Christmas cleanup

A little Christmas recap:

Friday night was the Nutcracker, which was great. There were some very strange creative liberties taken with the plot, but it was still awesome. We had great seats, and then afterward walked to Starbucks and had a caramel apple spice. yummmm!

We left at the crack of dawn on Saturday and drove over the river and through the woods to my grandparents' house in Erie, PA. The drive was mostly easy, except for the 45 minutes it took to drive 2 miles at the Indiana/Ohio state line to pay the $4.15 toll. LAME. Oh, and guess who got the lucky part of that drive? I got to do a lot of knitting, though, which was AWESOME. I'd post pictures, but it's a surprise for someone, and I don't want to spoil it! Soon, though!

Sunday we went to church, which was a VERY friendly ward. It was their Christmas program, which was pretty good. Later that night my cousin hosted a cousin party so we went to that and hung out and ate.

Monday was Christmas Eve. We did some last minute shopping and had lunch at Chick-fil-A, which was of course, delicious. We visited with my aunt and uncle and then went to Christmas Eve mass at the church all my relatives go to out there, United Methodist. Lots of singing and bell choir, which is always nice. Crazy recitations, but the underlying message of Christmas was the same.

Christmas morning we woke up early--Hello! Santa came! We waited for my grandpa to get up and then we opened up our presents. Derrick totally spoiled me and I got a new sewing machine, the purse I wanted, and the 2nd and 3rd books in the twilight series! He liked the clothes I got him and was totally surprised when he opened his new guitar! And then I promptly broke a string. :( Boo! Luckily it came with extras, so we popped on a new one. Now he just needs to learn how to play it and serenade me! Thanks to David Luke, the Guitar Hero, and his expertise in helping me pick one out!

We got a webcam from Derrick's mom, as well as a cool dinner bell thing with our name on it. Anyone have Skype? We can have a cyber chat face to face! One of my favorite gifts was a 9x13 pyrex dish with our last name etched on the bottom. Now when we take it to potlucks or to a neighbor they'll always know who it belongs to! So cool! Thanks to David and Tiffany for that one! My grandparents and cousins and aunts and uncles were way to generous in their gifts to us, and they all seemed to like the spice rub I made. My parents gave us "A Christmas Story"--a true classic. All in all, we had a great Christmas, and had a great time spending time with family. We played games every night and played with all the kids and their new toys.

We drove home yesterday, leaving early to avoid Chicago traffic which we hit anyway.

Now we're home. It's supposed to snow tomorrow. And I have absolutely nothing to do. Well, nothing I HAVE to do. Now my troubles are deciding whether to read, or knit, or sew. Decisions, decisions....

A huge THANK YOU to Rose's Kitchen for the box of delicious cookies! Completely unexpected, and totally loved and appreciated! Included were sugar cookies, malted whopper cookies (which are amazing), and molasses spice cookies. All packaged in a homemade box with adorable label. I'll post a pic soon.

Yikes! It's late! Nite!