January Road Trip Part I

My mom and dad share the same birthday (its actually today . . .January 21) so this weekend, Amanda and I headed down to Mass to a) visit them for their birthdays and b) exchange Christmas presents, since we still had not seen them for the holidays. Ortiz turns 60 today, so we we went to "Maui" for lunch with me, Amanda, Barbara, Kristin, Stephanie, and and Gabriel. Maui is probably the most famous restaurant in the Goldsmith family--its a Chinese restaurant in Brockton, and, as my dad and I discussed on the way there, I, personally, have been going there for 20 years--my dad and grandparents even longer! It is sort of our "regular" place, and Koran has been our waitress through all the years. She is the world's best waitress, and she literally knows all of us; I hadn't seen her for about 5 years, and she remembered me and Amanda . . . .

After Maui, we headed back to Dad's house where people enjoyed a huge cake baked by Anthony. There was also some great peanut butter cup ice cream.
Barbara's son David had to work, but David's wife Stephanie and their son Gabriel came by. This was the second time Sally and I got to see Gabriel, and he is a huge 1.5 year old! He loves Chinese food, which is always good for a kid--especially if he spends any time around Ortiz!
21st CENTURY ORTIZ!!!

We chipped in and bought Dad an iPod and an iTunes gift certificate. His new truck has a docking station in it, plus he has nice Bose speakers in his house. Plus he likes to sit in his chair. We figured he would enjoy it very much in his retirement . . .and already he seems to be loving it! I spent some time Saturday afternoon (and then again on Sunday morning) giving Dad "iPod 101 for dummies" and he picked it up surprisingly well! We were a little nervous, since Dad JUST learned that you can hit "enter" on the keyboard to make the cursor go to the next line . . .but all in all, he is an iPod savant! The only two problems are that he can't get the headphones in his ears, and he calls it an iPod "nanu" (like Mork and Mindy) instead of a Nano (which it is). He is already downloading songs onto iTunes, and having a good time. After Dad's we headed to exchange gifts with Mom and Bob (I dont know why I fogot to take pictures of this!) and we went to dinner at Chili's. Sally scored, above other things, a really beautiful Vera Bradley overnight bag, and I scored an "old school" Patriots sweatshirt from the pro-shop at Foxboro Stadium.

A really busy day with a lot of driving . . .but its good to see family in Mass.