Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

What a busy couple of weeks it has been! (Hence the lack of blog updates for 3 weeks!)

Tom and I were able to fly home for 5 days over Christmas and visit with both of our families. We had a very relaxing holiday visit at home! (Except for our 2 hour delay and 3 hour, 4 gate change delay on the way their and back!)

Last night we gathered the few Penn State fans in Alabama and watched Joe Paterno's 500th game as Penn State beat Texas A & M in the Alamo Bowl! Go Lions!!

Tom and I both have to work on New Year's eve (boooo!) but we'll both be off on New Year's Day. Tomorrow evening we'll be going to a couple of friends places for NYE festivities and Jan. 1 we'll be on the couch watching football all day long!

I'll update with some pictures soon! Hope everyone has a safe and happy New Year's!

Dear Alabama,

It is December. Please get cold so we can turn our air conditioning off. It has been on for FOUR days straight!
Sincerely,
The Bodenstines

Busy Holiday Weekend

Tom and I had a busy holidayish weekend this past weekend. Friday night was his Christmas party for the Pathology department at UAB. That was fun, we got to get dressed up and enjoyed dinner and drinks compliments of UAB. There was music and dancing too but I wouldn't say I "enjoyed" the DJ's choice of music!

I worked on Saturday at my second job (booooo!) but they gave all of their employees a $20 giftcard to walmart and a $5 giftcard to Starbucks (yay!) so I got to pick those up on Saturday. (Even though $5 at Starbucks buys you like 1 drink!)

On Sunday I spent the afternoon making super chewy chocolate chip cookies and Peppermint bark. I've never had peppermint bark before until Jackie sent us some in a Christmas package. Tom and I love it!! I looked up a recipe and decided to experiment. It was actually quite time consuming to make! It sounds easy, but it's not!

Sunday night we went to a Christmas Pops concert at the Alabama Theatre. It was really cool and the perfect amount of time. (aka not too long!) A friend at work had extra tickets so I'm glad we were able to go. I think our favorite part was the organ at the beginning. It comes out of the floor and the guy played it while people were finding their seats. When he was finished playing and it was time for the orchestra to start he kept playing while the organ went down into the floor. That was kinda funny. The concert ended with a Transiberian Orchestra song so we enjoyed that as well.

Disclaimer: This isn't my picture, just one off the internet. I forgot to bring my camera!!!

Holiday Weekend 2007

My friends and I started a tradition several years ago on the first weekend in December. It has since become known as Holiday Weekend and I think this is the 5th or 6th one. Brie and Margaret made the trip down south to 'Bama this past weekend and we had a blast! We had a VERY southern weekend!!

Friday night we went to the dualing Piano Bar, Twist & Shout, downtown and had a blast.

Saturday morning we got up and started our journey of all things Southern. We started at a local winery, sampling some of Alabama's finest muscadine wine. Then we participated in some cotton-picking.

After that we drove through rural Alabama and then further south in search of our main destination, the W. C. Rice Cross Gardens. Before we got there however, we stopped at a pecan farm, picked some pecans off of a pecan tree and learned how to crack them open in one hand. We stocked up on some pecan-chocolate treats and headed further south!

We got lost on the way to the cross gardens, but THANKFULLY found it before dark!!! Only in Alabama!!!!!! CRAZY!!! Click on the link above to learn more about this crazy old man and his "art."

After the scariness, we headed back to Birmingham and enjoyed some Southern BBQ from Jim 'n Nick's.

Sunday we stopped by Pete's Famous Hot dogs. I really don't know how to describe this place. "Pete" has since passed away but we met Pete's nephew (who was about 80 years old). He was serving the hot dogs. The hot dog I had was actually pretty gross, but Tom liked his. This place is like a hole in the wall (literally....Pete's nephew said that's what it used to be called). It was TINY and absolutely no chairs or place to sit, barely even enough room to stand! And yet, they still asked us if it was "for here or to go." Of course, we had it "for here" and stood there and chatted it up with the old man and the weird kid that worked there. I really can't do this place justice in my blog, you just need to see it to really understand it!