Holidays 2009/2010
Belated holiday post!
To beat Super-duper Winter storm 2009 that was coming in on Christmas Eve, we left for KS a couple days earlier than planned. Originally we were going to be gone for about three days, but since leaving earlier made our trip longer (six days) we decided to take the kitties with us!
The car ride was interesting! Spunky did meow a lot but he didn’t seem as freaked as we gave him Rescue Remedy drops and those mellowed him out some. Viv was fine, liked to explore.
Her favorite spot was the dash though we didn’t let her get up there much
Getting coffee before getting on the road, Viv chilling and being curious
This says it all, how the whole 4 hours went!
Kalli and I boiling apple cider with mulling spices
Chris logged in to work the first couple days we were there so I did stuff with the kids, ran errands with Tom and the kids, etc.
Mom and Dad H came in on Christmas Eve and Kalli promptly had Dad H dressed as Santa
Viv was fine exploring the house, but Punks was a little more upset, so Chris was smarty-pants and made a cat cave out of a plastic tub and blankets. Punks was very content and cozy in there for most of the stay!
The Christmas spread
On Christmas morning Mom H made homemade cinnamon rolls, mmmmmm!
One more time, mmmm 
Cute one of Tom and the kids
One of Chris’ gifts - a watch
Kalli is a huge fan of all things pink so Chris and I got her her very own pink Christmas tree! Along with A LOT of pink ornaments (we went overboard)
We built up David’s Hot Wheels collection a bit!
I think this is so cute. Chris got Penny and Mom a Farkle set, they loved it!
Awww pics of the grandkids
Also got Chris a Lego firetruck he built right away. This has sparked another Lego frenzy for him and since we’ve been home he’s been cleaning up the basement and getting all his Legos out and building again (and buying a lot more on eBay!)
Christmas dinner. SO MUCH yummy food all weekend (as my tight jeans told me later!)
Good one of Dad H
Penny & Kalli
Future heartbreaker
We played a lot of Balderdash, Wizard, David lived on the Wii for three days straight and just enjoyed snowed-in activities. Come Sunday we had to do quite a bit of shoveling to get ourselves out of the driveway, but once we were on the interstate everything was clear and dry for the ride home.
Thanks family for another awesome time!
The rest of the week home I was off work (woo!) so I made cookies with Sarah and relaxed. On New Year’s Eve we had some people over and did what we always do with people - played games, ate, watched The Hangover
Since my sisters and I all spent Christmas with our in-laws we did a late Christmas together on New Year’s Eve Weekend.
Yes, let’s get this celebration kicked off right!
Santa cookies (carried on from Grandma’s tradition)
Eric helping Eli with his Yo Gabba Gabba percussion set
The best gift of the day - A Christmas Story leg lamp! We all chipped in and got this
Eli in on the action too
A bottle of wine dad bought for us three or four years ago which wasn’t to be opened until 2010. It was a delicious Shiraz!
We also had a lovely ham dinner but we didn’t get pics of that!
That was part of the week that was negative a bajillion degrees so we stayed in all weekend! A lot of movies, snacks, drinks, etc.
So yes, Chris and his legos. I woke up one morning and found this on our kitchen counter
A Lego model of our townhouse! So cute!
First floor (complete with cars in garage), second floor, roof
Viv helped. She’s been interested in Chris’ Lego hobby and sits on/around his builds
He actually let me build one of the sets! He had to fix it too when I put something together one section off, oops
We could open a store
So the holidays have been over for a couple weeks and we’ve been back to work (well, I took a break, Chris didn’t really) and working out. I packed on probably 5 lbs over the holidays but after a couple weeks of eating better and working out I’m back to where I was before the holidays (woo!).
This past weekend April and Alisha came up for a visit. They just got back from a long trip to Italy so it was fun to see them and spend time with them again!
They came in Friday and we just relaxed until bedtime. On Saturday we drove up to Boone to go snow tubing at Seven Oaks. It was a great time but it was such a steep hill and you went so fast that I was a little freaked! Funny how I can ski fine at 12,000 feet but tubing at 300 feet gets to me
Heading up
On the way home we had another little adventure. There’s an abandoned school in Luther (in between Boone and home) and I asked Chris to pull over so I could take a couple pictures. Well, a ditch filled with snow makes the ground look level! Guess what, it wasn’t; we quickly sunk down.
We were probably great than a 45-degree angle; I was afraid we’d tip! Pics don’t do it justice
Luckily a good samaritan with a truck who just happened to have a two rope helped us out! It took several tries but he finally got us out! Whew. Very nice not to have to pay and wait for a tow truck. Lesson learned - ditches filled with snow will not hold up a car
Yesterday we shopped about all day and they headed home today - thanks for coming up ladies!