clean out the car

pack the bags

pack the laundry

(no, we're not in college, but yes, we still bring out laundry home when we can :P)

make food for the road

pack food for the road

pack blankets and warm clothes for the road

(hellllooooo winter storm draco)

buy presents

wrap presents

pack presents in the car

send out the last holiday cards

(whoops! some of you are getting it late)

get to bed early to wake up at 4:30am to hit the road and drive 2+ hours for work

work outside in the cold and wind all day

drive 2+ hours home

pick up mr p

drive 8+ hours to ohio in the middle of a winter storm

that was the to-do list i wrote for myself before i left work... while still in my cubical... 45 minutes after i was allowed to leave...

where did the week before christmas go???

tiny bit of holiday stress is starting to set in....

but it will be all worth it when we get to see our families :)  ...and it helps that tonight we got homemade korean food from the lady at our bodega (wait... what?? what kind of grocery store do you go to!?)  apparently mr p told her yesterday that he liked one particular type of korean dish.  today when we went there to pick up things for the road, she gave us THAT dish already prepared, all we had to do was put it on the stove with some water and tofu!! they are just wonderful people.  she didn't even know if we were going to stop by or not! she just made the dish on the chance we would stop by...


...and we are SO happy we did!

we're feeling very loved this holiday season... it's the only time of the year when i LIKE getting mail... i get all warm and fuzzy inside when we get christmas cards from many of those we won't get to see during the holidays...



wish us luck driving back to ohio on the day the mayans say the world will end driving through winter storm draco (again, why are we naming all these storms again??)

cheers!