The next and biggest adventure, was watching our oldest son graduate from college with his nursing degree!! We are so proud of all of his hard work, and we are very excited to see him live his life out in the world. I'm still having a little bit of a tough time here and there...it's harder than I thought to let him go!
The ceremony was a really long one, there were 1400 students who also graduated that day. The ceremony took place before all of the final grades were calculated, so he was listed in the program as cum laude, but he actually graduated magna cum laude. My parents came to town and they went with us, his gf, and brother to watch him take the walk of accomplishment.
At first I was kind of upset at how generic they were about announcing the students. I had hoped to hear what degree everyone was graduating with...but I guess with 1399 other students, it would have taken another 2 1/2 hours if they added all that in.
After the ceremony, we went to a somewhat new, upscale restaurant and unfortunately, had a pretty bad experience.Since the ceremony ran long, we didn't get to the restaurant until around 1:30 for lunch. It wasn't very busy, only 4 other tables were seated, and most of them were done eating, and just talking. We had 7 in our group.
When we walked in, the greeter/host/hostess station was covered in a jumble of menus that needed to be sorted and organized, and there was no one there to greet us. Eventually, someone came and seated us. The server was pretty good, even though he appeared to be the only server for the whole place at the time.
We ordered appetizers and they came before our meal order was taken, so we were juggling super large menus while we tried to eat. After our order was taken, we waited, and waited, and waited...the server brought out two small loaves of bread and butter, but that didn't last long since we all were starving. He came back and said he'd bring some more bread , but then our meals arrived. Everyone's sides were cold! My dad asked if his rice was supposed to be cold, and the server apologized and said he'd bring us warm sides.
My steak was barely warm and it wasn't just seared on the outside, it was burned. What a disappointment!!! After we were done eating the host came out with the server with sides all around...we weren't interested in the new sides, since we waited at least 15 minutes for them to come out. New bread also arrived, but by that point, we just wanted to pay our check and leave. The server came back and brought out 3 creme brules for us to share and their way of apologizing for the cold food. The manager told us their steamer got mistakenly turned off. I was wondering if I was going to get sick from the food not being at proper temperature the first time around.Thank goodness none of us did!!
We ended up waiting another 15 minutes for the "free" desserts to come out! Our whole meal took over an hour and a half...most of that time was spent waiting! I feel bad for suggesting the place to everyone, and I'm irritated that our celebratory meal was such a dud-especially for how much it cost!! The worst part of the whole thing is that I know the owner, but don't feel comfortable telling her the situation, because I don't want it to look like I'm trying for a freebie, because I'm not! I wouldn't eat there again if it was free once a week for a year!!
Any other place and I would have been online posting a review right away. I've talked to a few friends about what I should do, and the majority says I should let it go and never go back, so that is what I've decided to do. I will however tell anyone who asks that they should skip that place.
My parents returned home right after our meal, and came back again 4 days later to spend Christmas with us. We had a great visit, and our mother/daughter after Christmas annual pedicure, turned into a threesome, when we invited Adam's gf to join us. While we were getting our toes done, the guys all went to see Star Wars. We all made it home around the same time, and had to scurry to get everything together to go to my Aunt & Uncle's house for our extended family gathering.
It was nice, but very small this year. Some family drama kept a few people away, travel plans and other family obligations kept even more away. Hopefully next year things will be worked out and back to normal.
On Sunday, Mr. and I took off on a road trip to Findlay, Ohio to Jeffries Antiques. We both found some things that came home with us. I passed Mr. at one point as we were wandering through, and he was excited to announce he had a number...his first ever number all on his own-LOL! He bought a woodworking caliper that is vintage to use when he's turning bowls on his lathe. I bought a couple of red Pyrex fridgies and a couple of hankies for $1 each! Can you believe an antique mall had hankies for so cheap?!?
On the way home, we stopped at Maumee Antique Mall where I picked up some vintage valentines, and then we went to Five Guys Burgers. I'm so glad Auntie convinced me to try it the last time we went to Maumee together--YUM!!! Mr loved it!! We also stopped at Swan Creek in Dundee and I picked up a couple little things.
On Monday we got an ice storm, so no travelling for me-other that to the post office to apply for our passports-FINALLY!!! I can't wait to try thrifting in Canada!!!, On Tuesday, I was ready to hit the road again to take advantage of being free from work and free from schedules this week! I visited Mega Mall, The Little Red Schoolhouse, Swan Creek in Perry, and Red Cedar in Williamston on the way home,
The only treasure that I couldn't live without was a vintage tablecloth with playing cards on it, that I found at The Little Red Schoolhouse. After I got home, I finished taking down and packing away all of the Christmas decorations, and cleaned and organized a couple of areas in the house. Today was spent doing some laundry and picking up a few groceries...as well as a little project I've been waiting to try.
On Black Friday, I bought some super cheap group picture frames, intending to put hankies in the picture spots. Today I finally had time to try it out...I LOVE how they turned out, and can't wait to hang them on the walls in the spare bedrooms!!
Here are some pics of our adventures...
They actually look much better in person!
Wishing you a Safe, Healthy and Happy New Year, filled wil LOTS of love, laughter and great memories!!!