As much as I love Christmas, I must admit that I am relieved that it is finished! It always surprises me that so much prep goes in for one (or really two) days worth of celebrating. Once Christmas actually hits, everything is relaxed and easy going... but leading up to Christmas the to do list is a mile long. One day I'd like to have a completely fuss-less holiday... but I don't see that happening anytime soon!
I had a nice holiday overall! My sister and brother in law came for Christmas Eve, and we had a nice, small family gathering. I made red velvet cupcakes for my sister's birthday, and those were a big hit! I've never made red velvet before (actually I wasn't even sure that I had had red velvet before), and I was surprised that the batter turned my hands red! My mom made homemade lasagna for dinner, and we all just sat around laughing and enjoying the night. After having a nice dinner here at home, we all trucked it out to my grandmother's house to spend time with her. It was really good to see my grandmother enjoying herself, because she's been so down lately! I worry about her, but I think she's starting to feel like her old self again.
Oh, and in November I blogged here about what I would buy if I had money to waste. Well, one of those items I wrote about was a cute coat... and I got it for Christmas! I love it!
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Yesterday I drove to East Lansing to meet up with my friend Lauren, and then we drove together to Grand Rapids and met up with our friend Dan. Dan and I had some issues this past year, but since he promised to be on his best behavior, I decided to let our past disagreements be water under the bridge. I couldn't believe the amount of snow there was! For those of you not from Michigan, Grand Rapids is on the west side of the state, very near the coast of Lake Michigan, and the lake effect snow they get is insane! They end up easily getting twice the amount of snow we get here on the eastern side of the state. The snow banks along the sidewalks were easily up to my waistline! We spent most of our time climbing over mountains of snow as we walked down the street.
We ate dinner at this odd little pub that had English/Indian food... I wasn't a huge fan. The "Indian nachos" were these really good spicy potato chip things covered in cheddar and goat cheeses... but my dinner itself was pretty so-so. I had this turkey-stuffing-cranberry pasty thing in rosemary gravy... that definitely sounded better than it tasted. Ah well... I had to be a good sport since Lauren and Dan seemed very enthusiastic about the whole thing. I'll admit it, I'm not one who likes to be adventurous when it comes to food! I like my good old standards, which mostly consist of boring mid-western and southern foods.
Today, I went out shopping with my best friend Bernadette, and her little niece and nephew, Nala and Justin. I forgot what it is like to be in a store with little kids! Justin was spending some Christmas money, and it took him the longest time to figure out which Nintendo Wii game he wanted! Then Nala took the better part of half an hour trying to decide which Hannah Montana item she wanted. Even though it took them a long time to figure out what they wanted, it was still fun to have them with us. We took them to Pizza Hut for lunch (read: oh-so-good, yet boring mid-western food), and Nala kept referring to our waiter as "Mr. Waitress sir!" Haha. I couldn't stop laughing even thought Bernadette was rolling her eyes the entire time.
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Let me just announce that this is what weather.com is currently reporting for our weather this evening:
Quite possibly heaven? It is only going to last for the one day, but I've loved it all day long! I'll have to remember this come February, when I'm completely over winter and cursing the snow in the sky. I'll try to remember that soon the weather will get better... and we will not freeze to death!
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One last note... I've decided to try my hand at another 30 day challenge! Remember when Misti did a 30 day challenge back a year or so ago? I always tried but failed. I decided I'm going to give it another whirl! I'm going to try to exercise once everyday, for at least 30 minutes a day, for the next 30 days (starting tomorrow!). I'm not expecting to lose a bunch of weight... but I have been meaning to make it a priority to get to the gym more. I think this will be a nice challenge to start the new year with... plus, maybe my jeans will start fitting a bit better? I'll let you all know how I do.
3 comments:
I said the same thing to my sister. It takes a ridiculous amount of time to prepare for Christmas. And then you blink, it's over with! Almost makes me wish I were Jewish so I could celebrate for 8 days instead of just two. ;-P
Well I'm glad I don't live up in GR! Maybe that's why Meg {from the Avonlea Treasures} forum was befuddled with me on Facebook as to why I was so happy when the snow first fell. I didn't realize they had that much accumulation!
I loathe Indian food. Well, not loathe as much as it's just not my forte {sp?}. My oldest sister LOVES it. She's forced me to eat it with her on a couple of occasions. Bleh! :-P
This weather is heavenly! It's nice to have all the snow melted too. But, I'm sure something crazy will happen, and we'll have another storm. Ack!!
I'm glad you had a nice Christmas.
Good luck on your 30 day challenge. I need to start exercising too.
Mmmm, pub food. I am very into fried/fatty things at the moment. I had the best Pad Thai the other day. Thank goodness someone else is on an exercise thing--I need to commit to 30 mins/day to get myself back on track, too. The days lately have just been *poof* gone, but I start to feel so crummy when I don't get my exercise.
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