Christmas 2010

Where does the time go?

Life has been busy here at the puddle and it often feels like time is whizzing by. I have a lot of things to get you all caught up on...

So, I will start by letting you know about our Christmas. Zack and I spent Christmas with his family this year. We were planning to go down to his parent's house on Wednesday night after work, but I got home late and I had not finished part of our Christmas gift for Rach. (We started out so good! We had gotten a few Christmas presents out of the way early and then life happened and we had our typical holiday rush to finish/ buy gifts experience.)

So, we opted to stay home one more night and leave early the next morning to get down to Zack's parent's house before all of the planned events of the day started. I ended up staying up until about 4 oclock trying to get everything done that needed to be done before we could walk out the door the next am. Somehow, with a little divine help, I was able to get it all done. (Well, ok, not everything I wanted to get done, but everything that had to get done.

The Thursday before Christmas, Zack and I woke up and started to pack the car. Zack wants to have our (his and my) Christmas as close to Christmas as possible, but since we drew names this year and Rach and Ben do their Christmas at home, we opted to do ours that morning before we left. I had been subtly (ok blatently) giving Zack some hints about things that I would like for Christmas and about 2-3 weeks before Christmas we carried out about 4 wrapped gifts to put under our tree. I was absolutely baffled by what these might be seeing as NONE of the was the shape of anything that I had asked/hinted for. Zack has always been good at giving me gifts that I like. so, I wasn't too worried.

On the other hand, I have THE hardest time trying to figure out what to give Zack. This year was no different. I WRACKED my brain and fretted and worried and searched and scoured the inernet to try to come up with something to give my man for Christmas that he would love. With Zack, the best gifts are functional or fun. Thankfully, he seemed to really like everything that he got this year.



We opened gifts back and forth and my first gift was a very thin small rectangular package. This ended up being a 4 gig photo card for our camera. Those of you who know me know that I usually have my camera with me. My second gift was a larger funny shaped package that turned out to be a fan for my computer. My laptop gets ridiculously hot, to the point where at times it burns me. So, this was a GREAT gift. The third gift that I opened shocked me. Zack and I got a camera about 2 years ago. I wanted an SLR, he wanted something that would take video. So, for Christmas a few years ago he gave me a Cannon Powershot SX. When I got this camera, I knew that it was going to be a LONG time before we got another one. So, when I opened my 3rd gift and found a Cannon Rebel in my hands, I was shocked. I ABSOLUTELY LOVE my new camera and I have been enjoying taking pictures with it. I cannot wait to try it out at Zack's next Frisbee Tournament. I am so blessed!! My husband is so thoughtful and supportive. He is always so supportive of me pursuing my many creative outlets!


After Zack and I finished "our" Christmas, we packed up and headed down south. We made it to Zack's parent's house at about noon.

The guys were going to go play some frisbee golf.


So, Mama Sandy and I met Rach at Kohl's for a little last minute shopping. I didn't end up finding what I needed, but it was fun to look around since we don't have a Kohl's near us.

After we left Kohl's, we headed over to the little boutique where my aprons were being sold. I was a little shocked to hear that NONE of them had sold! However, my theory is that the "boutique" is really not catering to the type of clientele that would likely want to buy my aprons. It has some very cute things for sale, don't get me wrong, but the look from the window displays makes it feel more like an antique store than a boutique. I haven't heard anything from the owner recently. So, I don't know if she ever sold any of them. She wants me to make some mommy and me aprons for her to sell. So, I'm going to try to make some cute mommy and me aprons for Valentine's day. We'll see how that goes...work has still been CRAZY!

Anyway, after the boutique, we headed over to Zack's Grandparent's house for our Christmas Celebration. We usually go over to their house for Breakfast on Christmas Day, but this year it just worked out better for us to get together on Thursday afternoon. We did keep to the tradition of Brunch foods, which THRILLED Zack.



We had a great time visiting with family and playing a silly game of white elephant.






Zack and I had gotten Zack's cousin Tyler a model rocket for Christmas. So, the guys had to try that out. They put it together and shot it off a few times before it got to dark to see what they were doing. I think that Tyler liked his gift, but it's hard to say which one of those boys enjoyed playing with it the most. (boys really never grow up!)





Shortly after launching the rockets off, it was time to pack up and head back to Zack's parent's house. We ended the night by playing a new game that Rach had gotten for Christmas, called Scribblish. If you haven't played it before and you are looking for a game that will have you laughing, then Scribblish is a good game for you. We had a great time playing it. The game is based on the premise of Telephone, but you start off by all drawing a card which has a statement or phrase on it. You then draw whatever your caption was. The die is rolled and you cover the initial caption and pass your picture to the designated player. Then, every one looks at their new picture and has to write a caption for it. The picture is covered, the die is rolled and the papers are passed again...and so on and so on until you get to the end of the slip of paper. Then, by looking at the finished product, you each guess which one of the pictures is your original paper. We were laughing alot when the captions and pictures were unveiled at the end.



Friday started early for me. I was on call all day...and all night Christmas Eve. I was already exhausted from my lack of sleep Wednesday night and late night Thursday night. So, when my pager started buzzing at 7:20am, I knew it was going to be a LONG day. I would field a call, crawl into bed fall just to sleep and ...buzz buzz...sigh...so, after a few times of repeating the pattern, I just got up. I had a little lull in calls and we sat down to have breakfast as a family. The blessing was said, I lifted my fork to my mouth and in rapid succession, I got 4 pages. By the time that I had dealt with the phone calls, my breakfast was cold and I was feeling a little cranky.

Zack talked his family into playing the new game that he got for Christmas, "Ticket to Ride". It is actually a lot of fun. You have different train route that you are trying to accomplish during the game. Once your initial destinations are reached, you can either go for more or just try to get rid of your train pieces hoping to block other players routes. I had seen the game several years ago and finally decided to get it for Zack this Christmas. The game had won lots of awards, and we all thought that it was a lot of fun.



Zack and His brothers and father went out for a second game of frisbee golf. Mama Sandy and Rach were both feeling badly. So we all just kinda took it easy. Call makes going places a little bit more difficult for me. So, I was thankful to hang out around the house.

Friday night, we went to Zack's parents church for their Christmas Eve Service. I had to leave during the middle to answer a page, but I was, thankfully, only paged 1 maybe 2 times during the service.

After the Christmas Eve candle light service was over, we headed out to a Chinese Restaurant for dinner. This is apparently a tradition for some family friend's of Zack's parents and this was the second year that Zack's parents had shared in this tradition.

It seemed kinda strange at first to be eating Oriental food on Christmas Eve, but it ended up being a lot of fun. The food was good, my pager was silent, and the company was the best.



After dinner, we headed home for some games. Zack talked his family into playing Ticket to ride. Rach, Mama Sandy, and I opted out and all headed to bed. I had several middle of the night phone calls. So, I had a third night of little sleep.





Saturday,we slept till about 10. Then we had some breakfast and then had our family Christmas. Mama Sandy and Daddy G....I mean Santa Clause had given us stockings full of all kinds of little treasures. We opened our stockings first and then had our gift exchange. This year, instead of giving everyone gifts, we decided to draw names.



Zack and I had Mama Sandy and Rach.

We gave Mama Sandy a rock oil burning candle that we had found at a Craft Fair. It was a piece of slate that the lady had taken and drilled a hole for a wick and placed a reservoir for lamp oil on. We gave her the candle, and some river rocks and platter on which to display it.

We gave Rachel an apron, a cute summer weight pink scarf, and a necklace and earring set.
The gifts were all really thoughtful and it was a lot of fun to see who had gotten who and what they had gotten them.





Ben's name was drawn by Mama Sandy and Daddy G. They gave him some saw horses.


Matt's name was drawn by Mama Sandy and Daddy G as well. He got a new golf driver.


Matt had drawn my name and he gave me a new plastic cutting board, a meat thermometer (Mom will be thrilled about this!! No more guessing that the meat is done), and a new spatula. I have already gotten a TON of use out of all of them.

Ben and Rach drew Zack's name. They gave him a bag to carry his frisbee golf discs in and car battery charger.

Ben and Rach also drew Daddy G. Rach's gift was PERFECT. She had found him a brand new, set of his favorite type of plastic drinking glasses. For whatever reason, Daddy G REALLY likes these plastic disney cups that they had gotten at a fast food restaurant when Zack and his brothers were younger. The cups have been through it. They are all scratched up, but they are still his favorite. Rach found a set of 4 Pocahontas glasses. They also got him some ratcheting wrenches.

One of the old favorite glasses

Shortly after we finished our gift exchange, it was time to head over to Zack's over set of grandparents for a Low Country Boil. Zack's mom and Rach stayed home and watched some movies as they were both feeling pretty poorly. The rest of us piled in the car and headed over to Mom and Carl's to spend time with family.

We ate and then played a game of white elephant.



One of the gifts was a bop-it bounce. So, of course everyone had to try it out.






While we were there, it started to snow. This is the first white Christmas in Georgia in YEARS. So, that was fun.


We finished the night off with our traditional family picture.



When we got home from Zack's grandparents, Zack and his brothers were ready to play a game. So, they started a game of "ticket to ride". Rach and I opted to play one of Zack's leggo games on the Wii instead because we didn't want to stay up too late... Rach and I were still playing our game when they finished theirs. ...oops! :)

Sunday morning, Church was canceled due to the snow. We got up and had a big breakfast. I had promised Zack that I would play ticket to ride with him. So, we got in a game of ticket to ride before we had to pack up and head home.

the inaugural use of the Pocahontas glasses