Christmas week recap

I'm feeling like I've fallen behind on this whole blogging thing. So here is a quick recap of our week o' Christmas fesitivities:

In-law dinner: We had my dad & Beth, the Stones, Ritchies, the Harrises (not official in-laws, but family friends) and Stacy, Taylor and Finley over to our house for dinner the night before Christmas Eve. It was so nice to have people over in our festively decorated house! 

Christmas Eve: We hit up two parties - one on each side of the fam. The roads weren't too bad at that point, so we were able to drive from St. Paul to Bloomington to Roseville and back to St. Paul without too much trouble. And I got to see this cute little gal for a bit until her mom got sick and had to go home early.

Christmas Morning: It snowed a lot the night before, and it was still snowing that morning. So Dad, Beth and Eric had to push my car to get it unstuck from all the deep snow in the street that had yet to be plowed. We made it out after getting stuck twice and slowly but surely made the drive to my mom's house. We saw a car turned around on the freeway at one point, so that was a little scary, but my grandma driving skills got us there in one piece. Indy and Buddy got to tear apart exchange gifts, too. :) 

One of the best gifts/outfits of the day: Eric with his new toolbelt

Christmas Evening: We got home to discover that the plow finally came through, so we couldn't get in our driveway. Eric, Dad and Rob shoveled the driveway, then I went out to help with the sidewalks, and Jeff came out later too. It was so warm out (like in the 30s) that we weren't wearing jackets - just hats and gloves. It was such hard work - the snow was melty so it was like shoveling slush. And then there were huge iceberg-sized snow chunks left over from the plow. Whew! We earned out delicious Christmas meal made by Dad and Beth - a roast, mashed potatoes, green beans, salad, bread, wine. Mmmmm....

After that we made a house out of a big cardboard box for Miss Finley, who LOVED it! Alyse needs to post pics, cause I didn't take any with my cam. I was too busy adding pipe cleaner swastikas snowflakes to the outside of the house. Auntie Alyse made pretty pipe cleaner flowers. You'll be happy to know that the "house" is still in our guestroom.

Other holiday events:

• Pizza party and casino night with some of the G fam (not pictured)
  
  
• Ice skating in Rice Park with Stacy, Alyse and the boys (and Finley too)!

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

Where have I been? Well, we had a lovely, quiet Thanksgiving here at our house with my mom and brother. We brined a turkey and made stuffing and pumpkin cheesecake. Mmmm..... It all turned out pretty great, especially the cheesecake.

Then last weekend, we started decorating our house for Christmas a bit. We had a ton of icicle lights left over from our wedding reception, so we decided to get out the ladder and put them up on our house. Neither of us had ever hung lights before, but we were eager to make our house look good. Look at this guy - he's ready:

Action shot:

And the final product:

What do you think? 

Santa! I know him!

Welcome to the Christmas edition of getting to know your friends!

Since it's December now, it's okay to start talking about Christmas. I love the holiday season. Love it. Love it. Love it. Love the family get-togethers, love buying things for people, love decorating the house, love making cookies... So when I got this little email forward from a cousin of mine, I thought I'd fill it out. You know how I like a good forward to fill out while at work (especially when I feel like I've been productive and can take a break without being too much of a slacker).

So here you go. Feel free to comment back with your own Christmas favs!

1. Wrapping paper or gift bags? Wrapping paper (dollar aisle at Target has good stuff!)

2. Real tree or Artificial? I used to love going out to Afton to get a real tree when I was a kid, but we just got a fake tree from a friend for free, so that’ll do.

3. When do you put up the tree? Next weekend maybe, after the baby shower I’m throwing for Stacy is over and my out-of-town visitors leave. Then I’ll have room (and time) for the tree! (Not that I want you to be "out of my hair" -- just saying that I don't have time for the tree yet. Don't hate!)

4. When do you take the tree down? Sometime around the 1st.

5. Do you like eggnog? No.

6. Favorite gift received as a child? Keyboard or my Burger King Whopper Play-doh set

7. Hardest person to buy for? My brother cause you never know if the gift will end up being taken apart later. :)

8. Easiest person to buy for? Mom

9. Do you have a nativity scene? No

10. Mail or email Christmas cards? I like mailing them, but haven’t been for the past year or so. Maybe after I get done with grad school and have more money I’ll do that again.

11. Worst Christmas gift you ever received? ??? Can’t think of one.

12. (Not sure what happened to #12 - maybe writer of #12 too busy Christmas shopping to write silly question.)

13. When do you start shopping for Christmas? Sometime in November

14. Have you ever recycled a Christmas present? I think I have! Just little things that I’ve gotten from work gift exchanges – better to recycle than just throw away!

15. Favorite thing to eat at Christmas? Cookies and bars!

16. Lights on the tree? Yes please. And lots of them – multi-colored is nice.

17. Favorite Christmas song? Winter Wonderland, O Holy Night (or as the Gehrman family calls it “Fall on your knees”) and Silent Night are my favs.

18. Travel at Christmas or stay home? Both. Since my family is now all over the place (New Mexico, Texas, Minnesota, etc.), there is usually a lot of traveling.

19. Can you name all of Santa's reindeer's? yes, this is a dumb question.

20. Angel on the tree top or a star? A star, and it should be the last thing put on the tree as a final touch. I think many tears were shed and arguments were had over who got to be the one to put it on at our house.

21. Do you open presents on Christmas Eve or Morning? Christmas Eve with the extended family, morning with immediate fam

22. Most annoying thing about this time of the year? There’s so much to do and not enough time. And if I had an unlimited supply of time and money, it would make things easier.

23. Favorite ornament theme or color? My favorite ornament is the gingerbread man that my cousin Jessica thought was a real cookie when we were kids. There are still little teeth marks in it.

24. Favorite for Christmas dinner? Just a big potluck of good dishes that everyone brings and pitches in.

25. What do you want for Christmas this year? A teapot, some slippers, things to decorate my house….books, I like everything.

26. Who is most likely to respond to this? Kate

27. Favorite Christmas Movie? Elf and A Christmas Story