on the same day. The Obama traffic made it impossible for Beiber to logistically make his performance, so he prerecorded it. Better for us!


(Kait and Daniele in front of NY Christmas decorations)

Thursday.

We hit up another park near my parent’s, the Round Valley Recreation Area. This one is a bit bigger, but I actually like Spruce Run better. We did some of the hikes and enjoyed the views before moving on.


(Round Valley Reservoir, Lebanon, NJ)

In the afternoon we walked around Somerville. It’s a really cute town with restaurants and shops on the main street and Victorian houses going off of it. They have a train station, too. If I was going to live in the burbs, this would be a good choice.


(Somerville, NJ)

Friday.

When Daniele first arrived and we walked around Hoboken and Jersey City he really wanted to see Liberty State Park, the park in Jersey City opposite Liberty Island. Unfortunately we quickly realized that was unrealistic for the time we had and made plans to come back this week when we had more time.

Later had the even better idea to take bikes with us. This turned out to be very smart because Liberty State Park is actually pretty big.

We packed some sandwiches, wrapped up with layers (it was a cold day) and drove into the park.

The park has nice paths for pedestrians or bikes. We rode through all of it, saw New York City, Lady Liberty (her back side), and some of the other attractions. There was even a couple taking wedding photos.


(Daniele in Liberty State Park, Jersey City, NJ)


(Liberty State Park, Jersey City, NJ)


(View of NYC from Liberty State Park, Jersey City, NJ)


(Views of Jersey City, New York City, and Statue of Liberty from Liberty State Park)


(View of Statue of Liberty from Liberty State Park, Jersey City, NJ)


(View of New York City from Jersey City)

Saturday.

Saturday we all went to the birthday party my cousin Michelle threw for her daughter.

Sunday.

This was our last full day. Daniele had wanted to see Easton, the first town over the Pennsylvania border. He seems to like PA. Ehh. We walked around there, it was kinda sad and desolate. A lot of empty stores. We went through Phillipsburg on our way back to New Jersey.

We also made plans to have dinner and catch up with Fabienne, who had visited us in Italy in the summer.

Monday.

Daniele flew back to Rome. I would see him again in January.

Photos from the NJ part of Daniele’s visit are here:
https://picasaweb.google.com/111221349198606775660/20111108DanieleVisit

Daniele Visit


(View of New York City from New Jersey)

Daniele was able to visit from November 8 to December 5. We spent Thanksgiving together and took a trip out to California.

He flew into JFK. I told him I couldn’t get him from that airport so we met in Hoboken Station. It was perfect because we got to have dinner and walk around Hoboken (where I would like to live eventually). The next day we walked around downtown Jersey City (next town over) and the waterfront up to Liberty State Park. We saw how big the park was and decided to save that for another day. Around noon we took the light rail back to Hoboken and walked all over there including the waterfront and parks. Also had some yummy Thai food. I grabbed some open-in-the-winter Rita’s before we took the train to western NJ.

The next day we flew out of Philly for San Francisco. We were really early and our flight was four hours delayed because of fog. Eventually we made it out and had great adventures in California.

NJ and NY Pictures from Daniele’s visit:
https://picasaweb.google.com/111221349198606775660/20111108DanieleVisit

LBI

Last week my family took our annual vacation to Long Beach Island, New Jersey. My dad’s oldest brother, Bill has a house there and we have gone every summer my entire life. We choose this week because it was right after I came back from Italy, but it worked out well because we love LBI off season. Not all the restaurants and stores are open, especially in the middle of the week, but it is so much more quiet and peaceful. Not to mention you are allowed to being dogs on the beach and go on the bird sanctuary at the end of the island. We spent nine days down there, reading, knitting, taking the sun, and eating way too much of my Uncle Larry’s heavy cooking.

(Entrance to the beach)


(Sunset on the bay)


(The bird sanctuary on LBI)

The rest of my pictures from Long Beach Island:
https://picasaweb.google.com/111221349198606775660/20110918LBI#

Home for May

I made a trip home to New Jersey from May 4th through June 7th. It was motivated mostly by my cousin Corrine asking me to be in her wedding on May 7th. Luckily May is one of those months full of family parties, so I got to see lots of people while I was back.

Corrine and Anthony’s wedding was beautiful. Corrine’s daughter, from her first marriage, Celina was just precious as a flower girl. Anthony is first generation Italian, so the food (and especially the dessert) was amazing!

My cousin Mike and Bonnie baptized their second daughter Keira. My Uncle Bill was in from Alaska and able to do the ceremony.

My cousin Brian graduated from Boston University with a collection of degrees and honors and is off to a really sweet job at Duke now. He is going to bike down there.

I had a fun New York day with my godmother. She is a Tony judge, so we hit up both “Sister Act” and “How to Succeed in Business with out Really Trying” on a Wednesday. They were both really good. I thought Daniel Radcliffe was great in “How to Succeed in Business”. We also hit up this Gelateria in midtown near the park, Grom. They ship their good stuff in daily from Italy! Daniele’s mother had seen a special on them and told me to check them out while I was home.

My parents and I also opened up my Uncle Bill’s LBI house. We stayed a few days but the weather was not very good so we headed back home. My friend Fabienne stopped by, so did my Aunt Linda and Connie.

Now it is back to Italy for the summer. I wish I had made it up to Boston, but there was so much going on in NJ I never found the time. Ciao USA!

Pictures from Corrine and Anthony’s Wedding:
https://picasaweb.google.com/111221349198606775660/20110507CorrineAndAnthonySWedding#

Pictures from NY fun day with Aunt Linda, Keira’s Baptism, and Brian’s Cake
https://picasaweb.google.com/111221349198606775660/20110603KeiraBaptismAndNJ

New Jersey

One the 16th we headed to my parent’s from Philly. We had dinner with my parents and Aunt Linda. My mom countered the dinner Daniele’s mom made for me with a citrus salad, cheese souffle, green beans, steak, and chocolate cake. The “american” salad is strange (in a good way) to Daniele. Italians always only dress their salads with olive oil and vinegar. My dad treated Daniele to lots of Irish Cream and even more stories.

The next day we had Pizza Hut buffet. There are no Pizza Hut’s in Italy and he wanted to go. Then we went shopping at Jersey Gardens, a very big mall where most of the stores are outlets. We met Michelle and Aleks for dinner at a Cuban restaurant they know. They brought my little godson, Nicholas, but Aleks Jr and Lucy stayed home with my Aunt Maureen.

Home for the Holidays

As planned, I got to spend the holidays at home. All the way from Thanksgiving through New Years. It was amazing! I have been only coming home for holiday cameos for seven years, since I left for college at 17. Between all the holiday excitement I got to find a little order and sanity in me life. I sorted through the disaster that I left in my parent’s upstairs; a gradual build up from each time I blew through New Jersey. It had become worse than ever as clear layers of my New Jersey, Boston, and San Francisco lives could be seen in the piles.

I got in from Rome on the Tuesday before Thanksgiving. My mom hosted the Hanrahan Thanksgiving as she does most years. We had 45 people over. She made everything you could imagine. After the huge antipasto we had her bread, corn (she froze the neighboring farmer’s corn in the summer), mashed potatoes, mashed sweet potatoes, my Uncle Larry’s salad and baked brie, stuffed shells, meat balls, and of course a 26 pound turkey. There was also sangria and warm apple cider and homemade Irish Cream to add to all the beer, wine, and soda. Then for dessert the dinning room was filled with every kind of pie as well as cup cakes, cookies, a cannoli cake, and brownies.

We spent Christmas Eve with my mom’s side of the family. Besides catching up with all of them, I found out my cousin Corrine is getting remarried in May and she asked me to be in her wedding party again. I also got to meet Lori’s (Corrine’s older sister) and Tim’s second daughter: Brooke. She is cute as a button and has this adorable thing where her hair sticks straight up no matter what my cousin does. Lori had her two girls, Kayla and Brooke, and well as Corrine’s Celina in matching Christmas dresses.

Early Christmas morning was just my parent’s, grandmother (she comes home with us from Christmas Eve and stays over), and me. Santa brought me some goodies for my new vagabond lifestyle. The highlights were a Kindle and a waterproof point-and-shoot camera. Soon after my Aunt Linda and Uncle Larry come over. This year my Aunt’s friend Jane came too. We have a big breakfast and exchange stocking stuffers.

This year, since the big breakfast was at our house, my mom stayed with her family and my dad and I headed to the Hanrahan Christmas at my Aunt Debbie and Uncle John’s. It was an eventful Christmas this year at the Hanrahans. My Uncle John was home from Japan (he and Aunt Debbie moved there recently for his work). Aunt Debbie was home too of course, but had been since Thanksgiving, like me. My cousin Brian, who goes to BU, just came back from a semester abroad in Ecuador with all kinds of stories. My cousin David (the only one besides me and potentially Brian to leave NJ or one of the neighboring states) was home from San Diego for the first Christmas in 10 years. We had a 6-day-old baby– Mike and Bonnie’s little Keira. Marc proposed to Vivian that morning. My uncle Bill was in from Alaska. It was a really magical Christmas.

I was going to spend New Years with my cousin’s on my mom’s side. They have a party every year. But last minute everyone was sick and they almost canceled. I ended up at my cousin Marc’s where I had a wonderful time. In the morning I was painfully reminded that I have not been drinking like I did in SF.

Between the big holidays I got to see some old friends. Caught up with NJ people and made a trip to Boston. Like I said, I has been just like I hoped.