Ringing in the New Year with a 2nd Christmas.

For New Year this year, Zack and I headed up to my parents house. We were going to be celebrating Christmas with my family as well as ringing in the new year.

We were planning to head up to my parents as soon as we could after work on Wednesday, but as happened at Christmas, we ended up leaving on Thursday. I had been feeling a little under the weather and REALLY needed to get some quality sleep. So, we went to bed early Wednesday night after packing and then left early Thursday am.

We made it to my parents house by about 10. Mom had just put a baked oatmeal recipe in the oven. We sat down to have brunch a short time later. The oatmeal was actually really tasty.

Shortly after brunch, Mom and I decided to go out for some shopping. I was on call Thursday night. So, we wanted to make sure that we were pretty close to home so we could run out and then run home again. So, we headed over to target and Kohl's to see if we could find any good after Christmas deals. I called the call service and had them try a test page to see if I had service where we were....nope. So, I had them text me my pages on my cell phone.

At around 5, Mom and I headed back to my parent's house. we figured that the guys were getting hungry and I would rather be at home when the calls started to come flooding in. We played around with my brother's camera lenses while we waited for dinner to warm. We had some soup that mom had made.

After dinner, we sat down and watched Prince of Persia. we kept having to pause it so that I could go take my calls, but thankfully there were not too many and the movie was entertaining.

Friday, Dad stole Zack and Peter and took them down to Mom and Dad's property to put them to work. While the guys were out working, Mom and I decided to do some last minute Christmas shopping. We headed out toward the mall. We went to Academy Sports (wish we had one close by our house) and I wanted to visit the craft stores, since we don't have many close to where we live. We ended up spending a lot of time in Joanne's, and then headed over to Wendy's for a late lunch. then we headed out to Marshall's to look around.

We figured that the guys would have eaten after they finished their work, but when I called Zack while mom and I were at Publix he told me that the only thing that he had had to eat, other than breakfast was a milkshake. Mom was appalled. She couldn't believe that the guys hadn't eaten.
So, we headed home and mom made some backed Ziti for dinner.

While we were waiting for dinner to cook, I finished wrapping our gifts and watched a couple episodes of psych with my dad.

A little while after dinner, we sat down to open Christmas gifts.

We gave my Dad a stone candle similar to what we gave Zack's mom. It took Dad a minute to figure out just what it was supposed to be.


We gave Mom a thirty-0ne large utility tote. I LURVE mine, and so, I thought it would come in handy for Mom. I was tempted to get myself another one when I placed the order for Mom's, but Zack would fuss at me...I have 2....but they are sooooo handy!


We had to give Peter an IOU. I ordered his gift several weeks before Christmas, but it is STILL on back order. ugh! We bought him a Marmot Approach Jacket. I had gotten soft shell Jackets for Zack and I last year and Pete had mentioned that he liked them. So, I scoured the internet to try to find a reasonably priced one....too bad it's still on back order. They told me this week that it would probably be another 4-6 weeks before they could ship it...I just hope that my next email from them doesn't say that they can no longer fill my order.




Zack and I got some great goodies from my parents. Although, you can tell that you have been getting sick a little too often with your parents give you Airborne for Christmas.


Saturday, we played some games and watched some Psych. We took the day pretty east, because most of us were pretty tired. We played ticket to ride and then later that evening Zack and my parents played the new game that they had gotten him, Wizards. i still haven't gotten a chance to play this with him, but he describes it as being a little like RAGE, but less enraging.



For dinner Saturday night, we had some ham rolls and soup that my mom had made.

Sunday morning, Mom made a breakfast casserole that we were literally eating as we walked out the door. Dad was wanting to get to Church early. So, we all shuffled out the doors and headed to the little church that my parents have been attending recently. This church has been around for about a year and it is really conveniently located a short drive from my parent's house.

The sermon was pretty good and after the sermon was over, we hung around for a little while and talked.

Mom had prepared a really nice Sunday dinner for us. We sat down to lunch and had a good time talking and enjoying delicious food.


Zack and I hung around until about dinner time, but we eventually had to pack up and head home. We really enjoyed our visit with my family and I am so thankful for all the meals and gifts that they provided us with! It was nice to be back "home" for a little while.