Holiday Cheer

Happy Holidays!!! I know it has been a long time since I have written but there is something about a blog that seems so self important.I end up starting a post and then question whether or not my life is interesting enough for people to want to read about it. At the end of the day I guess it doesn't matter, so I will give a quick recap of the last 6 months.

I had the opportunity to go on an AMAZING trip to Europe with my family (minus my brother, he had to work :( WE missed you terribly Andy Panda!!) It was very surreal to be in standing in places like the Sistine Chapel and the Colosseum, places I have only ever seen in History books. We only had two weeks in Europe and covered a lot of ground. The first week was spent on a cruise which started in Civitavecchia (the main port for Rome) and from there we went to Messina(Sicily), Athens, Kusadasi (Turkey), Crete and then back to Civitavecchia. We spent two days in Rome seeing everything there was to see. One day to take in all of the sights and another to tour the Vatican. I took in so much information on the tours that it would take many post to share it all, at the end of the day Rome is beautiful and I would love to go back. From there we flew to London where we spent all of 16 hours. We walked around a bit and saw Big Ben, Westminster Abby and the Buckingham Palace. We also ventured to Harrods and did a little window shopping. That same afternoon we went to the train station and took the Chunnel to Paris, for those of you that arent familar with what the Chunnel is it is basically a high speed train that travels underwater for about 20 mins of the trip between the United Kingdom and France.

We arrived in Paris in the early evening and had an amazing dinner just about a block from our hotel, which was about a block from the Champs-Elysees and what I like to call the Round-about of death. Paris is GORGEOUS!! I could have spent two weeks just exploring the city, unfortunately we had about 36 hours... We walked to the Eifeel Tower and watched the light show which was awesome, stood outside of Notre Dame, drove by the Paris Opera House and took a tour of the city. I want to go back so badly. Also, just for the record, I did not come across one rude French person, they were all very nice. :) As much as I loved the trip it was nice to come home and get back into a routine.

Not much has changed on the home front. I have moved to a different part of town and lucked out with getting a great pair of roommates as well. Work is still going well and I am enjoying my job while hoping that I can transition into something with a little more responsibility. Life is good and the holidays are here which I love but they still do hold a little bit of sadness. I wish Dad was here but when I think about him I remember him with a smile instead of my heart hurting. In his honor I will be doing my Christmas shopping on Christmas Eve as per our tradition. I will not however be dressing up as Santa or one of his elves as my father did from time to time. :) Everything seems better this time of year, happier, magical. Good things on the horizon. Very, very good things.