Days 8 & 9

It's hard to believe that we've been gone for a week already. It's taken us this long to just decompress from the busy season running the inn and all the holiday activities in Rockland over Thanksgiving (ie Festival of Lights) weekend. I have to say that we miss everyone, our puppies and the inn, but it's been 60 degrees here and quite comfortable. That's hard to beat when it's snow and freezing rain at home.

After a week of some crazy running around, yesterday (Friday) and today have been pretty mild. But before I forget, here's the link to my gingerbread house creation for 2008. It was featured in a local newspaper article, so I am quite proud. Also, for the first time ever, I created an atrium completely out of molded hard sugar candy. I dreaded this part of the process, but it turned out to be easy.

Anyway, we slept in on Friday and this morning which was very nice. Barbara had some shopping to do, so late Friday morning we ventured out to the shops in Snellville. Much to our dismay, the selections were not up to par. So, we decided to head to the new Stonecrest Mall in Conyers. Ugh, has this area changed a lot.

PJ bought new sneakers and several nutcrackers. Barbara bought a new 20 quart pot to make sauce. All in all, it was a successful trip. One good thing about all the changes in ATL is the improved restaurant scene. Dinner on Friday night was at Cosmo's Little Italy Pizzeria on the square in Lawrenceville. Who knew? Real italians from Bari running a restaurant in Gwinnett County. I remember having to travel 20 plus miles into the city just to go to Camille's in the Highlands. Things have changed.

Bill, Gina and Beth met us there and the place was packed. Of course two hours and two pizzas later, we were closing the place down. It was nice to get back to Barbara's at a decent hour. Once again, Beth has done a terrific job on our holiday cards. We spent about two hours last night applying address labels, return address labels and stamps for 700 plus cards, ugh. The good news is that you should receive yours soon. PJ has started stuffing as I write.

So today was all about the family. We went to my brother Paul's house in Dacula around 1pm. We hung out with brothers, sister and cousin Julianne too. Nicole, Louise, Joe and Joel were there too. There was lots of laughing (mostly from watching everyone play Wii bowling, golf and tennis). Then, I forgot to mention Barbara made sauce, meatballs and sausage old school style with the new pot. Along with six pounds of pasta, there was enough to feed an army. Luckily, we amount to one.

So, we are back at Barbara's now. We have slightly modified our itinerary tomorrow. After dinner at Barbara Bender's house, PJ and I are heading west. Our goal is to get as far as possible to accomodate a special desitination (maybe two) on Monday. More about that later. Tune in to find out........