Christmas Break

Christmas break was awesome!! I got to see tons of friends from college, high school and even one from middle school!  One of the first things I did when I got back to the states was to get a peppermint mocha in the red Starbucks cups.  It was heaven! The barista had no idea why I was so excited.  I guess normal people don't get giddy over Starbucks.

So happy to get my starbucks! 

After being home for one day, I was super anxious to drive again.  So I took off for an epic 5 day roadtrip.  First stop was in Ithaca, where I got to see all of my friends still at Cornell and I got to meet with my favorite Human Ecology administrators. I even went to the December graduation ceremony as an alumni guest!

After Ithaca, I headed to NYC.  I can now check off "driving in NYC" from my bucket list.  I definitely will not be rushing to do it again.  Getting through the tunnels and onto the island was pure chaos! Now  I know why NJ and NYC drivers have such bad road rage. People are scary, scary drivers.   It also didn't help that my GPS hated me. It kept telling me to make this one turn that I couldn't make because of construction and kept rerouting me back to the original place.

Eating beef intestines. YUCK!

Then I was off to NJ to visit my epic, wonderful, amazing roomies from college.  We had tons of fun together. We went shopping, had a wine and cheese night, went to the movies and even tried some exciting food.  We went to a Korean BBQ place that had some interesting food.  I tried shrimp with their heads still on, beef intestines, and beef heart. I figured since I eat strange foods when I am in Dominica, I might as well gives these a try.

After NJ, I went to Philly to visit Amelia and Carter.  It was nice to have to the chance to catch up with them.  Also, they let me loose in Whole Foods which was dangerous! Since I had been deprived of groceries due to living on my third world island. I kept wandering around the store in awe of all the wonderful foods they had.  I behaved myself reasonably well and only bought two random things (a pomelo and egg nog).

11 types of Christmas cookies.

Once I got back to Buffalo, all the Christmas festivities started with the annual Christams cookie baking party!  My friend Krisitn and I baked 11 different kinds of cookies with help from my mom and sister.  All of them turned out delicious!

Then I took my mom Christmas shopping.  We made the mistake of going shopping at Petsmart.  Poor Sindar, my 12-year old German Shepard, received the holiday "present" of a reindeer costume.  I put him in the costume and I don't think he was amused. He lasted only long enough to have a picture taken. Thankfully after I gave him some dog treats he forgave me.