Being home was like a power nap or deep breath after being under water. The best part of it all was having absolutely nowhere to be except for with my family. I got to go back to my college town to see my old team play, I got to reconnect with my college coach and a few of my friends from my internship this summer. I took a mini vacation with my mom in a little mountain town called Brevard where we explored and shopped and went to movies and ate amazing food. I had some old high school friends over for a homemade pizza night (we played Harry Potter trivial pursuit because we’re huge nerds).
But most of all, I was just thankful to get to spend Christmas morning with my family. Even though it was 80 degrees outside, nothing beats spending Christmas with family. I tried to give them all Irish gifts, and I succeeded for the most part… I bought my brother and dad both a Trinity t-shirt. I got my brother a few small samples of Irish whiskey and ordered him a Van Morrison tour shirt from Ebay.uk. I bought my mom a nice wool sweater from the Aran Sweater Market near Trinity—a sweater she will never wear considering she will be living in Florida for the next 30 years where the temperature never gets below 70. But my favorite gift of all was to my dad:
One day as I was walking on Grafton street, considering what unique Irish thing I could possibly get my dad in addition to the Trinity shirt and a few Cuban cigars, I ran into a friend from my church here in Dublin named Eben. We got to talking, and as he was showing me some of his amazing photographs from the countryside of Ireland, the idea hit me: I’ll buy my dad a photograph of Ireland and get it framed nicely for his office! So I asked Eben where he thought I could go to do that, and he suggested that I just use a few of his own photos. For free! I couldn’t believe it! A few weeks later, he sent me some of his favorite photos on facebook, and I narrowed it down to two. Once I got home to Savannah, I went to print them. I bought nice repurposed old oak frames and spent 45 minutes in Starbucks with one of my best friends from home trying to get the photos straight. (See photo above). We finally succeeded, and my dad loved them.
Unfortunately, I also found out that at his new office, he can’t hang his own pictures. So they may be going in my room… Too bad I’m never there these days. But hey, it’s the thought that counts, right?
