It's hard to believe the year is over. I can still remember last New Year's Eve like it was just a couple of weeks ago! I guess once you're a grown up, time really does fly.
Thursday, December 13, 2012
Holiday Cheer
This past weekend a friend of mine and I co-hosted a holiday party. It was loads of fun and a great way to start off the holiday season. It was nice to have people over and it helped make the holidays a bit more real. It hasn't really felt like Christmas since we have no plans of going home and this party really helped get me in the holiday spirit. I'm trying to look on the bright side of things. Kunal's little sister will be visiting and we're going to my Aunt's for Christmas Eve dinner. We have a friend's New Year's Eve party that we're planning on attending. It should be fun. It is just weird that I'm not off for the entire week between Christmas and New Year's.
It's hard to believe the year is over. I can still remember last New Year's Eve like it was just a couple of weeks ago! I guess once you're a grown up, time really does fly.
It's hard to believe the year is over. I can still remember last New Year's Eve like it was just a couple of weeks ago! I guess once you're a grown up, time really does fly.
Wednesday, December 5, 2012
No More Winter Break
All throughout school and even for the last 3 years since I graduated, I always, always, without a doubt, took time off around Christmas and New Years. Whether it was to go to India or just to go home, I always enjoyed my mini holiday vacation. This year, I'm only off Christmas Eve/Day and New Year's Eve/Day. This has a lot to do with our families being all over the place. My mom is going to Dallas to spend the holidays with my sister (guess I really do know who the favorite child is). Kunal's mom is in India shopping for the wedding. His brother is going to Las Vegas/LA right after Christmas on a boys trip. My dad is coming to NJ for a wedding. So since it was really only Kunal's dad and sister, we invited them to NJ. His dad declined and said he'd go to Charlotte to see the family there. So now we're playing host to a 15 year old girl for two weeks while we try to go about our normal lives.
Being 15 is a tough age. You're too young to drive but too old to be babied by others. Hopefully Kunal will be able to work from home so she isn't stuck watching TV all day bored out of her mind. I'm going to go ahead and assume that I'll be extremely busy with work since there are many, many, many things that need to be done in order to close out the year smoothly. If my coworker was still here, I would probably take off a couple of days just to spend at home but alas, she is not, therefore I cannot.
We plan on going to the city one day. It's the easiest tourist attraction nearby. We'll grab brunch with the cousins and then wander around the city seeing all the fun holiday decorations. We're going to a show that evening called "How 2 B A New Yorker" which sounds hilarious. If you recall, I went to a similar concept show in Paris and I loved it. It helps that there is a catered Italian dinner to accompany the show so that should be great...oh yea, and a cash bar!
Being 15 is a tough age. You're too young to drive but too old to be babied by others. Hopefully Kunal will be able to work from home so she isn't stuck watching TV all day bored out of her mind. I'm going to go ahead and assume that I'll be extremely busy with work since there are many, many, many things that need to be done in order to close out the year smoothly. If my coworker was still here, I would probably take off a couple of days just to spend at home but alas, she is not, therefore I cannot.
We plan on going to the city one day. It's the easiest tourist attraction nearby. We'll grab brunch with the cousins and then wander around the city seeing all the fun holiday decorations. We're going to a show that evening called "How 2 B A New Yorker" which sounds hilarious. If you recall, I went to a similar concept show in Paris and I loved it. It helps that there is a catered Italian dinner to accompany the show so that should be great...oh yea, and a cash bar!
Monday, December 3, 2012
Thanksgiving
The rest of November was such a whirlwind that before I knew it, I'm in December! The week after Boston, one of my co-workers broker her ankle! Typically she is my back up for when I'm gone and I'm hers when she is out. This is okay when one of us is out for a day or two...but now that I've taken over all her responsibilities, work is insanely busy! I shortened my Thanksgiving trip just so I could work a half day the Wednesday before. After working ten days straight, I was beyond ready to get home to NC and relax with nothing but food on my mind.
We left NJ at 1:30 and arrived home a little after 10pm. Not too bad considering we stopped for gas and got stuck in a bit of traffic here and there. Once we were settled in at home, I stayed up with my family and we finally watched Dostana, a Bollywood film that came out in 2008. Better late than never, right?
When Thursday arrived, I was more than happy. Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday and I was beyond ready to eat some delicious food made by my sister. For lunch, we had Bojangle's because no visit to the South is complete without some sweet tea and cajun fries! People slowly started to trickle in as the day went on. The food was awesome, as usual. Aside from the regular turkey, we have mini stuffed baked potatoes, chipotle black bean soup, cheesy jalapeno corn bread, some sort of salad, mushroom and leek stuffing, macaroni and cheese, a cheese plate, and for dessert, an apple crumble strudel thing. It was well worth the three years that I had to wait. After dinner and dessert were wrapped up, we went over my wedding invitations so I could have them all addressed and ready to go. It wasn't nearly as bad as I thought it would be. Probably because I was lazy and didn't leave a slot for the name to be written in and provided a website for RSVP'ing instead of cards to mail back.
Friday, Kunal and I were going to Charlotte with his little sister for a get-together his family was having. On the way, we stopped at Zaxby's for lunch because that is another Southern staple of good fried chicken. Then we made it to Kunal's aunt's place where there was a bunch of people coming over for dinner. As usual, the adults had one room and the kids were all gathered in the other. After dinner, Kunal and I wanted to go downtown to meet up with friends. As usual, we ended up at Crave and then I left to go to Suite to see some of my friends. The night ended with late night food from Pita Pit which I don't think I had since 2010 before I moved up to NJ!
Saturday, after enjoying the breakfast buffet that the Doubletree offered, we were off to a family friend's house for a late lunch. This auntie makes awesome pani puri and manchurian. I had this the last time I was at their house and was thrilled to have it again! I could seriously eat pani puri all day every day...okay maybe not every day but definitely all day every now and then. =D We left the Charlotte aread around 3:30/4 and started our drive up to Chapel Hill where we were having dinner at my aunt's house. I hadn't been to her place since my sister's mendhi which she hosted. They have this new awesome media/play room. The kids have a Kinect which is super fun to play. We all took turns playing this river rafting game and I'm not surprised at all that Kunal and I were the best. Haha.
Sunday, we had to drop my sister and brother-in-law off at the airport. Then we ran a few errands before settling in at the house for the rest of the day. The break was such a whirlwind of travelling that it was hard to believe it was over already. Monday was our day of travel up to Philadephia. For our one year, I got Kunal tickets to a MNF game where the Panthers were playing the Eagles. It was a long drive but the game was very fun! Thank goodness we won! The temperature wasn't too good and our seats were awesome! We arrived at our house about 2:30am and boy was I tired! I finally feel fully recovered after this last weekend.
We left NJ at 1:30 and arrived home a little after 10pm. Not too bad considering we stopped for gas and got stuck in a bit of traffic here and there. Once we were settled in at home, I stayed up with my family and we finally watched Dostana, a Bollywood film that came out in 2008. Better late than never, right?
When Thursday arrived, I was more than happy. Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday and I was beyond ready to eat some delicious food made by my sister. For lunch, we had Bojangle's because no visit to the South is complete without some sweet tea and cajun fries! People slowly started to trickle in as the day went on. The food was awesome, as usual. Aside from the regular turkey, we have mini stuffed baked potatoes, chipotle black bean soup, cheesy jalapeno corn bread, some sort of salad, mushroom and leek stuffing, macaroni and cheese, a cheese plate, and for dessert, an apple crumble strudel thing. It was well worth the three years that I had to wait. After dinner and dessert were wrapped up, we went over my wedding invitations so I could have them all addressed and ready to go. It wasn't nearly as bad as I thought it would be. Probably because I was lazy and didn't leave a slot for the name to be written in and provided a website for RSVP'ing instead of cards to mail back.
Friday, Kunal and I were going to Charlotte with his little sister for a get-together his family was having. On the way, we stopped at Zaxby's for lunch because that is another Southern staple of good fried chicken. Then we made it to Kunal's aunt's place where there was a bunch of people coming over for dinner. As usual, the adults had one room and the kids were all gathered in the other. After dinner, Kunal and I wanted to go downtown to meet up with friends. As usual, we ended up at Crave and then I left to go to Suite to see some of my friends. The night ended with late night food from Pita Pit which I don't think I had since 2010 before I moved up to NJ!
Saturday, after enjoying the breakfast buffet that the Doubletree offered, we were off to a family friend's house for a late lunch. This auntie makes awesome pani puri and manchurian. I had this the last time I was at their house and was thrilled to have it again! I could seriously eat pani puri all day every day...okay maybe not every day but definitely all day every now and then. =D We left the Charlotte aread around 3:30/4 and started our drive up to Chapel Hill where we were having dinner at my aunt's house. I hadn't been to her place since my sister's mendhi which she hosted. They have this new awesome media/play room. The kids have a Kinect which is super fun to play. We all took turns playing this river rafting game and I'm not surprised at all that Kunal and I were the best. Haha.
Sunday, we had to drop my sister and brother-in-law off at the airport. Then we ran a few errands before settling in at the house for the rest of the day. The break was such a whirlwind of travelling that it was hard to believe it was over already. Monday was our day of travel up to Philadephia. For our one year, I got Kunal tickets to a MNF game where the Panthers were playing the Eagles. It was a long drive but the game was very fun! Thank goodness we won! The temperature wasn't too good and our seats were awesome! We arrived at our house about 2:30am and boy was I tired! I finally feel fully recovered after this last weekend.
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