Christmas!

My dad came in around 8:30 saying that I had to get up and move the cars into the backyard.  I slept for about 15 minutes more and then got up and got some warm clothes on, grabbed all the keys and started each car.  I moved dad's first.  When I got to the back yard I found out the suburban wasn't pulled up far enough and I couldn't get into it because it was frozen.  I gave up and tried plan B.  I moved the duck gate and backed dad's car in as close as I could.  I went and got Doug's car and backed it up next to dad's.  I put the duck gate back up and parked mom's sideways in the driveway next to the gate.  I moved mine down the hill out of the way since there was no more room in the back yard.  I came back inside and got ready for Christmas.  Everyone started to arrive at 9.

Tracy was going to be late so we ate without her.  This time mom made a tater tot casserole and we had fruit, cinnamon rolls and orange juice.  It was tasty.  Grammie of course was the last person eating when we were done.  She gets caught up talking to everyone.  We continued visiting and Tracy showed up a bit later.  We let her eat, dad did the dishes and we all got the dining room and kitchen cleaned up.

We went into the "Christmas room", sat down and got all situated.  Then Karla got up and passed out presents to everyone.  Due to the economy and people having circumstances and whatnot, we all picked names and kept it under $50.  I had my mom and Tracy had me.  We all opened our presents and then threw waded up Christmas paper at each other...something we do every year.

I got two storage bins, a gray one and a red one and inside was a Seahawks shirt, hat, a pen, cougar mug, ninja turtles buttons and a package of goldfish.  Everything I liked inside of a bin.  She did a good job.  Everyone else got stuff they wanted as well.  We continued chatting while a few of them went outside to teach Tracy how to use her new propane heater.

Usually everyone is out of here before noon to get ready for dinner later and to take naps.  Everyone came back in from outside and we took a picture of everyone.

I gave out copies of the pictures for people to have.  They all loaded up their stuff and away they went.  Mom and dad started getting ready for dinner and I got ready to go to Puyallup.  I left around 2.  I put the address into the Nuvi and she told me I would get there in about 40 minutes...plenty of time before 3.

I arrived twenty minutes before 3, found a place to park and went in.  Trish, Amy and Ben immediately found me and we opened gifts.  I brought some stuff mom made them, including a card...Ben gave me my second gift.  Our first actual Christmas together...we mutually agreed that last Christmas we were just warming up.  Then he showed me what his aunt and uncle gave us.  Gift cards, Bailey's and some winter mugs for coffee or cocoa.

We hung out for a bit talking to his cousins, aunts, uncles and grandma.  Then his uncle went around and asked how they wanted their steak.  I was like steak?  We're having steak for Christmas dinner?  Yeah, steak and lobster.  Okay, now we're getting fancy and I am way under dressed, haha.  I am really not into lobster so I just had the steak.  We all sat down at dinner and ate.  There were the main courses, potatoes, asparagus, rolls, jello salad, salad and dressing and whatever we wanted to drink.  I've never had a Christmas dinner like this before.  We visited a little bit more before everyone had to go home for the evening.  I was dreading having to get up in the morning and go to work.

We went over to Walt and Wendy's house to hang out and I got to meet Chris's fiance, Rosa.  We chatted and then got talked into playing a game.  I really didn't want to get into a 2-hour game only because I needed to get home and in bed as soon as possible.  We ended up playing Catan and staying until almost 10:30.  We hustled into Bonney Lake and Ben wanted to take me to see the Christmas lights on Sky Island...we did this last year and are trying to make it a tradition.  We also found a cache, Sky Island Viewpoint (GC2D4YG).  It was really cold outside so we tried to hurry.

We went to his mom's house and got everything he needed to do done.  I had planned on a gift for his mom but had to collect the items first.  We got almost all of them and now I can start working on it.  We got everything in the car and headed back to my house.  Of course it was 2 a.m. and I was exhausted.  I barely got 10 hours of sleep in the past 2 days, tomorrow was going to SUCK!

Merry Christmas everyone!

Next Adventure:  Nicole's Party at Skateland

Christmas Eve

I got up around 10 and started helping mom clean up the house.  The previous day, we did a few things around the house and did some last minute shopping.  I ate some lunch while I watched the latest Christmas movie on the Hallmark channel.  Mom started with the dining room and then did some stuff in the family room where the Christmas tree was.  A few weeks ago Grandma and I went to Gerrits Greens and got our trees.  When I was done eating, I worked on the dining room where I started with the bird cage.  I have a parakeet named Jimmy and sadly, his cage has been neglected the past few months...

Once that was done I worked on the area around the pellet stove and then vacuumed the rest of the living room and under neath the chairs and coffee table.  Then we took a couple of breaks because mom had to stay off her foot as much as possible.  He has tendinitis in her foot and had to wear a walking boot for a few weeks.

We took a bunch of stuff that belonged in a shop or garage into the garage, neatly.  Dad got all of his cartridge casings and boxes out of the family room and into the extra bedroom and his bathroom for the time being.  They were in the family room for at least two to three months.   We washed all of the door towels and futon blankets.  We took another break for food and then watched part of A Christmas Story...a Christmas Eve tradition.  We try to watch at least one showing of the 24-hour marathon on TBS.

Ben came over around 7:30 to come see me before he went over to his mom's house for dinner.  We didn't know when Doug would show up so we let Ben open his presents because he had to be somewhere.  He opened my presents, then dad's and then the one thing mom got him.   Jonas helped him unwrap presents.

He went out and got mine.  They were the climbing shoes we bought in Spokane a few weeks earlier.  We took a few pictures before he had to leave.

Doug got home a little bit later.  Mom and I did some of the dining room and decided to do family presents before dad fell asleep.  We all went into the family room and did presents.  I got a power stick (a device that allows you to charge your phone or Ipod without a power source) and a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle sweatshirt.

After presents we finished the dining room, did some laundry and mopped the floor.  I went to bed around 1:30 that night.  I really didn't want to get up at 9 tomorrow morning.

Merry Christmas Eve everyone!

Next Adventure:  Christmas!

White Elephant Party

Last year we had a white elephant gift exchange, games and food and this year we wanted to do it again.  We all got together and discussed over our online group what we wanted to do, where, what food and what time and what day.  We came up with Thursday at 6 at Celeste's house.  The food would be holiday-ish, ham, mashed potatoes, rolls, dips, casseroles etc.

Megan provided the ham and the casserole, I made mashed potatoes and gravy and got some rolls.  Nicole made a dip, Celeste made asparagus bacon wraps and ham sauce.  Lance would cut the ham and get everything into their bowls and containers once it was done.  I could not wait to eat the food!

We played some Phase 10 while we waited for the ham to finish cooking.  Ben and I busted out the Go Pro and played with the many angles as we took turns with our cards.  He got some fun views.

Then the ham was done.  Food!!

We ate our food in harmony and the ham and mashed potatoes idea was excellent.  So far the best food to date.

Once everyone arrived, Lindsay and Justin were late, we decided to open our gifts and play with the Christmas frame.  It was a true white elephant gift exchange.  I went first and got some Christmas socks, a movie and candy.  Ben got Mac n cheese and pot holders.  I gave the 50 Shades of Gray trilogy and a winter hat and Ben bought a mind puzzle maze ball from the White Elephant store a week ago.  I love random.

We played Nicole's Cards of Humanity Christmas style and her Christmas Jeopardy featuring movies, reindeer, Santa, Elf, etc.  We all had a blast and my team only lost by $100...which is an accomplishment since we started off slow but made up for it in double Jeopardy.  A few of us had to work the next day so we called it a night just before midnight.  I hope we can do it again next year.  Happy Holidays everyone!

Next Adventure:  Christmas!