Christmas in Tennessee was nice. There was lots of great food, the bar was stocked to an insane level--grandpa, do you really need 7 bottles of vodka?? (the family tradition of offering up cocktails before dinner, after dinner, and whenever you felt like it was very much upheld). Not to say that my fam drinks a lot, because we don't, my grandparents just like to offer drinks at any available opportunity. Their house is beautiful. It sits right on the lake and is perfectly tranquil. I can't wait to go back this summer and enjoy the warmer weather and the perks associated with their pontoon boat. You may not believe it, but these kids know how to party on their pontoon boats. The residents meet out in the middle of the lake and tie their pontoon boats together to make one long fiesta barge complete with a "drink" boat, "grill" boat, and "desert" boat. People walk from boat to boat socializing, drinking and eating. The retired community definitely knows how to have a good time :)
At one point Jess, Josh and I drove down to Atlanta to take care of some stuff and visit with Mike and his new wife Laura. I had forgotten how horrible Atlanta traffic is! No joke, way worse than Detroit. Luckily grandpa let me borrow his pimped-out Ford Excursion for the journey. There's nothing like a big, black SUV to pursuade people to MOVE THEIR SLOW ASSES OUT OF THE LEFT HAND LANE!! Ohio drivers are the worst--they just don't get that the left hand lane is for passing, not piddling along. When we hit Atlanta the weather was 62 degrees and sunny, which led Jess and I to ask ourselves why in the world we left......until we heard it: our first reintroduction to the southern accent. Oh. my. goodness. And I'm not talking about the pretty southern-belle accent. I'm talking about the SOUTHERN accent that predominates. Ugh. I do love Atlanta....
After a brief visit in Tennessee again, we started the 9 hour road trip back to Michigan, arriving just in time for New Year's Eve with Kyle and his friends in Detroit. I was able to spend some quality time with Kyle and we had a really, really good time....there's a funny pic below :) We went to Summerset mall to shop around, I saw where he grew up, met his family, and when we were eating a (very late) breakfast at the Original Pancake House New Year's Day we saw Hamilton from the Pistons....I'm ashamed to say I would have had no idea who he was if Kyle hadn't pointed him out.
In the few days before school starts back up I have successfully submitted my PhD application, used all of my Christmas gift cards, and have tried to get organized for my last semester as a grad student. I keep forgetting that I have to do my thesis this semester...that's probably a bad thing. Gotta get that done.
Here are some pics from my vacation:
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