Christmas vacation was something that our family had been looking forward to for 4 months, and our trip more than exceeded our expectations. September through December were a pretty rough few months in a number of ways, and our trip to Florida was simply relaxing and a lot of fun.

While we were down there we stayed with my great uncle and aunt.  My Uncle Jack took me to my first Red Sox game back in 1980 and just this past summer turned 87.  In the past, every time we have visited my aunt & uncle my parents were with us, so this was the first time I really got to spend some extended time with him.  He is a pretty amazing guy.

Actually, he is the reason I got my degree in Business Administration in college.  I spent my freshman year as a computer science major (1 semester), a journalism major (1 month), a psychology major (2 weeks), and finally undecided.  The summer after my freshman year my uncle Jack took me aside, told me about this new business he was starting and said he’d like me to take it over eventually and make sure that his wife was taken care of.  As a kid, Uncle Jack was this larger than life person…the successful businessman. And after that conversation, I declared myself a business major.  And that is how I ended up with a business degree.
Being able to spend some time with them was just a great way to end the year.  It allowed me to connect a bit with my family’s story (I learned if my great uncle George had not gone to jail for stealing a car, I likely would not have been born), and really spend some time thinking about my life.

A bunch of other great stuff happened while we were down there as well…we’ll post some more as the week goes on.