I Just Love the Holidays

After taking a few days to recuperate from the holidays and play video games, I am ready to relive our wonderful holidays... filled with family, presents and food binging.  Here are just a few of my favorite highlights of the holidays. 

1.) FAMILY I have to say my family is quite wonderful.  I love the holidays because it brings everyone together.  One of my brother's and his family lives in Washington, D.C. and with me in Long Island, we don't get to see each other enough.

Let it be noted: These are NOT Vasana's real glasses.  They simply look fashionable and entertain a baby when it comes to diaper changing time!   

It is a lot of fun watching my nieces and nephews  play together.  Kayla and Matthew are a year apart, so they become pretty much inseparable.
 It reminds me when I was young and how excited I was for my cousins to come visit so we could all play "hide and seek" in the dark. I will always have fond memories of being terrified when it was my turn to be the seeker and then Brian popping out of the washing machine, he always had the best hiding spots.  Not sure my poor mother always appreciated this game as the house was also completely destroyed during our sprints to get to "base."

 2.) PRESENTS!  I would totally be lying if I said I did not love the present aspect of Christmas but I do!  I know that the holidays are supposed to be about the spirit, and blah blah but I LOVE giving and receiving presents.  I love the purchasing, wrapping, and just seeing the look on people's faces when you get the perfect gift.  I take pride in the later and  often get carried away, hence Dan having "12 days of Christmas."  It is just way too much fun!   

 Note from Paws: He likes them too.

 Personal Present Highlights:
- Rachel Ray cookbooks we gave to Stan and Brian's families that give ideas for how to involve kids in the dinner preparation  My secret way of ensuring that my nieces and nephews know how to cook when the holidays are at their houses. 
- Giving my mom tickets to see Memphis.  This is also our way of conning her into visiting us in Long Island.  Well, I need someone to play scrabble with!

-WATCHES! Dan got a super cool watch from Heidiclaus but I also got a superest cool watch from my parents.  Mine is cooler because it has a built in pedometer.  I think this is the year of watches, seeing as my nephew, Chris and my friend, Lauren both got them as well.
-Clothes! I know, not the most exciting gift, but we got ones that were well picked out and at least its better than a gift card...right?  

And we got some great gifts. We got a Zagat Dinner for two gift card so that Dan and I can eat some good NYC food.  I also got an mp3 player for swimming, which I am charging now and hope to test soon... so exciting.  Dan got well stocked with clothing and I got well stocked with conditioner.  Conditioner? you might think... but for someone with hair that dreads over night good conditioner is a god-send.     Also, I got a tablet from Dan.  This one is particularly great because our next purchase is going to be the keyboard that clips right in.  Then watch-out world, I will be able to blog from anywhere!   Hey, I already admitted that I love getting gifts...  Really someone please introduce me to the person who doesn't and I will gladly take notes.  

3.) Capturing family photos. A little explanation... Every year I make my parents and Dan a calendar filled with photos from the past year. It is time consuming, but I have fun doing it because it reminds be of all these great memories.  When I am motivated its also a gift for my brothers and their families for Christmas. 
 The holidays offer a perfect time to snag some good ones. Like this one of my brother Stanley and his family. 

But you have to be careful, you never know when I am going to sneak a good one!

I think the camera just likes others...

Holiday Remodeling?

I have to first apologize for the major delay in writing.  It wasn't until I signed on that I noticed that it has been practically a month since posting.  I officially completed the Endocrine system, not a personal favorite but completed none the less.  I can not believe that I am almost done with the "academic portion" of medical school.  And... as lame as this is to admit I am excited to take my board exams in the spring.  Basically it means that if and when I pass I will be 1/3 of my way towards being a licensed doctor!  So exciting and scary.  In addition to all the school stuff, there has been all the Christmas stuff: the making of cards, purchasing of gifts, wrapping of gifts, cookie and muffin making, and helping my parent's with their tree. Exhausting but so much fun!

But that is not what this post is about.   This post is about our Christmas REMODELING! 

Introducing our new couch!  Thanks greatly to my parents (for their Christmas contribution) and Dan's creative ability to fit a square peg in a round hole (or a couch through a tiny door in the rain) we got a new couch.  It is perfect for us with two recliners and a middle part that drops down with cup holders.  When Dan and I went looking for a couch it was at the first place we went to and was the fifth couch we saw, but we fell in love with it... definitely no regrets. 
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Paws also appreciates the new couch.  It offers him a perfect place to study... he is soon to be Paws, D.O.

 Dan also got to sexify his desk with new monitors and new computer speakers (his old ones had just celebrated their 15th birthday).  These were two of his"12 Days of Christmas" presents that I had prepared.  The gift giving was supposed to start on the 13th, but someone (not sure if it was Dan or myself) got too excited and we started a little earlier.  Someone had also been anticipating his gifts after accidentally clicking and stumbling upon our amazon account recent purchases!  He made Heidiclaus' naughty list with that. 

The addition of a new couch and the anticipation of guests coming over for dinner motivated us, welly mainly Dan to do some cleaning of our dining/hobby room.  I wish I had before pictures.  Instead a before description.  The room contained an extra desk and an extra mattress.  We also had a bunch of boxes from Dan's house scattered about.  It was a little crowded...

 And the AFTER photo... Both of our bikes our now hanging from the ceiling which definitely adds space.  We gave away both the desk and the mattress and put our old futon in their place.  In addition on the table is one of my Christmas presents from Dan... a giant scrabble board!  I am absolutely in love with it.  Not only is it huge but it has grooves so the pieces don't move when it swivels. 

In addition we actually got kitchen chairs!  My mom and I dropped off some clothes at Goodwill and in the process we picked up four matching chairs!  Not only are they beautiful but the price was right.  Not to brag but the grand total was $8.47.    I love a good deal!

We now have an incredible apartment that I am enjoying greatly.  Paws likes it too!