Here is a short recap of what’s happened since the end of first leg of the tour:
Michelle and I had Thanksgiving with her family in San Jose. We went to her Grandmother’s house where they have a tradition of getting their turkey mashed potatoes and gravy from Harry’s Hoffbrau, a local restaurant. Michelle’s parents, Terri and Jon Carone, were there along with her brothers, Drew and Kenny (who are identical twins), Kenny’s girlfriend Brandy, her Aunt Mary and Uncle Steve and of course Her Grandmother. After the Holiday of Thanksgiving, Michelle and I then had three more “Thanksgiving”-style dinners at her friend Chelsea’s house, at her apartment, and at Kenny’s house with his girlfriend Brandy.
We did a lot of sitting around and watching reruns of the tv show Las Vegas as well as numerous movies and San Jose Sharks Hockey games. Michelle’s family loves Sharks Hockey and somehow I have been sucked in as well! Terri even bought us tickets to the last home game of 2008 and we had AMAZING seats. We also went ice skating at Christmas in the Park in downtown San Jose and went to the batting cages where I took a round in the 71mph cage and did pretty well.
Christmas was an unprecedented first time experience. It was a marathon of events that are tradition in Michelle’s Family. On Christmas Eve, there was a big family dinner at Michelle’s Parent’s house. Present for this dinner was her immediate family and Grandmother along with her Aunt Karen and Uncle Tom, their son, Cole, and their daughter Jessica and her boyfriend Bobby. There was a little bit of a gift exchange between the families and a fantastic dinner. We also played a game called Buzz Word which is a really fun trivia game. That night we slept at Michelle’s Parents and the next morning Michelle woke everyone up at 7:00am, her Grandmother came back over and we sat around the Christmas tree opening presents for almost 3 hours. We did stop twice to have cinnamon buns and a breakfast egg and potato dish. Everyone goes around one at a time and opens gifts so that everyone can see what everyone else got. Then we went across the street to the Craig’s house, who have 4 kids, and gave them presents and hung out for a bit. After returning to the Carone’s house, the Lucken’s, who are close family friends, came over and there was some more present opening. After they left, we relaxed for a few minutes before heading over to the Wells’, who live next door, for even more present opening and some really good egg nog. By the time we were back at the Carone’s house it was almost 3pm. We decided it was time for a nap, so we turned on “A Christmas Story” which was playing for 24 hours straight. Between all of us we watched the whole movie, but everyone was in and out of napping for about 2 hours. We all got dressed, because we were still in pajamas at this point, and played a few more games of buzz word. Dinner was just with Michelle’s immediate family and then we went back to Michelle’s apartment.
The last week I was in San Jose was filled with more dinners, shopping, movies and finally packing to go back on the road. Michelle and I had a quiet New Years at her place where we made dinner, and watched the ball drop.
Overall, it was a very relaxing and enjoyable break. I was very happy that I got to spend so much time with Michelle’s family cause they are a lot of fun and really great people! I will try to put up some picture from the holidays sometime in the next couple of weeks.
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