Sleigh bells ring...

Yay! It is December and Christmas is close, which means Christmas Break is close and my mom is on her way here as I type. It's been a pretty busy and fun couple of weeks. Highlights include a fun night out at the annual Wein and Co. tasting, and I do use that word lightly, I'm not sure tasting is what I would call it. But we did try some great wines and meet some fun people. They had this crazy little necklace wine glass holder... it would never really work, I am pretty sure if you tried to carry wine it it you would be wearing it. Christmas Markets are also now open, the lights, ornaments, decorations and the blue skies have made Vienna beautiful! I don't love it here, but it's hard not to love this time of year. A group of us went up to The Hague for a work conference. The conference was interesting and I met some fun people and saw some friends that used to work here in Vienna. What's great about good friends is that sometimes, unfortunately, years pass and you don't see them, but then you can just pick up right where you left off. I love that. We stayed in Leiden and it was such a great little place. They city was just gorgeous with all the canals, boats, clock towers and decorations. We also went out to some really good restaurants. I love eating. Next up was meeting a girlfriend for our annual Thanksgiving reunion. This year we decided on Athens. We had two great sunny days in Athens, toured around and ate delicious Greek food and then it all sort of fell apart... well as far as first world problems fell apart. We decided to go on a day trip to a nearby island, Hydra, but the weather didn't cooperate. There wasn't much to do there with the weather being so bad, and then, the boats and ferries stopped running due to the weather conditions and our day trip turned into a mini adventure. We spent the day "touring" the different cafes, bars and restaurants and while we were sitting in the Pirate Bar waiting for our 5:55pm ferry, they just said, oh, that's not coming and the 7:00am one tomorrow won't be able to come either. The people were extremely friendly and helpful. They found us a cute little place to stay, recommended a place to eat, all of this was a bit challenging as most things were closed for the season, but we managed! The next day was crazy, we hoped for the 7:00am ferry, but that didn't happen, so we, my friend and an Armenian mixologist, ended up on an adventurous water taxi ride in choppy waters and what I'll call an expensive private tour back to Athens. Actually, the taxi ride back to Athens wasn't all bad, the driver was great. He told us lots of stories about things, stopped at a local bakery and bought us some bread and cheese for breakfast, and we made it back to Athens in time for our flights. All and all it was fine. And, spending time with my friend, no matter what we are doing is great. I am just waiting for the window guys to finish up and then I am off to work. Late on the first day back after missing a week. That sounds about right. Ha!