1 buon natale!

hello world!

I am finally back in North Carolina and it feels GREAT! It was 70 degrees here yesterday and I was riding around with my sunroof open! But I have to tell you, the journey home was a very long and interesting one!!

I got to JFK around 4:15 PM and after going through the ridiculously long customs line, I got my baggage pretty quickly and met my Aunt Rutha outside. She lives about 5 minutes from JFK in Queens so she didn't even park. Everybody else was like, "Oh Niki, aren't you gonna stay and say goodbye to people??" But I just chucked the deuces and headed on my way! So glad to never have to look at those people again. lol

By the time I got to my Aunt's car... it was already 5:30. We literally left the airport and headed south to VA where we stayed the night with my cousin (her son). We got there around 11, and went to sleep around midnight. I think it was when I got to my cousin Randy's house that I realized I'd left my camera on the plane. :( So there will be no pictures in this post. Hopefully, the airline found it and I can get it back soon.

We slept for about 4 hours and then got back on the road. Now for those of you that don't know.... most people take I-95 south to get from Virginia to North Carolina. But on Sunday, my Aunt wanted to take an alternate route that I'd never taken, which is I-81. She told me that we could take this down to Charlotte and then take I-40 back up to Raleigh. So, I got in the car and let her drive the first two hours assuming she was right, because I didn't know any different.

Little did I know that we would wind up at the Tennessee state border and about 3 hours out of the way. I took over the wheel, found a map at a gas station and chose a highway that would get us back in the direction we needed to go. What I didn't realize, however, is that the highway I chose would lead me over the Appalachian mountains! So I drove about 30 miles and over two mountains before we got back to civilization. lol Luckily, I'm a country girl and I've driven through moutains before. When we finally got over the mountains, I realized we were in Boone, NC... which is about 4 hours from Raleigh. At this point, it was noon, and I had been driving since 8 AM... and I was worried that we would be late to the parties we were supposed to be making that afternoon.

I called my roommate to let her know where we were and not to wait for me. She couldn't believe I'd driven through Tennessee and was now in Boone. haha My dad called a little later and LAUGHED at me over the phone! Gotta love dads ;)

Anyway, we made it back in time to make my cousin Mackenzie's birthday party... and from there I headed to Garner to my friend Bobby's party for a bit... where I saw a lot of my friends from high school and college. I left there and caught up with my Garner Crew and ate MORE birthday cake for Amir's birthday.

By this time, it was like 10pm and I hadn't even made it home yet, I was still rolling around town with my suitcases in tow. When I finally made it back to my apartment, it was so wonderful to just sit down, and be able to sleep in my own comfortable bed.

With that said, I didn't leave my bed until 2pm on Monday. It was fantastic! So so glad to be home, you have no idea!

Tuesday, Christmas Eve and Day deserve their own post, so look for that tomorrow!

I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday.

Ciao for now :)