holiday wrap up (long)

Christmas Eve Eve:
Exchanged gifts with Trav. We spoiled each other this year (more on that below).

Christmas Eve:
Woke up to my Babwa calling at 6:30ish in the a.m. to ask me for some help. Turns out she left a friend's place in Philly (she's here visiting for the holidays) at 1am the night before... just in time to get stuck in the traffic from a HUGE accident (about 30 cars involved! including a jack-knifed tracker trailer and a greyhound bus). And when I say stuck, I mean she was just starting to move when she called me, 5 hours later. Stuck. Needless to say, it had been a long night and she was tired, and she needed some help getting home since while 76 was now letting one lane of traffic through, 476 was still closed. And not being familiar with Philly area, she didn't know how else to get home. So I gave her a suggestion... and thankfully around 9:20 a.m., she arrived at home, safe. A 2 hour drive in 8 hours.
As for me. It was an icy mess when I left in the morning... but amazingly the trains were running on time. I headed in, did my thing for a bit, then left work around noon to head home. On my way, I picked up the dinner ham from Honeybaked. Once Trav got home, we headed to Willy's, where we helped him get ready... then relaxed with his fam, including the adorable baby Aiden.

(Side note: These pictures were taken by Trav's cousin's daughter, Leah. I completely forgot my camera... and I don't think I used it more then once this whole damn long weekend. Good job, Megan.)
We really had a nice time seeing everyone... Willy, his Aunt, two cousins and one husband, and their (combined total) 6 kids. After a very yummy meal, and some gifting, we headed up to my parents where we hung our stockings, relaxed, and watch the end of a White Christmas and a few holiday episodes of Monk. I was ready for bed by then, but ended up getting sucked into Silence of the Lambs and staying up to watch the end of it even after everyone else went to bed. Rang in Christmas, and hit the hay at 2.

Christmas:
I wanted to sleep in a bit more... but with Lady poking her nose at me (slept on the couch), the sun filling the downstairs with light, and Trav awake bright and early... well it was a bit difficult. Everyone was probably up by 8ish... and we got to the presents. (Pictures to come later... I have to wait to get them from my mom.) A Christmas Story was on in the background of course. A quiche type dish for breakfast, then some treats including some honeycomb I got us for something different. My mom made a Christmas Pudding (which is actually a steamed cake of sorts)... which I had never had before, it was yummy. We hung out for a bit and did an early dinner around 3 (mmm, turkey!) before heading home. Once home we watched some more X-files and lulled in a food coma until bed.

We were really blessed this holiday season. My parents got us a a DVD/VHS player/recorder... which is great since our VHS player just died recently, and our DVD player is on its last legs. They also got us a 6-month netflix subscription... which we are completely psyched for! We already have a queue of 40 movies!
Travis also got (from me): a big steel workbench, tickets to the flyers vs. penguins game in January, the Tales of Beetle the Bard (book), and a bunch of other odds and ends (including a chocolate bar with bacon!), (from everyone else): a home depot gift card, work pants, socks, a Wii Nun chuck, the original version of the Dawn of the Dead, some cash, and my brother gave us a trio of Monty Python dvds.
I got (from Trav): Season 2 of House, Seasons 4 & 5 of the X-files, Seasons 6 & 7 of Scrubs, the Charlie Brown holiday collection, a gift card to New York & Company, a new Wii game, (from everyone else): some new clothes, a bunch of books, Season 1 of Sex and the City, some cash, and Daisy's big water bowl.

We got for my family: (mom) some amethyst earrings and a lavender plant, (dad) Seasons 1 & 2 of Northern Exposure, and (Ethan) the full Monty Python's Flying Circus (16 dvds in all).

Friday was all laziness... and watching of the rest of Season 5 of the X-files. I need more already. ;-)

Saturday Trav set up his workbench... after two trips to Home Depot since the one I got him was missing a piece... and the one we exchanged that for was missing a piece AND all the screws!! But now that its actually together, he loves.
My Babs came that night. We shopped and I was able to use a holiday gift card to get a few fun tops. And I still have more gift cards to use up!!
We also watched the first of our netflix movies... The Dark Knight. Good movie... dark, sinister, action packed. Heath Ledger's Joker was amazing, sadistic, the perfect villan. We definitely enjoyed it. Next up... The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe.

Sunday we headed over to a town by Willy's to go to the Banana Republic. Trav and I both had a few items to exchange, and I found three more tops (one of which I'm wearing today). After that we headed to lunch, then back home to relax with Gracie (Babs' kittie) for a few hours before we drove her to the airport. It was so so nice to see my girl.
After that it was dinner with Ro & Pat. Where we exchanged gifts and got to see their newly set up nursery.

Now, its back to work. A quiet work though since half my office is out again. I'm really enjoying the quiet... it gives me time to ease back into the work week, and think about how wonderful the holidays turned out. I said it above, and I'll say it again... we really were blessed. Not just with "stuff" (though we were blessed thoroughly in that department as well), but with getting to be constantly surrounded by loving family and friends. With full bellies and warm comfortable beds. It was a great Christmas.