Ho! Ho! Ho! Merry Christmas!

It's nearly March so it seems like the perfect time to talk about Christmas.

I love Christmas time.  I love the lights, the feeling in the air, the celebrations - I love it all.  I especially love going to Idaho to see the fam.  I start getting excited as soon as Thanksgiving is over.

This year was no exception.  I felt like I was the kid waiting for Santa.

Finally, the day arrived to journey to Idaho.  The plan was to attend Myke's company Christmas party, then hit the open road.  The plan did NOT include Kitty complaining that she didn't feel good the moment we arrived at the bowling alley to enjoy the Christmas party.

And yet, that's precisely what happened.

It was the second time Kitty was sick at the company Christmas party.  The idea of spending the evening with a bunch of computer nerds obviously turns her stomach.

We stumbled through the party, some of us ate pizza, and earned a few tickets in the arcade, then we hit the open road.

The open road was full of traffic.

We crept along among the taillights and filled our souls with chocolate covered cinnamon bears.  Then we stopped for hamburgers.  What?  Traffic makes me hungry.

Kitty didn't feel good so she got a milkshake.

We rolled into Ontario - Oregon, not Canada - at an obscene hour and Kitty lurched into full-on meltdown mode.  I just love traveling long distances with a sick child.  It's so fulfilling.

We met my parents in the lobby of the hotel the following morning.  They were headed home from my dad's continuing education conference in Portland so we caravanned with them for the rest of the long journey.  My gracious sister let us stay at her house this year.  It was wonderful to be with her family and Tobias the dog.  Too bad for them we brought disease with us.  Poor Kitty was sick for the majority of the trip.  It was so sad.

We still managed to have a good time.  I made pierogi with my brother.

My sissy taught Mykey how to paint his nerd toys.

There was snow!

We made cookies for Santa.

And made a list for Santa.

The best part?  Santa actually found us!

My nerds straightaway got to work programming Kitty's new watch.

It was a marvelous day!

And what did I do?
Well...I sat around and made creepy faces for the camera.

Merry Christmas!

(Maybe before March actually arrives, I'll tell you about my dad's epic birthday party.)

Maybe.  I'll see if I can squeeze it in somewhere between making creepy faces and eating - I'm very busy.

Fanksgiving

I'm mostly keeping this blog to record my life for posterity.  Unfortunately for my posterity, I'm terrible at keeping up to date.

They really should've given it more thought before they decided to become my posterity.

But I digress.  Let me tell you about a time when my family and my friend's family came together to be thankful.  Posterity; this is called Thanksgiving.

We ate lots of food.

We played lots of games and assembled a puzzle with kitties on it.  (Thank you, Grandma Lisa!) Kitty even played a Thanksgiving hymn on the piano before dinner.

We were thankful to be together.

I tasked Mykey with being the photographer.  He thought I said, "Take every opportunity you can to photograph me shoving food into my face."  He excelled at that task - probably because I never stopped shoving food into my face.

I ate so much that my stomach was painfully distended by evening.  It was a good day.

And that, Posterity, is what Thanksgiving is all about - bloat and gas.

Happy Thanksgiving!