I guess I went AWOL for a bit there, hey? Sorry about that. Things have been busy.
Christmas was good to us, I will admit. Christmas Eve Day I got to exchange presents with K at Ella's Deli (yes, we exchange Christmas gifts at a Jewish deli). That crafty lady made me lip balm! Seriously; she MADE it. How cool is that, right? Anywhoozles, that afternoon I decorated sugar cookies while Hubby napped. Maxine, in her Christmas sweater, napped along with him for most of the afternoon, and I spent some good time with my parents.
Christmas Eve dinner was, of course, fantastic. Mom made the best Yorkshire pudding ever, and when I found they were out of hot cocoa mix, Dad made me some from "scratch" by heating up some pieces of Dove chocolate and mixing with milk. I have to say that my family is pretty great, and that helps make my holidays so wonderful. Would've enjoyed some snow, but, it was still lovely.
My parents got me a 3,000-piece puzzle (which is HUGE, btw) and a Jambox (which will come in really handy for school). They got Hubby a Gentleman Jack giftbox (so, basically, good booze and two glasses). They got Miss Maxine a bunch of toys and treats. Oh, and best of all, they got us a new water heater! (Apparently I was thisclose to getting an iPad, but they decided to get us something practical instead. Ah, the joys of being a homeowner!)
Hubby surprised me by getting us a bunch of stuff we can enjoy together, including a remote control for our PS3 (so we can watch blu rays without fumbling over the controller), season 2 of "Big Bang Theory" and season 1 of "Raising Hope," and new controllers for the Wii. He also got me a gorilla pod (that I picked out myself) and a monopod (that was a complete surprise)! Yes, it was a successful Christmas indeed. :)
Christmas Day was spent with my mom's side of the family, and then watching the Packers beat the Bears before heading back home. The day after was Christmas with Hubby's family, which, while a bit chaotic at times, was nice. I got to spend a lot of time hanging out with my nephew and taking pictures of him (he's so freakin' cute!!), but after being exhausted from all the running around that weekend (and feeling like I was starting to come down with something), I wound up sleeping in the recliner for an hour or two toward the end of our visit. In my family, it's not Christmas until someone falls asleep in the midst of the festivities, so I guess I was just carrying over the tradition.
You'd think a 4-day work week would go quickly, but it didn't. It dragged. A lot. And while I looked forward to our weekend plans, part of me would've been content just sleeping through the whole thing. Alas, after a bit of a struggle, we made our way to Madison for S's graduation gathering. We spent the night at my parents' and the next day had lunch plans with a friend of mine and his wife. I hadn't seen Mr. P since his wedding, which was in November of 2009 (they moved to Georgia the previous year), so this lunch was LONG overdue. We actually made plans to stop in on our drive down to Disney in March, so it won't be nearly as long before we see them next! Color me pleased.
New Year's Eve was spent with my second family. K, S and J (my "sisters") had all gotten new toys (iPhones, Kindle, etc) and much of the evening was spent in the same room, but each of us on our respective electronic. K's dad and his new wife stayed around for dinner, but left around 10 or so. See, the new wife has a rescue dog named Princess (a bichon, for those interested). Since she can get along with Eva (J's dog), we tried bringing Maxine into the mix. Bad idea. Bad. Those two were at each other's throats like you wouldn't believe! My best guess is Maxi made an inappropriate "Yo Mama" joke and Princess was having none of it. I'm probably wrong, but it works in my head. So anywhoozles, they ended up crating Princess upstairs in the "other" condo, since the two couldn't play nicely, and so they left early to make sure Princess didn't spend the whole evening alone.
We had a great time anyway. K always makes my second favorite meal of the year for New Year's Eve: shrimp and potatoes. Between that and all the snack foods available, I was stuffed silly. We played some Apples to Apples and drank to ring in the new year. Then we crashed at the condo (me on the couch, Hubby on the recliner/floor, Maxi on another chair). New Year's Day we headed home to drop off the puppers and headed back to see part of Hubby's family for the Packers game (go Matt Flynn!). Thankfully, we had nothing to do the next day, and we spent it like a couple of lazy bums. It was lovely.
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