If you recall from previous posts, the whole point to moving back east, was to get together with family. That, and to escape snow. Well we finally accomplished both goals over the holiday season. As luck would have it, both Chrysa and I were able to make the trip to Georgia to enjoy the festivities in a lake front atmosphere.
Chrysa and I started our trip up north to Eatonton the way we often do. We loaded up the Jeep and hit the open road looking for adventure. For better or worse…we didn’t find it. If you have never made the drive from Florida to central Georgia let me clue you into something – it’s boring! The drive is just miles of flat, featureless blacktop. Now, we have made this drive before and we both recalled it being much more exciting. Obviously we were in transition last time and were amped to get to our new home. Although we were thrilled at the prospect of seeing family, it just couldn’t cut through the boredom of the drive. By the end of it we were as stir crazy as could be. It turned out that a lack of adventure on our road trip was a good thing. We would end up having all the adventure we could handle when we arrived at our destination.
We arrived at my mom’s condo hungry and simply ready to be out of the car. In short – we were hangry. Mom had a fix for our combo of issues. She mended our woes with food and booze. It was just what the doctor ordered. We went to bed that night ready for the weekend ahead of us.
The festivities kicked off the next morning. Chrysa and I both knew that eating and drinking were going to be heavily featured over the long weekend. Accordingly, we went for a run. We went to Rock Hawk Effigy Park near mom’s place. It’s a great park for trail running, hiking, and pre party booze burning. We had been to the park before when we were transitioning to Florida. The last time we were there we managed to get lost on one of the trails. Thankfully we didn’t have any issues this time. The only calamity was me being scared by a life sized bear model used for bow hunting.
After our run we began our holiday in earnest. We arrived at my Uncle Eddie and Aunt Marlene’s lake house and immediately began catching up with the family. This was the first time we had seen everyone together in at least two and a half years. Simply put…it was wonderful. We spent most of the time outside enjoying each other’s company, telling stories, playing games, and romping with the younger cousins. I especially enjoyed the mix of accents in the family. My mother and brother have a typical Buffalo accent, Chrysa has her quasi-Brooklyn accent, Ben is British, I have my wherever we live now accent, and the rest have varying degrees of Deep South Georgian. We wrapped up day one after a fantastic dinner safe in the knowledge there was more to come on day two.
Chrysa and I were correct about the whole, eating and drinking thing, so we decided to do some yoga the morning of day two. I’m really glad we did because we were absolutely correct. More big food and more wine and beer. Day two was Christmas day. We had a wonderful time duplicating the success of day one. This time we added some more people, a hard core gift exchange, and a shoulder ride race. By the end of the day we were both beat.
The visit with the family came to an end all too quickly. Chrysa and I left Eatonton sad that the weekend was over. It was great to have everyone together in one place, and I’m thrilled that future gatherings will be easy to arrange. If only the drive wasn’t so damn boring.
(65)
