Cleared for Re-entry

It has been almost exactly one month since this lonely blog last tasted a sweet, juicy post, and it is hungry! I am going to keep this post moderate, though, and ease the blog back into solids, just as we are easing ourselves back into a normal, healthy diet after the feasts of the Holiday Season! Now that Christmas and New Years are over, we are enjoying some regularity until the period of mourning that will follow the posting of our first semester grades in a few weeks, during which our appetites (or at least mine) are sure to diminish, or increase, as the case may be. So now, an incredibly brief recapping of the past month.

The first two weeks of December held for us the final exam period of our first law school semester. Danielle and I both sat for finals in Torts, Civil Procedure, and Contracts, with varying degrees of comfort (I mean mental comfort: the seats were fine). The days between the exams were filled almost exclusively with studying and video game breaks. Danielle impressively abstained from chocolate, alcohol, pop, and all other caffeine sources during this time, in order to avoid migraine headaches! Despite this self-imposed challenge, she maintained an impressive degree of focus and resolve, whereas I suddenly became interested in all kinds of online and smart phone games. The fruits of her labor and my procrastination will be unleashed on us sometime in January, but in the meantime following finals we were able to very much enjoy 16 days back in dear Minnesota!  

Our first married Christmas was filled with celebrations, and we were fortunate to have many visits with friends and family in Raymond, International Falls, and Minneapolis, MN. The trip was not as relaxing as we might have liked, but in the end the time spent with loved ones over the holidays was not only very important but also a great time. Games were played, drinks were drunk, presents were given, and it was all awesome! Speaking of presents: as I write this post, Danielle is playing, for the first time, Lego Harry Potter Years 5-7, which she got for Christmas. I have never seen her so happy, even on our wedding day :)

We returned to Philadelphia yesterday, New Year's Day, to a little change in weather. Although most of Minnesota is snowless so far this year, it is still cold. What a shock to return to 50 degree-Philadelphia! That being said, we have been so thankful that all of our travels went well and that the weather cooperated with our flights and road trips perfectly! We were even blessed with snow in International Falls, probably among a handful of cities in the state that had a white Christmas. Finally, we were so happy yesterday to return to a clean apartment with only four cockroaches (one dead, but we counted it) to greet us! If they did have a killer Christmas party in our absence, we appreciated the amazing clean-up job. And as if to signify the end of our vacation, we were overjoyed last night, while walking past CVS, to spy a woman running out the door and dashing across the parking lot with a jingling, life-size Santa Claus mannequin over her shoulder, which we can only assume she had stolen from the pharmacy. Philly was glad to see us again! 

We hope you all had a Merry Christmas and are off to a Happy New Year this 2012. Look for more nuggets in the weeks to come: it is our resolution to be even more awesome this year, so you are in for a treat!

Love,

Rory, on behalf of myself and Danielle