Windy City Serendipity and more!

Happy New Year, weblog readers! It's good to be back in Ann Arbor this New Year's Eve and even though I start school the day after tomorrow, I'm sucking every last bit of relaxation and rest out of the remainder of my break. I spent the majority of my vacation in Grand Rapids with my family (after a few solid days spent on my couch in Ann Arbor watching movies and eating junk food). It was nice to hang out with my sister, Christmas shop with my family, and catch up with old friends.

Josh and I took our quasi-annual trip to Chicago early in the Christmas week and in retrospect, I totally should have bought a lottery ticket. For some reason, my intuition was spot on the entire trip and all of these crazy coincidences kept happening. First, I had this nagging feeling that I would see my good college friend Carrie amidst the throngs of thousands shopping on Michigan Ave one evening. For some reason I felt compelled to keep searching for her face in the enormous crowds. Finally, about 30 seconds after I was going to tell Josh "I keep thinking we're going to see Carrie," we almost physically ran over her entering H&M as we were leaving! Fortunately, this strange coincidence lead to a wonderful catch-up lunch with her the next day. Later that evening, I had a feeling that I'd be called onto the stage during the Blue Man Group performance that we saw and sure enough, I ended up doing an entire skit with the percussionists. The next day Christmas shopping, a book we were searching Borders for was the first one I looked at on the shelf and on the way home, I said that I wanted chocolate covered pretzels and of course there were free chocolate-covered pretzel samples at the next rest stop. All in all, we had a great time even though I was seriously weirded-out. At one point I tried to "get a feeling" that I'd find a bag of money on the side of the street but to no ado. *sigh

Christmas with my family was nice even though we're still trying to get used to celebrating with just the four of us. Growing up, we'd always have a houseful of 25 or so cousins, aunts, uncles, and family friends to share the holidays but now that everyone has babies and jobs, it's harder to get together. It's still a fun time and Josh's family came over for dinner and games on Christmas day which is quickly becoming an annual tradition. I did notice this year, however, that my wish-list is becoming undeniably nerdier as I get older. Lets just say that some of my favorite gifts this year were a wicked awesome emergency roadside kit for my car, a sound machine to help me sleep, the new Sonicare Elite toothbrush (may my original Sonicare, which showed me the exhilarating feeling of good oral hygiene, rest in peace), and the new Scrabble Onyx Edition. Yikes. My mom said she doesn't like how practical my wish list is becoming these days and I can see her point. I'll have to remember to ask for a pony next year.

At any rate, the plans for my last two days of freedom are unspectacular. Not too many people seem to be around Ann Arbor for a New Year's celebration tonight and I've got a lot of cleaning to do before heading back to school on Tuesday. I think Josh and I might just usher in 2007 with a nice dinner out and a low-key evening at home. Next year, I'll go to a fabulous party with my pony in a party hat in tow.

Enjoy the pictures below and best wishes for a wonderful 2007!

xoxox

p.s. ~ I forgot to mention perhaps the best gift I got this year. Bride-to-be Emily actually found, packaged, and mailed a box of Little Debbie gingerbread man cookies to me at my parent's house! How sweet (literally!) Thanks again, Em! :)