Hello everyone!
I hope that everyone had a terrific holiday, and that Santa was able to grant all of your wishes. We have been blessed to see another year, and I don't know about you all but I am very happy and Thankful for that. I hope that 2009 will be just as good if not better to you than 2008 was. Whatever you were dealing with in '08' try your best not to let it affect you the same way in '09' This is a new year, and opportunity for new beginnings. I know that things are bad in a lot of places, and i know that the economy is not where we would like it to be. So many of those things are out of our control. So I ask everyone to try their best to find happiness in whatever it is that they do still have. God, Yourself, your health and strength, family, friends, teammates, churches etc. There are still so many things to be thankful in these trying times. Don't like all the good that cant still occur be affect by the bad that we can not control.
Now on to some of the things that I did while being at home with my family and friends.
When I left Israel I went on to visit my best friend and her family In Miami. We had a blast. I had not seen her in like 6 months so it was so good finally seeing her again. We exchange Christmas gifts which we both loved very much, her mother( which is my second mom) and exchanged gifts as well. We all began to catch up and talk about some of the things that had been going on in our lives. We went out on the town, did some shopping, went out to eat etc. but for the most part we just sat around talking and enjoying each others company. I stayed there for like 3 or 4 days and from there flew into New Orleans to be with my family. I brought in the new year in my grandmothers house with most of my family members. It was kind of hard but I know that was the right place to be. Some people may understand this and some may not, but as much as I love my family, it was and is super hard for me to be around them right now for holiday things. For 25 of my 26 years I have always had my grandmother with my for the holidays, so I wasn't looking forward to being with my family at all for the holidays. It was just too hard for me. I was not home for Christmas so that kind of helped me, but did bring in the new year with them like mentioned earlier. On new years day, I had my little cousin who is like my brother with me and my best friend came down to baton rouge with me for a few days. She flew in and I picked her up from the airport, from there we headed to LSU we were happy that we were able to catch one of the lady tigers games. It was really good to see how much that young team has really been making progress. You can see that they have been working really hard and I am extremely proud of them. While there at the game, we were able to see some people that we had not seen in a long time and all the fans were happy to see Sylvia back in the PMAC since she had not been back there since she finished playing. They were all happy to see the Olympian back on the premises. After the game was over we spoke to the coaches and the players, and the three of us headed to Mike Anderson's which is one of the best seafood restaurants that we have tasted. It is one of our favorites. We also hit up some of our other favorite places, such as Sullivan's- great steaks and if you wan to just relax and listen to music there is a bar and a live band playing on the other side of the restaurant it is a nice setting. We were able to get us some sushi from Ichibian this Japanese place in baton rouge that we like. It was a great time. We saw a movie, visited friends, shopped and was able to take some pictures. It was a great time. After she left I went back to spend some more days with my family and do more family things with them and the kids of the family. Then my mom and my sister ad my new niece came back with me to my house to spend some time with me at my house. I gave my mom her gift which she loved. She wanted a laptop for Christmas so she was blessed with it. I guess Santa was good to her . She was very excited so that was enough for me. I was happy to see a smile on her face. The next day I went o visit the elementary school that I adopted. It was so great to see those kids and their teachers again. I was able to participate in their dance exercises that they were doing during P.E., I got a chance to attend some of their classes, i did some question and answers with them, but the most amazing part of it all was all the hugs that I got as well as the ones that I gave. I think that means more to the kids than anything. It amazing how far just one hug can go .
As you can see I was very busy while I was home, but I enjoyed every minute of it. I am not back in Israel, oh yeah and I didn't mention how my family was in an up roar about me coming back here while I was home after watching what was going on over in Gaza with the war. Don't worry everyone, all is good where I am. I called everyone that I knew to call, I spoke with my agent, my teammates, my owners of my club, and some of the other Americans that were here already. They all told me the same thing. That it is so far away from where we are and that we are not affected by it. I was a little nervous at first but I did trust them. I am now back and so far they were all right. But I will promise everyone this. If i feel as though there is any danger headed this way, I will be on the first plane back to America. Ok I am off to get some rest now but I will keep everyone posted.
Until next time.............
One more thing I would love for you all to write in some of your new years resolutions. I would love to read them and see some of things that you all have to say.
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