The longer I live away from my home state, the more I notice the accents when I go back. Minnesotans, I love you, but you do talk kinda funny.
We had a good time back in the Twin Cities for the holidays. Here's a run down of what kept us busy:
- The Candy Party. My college friend Maren and her dad host a party every December where lots of Christmas cookies are frosted, delicious taffy, caramel and peanut brittle are made, and lots of catching up with old college friends is done. I haven't been to this in five years and Samantha never has. But this year's was no exception. We even sang some Christmas carols. Oh, and the man has a pipe organ in his house. That's worth mentioning even out of context.
- The usual Christmas Eve and Day festivities. I even went and sang a solo at my old church.
- The Second Inaugural Boxing Day Skate-watdee. 'Nuff said.
- An excellent Saturday evening date planned by my mother (!), consisting of seeing the Brave New Workshop's Christmas comedy revue (freaking hilarious) and a night at the fancy new Marriott hotel in downtown Minneapolis. Thanks, Mom!
- A trip to Mankato to engage in a Wick family tradition -- making Swedish sausage. Also helped my aunt out with her computer and stayed in the Best Western -- a hotel I've stayed in with my family more times than I can count. Nostalgia-riffic.
- A very fun New Year's Eve at Mancini's Char House in St. Paul, dressed ridiculously with about 20 friends and friends of friends. It's been a while since I had a really fun New Year's Eve, and that qualified.
- Lunch with Gillian. Yay! Always great to catch up with her.
- A lot of sitting by the fire and reading. I read Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson and American Nerd by Ben Nugent.
- Our Cheapo Records pilgrimage. More on this later.
- Going out to eat many times, to old favorites (Punch, French Meadow) and new favorites (Common Roots, Hell's Kitchen).
As far as Christmas swag, it was a lighter year because my mom was gracious enough to buy our airfare for the trip. But I still got a nice mix of thoughtful gifts from the family, including music, clothes and cash. Samantha and I got each other a couple small things, but also spent some money on something we sorely needed: a new television. So we now own a 26" LCD flat-screen, high definition, widescreen TV. Whee! We didn't really need all the fancy stuff (we're just excited this one has a remote and doesn't crackle ominously) but we wanted one that will last us through the next decade of TV technology innovation. Oh, and I should mention we don't have any sort of television service other than antenna, so we still only get one decent channel. But the DVD player sure looks nice on it.
So we're back in Connecticut and have been back to work for a week. Not a whole lot of big plans for the new year yet. But we'll keep you posted.