I am sorry it’s taken me forever to get this blog post out. I’ve had a little bit of a blogger’s block since my last post. I really wanted to start the new year with a post about our holidays but have been at a loss for what exactly to say and how to arrange it.
I started once and had to scrap that first unfortunate attempt because it was just so trite and boring, I couldn’t stand it. And it’s not for lack of content. On the contrary, our holidays were jam-packed with events and were everything we could possibly ask for – we visited family (Paul’s brothers, who live in the DC area), hosted friends from near and far, cooked and ate industrial amounts of food, gained the obligatory 5+ holiday pounds each, got fantastic gifts, did fun things around the house and outside. I guess I was so overwhelmed by everything that I was not sure where to begin. That and because I was actively preparing and cooking for a lot of the festivities, I didn’t have the time or motivation to take a lot of pictures and I am kicking myself for that now.
Since I can’t come up with anything better, I’m just going to let the few pictures of our holidays that I got (even though I didn’t take all of them myself) speak for themselves and let that be a lesson to me for next time. So, here we go.
About a week before Christmas we went to a holiday dinner, hosted by Paul’s eldest brother, Ray and his lovely wife, Mary, complete with a yummy pork loin, salads, side dishes and deserts galore and the Swider Annual Secret Santa gift exchange. Pictures courtesy of my better half.
On Christmas Eve we were at Chris and Cathy’s (Paul’s third brother age-wise and his sweet wife) and had a delightful evening feasting on Cornish hens and all kinds of delicious accoutrements. Unfortunately, we did not take any pictures of this event, so all I can say is that it was wonderful.
On Christmas Day we hosted a dinner at our apartment for our friends the Shows and the Hollidays and their lovely daughters (including one-week-old baby Neve). My mom and I made a lot of delectable Bulgarian food and everyone had a great time, especially the kids. I didn’t take any pictures but thankfully, our friends did, so I can share a few with you:
For New Year’s we had my Bulgarian friend Anna, her Israeli husband Eran and their cute daughter Maya (who’s 4 and speaks as many languages) visit us from Norfolk, VA for another big dinner, heavy on the Bulgarian dishes. I am proud to say that we all, including the kids, stayed up till midnight and were able to wish each other a Happy New Year before hitting the sack. This is pretty remarkable for us considering that we usually zonk way before midnight – we are lame that way. The following day we went to the National Harbor with Anna and her family and had a lovely afternoon there.
In addition to the above mentioned festivities, we also managed to get together with my Macedonian friend Gordana and her family, who were visiting the US for the holidays. Gordana and I worked together in international development 12 years ago and hadn’t seen each other since, so it was neat to catch up and meet each other’s husbands and kids, which didn’t exist the last time we saw each other.
We also had another Bulgarian friend, Nevena and her Romanian husband, Dan, for dinner at our place. Nevena and I met at the University of Maryland where she was working on her Ph.D. and I on my MBA. We were the only Bulgarians at the business school in our first year (2000), so we hung out quite a bit. It was great to reconnect with her and her husband and reminisce about the good old days. No pictures of those two get-togethers, unfortunately.
Well, this may not be the best post I’ve ever written but I had to get it out in the interest of chronicling our lives and so I could move forward with the other posts I want to write, which are starting to pile up.
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