Christmas Break Was Good To Us

Every year, Papercut closes for the last week of the year so staff can relax and recharge. We thoroughly enjoyed our time off and wanted to share a recap of our adventures.

Hopefully, your holiday season was just as merry and bright!

Ellie Veazie

Over Christmas, I mostly hung out with my family. We did our usual traditions like making White Russians while watching White Christmas and orange-clove decorating. We also went wedding dress shopping, and I found the dress which was fun!

Jenny Hill

This Christmas, we were fortunate to spend time with family who came in from out of town. Our home was a gathering spot from Christmas Eve until well after the holiday. ​I fed lots of folks! My favorite Christmas treat is homemade cinnamon rolls, just like my great aunt Marney used to make. (My mom says they’re just the same as her grandmother, Brown, used to make for them!) The key is the icing… Because these are a special treat, I don’t make them often. Consequently, I was a little rusty with the recipe and had to toss the first (double) recipe of dough because I forgot the eggs! They were well worth the do-over. Yum!

After our family all went home — and our kids went to Florida to visit with their grandparents — Jason and I relaxed. I’ve included this photo of our cat Ricky Baker basking in the warmth of a fire. I spent a few days similarly chilled out.

Molly Shirley

I spent 30 hours on the road over Christmas break, and it was totally worth it!  My travels took me from Mississippi to Virginia and North Carolina! I got to spend time with my family and my husband’s family, as well as visit many friends. I spent a couple of days at my old stomping grounds in Kill Devil Hills, NC, where I got to eat my favorite fish tacos and take a walk on the beach.

Taylor Hartley

My Christmas break was the best kind – filled with animals!

Through the Pet Placement Center‘s Home for the Holidays program, I spent the week with a homeless Westie named Wally. He was such a sweetheart that I’m sure he’ll be adopted soon! On top of that, my fiancé surprised me with a hedgehog! She’s named Frances and is perfect in every way. I also got in plenty of quality time with my main girls – Cricket and Ruby.

Non-animal related activities: I hosted an impromptu Christmas party for friends (from near and far) and a Christmas Day breakfast for my family, as well as saw the new Star Wars with my nephew. And I rang in the new year with my best friends from high school. Great time off all around!

Tony Cain

I spent most of my break with family and the wonderful Nicole Bossert. We trekked to my grandparents’ house, as well as to her parents’ farm in middle Tennesee. It was a great way to relax as well as let our dog, Phife, run around for a couple of days. I ended with a bang of a New Year’s watching the Atlanta Falcons make the playoffs with a group of friends!

Michael McGhee

Over Christmas break, I did the usual: hung out with my parents and worked on their printer until I left.

Fact 1: Somewhere off the highway in Alabama, there’s a tree filled with old shoes.

Fact 2: I got locked in a Corvette at CarMax, because the door locked, and my parents couldn’t figure out how to unlock it, even though I showed them.

Ben Glick

During the break, I had a chance for reading, relaxation, cooking, and adventure. For Christmas, one gift was a collection of exotic spices, so I experimented with several new recipes to enjoy them.

I love the outdoors, so I decided to go hike Sitton’s Gulch Trail that runs through the bottom of Cloudland Canyon. The water was really clear and a certain hue of blue that only comes out in the winter months, which made the cascading waterfalls really beautiful. The sunlight on the high cliffs above also added to the scene to make it a really memorable experience.

Jason Hill

Over Christmas break, I finally finished the table that I’ve been working on for 2 years. AND – We used it on Christmas (more than once)!

We had a lot of great family time after Christmas. Then, Jenny and I went to a bed and breakfast in Townsend, Tenn. called Richmont Inn. It was a quiet and cozy place to just sit and read. It also had a beautiful view of the mountains.

It was a great break. Now, I’m happy to be in 2018 and look forward to the exciting things happening this year!

Tripp Stanford

I started off Christmas in Murfreesboro and spent some quality time with the family. Then, on Christmas night, I flew up to Minneapolis to hang out with my girlfriend’s family for the rest of the week. I went to the Mall of America, rode a rollercoaster, went to a hockey game, and won multiple games of Catan while I was there. It was definitely a cool experience.

Jamie Ann Phillips

Oh, man – I won the Christmas Break lottery! I went home to Alabama for Christmas to visit family and hold all my friends’ babies and kids. I even got to meet the newest baby to our group of best friends by taking a side trip through Atlanta!

I then hopped on a plane and headed to California (San Francisco and San Diego) for a week! I got to swim every day off the beaches of California. This included a swim from Alcatraz, a few swims with the South End Rowing Club and a couple swims in La Colla Cove in San Diego filled with sea lions playing all around me.

California is my favorite state – it’s a huge playground!  If I wasn’t swimming, I was exploring the beaches and eating great food – and going to my favorite bar in North Beach. It’s hard to be back in these frigid temperatures!