I went to Long Island this year to visit with Chris’s family. They go to the Bronx on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day to visit extended family. Here are some pictures:
New name #reverb10
Prompt: New name. Let’s meet again, for the first time. If you could introduce yourself to strangers by another name for just one day, what would it be and why?
from december 23rd
(Okay—disclaimer: I was out of town for the past week, and the only internet access I had was my phone. So I’m WAY behind on my reverb10 prompts, but my plan is to still finish.)
New name? You know, it took me a long time to get used to the name Hannah. I used to think it was a dingy name, used for old maids or overweight middle-aged women. I wanted to be a Jennifer, a Melissa, or a Stacey. I thought my name was too serious, and I wanted to be more flighty, more fun, more light. But then a funny thing happened as a grew up—I grew to love my name. I loved its uniqueness and the fact that hardly anyone I knew was named Hannah. I loved that it was a palindrome and was spelled the same backwards and forwards.
Then a funny thing happened: people started named THEIR children Hannah. Now there’s tons of Hannah’s (15 and younger mainly), there’s Hannah Montana, and it feels like a fun, light, flighty name. But I was there first!
I don’t need another name. That’s what I’m trying to say 
Home Sweet Home
What a long couple of days! I had a nice Christmas in Long Island, followed by a blizzard, two feet of snow, canceled flights, and finally…driving with friends through the night for 18 hours to get home…all while dealing with a bad cold. Wow, I’m tired!
I hope you all had a good Christmas 
I’ll tell you more about mine later—I have some pictures too.
HBBC: December 22: 60 minute various cardio (run, bike, elliptical): 4 points, 7 f/v: 1 point: total: 5 points. December 23: Four hours of shopping: 2 points, 7 f/v: 1 point, total: 3 points, December 24: 60 minute cardio/weight workout: 4 points Week of December 18-24 total: 37.
December 25: 7 f/v: 1 point, December 26: 0 points, December 27: 7 f/v: 1 point, December 28: 0 points, December 29: 1 mile walk: 1 point, workout with mike: 4 points, 7 f/v: 1 point, total: 6 points, December 30: 4 mile run: 4 points, workout with mike: 4 points, 7 f/v: 1 point, total: 9 points, December 31: 7 f/v: 1 point, total 1 point. Total for Dec. 25-31: 18 points
Merry Christmas!
I hope you all have a wonderful Christmas (though I realize not all my readers may celebrate—have a great day either way!).
Enjoy your time with family, friends, loved ones, pets, hams, etc. And remember, I always appreciate presents 
(I will be catching up on reverb10 and other interesting blog posts after the holiday. Relationships are more important than blogging.)
Me, circa 1983
My family the last time we spent Christmas together. Leslie didn’t have her boyfriend with her at the time, but it’s just as well as she has a new one now Maybe in a year or two we’ll get another group photo! (serious alert!—) It’s amazing we were all together—later that day my dad left to go up to Ohio to say his goodbyes to my Grandpa, and then the rest of us drove up the next day.
That’s Christmas for you—sad for those who are no longer with you or cannot be together, but happy to be with those whom you can.
If you want to make a donation to help fight pancreatic cancer, you can do so here. I have lost two of my grandparents to this disease, and it doesn’t get enough attention.
Christmas Memories
Feeling a wee bit maudlin this evening…
I’m not visiting my family over Christmas at all. This is the first time ever that I haven’t seen my family over Christmas at all.
I grew up in South Carolina, and my Dad’s family lived in western Ohio, and my Mom’s family in eastern Pennsylvania. We would set out for one or the other the day after school let out (usually PA first), spend a few days, drive to the other, spend a few days, drive home. In between we’d eat lunch at my great-aunt Wilma’s house near the border of Ohio and PA. She would always make us hot ham sandwiches, oyster crackers with ranch seasoning, and whatever cookies were on hand, which were often not very good.
Pennsylvania: Memories of weirdly bad cookies, playing with cousins, the apartment in the basement, lots of Amish people, church, ice, snow, “Trade hands sight unseen”, riding in the huge front seat of the car with Grandpa driving, Christmas lights, taking forever to get to the exit from the Interstate, singing in the car on the way there. Ham loaf, Grandma trying to get us to clean our plates, Mom trying to stop us from cleaning our plates, eating in the cold sunroom, playing in the backyard, that steep steep driveway, Grandma watching cable tv, the two chairs in the family room, Grandma saying “ay, ay, AY, ay, ay” and sleeping on the floor. Matching outfits, sledding, playing piano duets, scrapple, Mom wearing knee-high boots to church, Grandma trying to send sandwiches along on the trip, Grandpa’s pointy ended glasses and saying it was “Christmas Eve Eve” (that’s today, btw—and for some reason that is the memory that sticks most in my head…I believe by the following Christmas he had had his stroke).
It’s hard to believe how long it has been since I have been to my family in that area. After my grandparents passed away I really haven’t been back. I miss them…I wish I could have known them longer.
I have many more recent memories of Ohio, since I lived just 2 1/2 hours away for many years. However, I also have some memories as a child:
Ohio: Eating so many homemade cookies I threw up, playing in the snow with my cousins, PONG, ping-pong in the garage, the kitties, ice skating on the pond, singing a cappella at church, sleeping in the parlor, fancy dinners, date pudding, mince pie, the cuckoo clock, playing games, snow, wanting to play outside when it was actually 20 below zero and not understanding why, white bread toast, orange juice, “let me get my socks on!”, sitting around just visiting…I actually seem to have less specific memories of Ohio—I think it’s because we did more varied things in PA since it was more of a city-type of place, and more of the same thing repeatedly (i.e. playing with cousins) in Ohio. But I loved visiting both so much!
I will always have those memories 
HBBC: December 22: 60 minute various cardio (run, bike, elliptical): 4 points, 7 f/v: 1 point: total: 5 points. December 23: ?. December 24: ? . Week of December 18-24 total: ?.
Travel #reverb10
Prompt: Travel. How did you travel in 2010? How and/or where would you like to travel next year?
This is an interesting question. Not, where did you travel, but how did you travel?
Well.
I traveled by car mainly—around town for daily work and errands, to Ohio for work in the spring, to Chicago for a friend’s wedding in April, to South Carolina to visit family over the summer.
I traveled by plane to Tampa for vacation in August. I traveled by cruise ship to the Caribbean.
I traveled by jet ski while I was on Grand Cayman Island. I traveled by parasail over the waters of Cozumel, Mexico. I traveled by a tender boat to and from the cruise ship. I traveled by bus in Belize to visit the ruins of Xunantunich.
I traveled by shuttle van from the parking lot to jury duty.
I traveled by golf cart at the Missouri Botanical Gardens to get to a wedding that had been moved due to rain.
I traveled by my own two legs through a variety of races, including a half-marathon.
How and/or where would you like to travel next year?
I’d love to take a cruise to Alaska. That would involve car, plane, ship, and possibly train.
If I don’t go to Alaska, I’d like to travel somewhere else that I have to fly to…
Maybe a trip to Chicago or Colorado to visit friends over the summer–
I will be traveling to Phoenix by plane, and then running a race…
Maybe I should get a bike to ride around town, but I worry about safety. It would be nice to take bike rides in Forest Park though!
I’ll see if I can think of more ideas while I’m traveling today…