Christmas and New Years was excellent; celebrating the days with family and long-time friends, and even making new ones along the way.
For your visual enjoyment, here's the pictorial synopsis:
A week or so before Christmas, two dear friends and I went off to visit the jolly old fellow in the red suit. Pictures of him are yet to appear, but here we are excited for the annual meeting!
For your visual enjoyment, here's the pictorial synopsis:
A week or so before Christmas, two dear friends and I went off to visit the jolly old fellow in the red suit. Pictures of him are yet to appear, but here we are excited for the annual meeting!
25 December, Christmas Day, my parents and I celebrated with a feast and gift exchange with the Lake side of the family. (My first photo without those metal wires holding my teeth in place! Happy Christmas to me!)
Boxing Day (26 December) we celebrated Christmas with my mom's sister and her family, who also live in West Michigan. My mom was excited to have found Christmas crackers at World Market, so we popped them open to each receive a small gift and a Christmas paper crown from inside! (Notice the bright sun! - A true winter has yet to arrive.)
A few days prior to ringing and singing in the New Year, I flew from Grand Rapids to Oklahoma City, to meet up with a good friend from college (and beyond) who now lives in Washington state.
(This is a classic photo of us; my being unashamedly ridiculous & friend just pleasantly putting up with me.)We played in the park in the sun with friends and their children.
We avoided colliding with horses who were annoyed that we drove down their street.
We played pool in a smoke-filled local joint, while observing a one-armed cowboy dance to off-key karaoke music.
The 2011-2012 transition was spent in the Bricktown section of Oklahoma City. After walking around trying to stay awake and warm, we settled into "Toby Keith's" for some live (and good!) music and cheese fries.
(We learned that in OK City, the big lit New Years' ball goes up and midnight, it does not drop... yeah, we missed the big countdown...)Following an IHOP brunch on New Years' day we walked to the Oklahoma City memorial that was set up after 168 people (including nineteen children under 6 years of age) died from a bomb attack in 1995. It was moving.
Content and sleep-deprived, I returned to a much colder Grand Rapids in the early hours of January 2nd, where I caught a bit of sleep before waking early to begin the real life of Vanessa again.
Happy New Year, with love and cheer!
~V
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