Christmas Day #3: St. Petersburg

Smile!

What is it... What is it...

I think I know what this is....

I think he took smile to a whole new level..

So this means I have to cook now?

Day Three... the journey continues... Christmas Day. Aside from the sweltering weather that exists only in the confines of my grandmother's house, it was a typical Christmas morning. I woke up relatively early because I never tend to sleep very well in the heat. One of the things that I love about Christmas is the joke telling by my dad. As my mom and I were sitting on the couch, my dad makes the comment, "So I was hoping to wake up to the smell of cinnamon and delicious breakfast and yet there seems to be something lacking in the air." Giggling my mom says, "Mark, are you suggesting that I was going to make you something for breakfast?" Then the classic "I was hoping you were going to make cinnamon rolls" look appears. Classic..

Once everyone was up and around, we opened the first wave of gifts from the Heidt family. I finally got to open the flat gift that Ricky had purchased for me and to my surprise, it was the best gift ever... tickets to go see Robin Williams at the UCF Arena. I was extremely excited, especially since I didn't think we could afford them. It was great! Everyone's gifts were wonderful and if I had to make an assumption I would say that everyone was pleased with the thought put into all of the gifts. I know I did. 

After relaxing for the rest of the morning, my aunt and cousins came over to the house for dinner and then the second wave of presents.. this time from the Greenberg side. My aunt being the creative mind that she is devised an ingenious gift strategy that involved clues to correspond with the letters of our names. I think the most ingenious clue was for Ricky's letter "I".. on the little card she wrote "Fe" the symbol for Iron on the periodic table. His gift was of course the Iron Man DVD. I thought it was great. I actually saved all the cards for Ricky and I so that I can put them in my scrapbook. 

Overall, Christmas day was a great success and I know everyone enjoyed the time that we were able to spend together for the holidays. My mom and I of course went out shopping with my aunt the following day to get all the sales for after Christmas and I know that next year will be even better than this one as long as I have my friends and family around me. I love you all and I enjoyed every second of our 3 days of Christmas! 

Christmas Day #2: Port Orange

Yeah.. so I feel really silly because I didn't take a single picture on Day 2 of our Christmas, but we had an amazing day. 

The day over all didn't start overly well because I had to go into work at 5am. Unfortunately, the manager on duty decided not to come in until 6am, so I was left once again to sit in the parking lot for an hour, which only made me more tired. Once we got into the store we figured we had 2 hours to get everything ready and organized, but at 7am an announcement comes over the intercom saying that the store was open. To my dismay, my groove was instantly thrown off for the rest of the morning. Work in general was same old same old, but unlike other days, I had to spend more time listening to customers tell me how I was ruining their child's Christmas and that they hoped I was happy that their child was going to cry. All I could think was, first of all, I don't know your child and second I didn't promise them diddly squat. What they don't seem to realize is that they are the ones who promised their children something before they had them and on top of that Santa is most likely the one they will be disappointed in (aka Mom and Dad). Even though I know that their complaints are not valid in the slightest, being yelled at multiple times before 9am on Christmas Eve is not exactly what you would call holiday cheer. 

After the disaster at work of being yelled at, I made my way home and we headed out to Port Orange. Aside from the fact that we left one of Kristine's gifts at the house and had to turn around to get it, the trip was fairly smooth. 

When we got to Port Orange, we had a delicious dinner. I love pirogis and of course we had fish (I had chicken), broccoli and cheese, and potatoes. Delicious! For dessert we had cheesecake... and you can't really go wrong with cheesecake. 

After dinner, we exchanged gifts. One of the special gifts we made this year, were photo books for Ricky's mom, Ricky's grandma, my mom, and my aunt. Each one was personalized for the individual who was receiving it. For Ricky's mom, we made a book of photos from the cruise we went on in May of this year. It had the itinerary as well as pictures from throughout our trip. The one for Ricky's grandma contained older images from her younger years. In order to get the photos from her we had to tell a little fib. We said that we wanted to preserve the photos since they were getting older. She was totally surprised. I also had to promise that she would be buried with that book when the time came. I take that as a huge and precious compliment. All of the gifts were wonderful and as a matter of fact, Ricky and I are going to go to IKEA tomorrow to see what we can get for the wonderful gift card we received from his parents. Yay IKEA! I think everyone liked their gifts and there was so much thought and love put into everything that I know we all appreciate everything. 

After presents we all changed and headed to church. Christmas Eve is always a rough service for me because there will always be a song that will cause me to cry. Normally, its the song that occurs when the lights are turned down low and is usually one of the more somber songs (O Holy Night or Silent Night are the biggies). This year it was in fact Silent Night. I made it through the first verse and then couldn't continue from there. I think what did it this year was the fact that there was a gentleman seated a few rows in front of us that had a voice in lower register. My friend Bill who passed away many years ago, sang in the choir and had a very low register voice. Of all the people singing in the church, that one gentleman is the one I heard above the rest. That was it for me. I was done. This time of year, I really miss him and my grandfather and between the two I knew the tears were inevitably. The service was lovely though and Ricky's mom and sister did an excellent job in the choir and playing the bells.  

After the service, we left and headed to St. Pete. Normally, the trip takes about 3 hours, but we made great time and got there in 2 hours and 15 minutes. It was nice to be able to get there quickly so that we could get into bed. After all, it was a long day... and Christmas wasn't over yet.. one day left! 

Christmas Day #1: Orlando

Ricky opening a present on Christmas Eve Eve

Kenneth and Kristine enjoying some Chinese Food

Yay! Horton Hears a Who.. and the stuffed Horton Too!

Someone was excited...

Mmmmm.. Chinese food!

So we decided that one day of Christmas just wasn't enough so we decided to extend it over the course of three days. This meant that Tuesday December 23rd was the first day of our Christmas this year. 

Tuesday, Ricky, myself, Kenneth and Kristine decided to have our version of a Christmas Story Christmas. We went out to Panda Express and got our chinese takeout and sang Fa Ra Ra Ra Ra Ra Ra Ra Ra Ra.. all the way home. Then we exchanged all but one gift each since we didn't want to have to lug all of our gifts from our house, to St. Pete and then right back to our house. The gifts were plenty and quite honestly we had some of the most creative wrapping jobs I have seen in awhile. For example, Kenneth decided he was going to hide one of Kristine's DVDs in a book like they do in the movies (open the book and there is a hole cut out for a gun or something to go in). I don't think he anticipated how hard cutting that hole was going to be, but needless to say, he managed to make it work. The best part was when Kristine opened the book and was trying to figure out how she could act excited over the gardening book she thought she had received. It was classic. The other popular wrapping job this year was the gift within a gift. I think that made more than one appearance. 

Ricky did an excellent job with my gifts this year. One of the gifts I had to open at my parents house, which was the best (will discuss in a future blog). The gift I opened on Tuesday was a small statuette of Mickey Mouse that looks as though it was drenched in paint. Several years ago Disney had local artists and companies sponsor these 5 foot Mickey statues. They decorated them based on their own theme and they were on display in a traveling exhibit for quite awhile. The little statuette I got was a replica of one of those pieces. It was so great. I have it sitting next to my wedding precious moments on our bookshelf. 

Over all, our first day of Christmas was very successful. The creativity never ceases to amaze me and yet the classics never get old. Only 2 days of Christmas left. 

Free at Last.. Free at Last

Congratulations to Kenneth for proving once again that 

U Can Finish at UCF!

The irony of it all is now that my brother has graduated, I am on my way back in..

Apple Addiction

So recently our family has decided to go on an Apple binge. I think it started to occur right after Ricky found out that they were releasing an iPhone with 3G technology. With his upgrade availability approaching, he was counting down the days until he could get his new toy. Shortly after that news, I decided to start saving up to buy my MacBook since I was going to start school in the spring. So I saved my money that I received from pilot testing and managed to earn more than enough money in the process to pick of my computer. YAY!

The day I bring it home, Ricky decided that he wanted to propose the idea at work that he needed a MacBook Pro for his new position. Granted, it is going to help his job tenfold, but my moment in the spotlight was abruptly crushed (On a positive note though.. I actually get to keep mine). Ultimately, Ricky's computer was approved and he just received it a day or so ago. He was very excited.. one might say giddy... yeah I believe that is the correct term. Ricky also was able to get his iPhone on Monday of this past week. We went to Best Buy after he got home from work and got everything (with a few exceptions) that he needed to protect it for as long as possible. I never realized how hard those invisible shields are to put on, but it took like 10+ minutes for the Best Buy associate to get it on. One thing I will say though is that is was incredibly nice of him to do that since we had been reading that people have had problems getting the air bubbles out. Ricky's does not have any. 

So between Ricky's new computer, his iPhone, and my MacBook, the Currey Clan now has assisted Apple's fight for dominance over the world (Steve Jobs would be proud).  

More Pictures from ICE!

ICE! @ Gaylord Palms

Ricky in the walkway of ice.. he thinks it looks like he is being eaten

Nothing like acting like a penguin to brighten your day..

Ricky and I prior to heading into the exhibit in our parkas

Me in the Ice House

Us on Santa's giant lap

Yea... its COLD.. but oh so cool!

This is quite possibly one of the most unique exhibits I have seen in a long time. Aside from the fact that it is only 9 degrees, the sculptures and attractions are quite entertaining. I mean how can you go wrong with slides carved out of giant blocks of ice? 

Apparently, from what Ricky tells me this exhibit is done every year at the Gaylord Palms and yet this is the first year I can remember ever hearing about it. I think it may have been the fact that we actually saw pictures from friends who went prior to today and we decided it was something we had to check out ( copy cats... maybe.. but I am okay with that). 

Poor Ricky was sans gloves, so his poor fingers were frozen. I on the other hand had nice warm gloves and yet my thumbs still froze. Another member of our party that got a little chilly was my poor camera. I only brought my little camera and apparently it felt that 9 degrees wasn't an appropriate temperature. So every few pictures I shut off the camera and held it between my hands to warm it back up. We still managed to get some great photos though. 

The exhibit has everything from a giant Santa that you can sit on, an entire ice house you can walk into, giant ornaments, winter animals of all sorts, a full nativity scene and of course Santa in shorts next to a gator (it doesn't get much more Florida than that).

It was such a "cool" experience.. (pardon the pun) and although we may not go back every year, it is something everyone should experience at least once... especially Floridians.. if you have never felt 9 degrees, there's no time like the present. 

Flogging Molly Tickets

We actually got them! We got Flogging Molly Tickets this year. Ricky and I typically go to at least one concert in the spring time. In the past we have seen They Might Be Giants and we were supposed to go see Mustard Plug but missed it (thank you SEA Airport). But this year I was actively checking for the date of their concert and was ready when tickets went on sale and sure enough we have tickets!!! After 5 years of trying it has happened. The concert isn't until March, but at least this time we will be able to actually go!

Golf Channel Christmas Party '08

Ricky & I in front of the Christmas Tree at Bay Hill

The Library Crew and their family members

Ricky and I in front of our Christmas Tree before leaving for the party

The ice sculpture above the shrimp.. they didn't have one that said Golf Channel this year..

Very large shrimp.. I know its hard to tell..

It's that time again... time where Golf Channel employees gather together at Bay Hill to eat shrimp the size of your head, sample amazingly prepared food, and drink the night away. Last year I felt a little awkward because Ricky had just started at the Golf Channel and we really didn't know anyone. On top of that, the people Ricky did know, didn't show up. Last year we arrived early and stayed for a couple hours, but didn't stay for the entire night. But this year was different.

This year, even I knew people at the party who don't even work at the Golf Channel. How crazy is that? They just happen to be dating someone who did. It was wonderful to finally put a face to all of the names that I hear so frequently. Ricky mentioned that since I met so many I probably wouldn't remember any of their names, but I would be willing to bet that I would be able to identify most of them by name if asked. I think it helps that I met them all one at a time for the most part and could associate the name and face directly. 

The food was once again the star of the show. It was delicious... wonderful cuts of roast beef, sushi (No I didn't eat it, but you know Ricky did), other various food stations, but my absolute favorite was the station with the heirloom tomatoes and fresh mozzarella. It was delicious and they were able to serve it to me without the balsamic vinegar (since it usually doesn't sit right in my tummy). Ricky, of course, had to have the insanely large shrimp. They are literally the size of your hand. Granted, it is hard to tell from the picture of them since there is no point of reference, but my other picture didn't come out very well. 

We had a lovely evening, but as the hour drew past 11pm we had to head out. I felt so bad having Ricky leave the party (it was only scheduled till 11, but you know how these things work). I unfortunately had to work the following morning at 5am and since the party was a good distance from the house and I was driving home, I needed to head out. I know Ricky didn't mind, but I still felt bad.  

We had a wonderful time actually getting the chance to mingle a bit more this year and I actually got to finally meet some of the people he worked with in the library prior to moving to New Media. Now, when he tells me a story about something or someone, I have a face and a personality to go with the information and that always makes for good story time....

New Pictures from the UCF vs UAB Game... courtesy of Annika

How cute are they???

SEC Championship Game

Ricky and I enjoying the SEC Championship Party

Daryl and Andrea... some of the other pictures they took had Daryl holding a Gator flag...

Carter and Cameron... I think Cameron was foreshadowing Daryl's face for the end of the game

Now as all of you know, Ricky and I both went to UCF and unfortunately our football team decided that 4-8 was an acceptable season record and that the season should end on the 29th of November. But a good group of our friends are actually Gator fans, and for them the season continues to be an exciting one. So this past weekend, Daryl and Andrea invited us over for a party to watch the Championship Game. This game was especially exciting for them because Andrea is a Gator fan and Daryl is a Bama fan. It was truly a house divided. This was also an exciting time for me because we got to meet the twins for the first time. There are so adorable! They were each dressed in one school or the other (Carter in Gator gear and Cameron in Bama gear). It wasn't until Andrea pointed it out that I realized that I actually made the choice as to which baby got to wear what. Before the twins were born, Ricky and I got Build-A-Bears made for the boys and had them personalized. One had a Gator shirt and one a Bama shirt. So Andrea matched the bears to the boys. It was so cute. 

I actually got to hold Cater for a good deal of time and aside from the couple of times he spit up, was all smiles and giggles. The spit up didnt bother me at all, but I think the smell got to Ricky a little. It was so much fun to play with the boys though. Not to mention being able to get together with Daryl and Andrea since we hadn't seen them in awhile. 

It was a great game, and for all of you Gator fans out there you know how it ended, but I was definitely excited about for Andrea (and Patrick) because I know how badly you wanted to win.. and as for Daryl... let's just say they didn't let him live down his smack talk. 

A change in the schedule

One of the things that tends to stink about work is the fact that is interferes with your schedule. I know many of you are saying that work is a priority in a person's schedule, but we must remember that I had been unemployed for quite some time. I was able to do things when I needed to and I wasn't on any kind of schedule. I knew when I needed to get things done and if I needed to run errands, I did. Now don't get me wrong... I am grateful for the being able to finally do something. I needed to be able to help out with the finances and it has definitely made the holiday season a bit easier. At least next week I am on a more consistent schedule which should help out a bit. My schedule has just been thrown off of my routine that I had going that my body has been rebelling against me. I haven;t felt as good recently, but I think with the schedule next week it should get me back on track.

International Auto Show @ the Convention Center

Dodge Challenger... if Ricky had his way, this would be his car

This was the Interceptor... its one of the prototype cars.. I wasn't a huge fan of this one..

Yesterday I experienced my first auto show. Well, I guess typically this is the first larger auto show I have ever been to. Ricky and I have been to the Turkey Rod Run in the past to see the different older cars, but this show was more for the up and coming cars from the different companies. We met up with some friends and walked around to all of the different displays. 

Not having been to a car show before I was a little confused as to the nature and purpose of the show, but one of our friends explained it quite effectively. She explained that if you are in the market for a new car, you could drive around to hundreds of dealerships and search online for your new car, or you could come to the car show, pay $9 bucks and see what all of the companies have to offer. Then you aren't wasting time and gas, but instead, you can really see if you like the cars. The really cool thing about this show is that for the most part you can get into all of the cars and press al the buttons or play with the folding seats to see if you like what the car has to offer. So you can truly decide if you like a vehicle or not. 

After I got over the initial shock that we could actually play with the cars, I started to get a little more into it and actually sat in a few cars that I would never buy in a million years. Reversely, I think we found the next car we are going to get when the time comes (granted it wont be the same car since these are for the next 2 years, but we have an idea of what we are looking for).

All in all it was a fun trip. Ricky said that the show was much smaller than it was in the past, but I have a feeling the economy had something to do with that. Hopefully once things start to pick up again, the shows will get bigger. I definitely think this would be something fun to do on an annual basis.