In the previous post, I addressed the manic lead up to our Christmas vacation. At least the job stuff. Scattered throughout the month of December, we also had a nice work holiday party, lots of Christmas movie watching, and our annual ugly ornament white elephant party. (Derived of course from our friends Bethany and Meg) Anyway, the festivities, the job search, countless holiday events, basketball season, and just general stress made our Christmas break well needed and deserved.
We decided that we wanted to make sure we went to visit both of our families in their respective locations and enjoyed our trip immensely. At the moment, I am typing this from the plane on our way home. The plan is to write this post as a two-parter. I’ll write about our time in NY/NJ/PA and Shannon will write about our time in Florida.
So to begin with the very beginning of our trip, our last week of school before the holiday break went by quickly. We had interviews and events all week. As soon as we got out of school, we rushed home, finished some last minute packing, and hopped in a cab to the airport. We were wasting no time. We wanted to maximize every minute we could with our families.
We flew from Quito to Bogota, Colombia where we had a three hour layover. Then we hopped on a plane at midnight and took a 5 hour flight to NYC. We were greeted in the city that never sleeps with a nice white dusting of snow on the ground, a heavy snowfall on our heads, and a temperature to match. To me, it felt like Christmas. To Shannon…well I don’t think she could feel anything. The Florida girl isn’t used to cold weather.
We hopped into a cab at the airport where the fare reminded us that we weren’t in Quito anymore. We took a short ride to Shannon’s sister’s apt. and the cab fare was about $60 (which would have been closer to $12 in Quito). When we got there, we immediately crashed on her couch. It was 6am after-all.
The next morning, our plan was to take a few trains to NJ to see my family, but our friend Justin, being the angelic Christmas saint he is, refused to let us do that, and instead drove 2 and a half hours each way to come pick us up personally and drive us to NJ. What a guy. (In general, I think Justins have a tremendous track record of being good people, but I digress) Upon arrival at his house, where we would be staying, we immediately wrapped some presents and hit the road for our first Christmas party hosted by our friends Jamie and Jen. It was an amazing time with good food, music, and friends who I hadn’t seen in years. It was a wonderful chance to catch up with everyone. It made me realize how much I miss holiday gatherings. It’s hard to be so far away from such a large group of people who I love so much. But we got a chance to make the most of our time with them.
The next day, we had some skype job interviews in the morning, followed by a big family day planned. Shannon and I went to my mom’s apartment to spend the morning with her and my stepdad. It was a really cool experience for me since I hadn’t been to her new place yet. She didn’t have the chance to join us for our wedding due to some health concerns, so it was really nice for us to go over our wedding album with her and my stepdad. That night, we all went over to my Aunt Natalie’s house and had a big old fashioned family dinner. My Nona was there (grandmother), my sister, niece, her husband, parents, cousins, and aunt were all there. Everyone chipped in a little something including a masterfully cooked turkey by my sister and the collaboration pumpkin cheesecake by Shannon and my mom. It was incredible food, and more importantly, a chance to spend a family Christmas together. There were presents, and playful arguments, and catching up. It was great.
The next day was decision day for our job search so the majority of our day was spent weighing options and making a decision. At night, we met up with our friends and their kids for a brisk (25 degrees or so) evening at Storybook Land, which is pretty much exactly what it sounds like. In between chattering teeth and sips of piping hot coffee, I joined a gaggle of children ranging in between age 2-6 in a series of teacups, train trolleys, mazes, and the like. It was absolutely frigid, but a really good time.
Because we are gluttons for punishment, disinterested in rest, and interested in spending every possibly minute with our families as possible, we woke up early the next day to take my sister and niece to the Ben Franklin Institute and Science Museum in Philadelphia. Jessie, my sister, and I grew up going to the museum so it was really cool to take my niece. Oh and on top of that, they had a JURASSIC WORLD exhibit! This was proof that divine intervention is a real thing. We roared at various robotic dinosaurs, ran from a few, and checked out all of the exhibits. Throughout the rest of the afternoon, we did lots of experiments, made jokes, and generally had a good time.
When we were done, we drove back to NJ to meet up with our friends to go BACK to Philly for a Sixers game. This was a really cool experience for me because, well…I’m a big Sixers fan. When I was in college, I used to scrape whatever money I had to go to games all the time, however, it had been years since I was in the NJ/Philly area for winter and for basketball season. A group of 9 of us got together and watched the game. It was pretty much perfect for me. Like a Christmas present. Plus, it was a nice little bow on top of our trip to NJ.
The next morning, we drove to my mom’s house to have a nice goodbye and present exchange over breakfast. After that, we took Nona out to lunch and made our way to the airport to go to Florida. It was an action packed, festivity laden, busy, fun, loud, trip. And it was perfect.
Part 2-Christmas in Orlando
Christmas in Orlando is great for 3 reasons: 1) my family is there, 2) the weather is in the high 70’s, 3) Chik-Fil-A. My dad and Meagan and Franklin scooped us up from the airport with a cooler full of Jeremiah’s Scoop Froggy Frog gelato and we hit the Chik-Fil-A drive thru on the way home for what was to be my first of 5 Chik-Fil-A chicken sandwiches of the vacation. We were off to a great start!
Over the next 2 days as we waited for Christmas to arrive, we did some shopping and what was basically a tour of all the Target stores in the greater Orlando area.
We also got to sleep in almost every day which was a great treat. On Christmas day, we had a leisurely blueberry and banana pancake breakfast and took our time opening presents. Then, the sisters went back to bed and Justin cooked a second breakfast of New Jersey pork roll for the parents.
The day after Christmas we had a very special family reunion and Christmas party. Everybody brought a dish or two or three! And we spent the afternoon eating and chatting. It was nice to be able to see some of my aunts and uncles and cousins who I don’t really get to see that often. My mom compiled a cookbook from all our family recipes - many of them from Nanny herself. I think both Nanny and Pepa were probably smiling down on us that day and loved to see us all together for an afternoon.
I got to read a fantastic book over this break as well, All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr. This story was absolutely beautiful, moving, heartbreaking, and inspiring all at once. I can easily say that it is the best piece of literature I’ve read in the last 5 years and I would highly recommend you read it.
Something else special that happened in Orlando is that I officially changed my name and I am now a Muenker!
I tallied up our time in Florida and can sum up our visit as follows:
10 hours of sleep a night
8 Starbucks lattes
5 Chik-Fil-A chicken sandwiches
4 Jeremiah’s gelatos
3 Target stores
2 sleeping sisters
1 lovely novel
And a partridge in a pear treeeeee!
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