Holiday Wrap-Up

I'm sitting in the Atlanta airport, waiting on my connecting flight to Baltimore, and thought I would do a quick post with a few last pictures from my trip home. I had such a wonderful time in Texas. I got to see all my family and several friends, and it was a nice chance to really relax. 

Dad and Geordi definitely took advantage of the down time!

Of course the holidays means football! Here I am with Lance showing off our Texans pride. 

They closed up an 8-8 season with a win over Chicago. (The Ravens won too)! Looking forward to the playoffs. 

Here I am in the Woodlands with the fantastic Meredith Ware. Her Dad was my first euphonium teacher, and we have been friends for going on 9 years now! 

I have to say that I had a lot of good food while I was home for Christmas. I tried to make up for it by doing some good PT- my brother helped me with that and I was sore for days after one workout!

Here we are eating some of Dad's skewered shrimp. 

Other highlights were seafood gumbo, Dad's mouth-watering Texas BBQ, authentic Mexican, homemade apple cobbler... I could go on!
I am glad to be heading back to Maryland, but it is going to be a quick stop. I'm going to a New Years party in DC on Wednesday night, and then will be up early (and hopefully not feeling too queasy) to catch my flight to Puerto Rico the next day. I'm going to a good friend's wedding and am pretty pumped about it. I am imagining myself lying on a beach, soaking up some 80 degree weather and maybe sipping on a mojito too! 

Updates on that trip soon!

Merry Christmas!!!

It is so wonderful to be home celebrating the holidays with my family! I'm sitting in our living room gazing at the tree, full from breakfast, with my dog resting her head on my leg. This first picture is my dad basking in the glory of the Snuggie my mom got him for Christmas. Apparently he'd been asking for one since seeing those ridiculous commercials. This made me laugh so much! 

I thought I'd post some pictures of recent holiday activities that have been keeping me busy. I was invited to be a guest conductor at the Houston Tuba Christmas this year. Fortunately it was a balmy 75 degrees on the day of our performance (I miss Texas weather)! 

Check out all these sousaphones! I think the crowd really enjoyed such unique sights and sounds  while they were out doing holiday shopping. 

Here I am with one of my mentors, the awesome Mr. Bob Daniel, retired tubist with the US Air Force Band. He was one of the coordinators of the Tuba Christmas and it was fantastic to see him and catch up. 

Check out that tasty bowl of seafood gumbo! This was taken at the Veronie Family Christams Extravaganza and extra special because all of the Veronie's were able to make it this year. Starting from the top, that's my Dad, all six of his children and their spouses, all ten of his grandchildren which includes three spouses and two boyfriends, and six great-grandchildren. Add in a few extras, and that's a lot of people! It's hard for everybody to meet at the same place every year, but this year we pulled it off and it was really nice. 

One of the best parts of the weekend was when my older siblings surprised my Dad with a brand new pickup truck that they got for him. He was totally overwhelmed! His old truck had something like 130,000 miles on it and was wearing out. This new one is just beautiful! 

Of course I am loving being reunited with my little Geordi dog. She still remembers me and has been sleeping at my feet every night! Here she is in a ridiculous outfit that my mom got her. Gotta love the pink camo! 

I'll have more holiday pics and updates later. Hope everyone is having a wonderful time this year and enjoying the season! 

Chicago

It's always a good feeling, as your plane is landing, for the pilot to announce that it is 5 degrees outside! On Tuesday we landed in a cold and snowy Chicago for the Midwest Band and Orchestra Convention. 

Being invited to play at this event is a great honor 

and I was very excited about our concerts. Both were very well received and so much fun to play. Look at the huge crowd! The hall was packed for both performances. 

One special treat was having Colonel Gabriel, retired Commander of the US Air Force Band, lead us as a guest conducter. Colonel Gabriel is legendary. Two of my biggest mentors, Dr. Brian Bowman and Bob Daniel, were in his low brass section and I have grown up hearing about the amazing leadership of this man. I had the privilege of playing for him when I was sixteen years old at a band camp at Stephen F. Austin University in Texas. Being able to be under his baton once again was a pleasure.  

 Another great thing about being in Chicago was the chance to meet up with so many friends. Here I am with my ex-roommate, Jessica, one of my best friends from North Texas. I missed everyone so much, and was happy to be able to reconnect and visit.

My Brother

This weekend I went to visit my "little," (he is huge!) brother in Newport News, Virginia. He is a 2nd Lieutenant and currently in transportation school at Ft. Eustis. Growing up, I never imagined that we would both end up serving in the Army, but I couldn't be more proud that our lives ended up coming together in this way.


We decided to take brother-sister pictures in uniform and frame the best shots for Mom's Christmas present. It was a fun adventure. Although we spent hours in the waiting room listening to dozens of toddlers bawl when asked to sit on Santa's lap, it was a good chance for us to visit and catch up. The funniest moment was when the photographer tried to put us into this intimate gazing pose and we were like.... "umm.... we are brother and sister, this is awkward." She definitely thought we were a couple, guess she didn't know enough about Army ranks to realize why that would have been a no-go, haha. 

So I'm crossing my fingers that mom doesn't stumble across the blog before Christmas... I don't think she will, but if you are reading this mom... act surprised anyway!

My brother is my best friend and and living far apart is always tough. We had a great visit- here we are enjoying some margaritas! 

We ended up driving across the famous Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel, which was expansive and beautiful. 

It was nice to see a little bit of Virginia's Eastern Shore, and I had a great crab sandwich on the other side of the bridge before we drove back. 

In other news, the Unit held its annual Holiday Party. It was really fun and there was so much good food! 

Here is a picture of some of the ladies in the band all dressed up and enjoying the event. 

My culinary contribution was a dual offering of Sweet Potato Casserole. The one on the left is my Grandma's version with Marshmallow topping, and the right is my Mom's with pecan and brown sugar topping. Both seemed to go over well! 

So I'm in Chicago right now and tomorrow is our big performance at the Midwest Band & Orchestra Convention. Chicago is FREEZING cold and snowing but I'm totally stoked about our concerts tomorrow and exploring the exhibits.

Overdue Update

It's been a while since my last post! The end of the year is always a super busy time. Here are a few pics to show some of what has been keeping me occupied lately. 

I finally have my apartment looking livable! This is a quick snapshot of my living room. It's starting to feel a little bit like home but one thing's for sure, it's way more comfy to hang out in than an empty room. 

I went to my first Tuba Christmas in Washington D.C. It was quite an experience!
I ran in the 5k Jingle Bell Run for Arthritis in downtown Baltimore. 

We had a really good group get together for this and it was super fun. I definitely want to try more big running events. 

Another cool event was the International Women in Brass annual Holiday Brass fundraiser. This took place in a huge Catholic church in Baltimore. It was a packed house and brass players form all over the area got together to perform some nice holiday music. 

Up next this month, the Field Band is going to Chicago to perform at the Midwest Band & Orchestra Clinic. I'm so excited about this because I will get to see many friends and mentors that I haven't been able to visit with much since I moved up here. I'm also pumped about our performance, I think it's going to go great. It's a dream come true to be able to perform at this convention with TUSAFB. 

After Chicago, I'll be heading down to Texas for the holidays. Hopefully will have lots of fun pics to post from the rest of this month's adventures!