Blue Christmas

So I had a little bit of rough Christmas this year.  It all began shortly after arriving at the Singer home when I got a voicemail from a friend asking if I had heard the bad news.  It took me a long time to call her back... at that point I wasn't sure I wanted to know.  I finally pumped myself up and made the call to find out that one of my art professors had passed away.  Kat Galloway was easily in my top 3 professors of all time.  She had such a passion for art and such a love for her students that you could not take one class from her and not be changed.  I will definitely miss her and feel so lucky that I was able to be her student.

From then on things got worse.  The antibiotics I was taking made me so sick.  The side effects included nausea, abdominal cramps, constipation, upset stomach, bloating, and vomiting.  I'll spare you the details, but I wasn't immune to any of them... I can't think of a time where I've felt worse.  My worst morning sickness was nothing compared to this.

Then on top of that I came down with a cold... the whole headache, congestion, and sore throat bit.

Thankfully, I took my last antibiotic Christmas morning and by that evening was finally getting some relief.

Mom and Dad Singer were so sweet and had a wonderful week planned for us (including really good food.)  Dan and Wendy were such good company (and it was so nice to finally get to know Wendy.)  Everyone made what should have been an unbearable week, bearable... and even pleasant.  Thanks Clem and Rita for everything!

On Wednesday we all drove to the coast to pay a little visit to the beach (Nate and my favorite).  The sun was setting and it was beautiful.  Then we headed to enjoy the Christmas lights at Shore Acres.  Afterwards we ate at this really yummy Italian restaurant and then headed home.

On the beach:

At Shore Acres:

Christmas morning was really nice.  We lounged around and Rita fixed us a very impressive Christmas breakfast, which we opted to eat before opening presents.  Then we sat around the tree snuggled in blankets while we opened gifts.

So I had saved all the pictures from both Wendy's and Rita's cameras onto my 300GB hard drive and now it's not working.  I'm so bummed.  There are some really cute pictures on there... and some not so cute pictures on there (Nate and I on Christmas morning).  So Rita, if you have a moment if you could email them to me I'll add them to this post.