Happy Holidays and Whatnot

We're hoping everyone had a delightful holiday. I know some people have been getting a right bit oversensitive of the term holiday during this time of year, but let's be honest - Christmas is a holiday.

Zach and I visited the Welsch side of the family on Christmas Eve and spent the night. It was the first time this year, for me, that it actually felt Christmasy. Mom always has nice decorations out to get into the holiday spirit. We enjoyed opening gifts, drinking margaritas and other spirits and taking our usual drive around the neighborhood to celebrate and ridicule decorations. I know that making fun of things during a holiday sounds cruel and unfestive, but if you saw some of the things we saw, you'd be laughing, too. One of the things that made the ride particularly interesting was Zach and Brian mocking the guy on the music channel for his enthusiastic "praise the lords." It was quite eventful.

On Christmas Day we started off with a delicious breakfast made by the one and only Brian Welsch and then headed to Central to meet Zach's dad. We ended our day at Zach's mom's house and had a tasty dinner with grandparents and siblings. A nice end to a nice holiday.

Since then, we haven't been up to much. The waiting continues on the work front but we try to stay busy with reading, Wii, exercise and Netflix. We can't believe 2009 is upon us already and have so much to look forward to. Zach has started his job hunt and we are looking in MA. Brother Eric is going to supply us with some useful information and we'll see what happens. Should be a delight and we look forward to moving ahead in this OVERWHELMING process. Most importantly, we are excited about Zach's graduation. It has been a long time coming and we are more than thrilled.

Unleash the Cuteness!

As most of you are well aware - Zach and I are obsessed with our cats. Yes, Klaus and Ming Garrett are the highlight of most of our days and bring joy to our lives. The two children live in grandeur all the days of their lives. The love we have for these two is quite possibly one of the reasons that the two of us decided to go veg a little over a year ago. The more we learned and thought about what we ate, the more we thought "hey wait a sec, I would never roast Klaus and serve him with gravy and corn." That may be an odd thought for most people but it hit close to home for us and made a decision to lay off the meat. Not surprisingly, we have never felt healthier and better! Lately, we've been slowly working towards veganism, although that might take some practice. I've been doing well lately not having any dairy and once you let out the inner scientist when you're shopping, can read the labels and pick out the animal items the producers don't want you to know are actually animal products. It's amazing how it's in so much stuff - even mouthwash!!! YIKES. It always amazes me how dumb they think you are. Yes - pork is pig and steak is cow. Funny how they call it something else so you don't realize what your eating. Hmmm...very crafty. Or maybe it's just good marketing.

Anyway, we certainly don't try to impose our beliefs on anyone, even the cats since they are natural carnivores. We become more fascinated by the creatures in this world and even the ones in our own living room. Ming was especially curious last night and I'll share that briefly.

Christmas is upon us and since the kitties have been good this year, we decided to buy them some special toys. Ming received a few mice with beautiful feathers on their tails. She must have thought she caught a real animal because if anyone went near her she started growling and hissing! It was really funny. Later that night, Zach and I enjoyed watching a special in HD (very nice) on Yellowstone Park. What a lovely place! Ming was sleeping until she heard some birds on the show. She quickly woke up, jumped on the coffee table to see what was going on. She became enthralled in the birds on the show and when the scene changed to show coyotes - she was all over it! She jumped to the TV and started following them. When they weren't on the screen anymore - she looked behind the TV to see where they went! It was quite a sight! Definitely a hunter!

That's all the news now...stayed tuned after this commercial break...

Fun Old Fashioned Garrett Party

Last night was the annual Garrett Family Christmas party in Central. It was a fun time with delicious snacks, entertaining children and good company. Although we didn't eat the main entree, we certainly enjoyed the home-baked desserts that all the aunts made. We haven't really been in too much of the spirit this year. Maybe it's the 75 degree weather coupled with rain or the fact that the last part of our year has been stressful and upsetting due to job loss and difficulty finding a new one. At any rate, the holidays feel like just another day this year. On the plus side, the party reminded us of the good people that know and love us and how lucky we are to have such great people in our families. It was a good time.

The first part of the day started off slowly and we drove to Whole Foods in Greenville in the afternoon. Mom needed a few things at Total and since we never brave Woodruff Road, we figured we'd knock out two things at once. Crazy as it sounds, Whole Foods is like a fun park for us. The food options are endless and if you can afford it, shopping here is ideal. We purchased the first Garrett Family Tofurky roast to be enjoyed on Christmas. I heard it was tasty, so we'll see what happens. We also bought a few rice and soy ice creams, that may sound awful, but are actually fabulous! We've been trying to improve our well-being and look for healthier foods. This is definitely the place to be! No offense to our man Gary at Publix and the whole crew, but other grocery stores pale in comparison.

All in all, a delightfully rainy Saturday for us. Until later!

What to do and where to go...

Hello all. Welcome to the first installment on the first official Garrett family posting. I have to say, I'm not really sure how this whole blog stuff goes, but I'm willing to give it a go. I've seen a lot of Facebook people with their own page and it has been fun seeing what everyone has been up to over the years and many with their own blogspot. I figured - we're interesting people - why not create our own.

The latest:

Zach and I have been in deep conversation lately about where to go next year. As most of you know, Zachary is finishing up his microbiology degree in May 2009 and our family will be making tremendous moves and life changes as a result. You would think that having the world at your fingertips would be exciting and easy, but it turns out it's far more confusing and complex than anything I have dealt with in a long time. The two of us have aspirations to move away from SC to experience a new place with exciting places and veggie friendly restaurants. :) The problem: leaving family and friends behind while moving somewhere that is not only awesome, but very expensive! I can handle the cost but leaving friends and family is very difficult as 99% of our loved ones are within 20 minutes to 3 hours away. Time will tell...

We have been tossing around the idea to establish ourselves up north - where the winters are beastly but the summer coastlines are gorgeous and the beer is fabulous. It'll be a change, but we will see what happens. For now - Christina is still looking for work and finishing her MBA and Zach has his final semester. We are looking forward to having Christmas with the family next week and catching up with friends from high school and college over the break.