Christmas Trip
We got so lucky this year that Justin could spend two weeks in Augusta with me for Christmas and New Years.
By some miracle, I got the okay to telework over the holidays, which led me to try and switch our Airbnb to be closer to Olde Town Augusta since we prefer that area. which then somehow led us to getting an Airbnb with a previous Airbnb host that we loved. We stayed in the same location last year for Thanksgiving, so that timing of it was really nice and ‘meant to be’ in a way. The whole weekend before Justin arrived I baked German Christmas cookies for everyone and a big bucket of cookies for him and I to have in the apartment. In hindsight, I should’ve added chocolate chip cookies and sugar cookies, but by the end of the weekend I was so tired from baking I needed a break.
Justin arrived on Christmas Eve, right around midnight after all the traffic he had to deal with. We had a charcuterie board and drinks and snacks and then joined my family the next morning for Christmas brunch. We had breakfast casserole, French toast, and loads of fruit and then immediately got to work on the Christmas ham. It felt so cozy and nice spending the day at home cooking and relaxing with Justin. While the ham roasted, we played Wingspan with my sister and had coffee and cookies. The sweet citrus turned out so good that we decided to keep the ham for New Years the collared greens.
The next day I had work, so I studied and worked some and then my mom dropped off schnitzel for lunch for us which was really sweet and nice. At this point, we still hadn’t gone grocery shopping, so we ordered in some sushi and tried to watch Love is Blind UK - I say tried because Justin couldn’t understand their accents.
The next day, I was off work so we did a big grocery run to Earth Pantry, Laniers, and Good Earth Produce. The next two days we hung out with my friends, and lounged around the house in our robes, wishing for a weekend to relax and not go out.
For New Years, Justin and I bought $300 in fireworks and almost set the lawn on fire. So that was exciting! He got to meet my grandpa which was really sweet. We stayed the night at my parents house, and had a slow day before we headed home and ordered some Indian food for delivery. It ended up getting stolen by our delivery driver, so we drove to pickup Chinese food before they closed - and decided to never use UberEats again.
After New Years, I had a doctor’s appointment. Justin and I decided to walk to the appointment, since it was a 2 mile walk away and the weather seemed alright. We ended up walking there, and then walking Downtown to look at the new knitting store downtown, Three Crows Fiber, and getting some pizza and beer before walking home. We also toured the Augusta Cultural Center, which is an old Catholic Church that was de-sanctioned by the church. We stayed out a bit late, but we made it home and spent the next two days resting and making loads of candles together. We also made an amazing schnitzel with Dijon mustard cream sauce to go with it.
Last minute, we decided we didn’t want the trip to end so soon, so Justin extended the trip for another two days. We stopped by my parents place for a German lunch, and then we picked up Curry hut on the way home since it was already too late to start cooking. I had work the next week, so Justin spent the two extra days preparing lunch for me and cleaning the apartment while I was at work. On Wednesday he left, but thankfully we only have to spend a week apart before we’re reunited again!
Eliana <3
