Even though I have only been with my girlfriend for the last six months, I have known her for over a year and a half. For over a year, we were just really good friends with each other, but as we grew closer as friends, we both realized that it made more sense for us to be in a committed relationship. I was nervous that making the jump to an actual relationship would throw things off between us, but I’m happy to say that the last six months with her have been quite enjoyable.

Although we both now live in the Midwest, my girlfriend is originally from New Jersey. Her immediate family also lives in the Midwest, but she still has some extended family members who live in New Jersey. When she asked if I wanted to go to New Jersey with her to visit her family, I agreed, so we ended up taking a six day trip up there.

I was obviously a little nervous about meeting all of her family members, but everyone was really nice to me. I think they could all see that I genuinely care about her, so everyone in her family treated me quite well.

Making arrangements in my family is never an easy task. The reason for this is that my entire family is spread throughout the United States. While it seems like most families are located in a few key areas, my family can literally be found all over the United States. So, as you can probably imagine, when events like the holidays come around, it is anything but easy to figure out the plans that everyone is going to follow.

It’s for this exact reason that I will be visiting North Carolina for Christmas, and then right before New Year’s arrives, I will be heading up to New Jersey to celebrate. I have family members in both of these locations that I truly care about, but because it is so hard to get everyone on the same page in terms of making plans, it is honestly easier for me to just go to both places and spend time with them individually.

Traveling like this may sound like a pain to you, but because I have done it for so long, it just seems normal to me. I love everyone in my family a lot, which is why I always make sure that I find a way to spend time with them every single year.

Just recently, I had a three day weekend.  The reason that I got a full three days off of work instead of just two is because our office made the decision to close on President’s Day.  I wasn’t expecting to get this day off, so when my boss made the announcement, I have to admit that I was quite excited.

Fortunately, he didn’t wait until the last minute to tell us about his decision, so I had some time to figure out what I wanted to do with this time off of work.  I called several people that I am close with to see what they were doing, and out of everyone that I talked to, my uncle was the one who said that even though he also had three days off from work, he hadn’t made any plans yet.  Since I actually live fairly close to my uncle (he lives in New Jersey), I decided that it would be fun to get a rental car, drive to New Jersey and hang out with him for the weekend.

I always have a good time with my uncle in New Jersey, and this trip was no exception!