Back home and back on the mats.

Hope you all had a lovely holiday!!

I ate, and ate, and ate. Didn't train a stitch (from Dec 26th-Jan 2nd) and man, that SUCKED. I didn't do any kind of exercise except for pushups when I thought about it... gained about 5 lbs over that week, and of course I gained about 8 more between Thanksgiving and Christmas, so I am quite fluffy at the moment.

Got home from the airport last night at 11:30pm and was on the mats at 6am. Open mat this morning was excellent, I got to roll with some peeps I hadn't played with in a while, and generally all I looked for was calorie burn which I got plenty of. Noon open mat was also lots of fun- Jolly back from his knee injury, Courtney who is a gifted whitebelt chick AND a pastry chef, wooooo, and then Brandon, the brown belt visiting from Alaska... Paul, the purple who runs Rigan's school in LA, and Marc, my peer here at my academy. Sadly a week off is insufficient to heal my ankle, which I tapped myself out with during the roll with Courtney (she upa'd to escape my mount and I rolled it just a TEENY bit, and had to tap, lay down, and tap my fingers on the mat really fast to distract myself.)

I learned a new attack sequence from side control so that I'm not so fixated on arms all the time. Also felt that brown belt do some nifty passwork on me which I'd like to incorporate into my game... sigh :)

So, here's pictures from the trip in a crazy order or none at all...  the view out into the forest, from my Aunt Linda's house in the Eastern Shore.. they got 12" and more of snow the day before we got there.

My second father, Uncle Art, playing dominoes..

Aunt Linda, who makes the best meatloaf ever (also amazing cheesy potatoes, lemon poppyseed cake, icebox fruitcake, stuffed roast pork, greens, need I continue? this is why I'm so fat!)

A delicacy-- they found a tiny softshell crab inside one of their oysters.  (the little round red thing is the crab!)  Yes, you just eat it with the oyster. 

My uncle shucking oysters for breakfast on New Year's Day.

Big family dinner, uniting shoots of all 3 branches (the 3 brothers: Louis who died in October, my dad Walter who died in 1996, and my Uncle Leonard..)  Back row L to R is Liz (Leonard's daughter), Katelyn (Liz's) Nathan (Judy's, daughter of Leonard), me (Walter's) and Joann (Jerry's wife.)

Bottom row L to R: Deborah (Uncle Jerry's daughter) Carolyn (Leonard's) Mark (Cathy's husband) Cathy (Leonard's) Uncle Leonard, and Uncle Jerry (Louis's son).

Lots of grandkids and kids weren't able to make it but this is a representative sample at least.

Deborah and Carolyn.

Getting ready for dinner..

This is my Uncle Louis's widow, my Aunt Orie, and their son Lou.  Aunt Orie fell and broke her leg a month ago so I visited her in a rehab hospital.

My Uncle Leonard, on his sun porch.  He's pretty well senile now but still has a little of his old sense of humor.

My cousin Deborah's funny license plate :)

My NYE group-- neighbors of my Aunt Linda and Uncle Art's and Mitch in the middle.  We raged!  till almost 9pm! :)

Good to visit but good to be home!!