Holidays are over

Well the Holidays went pretty well after OB/Gyn ended without much fanfare. Nothing too exciting to report. I took the shelf test and passed just fine, but it was pretty hard. Glad I had a weekend to focus on it.

The first week of vacation was spent shopping for Xmas presents, putting up lights, decorating the house and running general errands. The Accord sure runs better after a tune-up.

It doesn't feel like I got much done. Certainly no studying. I made a concerted effort to not do any studying over the vacation to give myself a break. So for the first week I spent a lot of time with the family and relaxed. I really enjoyed red wine and rich food every night.

Xmas itself was a nice quiet affair. Christmas Eve the boys opened presents from Becky and I which included some cool Xbox/PC games, science kits and swimming stuff ("heart, mind and body"). The boys were thrilled with the games, but haven't touched the kits yet (but Connor's "Power House" will be incredibly useful for school science projects). The biggest disappointment was that Colton received two Nintendo DS games from my mom but no player. We explained that he would probably have enough money to save up for one on his own, and Connor, who is in on the know, suggested Santa might come to the rescue. There weren't tears, just a sad face.

Christmas morning that problem was solved by Santa. Connor received a cool remote plane/car that was given a rest only long enough to recharge the battery every 20-30 minutes. It's a cool design but the foam is light it's hard to control in the air. I was pretty sure the toy wouldn't survive day one. It did, but I think it won't be used too much once school starts. Connor would probably love a real remote plane with a rubber, but those are a few hundred dollars to start.

In the afternoon we had Tucker and his family over Christmas Day. The kids played together great. The meal was great. The wine was great. I love my new sunglasses and T-mobile MDA (after spending the better of a day installing about a dozen medical programs on it). It's so nice having one device now. Tucker and I didn't dwell too much on shop talk and the girls didn't bore us too much with endless discussion of their current fad - historical romance novels.

The second week was spent hosting family. First my Dad and step mom stayed over for a few days. I was too tired to play social coordinator, so I hope they weren't too disappointed with how little we actually did during their trip here. I met Tucker at school one afternoon and we figured out our MSIV rotation schedule. It was good to have two of us to look over reviews and compare Preceptors and hospitals. I changed a lot of my earlier selections and am pretty happy with the list I'm going to fax in for the computerized lottery today.

The advice we get from upperclassmen is have a relaxing fourth year and rest up for internship. So I have just two audition rotations scheduled, Ft. Collins and probably Ogden since I already know the Vancouver, WA area well. I'm still looking forward to Ft. Wayne in April but Becky has made it clear she's not crazy about the Midwest - and who can blame her?

Then my mom stayed over for New Year. She and the kids did a few fun things while I packed and got prepared for two months away. The boys and I also enjoyed playing Neverwinter Nights 2, but I think they went really crazy with Marvel Ultimate Alliance. They'll have teh game completed any day now. They cooperatively play different superheros and level them up to get new superpowers and outfits. Who knew Spiderman had such an extensive wardrobe? Lego Star Wars and Need For Speed: Carbon got high marks as well.

I certainly had a few second thoughts last week about this crazy schedule. Other than audition rotations next year, I don't plan to ever spend this much time away from the family again. I will miss the boys and Becky a lot. With Julie leaving as well, the dogs are going into a depression for sure.