Holidays

We've celebrated a few holidays since I last wrote, and one of them was a birthday! Little Alison arrived, the first little one of our residency class. In the weeks leading up to her arrival, Tom and I were frequently visiting Chi-Fong and Karen and it was all I could do to hold back from going to see them the moment they showed up at the hospital for Karen's labor process! 

 I could not stop staring at her (or holding her for that matter) since I met her. Now I will make up any excuse I can to go visit her (and I guess to visit Chi-Fong and Karen too...).

It has made me wish even more that we lived in Cranston, a neighborhood south of the hospital, because then we'd be neighbors and we could go over any time we wanted! (just kidding...sort of).

Brace yourself for a slew of baby photos, because I can't help myself!

 We also celebrated Thanksgiving. Tom and I celebrated early since he was going back to Seattle for the holiday. We were at Costco getting our weekly groceries when we happened upon this amazing turkey dinner all prepped and ready to go in the oven and we were sold!

In case you were curious, it was DELICOUS!

We also celebrated a sort-of-kind-of holiday--the fact that the UW Husky football team is going to the play offs and will be playing in the Peach Bowl in Atlanta on New Years Eve! 

As a sort of last minute surprise (well, okay Tom had been planning on going all along if the huskies made it in, he just didn't fill me in on his confidence until now....)

 After Tom returned from Thanksgiving, I had one free day on Sunday and we were able to go out on our Christmas tree hunt. Now, I already posted about it on Facebook, but suffice it to say, we cannot cut down our own tree (legally) in the forest in Rhode Island. This is in part because there isn't really any forest around with coniferous trees :).

So we had to set out for the next best thing, a tree farm that lets you (if you ask nicely) cut down your own tree. But, word of caution, they DO NOT let you bring your own saw (as we learned).

We packed up the usual goodies and we were set to explore in what turned out to be a gorgeously sunny post-Thanksgiving weekend.

 It felt artificial and wrong to be at a tree farm, but we settled into the idea knowing that in order to go to the woods it would mean that we would have to drive up to New Hampshire or Vermont (3.5 to 4 hours to get to the forest and we'd probably only have a day to do it).

 We weren't allowed to walk to the field where the trees were, we had to take a tractor ride, and had to wait our turn to do that as well. It's like I had no patience or something!

 I had to take a moment to appreciate the fat trees in the farm, all to reminiscent of the proportions of the trees I usually select :)

Tom occasionally stopped by the fat-bottomed trees just to make me feel better about me liking them

Tom pushed me to find a tree with better proportions. We obviously had to walk all around the field (at least twice) before we settled on the right thing.

This is the winner right here :)

We definitely had to ask permission to cut down our tree, but I have to say that the high-school aged kid working his holiday job looked quite relieved with Tom took the saw out of his hand (one less job for him to do!).

The look on his face continued when we asked to carry the tree. Clearly I was helping A TON while carrying the tree and taking a photo.

We wanted to carry the tree back to the truck but they drew the line there, we had to drop it off to get bound before it was loaded on the truck to be driven to our truck.

We were happy with our success.

The post-hunt snacks still hit the spot despite the fact that we didn't hike a ton to get the tree. We bough skittles but only after we opened them did we realize they were the red and green only. I was disappointed until Tom pointed out that it meant I wouldn't have to fight him to get all the red ones :)

 

We got some funny looks as we sat in the truck bed at the side of the road, but it didn't keep us from enjoying the Christmas spirit.

I had almost forgotten about this little gem of an ornament. Hard to believe that about one year ago we were in Bonaire enjoying the sun and blue waters!

It's so warm and cozy in our little home these days!

I've also cashed in on some connections I made with some residents at Rhode Island Hospital during my ICU rotation. I had an offer to join an intramural volleyball leauge. I figured I wouldn't have time to attend many (if any) matches, but it just so happens that the league started last week and I happen to be on a wonderful rotation for the month of December that allows me to be off work at reasonable hours so that I can go play! We took home a W last week and we fully intend on doing so next week too! Oh, and the best part: it's an all-men's league on men's-height nets. They allow female players because they see them as a "disadvantage" and allow you to have as many as you want!

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Given my more low-key rotation, I also am able to sneak in a few middle-of-the-week adventures. Tom surprised me on Wednesday for a little trip to a Christmas light show.

 It's ont he grounds of a huge Catholic church called ***. It's free and quite spectacular.  There's food there too. It was a little like returning to our sunday school days --sitting in the church basement on plastic multi-colored chairs with vinyl table cloths lining the large tables.

It wasn't our usually dinner fare, but it was such a warm and wonderful Chistmas-y environment.

Tom's office holiday party happened last night at a place called the Squantum Club in East Providence. Tom and I have been wanting to go to the club ever since we saw it this past summer while kayaking in the Naragansett Bay. It's a gorgeous old home, this photo Tom snapped as I scrambled up the gravel in the 20 degree weather doesn't do it justice!

 

I immediately found my way to the mantle on the first floor.

 I wandered into the sun room with a view of the water and I couldn't help but imagine what it would be like to watch a summer sunset while dining on some lobster would be like!

 The woodwork and interiors of the club were incredible! There was even a moose to make me feel even more at home

 We were welcomed with open arms by everyone from the office, even getting a shout out in the toast by Tom's boss that we were now "part of the family!" We chatted and dined on an amazing meal and toasted the Holiday Season.

 I certainly didn't want to leave my warm post by the fire on my way out for the night. I could have sat by the fire and listed to Christmas music all night long!

 Fortunately it was easier to leave because my classmates were all hanging out together. This photo is actually from the previous weekend when we all got together. More often than I would have originally thought, we get to hang out as a group. This photo was from game night where we did end up playing a game, but mostly we just chatted. With 8 residents and one hospital, only one person has to be on call on each given weekend day meaning that the rest of us can meet up. Picutred below from left to right around the circle: Leanne, Andrey, Chi-Fong, Karen, Ben (Fei's boyfriend), Fei, Me (and Ali), Tom, and Meri.

 The big news for us this week is that we'll be headed to Atlanta for New Year's Eve! The Huskies will be playing in the Peach Bowl and I happen to have NYE and NY Day off (it's like I won the lottery or something!). Tom has all the tickets lined up, and we'll be joined by Dave, Allison and Gentry, and Allison's parents Dean and Judy too! 

Sorry for the long interval between this and my last post, I'll try to keep better tabs on it all before we get into 2017. For now, rest assured that I'm 6 months into intern year and have made incredible gains in my skills, knowledge base, and confidence but that does not mean that I am not humbled EVERY DAY by the chance to get to train beside these incredible human beings and be charged with the task of bringing new life into the world safely, operating on women with tumors, cysts, and bleeding problems, and providing primary care for the women of Rhode Island! 

It's about to get a lot more intense because after the holidays I start back on the oncology ward, take a standardized exam (similar to the boards that's required each year in residency) and do some more off-service rotations in the ER. For now, I'm going to drink some more cocoa, snuggle up by the Christmas tree, and enjoy the moments I'm so fortunate to have with Tom!