Christmas week!

I may be a little behind on my postings, but today have some time to catch up. So sorry if this is a little long....

Christmas....to me, one of the greatest times of the year. No other time during the year do we get 2 holidays back to back within one week, and for those of us not in the retail/services industry, a time to back off on work :) The festivities this year started early for me, going back to last Friday night when I was fortunate to get to have dinner and drinks with my friend Don visiting from Boston, and some other great friends. We all miss Don & Rob a lot, and it was fun to catch up (and have 4 or 7 Captain & Cokes at Newt's!)

Saturday I got up to go to 9AM handbell rehearsal (more on that later) and then coffee with my friend Shelley, where once again we solved all the worlds problems sitting at Starbucks. Saturday night was a lot of fun - my jazz band played at the Blue Moon Ballroom, one of the most fun places to play because everyone is dancing and having a good time - and with the Christmas atmosphere, it was even more fun. The impending snow didn't keep people away and there was a great turnout - and the age range was probably 14 to 74, great to see so many generations of people enjoying dancing and music.

Sunday at church we did the "Lessons & Carols" service, an abbreviated version of the one we did at St. Mary's the week before. A little more fun for me because the high school group that I direct got to play for this one. I love services that are mostly music (I'm probably a little biased) and I got the chance to visit with a lot of friends between services. After a relaxing afternoon, my salsa band "Fuego" had a practice, taking advantage of the time our piano player is home from college. (as a side note, "Fuego" will be playing at the Blue Moon on Friday, January 25th, we have new songs and it will be a great show). We're trying to get in a few more practices before January 3rd when our piano player leaves and people go back to school and work.


Monday I was fortunate to have the day off of work - it is doubtful there was much going on at IBM that day anyway - and so I had the morning to get ready to head up to my sister and her husband's house in North Branch for Christmas. As soon as Erin got done with work, we headed up, stopping on the way at my cousins in Roseville to say hi and have some apple cider. Friday night we had a nice dinner and stayed over at mom's. My niece Keagann was VERY excited to see more presents, even after 3 days of opening presents at other family gatherings. We came back over Tuesday morning, after a nice breakfast at mom's, and opened up presents (Keagann opened all hers quickly and then decided to "help" everyone else :) We had to get back to Rochester for the evening and for Erin to work the next morning, so at 2:30 as the snow was falling we headed out. It was a bit snowy all the way to Cannon Falls - the roads weren't great - but we made it ok. Erin and I did our own gifts later on (almost all mine were coffee-related - 1lb of Caribou Obsidian blend, 2 nice spill-proof mugs, and a big Caribou coffee card - I think Erin has me figured out!)






I decided I could work at home the rest of the week, mornings only. Wednesday night was another salsa band rehearsal, which went really well and was fun. Thursday, Erin and I went out to dinner with a bunch of his friends who are at home this week. Besides all that, we managed to go to get to the RAC most days of the past week, a habit I am glad to be getting back to.

This brings us to today, the eve of the eve of the eve of New Year's Eve :) OK that's kind of overkill but I am looking forward to a weekend of anticipation - and again getting to see friends and relax and celebrate.

For those of us out there political, it's also only a week to the Iowa caucus...and 11 months of political ads :) I hope everyone is enjoying this time with friends, family, refreshment, and rejuvination.