Holiday Break

I didn't update my blog over break, because I was too busy actually SEEING all of my favorite people back home! It was wonderful to be back in Maine, where it actually felt like Christmas with pretty, white SNOW on the ground :0) My first full day back home started with a dentist appointment, Christmas shopping, hair appointment, watching the last quarter of Zac's basketball game, and then back to my house for an Ugly Sweater Party! It was quite an eventful day. It was awesome to be around all of my Maine friends again, catching up and enjoying each other's company--it was like I never left, we just picked up where we left off.

Christmas Eve was spent with Nate's family, it was so nice to see them all and see how big 3 year old Owen has gotten while I've been gone! He was impressing me with his iphone knowledge, since I can't even seem to figure them out! After that, Nate joined my family at Penny Memorial United Baptist Church for the Christmas Eve Candle-light service, which was really nice. I was glad that Nate got to experience one of my family traditions :) Then we all headed out to Richmond, where we got to open and wear our traditional matching pajamas, this year they were tye-died by Aleena, Nate and I :)

Christmas day was full of seeing family and good food! We started out being woken up by Jonny around 8am in Richmond where we opened presents and then had brunch. We then headed into Augusta to Lynelle's house for dessert and catching up with that crew :)

Next we headed over to the Whitcomb Hotel (haha) for Mandy's birthday and hung out with them and ate some more yummy food :)

After that we headed to the Cooley's household, a family tradition for years. It was nice to see them again and I got to meet the new babies of the family! Kristi's son Noah and Tim's daughter Claire :) They were both super-adorable! The last stop was of course to the movies where we saw True Grit. It was a decent movie, and yes, another family tradition!
Tuesday night trivia was booked solid when I got there to get a table, which I couldn't :( so Heather, Beth, Amanda, Emily and I went to Heather's house and had a Girl's Night instead!

The next big adventure was roadtripping to New Hampshire with Nate to visit the Bourgeois side of the family, starting out with going to Nana and Pepe's house in Rochester. We sat and chatted there for awhile, while eating some yummy snacks and opened some presents, including an awesome framed picture of my brother, Shaq slam dunking in his Celtic's uniform! Then we headed over to the restaurant in Meredith, it was such a beautiful drive around lake Winnipesaukee!

Once at the restaurant, we met up with my dad, uncle Michael, and uncle Jerry, chatted, and ate some delicious italian food! It was awesome to see everyone!
One day I helped Nate buy a new car! He had been stressing out about it for awhile, so we researched some options one morning, and by the evening, he had purchased a 2005 Audi that we both loved!

New Years Eve, a few friends and I went to Slate's restaurant in downtown Hallowell for a nice classy dress-up dinner and then hung out at my house until midnight, then went to bed! Haha I feel like I am too old to stay out too late these days :-p

My last excursion over break was a mini roadtrip to Massachusetts, where Nate and I stayed in an awesome hotel in Lexington with a full kitchen in it! It also had the best continental breakfast I have ever had! We checked into the hotel, took a nap since Nate had worked all night, and then headed over to Krista and Leah's apartment in Marblehead for dinner :) We ordered some great food and watched The Bachelor, needless to say, it was an amazing night! The next day, all my friends were working, so Nate and I went to see Tron Legacy in IMAX 3D at Jordan's Furniture, which is way more than just a furniture store...it is a true experience!

 It was a great movie, I loved it! Then we window shopped at the Burlington Mall the rest of the day and got "shot cakes" which are the world's best invention...ICE CREAM filled CUPCAKES!

They were soooo yummy!!! After walking through the entire mall without buying anything, we figured we would quit while we were ahead and headed across the street to Barns & Noble where we got coffees and read magazines. We ended the evening at North Beverly Roast Beef, a Gordon College favorite and met up with 10 of my closest college friends! It was awesome! We totally took over the place like it was a private party, and all caught up and laughed with each other for a couple hours...it was awesome!

My last day home was of course spent wiping tears off of my cheeks, having a really hard time saying goodbye to my family, friends, and home in Maine. It was an awesome two weeks home, but it still didn't seem like enough time! My mom, Jonny, and Nate dropped me off at the Portland jetport at 4pm to head back down south. It was so hard to say goodbye, but once I got on the plane, I reminded myself that I really do enjoy the south and everything I'm doing with AmeriCorps, so I should be happy to head back down and get back at it, doing good things and serving others instead of just selfishly hanging out with friends at home...actually doing something with my life. I got back to campus in Vicksburg after midnight and went right to bed, since the next day I started right back up at 8am! My team had our briefing for our next round project in Memphis, and it actually sounds really awesome! We are working with Wolf River Conservancy and Arkwings, living in a mansion for a couple weeks until we move into a cottage, and basically having different little projects every week! We are all really excited about this round now that we have more information on it!