On The Verge of Tears

Monika and I worked our asses off all of December.  I was working two jobs and she was working three part time jobs.  We rarely had a day off.  On top of it, I was putting in 20 hours a week in retail, something I though I had given up 5 years ago when I quit Sam Ash.  I even had to work on Christmas Eve Eve, Christmas Eve, Christmas Day and the day after Christmas!!

We were both desperately looking forward to a second-year-in-a-row trip to Ohio to visit Sam and Tuk, and spend the New Year with Sam for the fourth year in a row.  We had a day trip to Cleveland to visit Great Lakes Brewpub, and another day trip to Falling Water, a place we’ve wanted to visit for some time now.

Well, a family emergency meant that we weren’t going to Ohio;  Sam was coming to New Jersey.  At least we would still get to see her, but Tuk was bound fast to work back west, and Sam was going to be busy with family affairs.

We made the best of it, though.  She arrived in Atco Saturday evening just as Monika was getting out of the shower and getting ready to start the party.  Here’s the annual slideshow:

custom made hat from Sam

let us all have Champagne

with my sweatered bottle of Maker's Mark

lets get this whiskey out of this bottle, already

we pose in the bar

the three of us with our Christmas Cracker hats

adorableness

at midnight, we decided to blow things up!

like a boss

i don't even know why the girls let me do it, but I guess we all love adventures

the first mortar is alight! I can't believe the cops didn't show up. These guys are REALLY loud in my hood.

it's cold, but the party continues

one of the last pix of the night

the next morning, we sat on the kitchen floor with Mimosas

New Years Day with Craig and Kat, opening another round of Christmas Crackers

Sam in the morning, on her way back to Ohio

It takes the best friends to make you smile when life has dealt you a horribly sad hand.  Especially during the holidays.  It’s nice to know you have some around for you when you need them.

This entry was posted on January 3, 2012 at 10:14 PM and is filed under Friends and Family, Good Times, Reflections with tags New Years Eve, Ohio, Vacation. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.