Home for the Holidays

Hello everyone! I hope you all had a fantastic holiday and are starting the new year off on a great foot. Since going home for break everything has been kind of hectic, and to be honest, I much preferred spending time with friends and family instead of communicating with them via blog. I hope you will forgive me.
Anyway! I am currently writing to you all from the floor of the Philadelphia airport. Yes that's right, the airport curse continues, and it just keeps getting weirder. The situation: a flight attendant has gotten sick and was needed to take off the airport. The solution to this problem? Wait 1 hr to 1.5 hrs for a back-up flight attendant. While I realize that no matter what your job is, you get sick, I have NEVER heard of this happening to ANYONE else. Oh well, I have a very long layover in Madrid, so maybe it's good thing to eat up some of that time. Thankfully the Philly airport does offer free wifi, albeit the slowest that I have ever encountered... Okay, I promise I'll stop complaining now.
So, this trip all started back on December 22nd, with an ungodly wake-up hour, somewhere around 5 AM I believe. Europe handled itself very well, and I had no issues/delays until I got to DC. I had to sit on the plane for about an hour, but eventually the short flight to Boston took off, and before I knew it I was sleepwalking down the elevator into the arms of my parents. They probably were expecting me to act a little more excited to see them, but I think I had just gotten to the 22nd hour of traveling, so they were understanding. The next day was just a day to catch up and see friends who I hadn't seen since August, and then it was Christmas Eve.
Now for those of you who don't know, Christmas Eve is HUGE in my family. 40 people at the house, every casserole imaginable, seared tuna, pickled fish, steak, ham, sausage... Basically everything you could imagine is laid out on that table. Oh and did I mention that Santa comes? That's right, Mr. Clause himself has made his FIRST stop of the night at the Carlson party for the past 20+ years. Basically it was just a great time to see all of my family and eat some delicious food after being away from them for 4 months. Christmas day just continues with family and food, and oh yeah, presents too.

The 26th consisted of my dad and I's annual Christmas decoration shopping spree. Due to the impending storm we had to do a quick and mini version, but we actually got some quality stuff and a pretty good amount too. That night, despite the storm, my friends and I had a little Christmas party and gift exchange. Not everyone could make it, which makes a gift exchange hard, but it was a lot of fun. We also decided to do a plaid theme, which made us look like quite a rugged crew. After the gathering I slept over at Sarahs house and we did some catching up. In the morning Laurel came over and we watched a movie, so that was a fun relaxing time. Of course as soon as I returned home, the shoveling commenced.
**Update** I'm not writing to you from my bedroom in La Coruña. After a lot of traveling and a 6 hour time change, I am back, in one piece, and with all of my luggage!
The next day was the 28th and was my big Massachusetts day! I left in the morning and swung by South Windsor to grab my friend Kelly and we headed up to Holy Cross. We were dropping my car up there in the morning before going to Boston, because we were going to stop there later in the night (more on that to come). It turned out that Sarah and her boyfriend, Chase, were going up to Boston too, so they picked us up at Holy Cross and we drove into the city with them. I have to say, it was like an out of body experience to be back at Holy Cross. Seeing the new dorms being built, walking into Hogan Campus Center, seeing Coolbeans (the coffee shop) open. Very very strange and surreal. Once we got to Boston we met up with Dani, who is going to be my roommate next year! It was a ton of fun with good food, some shopping, and tons of catching up. Later in the afternoon Kelly and I left on the train towards Worcester. There was a basketball game going on, and our friend Joe was doing the radio announcing. We only got to watch the last 15 mins of the game, and they lost, but it was still fun to feel some of that purple pride energy in the gym. After the game, Kelly, Joe, his brother and I went to Moes for some late night Mexican food, which is always delicious.
Okay, so I have lost all memory of what I did on tthe 29th. Or maybe I'm mixing up my days? Anyway, I think it was the 30th that I went to a new japanese restaurant which offers a fixed price all you can eat menu of sushi and buffet. So that was really fun! I also got my nails done, met with my "Aunt" Kathy for some Starbucks, and then casually drove down to Mohegan Sun. My friend Mike who lives in Worcester, was going down there with some of his friends, and since we hadn't been able to meet up the other day when I was at Holy Cross we decided to get together. It was kind of frustrating though, because I learned that the majority of the restaurants in the Casino won't even let you sit in a chair if you're not 21! Ridiculous. They're not going to be handing me free alcohol, I won't be ordering it, so I don't see the issue. Spain could teach them a thing or two. We did find a place to eat though, and we had a good time. He was a junior last year, but he did a 3 + 2 engineering program, so he started at Columbia in the fall, so we both had some transitions to make this semester.

The 31st was New Years Eve! Chase had a party at his house which was a lot of fun. All of our friends were there, including some that I hadn't seen since the summer or longer, and Chase's friends were there too. Sarah, Laurel, Kristin and I all got together at Kristin's house first and got ready together which was fun. There were a lot of people, good food, good drink, just an all together good time! We slept over and the next morning helped Chase clean up his basement. Imagine a snowglobe filled with confetti. That's what his basement looked like. The vacuum filter had to be emptied frequently, but at least it looked festive instead of just dust mights! The rest of the day was spent relaxing/sleeping/watching TV until around 6 when I picked up Kristin and we headed to my Aunt and Uncle's house to watch the Uconn bowl game. Even though Uconn got crushed it was fun to hang out with the fam again, and introduce them to Kristin. Turns out her Dad knows my aunt's ex-boyfriend. Small world.
The next morning I the Dalys and some friends came over for a casual brunch, before Dad and I headed off to New York. I had an interview there the next day, so we wanted to keep things as calm as possible by going the day before and staying the night. Most memorable part of the trip? Eating the best steak ever. Seriously, it's not an exaggeration. Amazing dinner.
The rest of my break consisted of interviews, packing, and good byes. It was a busy end to an amazing break. I'm so glad that I was able to do so much, and see everyone. It was also great to hear about how many people are actually reading this blog. I want to thank you so much for that, and I hope you know how much it means to me that people actually care and love me enough to check up on this. I'm really going to try and update it more for the rest of the semester. I can't wait for whatever is in store for me! I'm sure this semester is going to be absolutely amazing, and I will make sure to keep you updated!