Reminiscing

I got home pretty late last night - around 9 p.m. - and when you have to unload all the Christmas presents and various other stuff, plus get ready for work the next day, that's late. And after 5 hours of driving, well, let's just say I was ready for bed.

But my best friend from college had planned to stay the night with me, so I was looking forward to visiting with her, even though I knew we wouldn't have much time. She arrived about 30 minutes after I got home and even though both of us were tired and the clock kept ticking later and later, we laughed and laughed, caught up on each other's lives (she's getting married next year!) and even looked through some old college photos.

We have a great relationship - sometimes it's a few months before we're in contact with each other, but it doesn't matter at all. We pick up right where we left off. That's what best friends are for!

I had plenty of time to reminisce with my family, too. Whenever we get together, inevitably the old stories come out. I love listening to them, and I swear that next time I'm going to hide a recorder somewhere so I can eventually write them down. We ate lots of food through the few days I was there - butterball soup (pictures forthcoming), homemade raviolis, chicken parmesan, and incredibly yummy cookies and cake. Oh my. I didn't think about my diet when I was home - but you can be sure I'll be hitting the gym hard in the upcoming weeks.

This Christmas was a bit harder since it was my first Christmas without my grandfather. His passing in August was incredibly hard on all of us, but I firmly believe that his spirit was there with us during the celebration. On Christmas Eve, as I looked around at all of my cousins and my own family, I couldn't help but marvel at how our family has grown. And it all started with my beloved grandparents.