On Friday, drove from Pittsburgh to Grand Rapids in about 7 hours with two fuel/restroom breaks. Then visited grandparents and relatives for dinner with family. Managed to get all my Christmas shopping done, using the "stores" of some other family members. :-)
Saturday I wrapped all those presents and went to the Christmas Eve service at church, delivered boxes of doughnuts to people who had to work on the holiday (a yearly tradition!), and went with the family to see the live nativity scene (another yearly tradtion, which deserves more recognition...but not right now). Then we went and drank hot chocolate and ate candy canes and looked at Christmas lights (and even saw a guy propose in lights).
Sunday it was CHRISTMAS!!!!!!!!!!!! When I woke up, my sister, Bethany, was just starting to make breakfast, a surprise/treat for all of us. I helped her. Yuuuuum! After breakfast, we opened stockings and then started on some presents. Presents were suspended while Mom and Dad went to church to serve in the nursery. No, we kids didn't peek at the remaining gifts - we "played" with the first round of them (or took a nap, depending on our individual dispositions...). I spent the time looking through an awesome knitting calendar Bethany gave me. Not only does it have a pattern for nearly every day of the year, it also has a groovy magnetically activated stand. (This is funny to a select few - sorry everyone else.) When the rents returned, the rest of the presents were opened, and I got...my camera!!!! Yay!!!! Lucky readers of my blog, you will now be showered with digitial pictures!!! (Assuming I have enough battery power.)
For example, here is a picture of my pancake-turning sister.
And here's one of my brother and the Christmas tree.
I'm still awful at taking pictures, as evidenced by this one of my family getting settled at the Christmas dinner table...
Other super gifts were the Harry Potter DVDs and a ball winder and yarn swift and good books to read or to have sit astutely on my bookshelf and an Ohio State shirt so I can show off my brother's school and further frustrate the University of Michigan fans. Really, all of my gifts were wonderful, and they will be much used and appreciated. Despite its kind of last-minute-ness, I was happy with my gift selections for my family members, even if Dad's favorite presents from me are probably the 50 cent book on baseball from the library bookstore and the 2 dollar sweater from the Salvation Army. Money isn't everything.
And...Monday night I stayed up until 3a.m. to create the road rally for my friends as part of Amber's "bachelorette party," which was held on Tuesday afternoon and commenced at a bowling alley for a fun night of bowling. And WOW was the alley packed! Who knew that bowling was so popular!!
So today is Wednesday, and the day was full of exchanging gifts and running shopping errands and getting my nails done (another new and interesting experience that deserves a little bit of comment but won't get any at this late hour - oh, except to say that DRAT I just chipped a nail while typing...grrrr...) and eating out with my family.
Will. Write. More. Soon! BUT I still need to finish that poncho by Friday!!!!! EEEEEEKKKK!!!!!! We're at about 76% done right now, and I think I can make it, but it's going to be a busy two days between then and now, and this is going to take some major work at finding time to knit. ...I'm up for the challenge!
No comments:
Post a Comment