Mis vacaciones

I am required to write a weekly blog for my Spanish composition class, but the professor has made the blog available only to our class. Anyway, here is my first entry, the prompt was "¿Qué hiciste durante las Navidades? Cuéntanos lo que hiciste y añade unas fotos o videos si puedes. No te olvides de dejar por lo menos un comentario."

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Tengo un trabajo del comercio minorista así yo trabaje mucho durante invierno. Yo ofrecí una pequeña cena por mis amigos antes de navidad. Toda mi familia está en Minnesota, pero no pude ir para las Navidades porque necesité trabajar después de navidad. En el día de Navidad, fue a casa de mi amigo para ¡una gran cena!  

Mis amigos y yo (uno amigo detrás de cámera)  - durante mi cena
Foto por Keith Jones

Despues de Navidad y antes de Nochevieja, yo fue a Minnesota. ¡Veía toda mi familia! Mi abuela (madre de mi padre) cocinó un cena tradicional de Suecia – es muy delicioso.

Las Comidas de Suecia - mi abuela cocinó

  Papa Noel visitó en el Nochevieja y llenó nuestras medias. ¡Papa Noel es muy generoso en su vacación porque llenó nuestras medias con muchas botellas de bebidas alcohólicos! 

Mi hermana y su promitido con sus bebidas de Papa Noel

Tenía un buen tiempo con mi familia y estuve muy triste cuando necesité salir. 

Political Science Pilgrimage

 Me and my friend TJ went up to Washington DC this winter on a "Political Science Pilgrimage", since we are both Poli-Sci geeks. We visited the National Archives (Constitution and Declaration of Independence and other important documents), Library of Congress (James Madison statue), Museum of Crime & Punishment (TJ is also a Criminal Justice nerd), then on the way home we went to Montpelier (James Madison's estate) and Monticello (Thomas Jefferson's estate). We ended up with an unexpected stop in Mount Airy, NC due to a flat tire (better known as Mayberry from the Andy Griffith Show).

Drive up to Washington

TJ on the drive up

Georgia Christmas tree in front of the White House

White House and Christmas trees

TJ at the Supreme Court

Me at the Supreme Court

Me with James FREAKIN' Madison

TJ at the Museum of Crime and Punishment

TJ and TJ

Washington DC

James Madison's Montpelier

TJ and the Madisons

Me on the steps of the house of Madison

Went and paid my respects

Monticello at sunset

Monticello at sunset

The view from Monticello

The Andy Griffith Museum!

Silent Night

One of my favorite traditions growing up was going to the Christmas Eve church service with the Shoultzes. At the end of the service the preacher would light a candle from the Christ candle and then the light would get passed around the room. The lights would turn off and we'd all sing "Silent Night".

As it is, I am not able to go home during the holidays, so this has been one tradition I have missed out on the last few years. One of my customers, who also happened to be a co-worker of my father, as well as the pastor of Fairview Presbyterian Church in North Augusta, SC, invited me to their Christmas Eve service. They mentioned that they have the same tradition.

I was a bit homesick this year, so I decided to attend the service. It was a lovely service. The pastor was generous enough to allow me to go up the balcony and shoot the scene. It was lovely.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! I hope everyone got to enjoy it with their family. I'll be heading home on Friday to lots of snow. I am going to try to make my way to Minnehaha Falls at some point to take photos of the frozen waterfalls.