Christmas in NJ

Yes, I am behind, what else is new? :P

For Christmas this year we got to drive up to New Jersey to see my extended family for the first time since my best friend's wedding back in May of 2014. I was super excited to say the least! I hate going so long without seeing my family, and even though I didn't get to see everyone this time around, I did get most people, which is a plus. 

The Tuesday before Christmas we drove 2 and a half hours to my parents' house and spent the night before leaving early Wednesday to continue the drive to New Jersey. I got kicked out of my car and Stefan and Ryan drove together where I rode in the van with my parents. I see how it is boys! It took us about 8 hours with a long stop for lunch but we finally got to New Jersey! 

My uncle Dave was visiting from Florida and he had some home made chili and sourdough bread bowls waiting for us and many of my aunts and uncles and cousins came over, so we got family right away. It was so wonderful to see everyone it just made my heart happy. One of the big things about going to New Jersey for me is the food!

I have to get a taylor ham egg and cheese sandwich on a roll, it is a breakfast must that my mom went out and got for everyone the first morning. We also have to order pizza at least once, because lets face it, Jersey pizza is the absolute best! We had that as our last meal when we left. Then the bottom two above are our Christmas Eve and Day meals, which are always fantastic. Since we are Western European (Polish) we tend to do a meat free Christmas Eve with pierogies, fried fish and mushroom soup. Christmas Day we go crazy with ham, smoked turkey, lasagna, beef wellington, more pierogies and tons and tons of cookies. So many cookies! Ah the food. So thankful for such deliciousness!

Another big highlight for us was finally being able to meet our niece Adrianna. She was born on the 4th of July to my oldest half brother Sean and we finally got to visit and spend some time with her. She is definitely a little firecracker, like her fitting nickname suggests! I loved being able to snuggle her and spend time with her and my brothers and their family.

My heart was also happy to spend Christmas Eve mass at my home church that I grew up in. This is the church I attended from the time I was in about second grade on. It is the church I was a lector (reader) in, received my first communion, confirmation, and got married in. I have lived many places over the past ten years since I left home and none have had a church that compares to this one. I hope someday I find one that will, but until then when I return it is like coming home. Everyone still knows us and treats us like family and it is just a tremendous blessing. It felt like a second reunion being there. 

My best friend Sam met us at Mass and then all of us went to our good friend of the family's house afterwards to catch up. We were there until almost 3am on Christmas Eve! My parents ducked out around 2:30am and us "kids" followed not too far behind afterwards. We still had a long drive back to my grandparents' house after that. Needless to say Christmas Day we slept in a bit before the rest of our family descended on us for dinner.

When my extended family gets together every room looks like this. People are setting up and stealing food in the kitchen, talking in the dining room, and watching TV in the living room. Everywhere you turn someone is there and you bump in to a lot of people and it becomes a hundred degrees in the house but it is wonderful. It was a very balmy Christmas in New Jersey, in the 70s most of our visit and the 50s maybe when we left, so the windows were wide open the entire time! All the people tend to drive my husband nuts but he loves everyone so he tolerates being crowded for me!

I was flipping through some old albums and I found this picture of my Poppy (second from the right) from 1928, when we was about six years old. My Poppy was one of thirteen children, but only Ethel, Emil, and Grace are in this picture with hum. For some reason I just loved this picture and had to take a snapshot of it to have. 

I was a little concerned on how the Dup would do with so many people, but she was utterly fabulous. She only almost jumped on Poppy's visiting nurse once and my cousin's aunt another time. Oops. But everyone basically loves dogs in my family so she got a ton of snuggles and treats and food sneaked her way. She was very unhappy with us when we returned home. One, she hates the car and sticking her in there for ten hours made her miserable, and two she missed all the attention she got for three days straight! Rylie literally spent all day Sunday hiding from us and refusing any treats we offered her. 

As always, the trip was entirely too short. Ryan and I had to leave Saturday to get back to North Carolina. We both had work Monday and knew we'd need Sunday to get stuff done. I hate saying goodbye to my grandparents, it always breaks my heart, and I sobbed as Ryan and I got into the car. And continued to sob most of the way down the New Jersey turnpike. It was a rough, long drive back. We left around 3pm and drove through rain on and off and didn't get home until 1:30 in the morning. We stopped briefly for food and gas but had to take a lot of smaller highways as the 95 area and cities were just a mess.

So it was a really terrific trip and I am so happy we were able to go and spend time with my family. It truly was a wonderful Christmas because of that. Hopefully not so much time will pass before we can get up there again.

I hope you and your families had a great holiday season.

28

Sometimes life takes a sharp, unexpected turn to a place you never expect. It punches you simultaneously in the face and the gut and it is heart wrenching and awful... especially since you really cannot talk about it (or especially blog about).

 

But regardless of such things, life does continue moving forward. Birthdays happen even in the hardest of times and sometimes you just have to put on a sombrero and smile with whipped cream on your nose.

 

I was super fortunate to spend the weekend with my parents in their new house only a few hours away (2 and a half as opposed to the 7 it used to be). I got my nails done with my mom, and went out for Mexican food, and had home made birthday cake. So when you have all that, you really cannot complain.

 

Especially when you realize the restaurant your parents take you too habitually shove that pile of whipped cream in your face on your birthday and you learn sitting inside a booth is the only thing that saved you from that fate... a bit on your nose is totally ok.

 

And it is even better when your Dad agrees to wear the sombrero for a bit.

 

 

We spent time in the pool (salt water!) and the Dup absolutely loved it. If we were in, she had to be in as well, regardless of how tired she was.

 

Sunday I went to church for the first time since before my miscarriage. It helped. It seemed like the priest knew I was there and his homily was so direct to my heart and situation. There are no coincidences was part of the message. He also talked about Stephen Colbert (of all things, as well as JRR Tolkein) who lost his two brothers and father in a plane crash when he was eight years old, which I did not know. Colbert was quoted in an article saying "What she [his mother] taught me is that the deliverance God offers you from pain is not no pain—it’s that the pain is actually a gift." 

 

Pain is a gift. What a powerful message. Thank you.

 

Sunday night we had cake and presents before having to head back home since Ryan had work Monday.

But today I am 28 officially. I am at work, grateful for coworkers who come in on their day off to bring you Dunkin Donuts (thank you Lauren!) and for friends and family blowing up my phone and Facebook to wish me a Happy Birthday.

 

Life will keep moving forward.... just send some good thoughts/prayers my way if you can spare them please. And thank you Lord for another trip around the sun.

Easter

Like most of our holidays lately, Ryan and I had a quiet Easter at home. Even though Ryan was not in cycle, he was naturally on the range, so travelling with our work schedules wasn't really an option. I am still trying to earn back leave time from my surgery in January! Bein sick has not been my friend. As you may remember, recently I wrote I mentioned I was getting an endoscopy done. Fortunately my biopsies were all negative, no bacteria or cancer or anything like that. I did have some gastritis and duodenitis as well as some severe bile reflux. Not acid, bile. Ugh. So I am on a new medication that I have to take three times a day to see if it helps prevent my attacks and general nausea. Naturally a side effect of the medicine is nausea, so I have had some yucky moments again, but I am trying to go a few weeks to see if it truly helps. No idea what my options are beyond this though!

 

Anyway, Easter. I went to Holy Thursday mass at the church on base by myself (as Ryan is Baptist this is a normal thing for us! The Triduum is pretty uber Catholic). Good Friday I sadly had to work and could not attend mass. Ryan and I went out for seafood that evening and ended up having some really good conversations. Saturday we scrambled like crazy to get things done so Easter Sunday we wouldn't have to do chores. We cleaned the house top to bottom, discovered a leak under our kitchen sink and repaired it, did laundry and grocery shopping all in time for the Easter Vigil mass that evening. The vigil is hands down my favorite mass of the year. Yes, it is long mass and my husband is a saint for putting up with me to go! We had seven people baptised, four convert from other branches of Christianity and a total of thirteen people confirmed. I am always teary during that part! It is a beautiful thing.

 

We got home that evening and made our pisanki. Ryan is getting to be quite good aafter being with me all these years! His are on the left and mine are on the right.

 

Our pisanki/pisanky (depending on your spelling!)

We were up pretty late but still didn't sleep in too much Easter Sunday. We had a nice lazy day of watching movies and opening the Easter basket my mom sent us. After awhile it got too lazy for Ryan and we decided to go out and play tennis. It was my first time doing anything particularly strenuous (aside from hiking or walking the dog) since I got sick back in October. I did alright but man am I out of shape! After a few hours we came home and I made the pierogies I had been saving for a special occassion. They have sat in the freezer from our last trip to New Jersey and are the made from scratch pierogies my Babci made.... so they are uber special! We had that with her babka bread that I also unfroze as well as a ring of kielbasa Ryan grilled for us.

 

Our neighbors also shared a special Easter treat with us. He found some baby bunnies abandoned on his job site and did not want to leave them. They all waited for the mother to come back but there was no sign of her. He brought them home for the evening and they decided to feed them and care for them for the evening until they could bring them to a wildlife shelter the next day. What that meant for us was that we were able to cuddle some furry little baby bunnies who had barely opened their eyes!

 

They were so cute and tiny and they made the tiniest little jumps. They had four of them total and I loved being able to snuggle them, even though it was pretty brief. A friend of mine recommended a good place to take them and the next day our neighbors dropped them off.

 

Monday we went back to work but that evening my brother came to visit us for our Spring Break! The Dup is in heaven, Uncle Stefan is her best buddy, and I am pretty psyched my baby brother is here for the week. Even though I work during the day we have been having some pretty awesome adventures at night and I hope we can get a beach day in before he goes. I hope you all had a Happy Easter and warmer weather is officially headed your way.

Easter 2014

Happy Easter!

For the first time I can remember I am working on Easter Sunday. It has been extremely quiet here at the library, but we have had patrons... at least 30-40 have been in throughout the day. Most people were just using the computers to print something out but it has been extremely quiet at the circulation desk. I have caught up on a lot of projects, practiced for my interview Tuesday, and cleared the carts of books we had up here. It is definitely different from a usual weekend here! I also had a very interesting lecture by an elderly gentleman about Crucifixion. I suppose wearing my Catholic University hoodie sort of set me up for that one...

Last night Ryan and I attended the Easter Vigil service. Usually it is my favorite mass of the year. I love watching the chuch flicker in candle light, hearing the Genesis readings, the gorgeous music and people entering the church for the first time through baptism or confirmation. I was spoiled growing up in a beautiful and welcoming church. My mom was our parish secretary and I knew almost everyone. I was a lector (reader) at mass from my teenage years through adulthood and I altar served and sang in the choir as a kid. It is the church I made my first communion, reconciliation, confirmation and got married in. It was home. I don't think I will ever feel so connected to a parish again, I hope I will, but I have yet to find it. Neither Virginia nor North Carolina have yet. At all.

The vigil service was long, I mean way longer than normal, nearly three hours. The music was alright but most of it unfamiliar... a reading was read twice and one was skipped (hey, I pay attention!) and Ryan and I were both starving by the end. The most beautiful part for me was the RCIA candidates. We had ten... ten.... people baptized into the church ranging from 6 to 60 years old. It was beautiful! Plus another seven on top of that received first communion and confirmation... seventeen people solidified their faith last night in my presence and I cried tears of joy witnessing it. Like I said, beautiful. But I was also homesick for the church I grew up in and missing the familiar as well as my family. I missed having a small reception with my church of cookies and other things late in the evening after the vigil... a trip to Buffalo Wild Wings isn't usually the most Easter-y of celebrations! I miss kielbasa and pierogies (even though there may be some in my freezer from Babci... hm... I'll have to check that out).

This is the first Easter I have spent without my parents and brother. Working this weekend made the trip impossible for either of us. I know I am an adult and married, but when your whole life centers around some traditions and familiarity it is hard to let go sometimes. This was the one holiday we always managed to make work, even since I have been married... but not this year. I know, one of many in my future, but it is still a little sad. I am so grateful Ryan made pisanki with me and accompanied me to mass (especially since he isn't Catholic, I know it isn't a walk in the park for him) and I appreciate it so much.

My heart is just a little heavier this year during a time it is usually flying and singing. I love Easter, what it means in my faith and family, but this year it is just hovering a little lower.

I didn't intend to sound so gloomy and down in this post, my apologies. I hope you all had a wonderful weekend and a Happy Easter (if you celebrate).

Europe - Valencia

Day 6 - Valencia, Spain

I loved Valencia! It was a gorgeous day, I was finally not feeling sick anymore and we had a really great time. The weather was beautiful too. The funny thing about travelling in the winter is that it looks like Ryan and I wore the same things basically every day. Jeans, boots, and a peacoat. This is proof we did change our clothes, I promise!

I had a friend in college who did a semester in Valencia so I had a whole list of places to see and foods to try and I felt really prepared for this stop. The ship had a shuttle into Valencia that you were able to charge back to your cabin (hooray!) so we took that into the main town.

Naturally Ryan and I decided to walk around. Right near where the shuttle dropped us off was The Rio. At one point it was indeed a river, but it is now a large park with jogging trails and trees, art and play equipment that snakes through the city.

Knowing we'd come back to the Rio we decided to head into the city itself a bit more. Sunshine and orange trees galore. Ryan barely pauses when I take pictures so I have the elusive husband in his unnative habitat below... ;)

Ok I still had my jacket on at first, but it really warmed up as the day went on. Look at that blue sky! Oh just writing this and looking at the pictures makes me want to go back. It was very tempting to pick an orange and try them but they were just too high. And it is a pretty good thing we didn't bother early on... someone may have tried later in the trip. When I write about Mallorca you will see!

As we wandered we saw the bell tower to the cathedral off in the distance and decided to head that way.

Luckily the church was free to enter, so naturally we went inside and explored a little bit. It did cost money to climb the bell tower but we decided to stick with the main part of the church. There were some truly beautiful statues in there that caught my eye instantly. Especially the Madonna one below.

After we left the church we wandered into what was known as the Regala, whis was a large circular shopping area around a fountain. They had stores in the buildings that made the outter ring but also kiosks in another inner ring with the fountain like a center point.

I also could not resist taking pictures in the window of this store. The Christening gowns they had in there were so unbelieveably beautiful. Ryan naturally saw that and started saying we should start a family since I am gooing over Christening gowns I am obviously ready. Men :P

The back side of the Cathedral near the Regala

After we walked around a bit and took a small rest at this fountain in one of the plazas. There were tons of orange trees dotted around and the fountain had a lot of oranges floating in there. I am curious to know if there was a significance to having oranges in this fountain or if people just tossed them in there because they could. I didn't see that anywhere else so if any one knows about Valencia and a fountain you're supposed to throw oranges into please let me know!

Naturally another bridal store. See how gorgeous the gowns are???

Now I knew we had to take a cab to get to the part of Valencia known as the City of Arts and Sciences. We had some Euros on us so we hailed a cab and I got to put my Spanish to good use. Our cab driver spoke no English at all so I really got to use my Spanish and it worked! Ryan actually looked suitably impressed... I believe his exact words were, "Wow, I didn't think you really knew useful Spanish! That sounded good. Now what did he say?" Thanks my love. So we arrived at the City of Arts and Sciences which have all sorts of museums and the like, a planetarium and aquarium and more. Plus the architecture is stunning!!

Ryan insisted on this picture for a change.... it's a rooster thing.

All the different buildings.

They seemed to be filming some sort of either sci fi movie or a commercial or something so I had to be nosey and go look! Think of how the citizens of the capital dressed in the Hunger Games and that is how all these people were dressed. Add in the background of the blue screen plus the weird buildings my guess isn't too far off I'd gather!

We did briefly flirt with the idea of going in to the aquarium but then realized it would be almost $85 to do that for the both of us! No thank you. We were content to walk through the main halls of the science museum and then walk around the buildings. And right behind the buildings themselves was The Rio (the park mentioned at the top of my entry) so we walked back through there a little while.

We walked a bit before deciding to get in a cab to the Plaza de Virgen where my friend recommended we find something to eat. We settled in an outdoor cafe conveniently named the Cafeteria de Virgen and had some extremely delicious food!!

Plaza de Virgen

The view of the plaza was very pretty, tons of school kids on a field trip playing, and we had a very good lunch! We started with some fried calamari that was so tender and delicious. Naturally we ordered the patatas bravas again, they were better than in Barcelona but still not the best we ever had.

We were told we had to try paella in Valencia as that was basically where it began. We got a meat/carne paella that had chicken and rabbit in it. To be honest I was nervous about trying rabbit, I haven't ever eaten it before and I had pet rabbits growing up but I usually will try anything once when it comes to food. It was ok, but I don't see the need for me to eat a lot more rabbit in the future! The paella itself overall was delicious though.

 

For dessert my friend told us we had to try churros con chocolat and we struck gold at this restaurant! Their churros were hand made (so totally worth the wait) and the hot chocolate that you dip it in was amazing. It was thicker than hot chocolate but not overly sweet or syrupy. It was just so so delicious. You can see in the photo below how thick it is on Ryan's churro in the background. YUM. Hot chocolate is forever ruined for me because of the awesomeness of European hot chocolate.

 

We also had to drink Aqua de Valencia, which was an extremely refreshing drink. It was orange, sugar, alcohol, fizzy, cold goodness! And the glass they served it in was huge! I enjoyed picking out the orange sections from mine and eating them that way.

After eating we had to walk back to the shuttle and go back to the ship but we truly loved our time in Valencia.

Back on the ship we listened to this super talented piano player who we tried to catch every night after that.... he sounded like Michael Buble and Billy Joel all rolled into one and was just fantastic. We had dinner in one of the ship restaurants that evening and the regional specialty was, you guessed it, paella! So that was my dinner as well. After dinner we went and saw an acrobat show by a Polish couple Dorota and Renaldo, they were incredible! Both professional ballet dancers they fell in love, married, had a daughter and then got into acrobatics. They did strength poses, ribbon climbing and spinning and flying and it was insane how good they were.

Up next - a surprise stop in Mallorca!




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