Christmas 2012

Okay, so here's the Christmas post...are you ready for this?

My Christmas break started out pretty busy.  I got to see my sister and brother-in-law, I spent time with my boyfriend's family, and spent my first weekend of break watching 10 games of water polo.  I have no idea what I'm going to do when I have kids that are in sports because my body already can't handle the bleachers for that long.  Thanks Mom and Dad for always supporting Kayla and I in sports! It means a lot and I apologize for all the back pain. ;)  I also had the joy of playing Yahtzee and watching White Christmas with some of my friends and I finished out the first weekend eating dinner with Tim at my grandma and grandpa's house.  Unfortunately, I don't have a lot of pictures from break, but I do have a few so I'll try to sprinkle this blog with some of those.

Once I was finally home, I got to work on some priorities that need to be done.  I had an eye doctor's appointment, I revamped my educational portfolio, did some last minute Christmas shopping, and present wrapping.  And then, the storm hit...

I have never driven in worse weather than that day.  It was horrible!  I was so overwhelmed and a trip that is normally 15 minutes took me 45 minutes...and on top of that, I didn't even make it home.  I was forced to stop in the town of Roseville and I'm happy I did because otherwise I would have ended up in a ditch, I'm sure of it.  Luckily, I was stranded at my friend's house and not the highway, like many people were.  My dad as a volunteer firefighter along with the other firemen rescued approximately 80 people from the highway.  I, however, spent the night at my friend's house.  We watched the Pirates of the Caribbean and the Night Before Christmas.  And 24 hours later, I was home safe and sound.  I made cookies that night and then I was off again the next day to spend the weekend before Christmas with Tim's family.  The first week of break went way faster than I wanted it to, but it was still fun.

Radar for the storm that came through

At Tim's for the weekend, we watched Elf and Holiday Inn, which are just great Christmas movies!  And we also played Scene It!  That was actually my first time playing and it was pretty fun.  Of course I thought that because I love movies.  I was also able to go to Tim's church and to one of his family Christmases.  It was so fun and it was nice to meet his family.  It's interesting to observe and take part in others' Christmases.  Each family has their own traditions, their own holiday foods (like my family's Swedish meatballs and potato sausage or Tim's family's mostaccioli), maybe you open presents one by one or maybe you tear through all of them, maybe you carol, maybe you play games, maybe you go and see a movie in the theaters on Christmas day.  Whatever you do, I'm sure it's special.  I hope you all had wonderful Christmases this season.  How did you celebrate your's?

Christmas Eve pajamas 

What are my traditions do you ask?  Well, my family has a Swedish meal on Christmas Eve, we get new pajamas to wear also, and we play a game that involves a prize at the end.  The prize this year was the game Farkle.  Unfortunately, I didn't win, but if you haven't played the game, you should!  It's fun.  On Christmas morning, we open all the gifts (not one by one) and we eat leftovers for brunch.  And this year, on Christmas Day, my family and I went to see the movie Les Mis.  It was so good and I'm happy that I was able to see it in Chicago on stage before seeing the movie.  Of course I'm going to tell you to see it because I always do..so go see it! :)  While we're on the subject of movies, other movies that I watched over break that I have never seen before include:  Ted, The Green Mile, Jagged Edge, and Unfaithful.  All good movies!  I also spent the majority of break cleaning and cross-stitching.  It may not sound like an entertaining break, but it was actually really good.  For example, I rearranged all of the pictures in my room and now my room looks awesome!

I ended my break with Tim coming down to my house.  We played games with my family and went to church and grandma's on Sunday morning.  Then, we got to see friends that we haven't seen in awhile.  Overall it was a wonderful break.  My week one of J-term is over now and I'm going on week two.  This post is long enough for now though so we'll get to talking about J-term soon enough.  Until then! :)