fun in the rain

 last week i spent the week in SoCal, which was incredibly stormy! but one of the days, chris didn't have to work, so we decided to sneak away to disneyland. and, as it turned out, one of my dearest friends was ALSO visiting the park that day! we only got to spend a few hours together, but it was great to see her and enjoy disneyland - despite the rain.

action shots in the park (no, we were not strong enough to lift the sword in the stone)
 


chris and i on toy story midway mania


chris noticed the picture of donald duck in the parking garage and commented on the resemblance.

out with the old, in with the new

for new year's eve, we decided to have a tropical extravaganza - complete with festive hawaiian shirts and fruity drinks with umbrellas. we started our celebration to the blue gate restaurant, one of my faves. the family-style dining has delicious homemade favorites like fresh loaves of bread, fried chicken, mashed potatoes, and even includes dessert - the fresh pies are incredible! everyone looked at us a bit askew when we sat down with our hawaiian shirts, but we had a great time. (btw, the shirts were a great goodwill find! they had way more options than i thought they would!)

(this is us at dinner)

after dinner, we headed back home for the rest of our celebration. although my littlest nephew was asleep by the time we got home, everyone else got to enjoy the extravaganza. we played pool (poorly), tripoly, and even made some chocolate fondue to snack on. the chocolate dipped snacks went perfectly with my strawberry daquiri. we counted down the last moments of the year, and spent the first few hours of 2010 enjoying family games. it was a great way to ring in a new year!

(me kicking everyone's butt at tripoly. okay, maybe i wasn't.)

happy birthday jesus, a bit belated.

on christmas eve (i know, i'm so behind!), after attending a short family-friendly church service, chris and i went with my sister to her mom and stepdad's house. [side note - for those of you who don't know, my sister and i are half sisters. we have the same dad, but her mom lives in indiana. my sister also has a brother and three sisters unrelated to me. we joke that if we try to explain it to people, we have to use a whiteboard and draw the family trees.]

so. we spent christmas eve with my sister's family. as i mentioned, she has four siblings, almost all of whom have kids. so with everyone there to celebrate, it was a lot of people, and a lot of kids in one house. we enjoyed a great mexican potluck (enchiladas = yum), and laughed a lot as we watched the kids tear into their presents (see pic below). did i mention there were a lot of kids?

after the kids were corraled downstairs to play with their new treasures, the adults enjoyed a gift exchange - the fun kind where you can steal other people's presents. it was a ton of fun. everyone was fighting over a bottle of champagne with champagne flutes, and a fuzzy fleece throw blanket. we forgot to limit the number of steals per present, so it became quite a lenghty exchange. i got lucky and went home with the movie elf, which was on my christmas wish list anyways.

after the big family christmas eve party, we headed down the icy road back to my sister's. even though it was getting late, we held my sister's family tradition of opening presents on christmas eve. the kids were really excited, and raced around moving the presents from under the tree into piles in front of each person. they were adorable! present-opening was fun (why wouldn't it be?), and the kids kept offering to "help" unwrap our presents.

 

the next morning, we opened stockings and had a big, delicious breakfast. the kids spent the day playing with their new toys. okay, i did too. we even got to video-chat with my parents, brothers, and grandmas. although the kids only had the attention span to talk for about 20 minutes, it was fun to talk to and see the whole family on christmas day. it was a great day!

shake a tailfeather

on one of the first nights of my trip, i got to enjoy a special treat - my niece was performing in a short dance recital. although the "real" performance for her class had been a week prior, she was dancing with a younger group who were performing 3 numbers during a local high school basketball game. the best part was getting to watch her dance. the worst part was that they performed at half time of both the JV and Varsity games, so we had to stay for the entire JV and half of the Varsity game in order to see her 3 dances. despite the long wait, my niece did a great job. i'm not sure who selects the dancers' costumes, but the youngest kids were wearing a variety of, let's say showy outfits. my niece, in particular, was dressed somewhat like a tail-feathered vegas showgirl without the headdress. but she worked it.

sledding and snow fun!

as you know, i have been visiting my sister and her family in northern indiana. it has been great to relax and take life a bit slower in this small town. over the past three weeks i've done a lot of sledding, a lot of child wrangling, a lot of snacking (cookies, chex mix, and birthday cupcakes - yum!), and a lot of scrabble-playing. i really enjoy spending time with the family, and its times like this that really make me wish my sister and family hadn't moved across the country. the first few days of my visit had some light snowshowers, and we took full advantage of them!

















this is me and my neice enjoying the sledding on one of my first days with them. it was a small hill, but we had a great time! after about a week, Chris came and joined in the fun. the kids really enjoyed offering to push people down the hill, and then jumping on their backs for a stowaway ride. that's how they ended up three on a sled with chris (see below).

there were also a few wipeouts - those are always the most fun! here is a great one of the kids...

 

Happy 2010!

I am in much need of an update, but today I will just say Happy 2010! This year will likely hold much change for me personally and professionally. Graduation (May 15), a new job (fingers crossed), a possible cross-country move (depending on the aforementioned job), turning 30, a trip to Australia, and who knows what else!

Although 2009 has been challenging, I was greatly blessed through all 12 months, and I await the coming year with eager anticipation!