A Christmas Trip

This year has been a doozie financially for us, so we weren't planning on going anywhere for the holiday.  I have to admit, we have survived doing Christmas by ourselves, but it isn't nearly as fun as it is when we get to spend it with family.  Luckily, I have the best Dad in the world, who flew us home for the whole two week vacation.  Unluckily, I didn't take ANY pictures!  I took my SLR and tripod, and we were lucky enough to get a new cute little camera for Christmas, but not one single picture followed us home.  Sad.

I got to help my mom make Christmas Eve dinner--rouladen, potato dumplings, sauerkraut, red cabbage, and crescent rolls (1 package for Scott, 3 for the other 12 of us!)  I learned a couple tricks to make mine tastier...and easier to make!  I was rolling mine with thread in a much more difficult way than Mom, fantastico!  I need to make a few other things with her...like goulash...mine was gross.  Poor Jeff.

Sarah has taken a fancy to sewing.  She made us all cute pillow cases--I got cute little mice and Jeff got soccer players.  They are awesome.  She volunteered to make Christmas pj's for 15 people...the silly girl!  Lets just say that she and I spent some very late nights trying to get them done, and then once everyone got them on, we had a gut-busting fashion show.  Note to self--start earlier on pj's, and maybe become very ill during the sewing ;)  Oh yeah!  Mom and Dad did stay up one of the nights to help...and cheer us on.  The pj's may not have been a total success, but the bonding was good :)

Poor Scott and Dan got kicked out of their room so that Jeff and I would have a place to sleep.  They did it willingly (at least to my face!), and even cleaned their room.  As part of the cleaning, Scott made us a door sign that said "Master Suite,"  too cute to leave there, so it will soon be adorning my bedroom door at home :)  He and Dan also thought they should polish the hardwood floor....with Pledge.  It was a hazardous first few days until enough of the Pledge had come off on our socks! 

Ashley was my baking buddy!  We made lots of cookies and candies.  We never did try the new recipe I brought to try...guess we will have to get together again!  Spencer helped with one of the dirtiest jobs--rolling the truffles.  I probably should have thought that through one more time...Spencer could heat a small space by himself!  He was an ooey-gooey mess by the end, but we had fun!  Scott, Spencer, and Sarah helped with the sugar cookies.  Let it be known that they like sprinkles on their cookies and they aren't afraid to use them :)  Supposedly no one but myself likes the regular frosting on them...but they were gone before the plain sprinkles and the lemon glazed.....however, I will admit that there were an inordinate number of sprinkle only cookies (and more than half of those were shaped as a penguin (or pigeon (in a french accent) if you are closely related to Scott!))  (I think I got all of the parenthesis on that last thought!!)

Jeff and I got to go to dinner and play games with all the sisters boyfriends!  (Most on the same night.)  It was neat to meet people, but so strange!  I don't think I am ready for all this growing up.  We played Cranium with Erin and Chris, Mom and Dad, and Sarah and Ray....we learned that none of us sings well enough for other people to guess what it is that we are trying to sing!  We also learned that I can only guess what Jeff is drawing if his eyes are closed...and it is somewhat disturbing at how quickly I can do it :)  If his eyes are open, forget it--

Ash had a birthday while we were there too--we spent a fun day at Frankenmuth!  I am happy to report to those of you that are concerned about my nativity collection, that I managed to escape without buying a single one!  I did buy a couple of ornaments (I may have a lot of nativities, but my tree is turning into a giant soccer ball!  I am becoming concerned...)  As it happens, I also got a Christmas gift ornament (Janine, if you read this, know that someday it will get mailed to you! Hopefully by this weekend.)  Oh yes, we also went sledding with some of Ashley's peeps in honor of her birthday.  It has literally been 15ish years since I have been sledding.  It was fast moving--the hill was a sheet of ice.  It was fun, all except for the freezing cold part :)  I am so turning into a wienie when it comes to cold!

We had our annual New Year's Eve par-tay, with the traditional charades playing.  I have to say that Jeff and Ray in particular are impressive since they have only been participating a short time and some of the things to act out are bizarre...a dying cockroach, little green (the carpet shampooing machine), and a few other gems.  All I have to say is, Scott helped when he was a pip-squeak and they were just so funny at 1 a.m. that they stuck, and we now do them every year.  Be jealous, there are few things in the world better than seeing my dad be a dead cockroach. 

There was also plenty of movie watching and video game playing!  We got some new ones for Christmas, but my Mom also has a terrific collection of British mystery series....I love them!  I have decided that she always has to buy two--one for her, and one for me!  I only scratched the surface, and now have to try to get a hold of some of them...and pay better attention to what is on Masterpiece Mystery (or whatever the new name of Masterpiece Theater is.)  I have been missing some seriously cool stuff--have you seen the Sherlock Holmes set in the present?  Awesome.  Check it out.

Anyway, there you have it--a very quick summary of the goings on.  I seriously miss my family.  I am waiting for my Dad to get a job and move closer...I'd have Jeff get a new job, but it seems foolish to try to move to Detroit currently.  I am super grateful for all they do--they take good care of me.