While we're still in the 12 days of Christmas (today is day 9 - nine ladies dancing!), it seems like a good time to look back on our holiday.
Our holiday travel actually started with a drive to Burlington, VT, about 90 minutes northwest of our home on Interstate 89. We had a flight from Burlington to Chicago at 6:00am on Christmas Eve, so we decided to get a hotel near the airport on the 23rd. I used hotel points to get a room at the Doubletree Hotel, and we were lucky to get upgraded to a two-room suite. This worked out well because it allowed me to watch TCU's outstanding Poinsettia Bowl victory over previously undefeated Boise State while Kate watched a movie in the other room.
Unlike many travelers this holiday season, we managed to have relatively uneventful travel in and out of Chicago's O'Hare airport. In spite of bad weather on Christmas Eve, we arrived at O'Hare only 30 minutes late. Once there, we saw the stressed faces and long re-booking lines left over from bad weather on the 23rd.
It was my first Christmas with Kate's family (also my first Christmas away from my family), and, perhaps as part of some hazing ritual, I was tapped to dress as Santa Claus at the Christmas Eve celebration (right).The Chicago area enjoyed its first "White" Christmas in several years, but by the 27th it was 61 degrees! I guess this was a piece of Houston weather to help me feel more at home! Kate, her parents, and I went to downtown Chicago and visited the historic Marshall Fields flagship department store (now a Macy's) while it was decorated for Christmas. It is definitely the biggest department store I have ever seen - nine stories worth of shopping. Here is a shot from the top of just one of the store atriums:
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We returned from Chicago on the 28th, saw a performance of Les Miserables on the 29th, spent several hours at the Dartmouth-Hitchcock emergency room (subject of a future post, I am sure), and then hit the road again on the 30th. This time we headed to Falmouth, Maine to visit our friends Bill and Sandra. It was a thoroughly enjoyable and uplifting visit. It was also Kate's first time ever to Maine.
Our next destination was Cambridge, MA, where we were to ring in the New Year with our friends Charlie and Sarah. Before leaving Maine, however, we needed to pick up our New Year's Eve dinner - fresh, live Maine lobster! We went straight to the source, a fish market on the wharf in Portland. With eight live lobster and about a dozen oysters in tow, we made our way to Massachusetts.
Our New Year's meal was delicious and fun!
The holiday break travel is not quite over. On Saturday, we plan to drive to Amherst, Mass. to watch Vanderbilt take on the UMass Minutemen in men's basketball. We'll meet up with Heather and Ken, friends from my time at Vanderbilt's Office of Undergraduate Admissions who have also relocated to New England. It will be an 
enjoyable way to cap off this holiday break time, and hopefully a good send-off into the busy winter reading season.
enjoyable way to cap off this holiday break time, and hopefully a good send-off into the busy winter reading season.That's all for now! Happy New Year from New Hampshire!
