Oh the Holidays!

I'm not going to lie, I've been the Grinch (and that is an understatement) during the holidays for about the last three or so years now... and tried to be again during this season! To my suprise, although it took me a little while to get in the holiday spirit, it's been a wonderful holiday season so far. The best part? It's not even over yet!

To kick everything off, Dave arrived home on December15th from Dominica; my first Christmas present :) Two days later we took a fun road trip to Pittsburgh to visit with his family. While in Pittsburgh we had the opportunity to go to a Steelers home game (my second Christmas present!) against the Jets at Heinz Field! We ate at a yummy bar/restaurnt in Station Square and did a little shopping before we took the ferry and headed to Heinz Field.

Delicious food!

Beautiful ring Dave bought me at a really neat authenitc Irish store in Station Square.

On the Ferry crossing the river over to Heinz Feild!

(Pittsburgh in the background)

We had great seats! Near the 50 yard line on the Steelers side...

When we got back from Pittsburgh everyone was in the Holiday mood. We went over to Mr and Mrs Beneighs house and made Christmas cookies!

As you can see, Dave and PJ enjoyed covering each other with flour...
 

Pro!

All done!

And of course, then there was Christmas Eve/Christmas. I unfortunatly had to work on Christmas Eve, but once 5:00PM hit, Dave, PJ and I hurried to Mr and Mrs Beneighs for dinner and to get read for church. Around 7:00PM we all (Mr and Mrs Beneigh, Daves Grandpa, Nikki, Dave, Myself and PJ) headed to St Marys and the mass was absolutly beautiful. PJ really impressed me and did a great job sitting through the one and a half hours (he did do the occasional "AMEN" while everyone was totally silent and also a couple "yay"s after singing a christmas song - but people thought that was cute lol!). We walked out of church to a gorgeous white Christmas snow fall that had blanketed the ground and it couldn't have been more perfect!

 When we got home, everyone opened one Christmas present.

PJ got a kids digital camera.

Nikki got an adult digital Camera (lol)

Dave got the Keytar/Rockband 3.

I got slippers and a one hour full body massage.

Mrs Beneigh got...umm, I can't remember :(

Mr Beneigh got... ugh! Memory fails again...I'm terrible.

 

Around 9:30PM PJ grabbed his blanket and ASKED to go to bed (I was in shock), so the rest of the night Mr & Mrs Beneigh, Nikki, Dave and I played Apples to Apples while enjoying some delicious Yeungling beer.

PJ didn't wake up until around 8:30AM, so we opened presents around 9:00AM. It was such a blast watching PJ open all his presents from Santa Claus, friends, and family. Thank you to all who sent him gifts from Virginia, he LOVED them all! And a HUGE thank you to Mrs Beneigh for preparing the wonderful Christmas dinner that we all enjoyed together, what a special day!

"Thank you Grandma and Grandpa Harvey!"

"Thank you Erin & Peter!"

"Thank you Aunt Jackie and Uncle Joel!"

 A little bit of everything from those who sent him distant presents :)

Success! We spent the rest of Christmas day playing Kinect with PJ and the family.

Hope everyone had a very Merry Christmas this year, we sure did :)

Love,

Nikki  & PJ

P.S. Mom, Dad, Dani, Aunts, Uncles, Grandparents... PJ and I love and miss you very very much!!

I traveled, I saw, I conquered.

Who knew that traveling could be so entertaining? I've gotten my fair share this past weekend (traveling a total of 13 hours in a 36 hour period, not including the 7 hours I spent just waiting in the airport for my flight) and I figure it could be an interesting subject to talk about (maybe some people will even read this!).

Let's start with discussion about being the (un)lucky person seated next to a chatty cathy on an airplane. You know, the chatty cathy who wants to keep a conversation for the duration of the flight but you hate small talk and just want to a) lay your head against the window and pretend to sleep so nobody bothers you, b) read a book/magazine,  c) put on some music to pass the time, or c) if you’re brave enough to bring a laptop through the pain-in-the-ass security, watch a movie. It's such an American attitude, but you know when you sit next to a stranger for X number of hours in a confined space you feel the same way and I don’t think you can get more ‘confined space’ than being in a room full of seated strangers flying through the air. Just sayin.

So, you guessed it. I sat next to a chatty cathy who came in the form of  a U.S. army soldier. I thought it was totally cool sitting next to someone who honorably serves this country. In fact, I personally told him so and thanked him.  Mr Soldier then asked "so what do you do?" I proudly told him "I sell insurance..." and before I could finish saying "...with State Farm" he crossed his two index fingers making an X at me and said "oh noooo!" as if I just grew fangs and was about to suck his blood or something. Ok soldier, I am not a vampire, I said I sell INSURANCE, calm down (but maybe you should buy a life insurance policy just in case a Vampire does kill you, your family will be taken care of, eh?). He then proceeded to try to recruit me to join the army for the rest of the thank-god-it-was-short flight. I politely declined his offer to join the army and stressed the point that I’m a single mother. Phew, off the hook.

My next flight (gosh darn connections) was just as 'entertaining'. I fell into a peaceful sleep and dreamt I lived in Italy. It was a beautiful place where man after man proposed in the market place. Everywhere you went to smelt of delicious Italian food. It was so scenic and beautiful, I never wanted to leave. Oh wait, that wasn't a dream, that was the chatty Cathy sitting behind me (loudly)re-living her glory days to this poor Asian guy seated next to her who didn't even speak English. And try as I might (which involved a lot of might) I couldn’t fall asleep to pass the time of the two hour flight. It's funny how you feel so involved in a conversation in which you are absolutely not a part of what so ever, but sort of are because you (and everyone else on the plane trying to sleep/read/etc) can hear everything. Note to self, MAKE SURE TO HAVE MUSIC DOWNLOADED ON MY PHONE AND BRING EAR BUDS NEXT TIME.

Let's move on to ground transportation. I understand that 7:00am is early for human beings and that one may be a little brain scattered at that time of day (I certainly am) but what I experienced Friday morning takes “brain scattered” to a whole new level. Granted, I may be partially to blame for what was to be one of the most ‘interesting’ events that would occur during my trip adventure to/in Virginia, but (I think) it’s worthwhile share the details. Everything is a little hazy, but I will do my best to reenact what happened to me that cold Friday morning.

I don’t know how many of you reading this are from Virginia, or anywhere around the Washington DC area, but if you are… you know how much of a heartless bitch traffic is there. My sister and I are in the car, and might I point out that SHE is the driver, going down 267 to avoid I-495. Things are going peachy, my GPS is instructing us with directions, my sister and I are catching up, life is good, right? GPS chimes in telling us to get off on an exit. Hmm, ok GPS. I’ve trusted you in the past, I will trust you again. My sister gets off on the exit while I am looking at the Route on the GPS to make sure it’s going to bring us to our intended destination (we weren't aware that we needed to get off on an exit so soon). All of a sudden the cars breaks are screeching, my sister is veering the car violently to the right, and before I know it we’ve driven through a barrier. Thats right, a barrier. I guess that means we were NOT supposed to go through that exit. I must say two things 1) that barrier was pretty worthless, they should really do a better job of constructing barriers 2) WHY THE HELL DID YOU DRIVE THROUGH SAID BARRIER, SISTER? As your husband put it when you asked what kind of barrier it was, I must concur, “the kind that you’re NOT supposed to drive through even if the GPS tells you to”. Lesson learned. I’m not going to lie though, that exit put us on an access ramp that skipped us through at least forty minutes of traffic. Woo Woo.

I traveled, I saw, I conquered.

 And I got to sit on a CUSHY nice big airplane (as opposed to the small jet I had to walk outside to get on -in the bitter cold- on my way to washington. But hey, i'm not complaining, gotta respect air transportation) that had personal TV’s for every person and I watched House during the return flight home. I guess the Travel God decided to have mercy on me. Untill next time...

Airplane!

In light of the sad, recent death of Leslie Nielsen I decided to watch Airplane!

I can’t say I enjoyed the movie, but I certainly laughed a lot. It’s especially funny how over dramatic everything  was (ex: playing daunting music LOUDLY every 5 minutes after an actors line, oh and the awesome scene were that pilot fights 10 guys consecutively at the airport).

My favorite part of the movie would have to be when a passanger took a swig of whiskey from his flask, then turns to the old woman sitting next to him asking if she “would like some whiskey”. The old woman got a look of disgust on her face and says “certainly not” and then snorts two lines of Cocaine. REALLY? Absolutely epic. Oh, and shout out to my man Otto. How awesome is he!?!

And after watching this I feel (even more) justified in not liking seasfood. I wouldn't have gotten sick and you would have. Ha! Well, Leslie Nielsen, it was fun. See you again in Naked Gun!

Gotta love these oldies! Well, maybe I gotta learn to love these oldies, it seems I have quite a few yet to watch :D

I won't give up on you, List!
10 down...80 to go....

The List:

12 Monkeys
A League Of Their Own
Airplane
Akira
Aliens
American History X
Animal House
Best in Show
Better Off Dead
Big Trouble in Little China
Bill & Teds Excellent Adventure
Blade Runner
Blazing Saddles
Boondock Saints
Bull Durham
Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid
Caddyshack
Casino Royale
Clerks
Close Encounters of the Third Kind
Daze and Confused
Deliverence
Evil Dead II
Fast Times at Ridgemont High
Ferris Bueller's Day Off
Field of Dreams*
Fight Club
Fletch
Ghostbusters
Glory
Goldfinger
Gremlins
Heathers
Highlander
Jaws
Lethal Weapon I
Life as a House
Monty Python and the Holy Grail
My Blue Heaven
Naked Gun
National Lampoon's Vacation
Office Space
Pale Rider
Planes Trains, and Automobiles
Platoon
Policy Acadamy
Porkys
Predator
Primer
Pulp Fiction
Raiders of the Lost Ark
Rainman
Rambo: First Blood
Raw Deal
Red Dawn
Reservoir Dogs
Robo Cop
Run Lola Run
Say Anything
Scarface
Sixteen Candles
Spaceballs
Stand By Me
Star Wars: A New Hope
Star Wars:Return of the Jedi
Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back
Terminator 2: Judgment Day
Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines
Terminator: Salvation
The 6th Day
The Big Lebowski
The Breakfast Club
The Godfather
The Golden Child
The Good the Bad and the Ugly
The Goonies
The Jerk
The Karate Kid
The Natural
The Professional
The Shining
The Three Amigos
The Usual Suspects
The Warriors
Top Gun
True Lies
True romance
Unforgiven
Untouchables
Young Frankenstein