Our Holidays...and Beyond!

After celebrating my favorite holiday in October and spending Thanksgiving with Eric's folks, we had a festive Christmas holiday celebration here in town.  My immediate family celebrated with us and then my mom's whole side piled in for a fun Christmas gathering!  Then our friends Rachel and Ollie came into town to celebrate the New Year with us.  We hit Universal, the Disney parks, some fabulous dining locations, and other various hot spots throughout town.  (Poor Eric had recently had hernia surgery, so if you're wondering why he's in a wheelchair in some pictures, it's because it was way faster to push him around than drag him around hobbling!)

Celebrating Rachel's birthday at Yachtsman Steakhouse

We surprised Rachel with a birthday cake!

Taking a ride on the monorail

Sisters enjoying some delicious Butterbeer

Rachel and Ollie at Universal

The Browns meeting a distant cousin, Doc Brown

Visiting Hogwarts

The girls taking a pit stop at Chili's

Another delicious dinner at Flying Fish Cafe

Wild ride at Disney's Hollywood Studios

Late dinner at Wolfgang Puck's Dining Room

After the holidays, we just went back to our normal routines and finally took town our Christmas decor last week.  Eric is still chuggin' along at work, enjoying his place on the Club Concierge Level at the Yacht and Beach Club. Resorts.  He gets to rub elbows with lots of VIPs, so he gets a kick out of the mood and bustle of it all.  Looking back, I personally had a very bustling holiday, gigging all over town, which was such a blessing.  I got to sing with the Shrine Choir, one of the most musically fulfilling groups in town, a few times for the Christmas season, including midnight mass and Christmas morning service.  Also, Seraphim, the new women's a capella group I sing with, premiered my newest piece, Winter Carol, at our gigs this season.  Other than that, I've been auditioning my butt off trying to live up to my New Year's resolution of becoming a full-time performer.  My other resolution was to relaunch my website, and that I think I have completed.  Check it out!

Alpha Chi Omega Alumnae Chapter

At Stetson, I was a collegiate member of the Alpha Chi Omega sorority for four years and it was an experience unlike any other. Before I got to college, I could never have predicted that I would join a Greek organization, but it shaped my college life like no other activity would. After graduation, my life was swept up in a whirlwind of living on my own, trying to build a career and make a name for myself, and of course, meeting the love of my life. The Orlando alumnae chapter of ΑΧΩ had been sending me mail describing all of their fun events for the year, and now that the storm has settled, I decided it was time for me to get involved again in ΑΧΩ.

The first meeting of the year, a tailgate party, was last night in Maitland at the home of one of the members. I carpooled with my pal Rachel whom I met through going to auditions but by coincidence is also a Photopass Photographer and also a member of Alpha Chi! We both had a grand time and funnily enough we both ended up as officers on the board at our first meeting! I inherited the duties of Lyre Editor, putting together articles and photos detailing our activities and submitting them to our national quarterly magazine. Rachel is the Historian, responsible for chronicling the year's events in a photo album. We decided that, since we both love to write and take photos and that those skills are needed for each position, we could make it that much more fun and collaborate on our tasks.

I don't know if any of my fellow collegiate ΑΧΩ alumnae from Stetson follow this blog, but if you are reading this you should totally join in the fun!