I hope you had a great holiday season with your loved ones. I was so happy to see many (not all,) of my loved ones. This Epic Weekend In Pictures will be heavier based on pictures than words. I'll try to write more next week when we have more time. Thank you so much for taking the time to read my Epic Weekend In Pictures all year round. Can you believe this is my last one of the year? I'm ready to say goodbye to 2022 and bring on 2023, that's for sure.
Thursday night I was able to see some of my wonderful friends at The Irish Cottage Inn in Franklin. (Shocking, I know lol.) They basically had a Christmas party. All of the sudden, bartender friend B-Rad placed gift bags on our table. He gave me a Patriots beer mug. B-Rad is a diehard Jets fan, and after taking it out I said "I'm impressed, this one definitely hurt him." Right after I said that, B-Rad yells to me from across the bar "you know how much that pained me!" Not to worry, B-Rad was able to get one laugh on me. He had the speakers at The Cottage blaring for the Jets - Jaguars Thursday night game. Of course immediately before the game Fireman Ed led the J-E-T-S chant I despise so much. Jets fans, so proud when they taunt me and spell their one syllable word correctly. To me it's the most annoying sound in the world! Can you believe I've survived here 9 years?
1 of 4 Photo: Me and B-Rad
2 of 4 Photo: Me, Roy and Artie
3 of 4 Photo: Me, Zannie, Padre and Madre
4 of 4 Photo: Me with my friends at Bog Iron
Friday I had to work for an hour or so helping fix some technical behind the scenes issues. Then it was time for me to hit the road. All week meteorologists were warning that Friday was going to be an awful travel day. The rain was hard, the winds were intense. I got lucky. I made it from our radio station in Franklin, New Jersey to my parents in Mansfield, Massachusetts in 4 and a half hours. The drive is 4 hours door to door if there's no traffic. 4 and a half hours in those conditions 2 days before Christmas? I'll take that all day!
Friday afternoon I planned a surprise for Padre. My whole life, we've always joked, my Dad is the absolute worst at trying to surprise. He always spoils his surprises. He seriously has an uncanny gift at it. I timed it out to play his favorite Christmas song, "Christmas Wrapping," by The Waitresses at 4:02pm on my radio show right after U2's "Christmas (Baby Please Come Home.) I was able to record it ahead of time so I could hear it with my parents while surprising them. I got home at 2:30. As we're sitting down, Padre randomly takes out his new smartphone. He says on a whim "ya know what, I haven't even heard my favorite song yet!" He pulls up YouTube on his new smart phone and plays The Waitresses. I looked at Madre (I told her and sister Zannie ahead of time about the surprise) and said "it's seriously unfreakincanny." Madre just laughed and said "yep, he's the worst!" After he got done rocking out to his smartphone, I told him about my surprise. He appreciated it. Growing up I have fond memories of Zannie and me hanging with Padre while he wrapped Madre's gifts, while cranking up his favorite Christmas song.
1 of 8 Photo: Little me.
2 of 8 Photo: Let's get some paint!
3 of 8 Photo: Thank you, Luke.
4 of 8 Photo: Patriots ugh ugh ugh
5 of 8 Photo: Big wild turkey
6 of 8 Photo: Madre's new shirt! R's aren't needed in New England
7 of 8 Photo: Me, John, Sue and Jill
8 of 8 Photo: the grinch
Friday night we had a great time seeing some of our friends at Bog Iron Brewing in Norton, Ma. It's an added bonus of being back home for sure.
Saturday it was time to watch The Patriots. It was fun getting to watch and scream at the tv with my parents instead of being disappointed several states apart together. Even though we're still ticked off after what The Patriots have done again, I'm still grateful we were able to watch it together.
Saturday night we had a low key Christmas party. 3 of our friends showed up. Low key isn't necessarily a bad thing. We all had a great time together.
1 of 7 2 of 7 3 of 7 4 of 7 5 of 7 6 of 7 7 of 7
Sunday morning my sister Zannie and parents were able to figure out how we could watch The Grinch on our streaming TV downstairs. Last year, because my parents had to switch their cable box system, the dvd player couldn't connect for The Grinch. It was the first time in over 20 years that we couldn't watch the Jim Carrey Grinch on Christmas morning. It's one of my favorite traditions that started out impromptu over 20 years ago. I was the first one up Christmas morning. I didn't want to bother anyone, and love The Grinch. I would put the movie on, and as it progressed, one by one of my family would wake up. By the time The Grinch goes good, my family is all up. Last year was a bit of a bummer, and with Christmas happening 2 months after the Ex-Fiance broke up with me, I just looked at my family and said "all good, I'm onto next year already anyway."
My sister has recently gotten into baking at her condo, with some pretty decent results. As a result, my parents found a set of fire extinguishers, giving one to her, and one for me. I'll take that! We had a great time over at Grammy's in Mansfield. It was great to see my family, even though we were big time missing Aunty Donna and Uncle Leisure Paul. Getting to see them is one of my favorite parts of Christmas, seeing them, hanging out with them, laughing with them, all of us busting on each other. I'm very lucky to have such an amazing family.
Monday our big fun events involved me going to Gillette Stadium per usual and seeing how the stadium construction is progressing, (as if I would know anything about construction lol.) We then went to Longhorn Steakhouse in Mansfield, where they nailed it just like always. I had a medium rare filet mignon that was great.
1 of 7 2 of 7 3 of 7 4 of 7 5 of 7 6 of 7 7 of 7
Tuesday's ride home was an adventure. No drama, just a ton of traffic. It took me 6 hours to get home. Lots of traffic. All good. At least I'm not stranded at some airport somewhere. I'm very lucky to be able to just drive several hours to see my family and don't have to fly to see them and risk all of these flight cancellations we're seeing on the news.
Overall I had a great time with my family, which is what really counts. As they say on The Grinch, "maybe Christmas isn't something that comes from a store. Maybe Christmas, is something more." Time to start planning New Year's Eve Weekend!