The Christmas Holiday...

The holidays came and went TOO fast. I swear that I didn't have time to enjoy it at all with everything going on. Well, after the funeral, mom came back with us to stay until we went back on Christmas day. I think it was good for her to stay with us - it was a chance for her to get out of the environment for a little while. I was working a lot, due to the holiday schedules - I unfortunately was not home for long.

Christmas Eve
We went over to Eric's aunt and uncle's house to celebrate Christmas with his side. We took over a meat and cheese tray. OMG! I didn't think it was going to cost so much for us doing it ourselves. Next time I will spend the $25 to have someone else do it. All the food was good, as usual. Mom had gone along with us.

Here are some pictures...

The kids playing together...

Brandon being the little helper...

Watching the kids open their gifts...

Aunt Nancy...

Mom (in-law) and Dana..

Christmas Day
Morning
We started off by heading over to Eric's parents house to have them open gifts. It was entertaining watching Heather open our gift. Well, it all started with Eric's idea of rolling up cash. I took it the next step... I used a ziplock bag and filled it with powdered sugar and made sure it was airtight. I made a "starter kit" consisting of a mirror and a credit card. I had tightly rolled up 25 dollar bills and each of them were taped together. Along with some loose money in the box. We were all cracking up over it.

Here's some pictures:

Hannah - all dressed up!

Heather counting the rolled money...

Mom(in-Law) opening her gifts..

Afternoon
We headed up to Saginaw to celebrate Christmas with my side. We first went over to the house, set up the cage for Hannah, make the green bean casserole, and finish getting ready. When it was about time we headed over to Uncle Don and Aunt K's house. Once again - good food. Eric enjoyed Aunt K's holly cookies. Eric seemed like he was kinda bored. It was more low key then what it normally is. Since grandma was still so fresh in our memories. We did the white elephant gift exchange and Eric and I got left with the crap! So, not fair! Oh well, I'll use the one I got for next year. Since I don't want it. Usually after Christmas we always played cards, BUT this year it all changed. Everyone decided to do their own thing. Which was rather lame - since Eric and I were planning on spending the night just do we didn't have to run around and leave to come back home.

Here are some pictures...

Sitting around for the White Elephant Gift Exchange...

Jennifer not wanting her picture taken...

Playing the white elephant gift exchange...

Eric and TJ being bored...

Jenn and I (I love this picture!)AWESOME WINE!!!

Evening

Since there was nothing else better to do - Eric decided that he wanted to go see a movie. And since I was bored too, I said sure. We took along my 14 year old cousin - Jennifer. We went to go see the Spirit. At least tried to... We went into the theater and we were waiting for the movie to start... It was rather loud, but thought that it would quiet down after the previews started... WRONG! The theater was filled with rude, immature, little gangsters or wannabee's. I'm from that area and it was NEVER that bad! They were SO loud, walking all the time (even in front of the screen) talking on their cell phones, kicking chairs, throwing popcorn. When the little punks behind us started shaking Jennifer's chair - we decided to go. Eric was SO pissed. He asked to talk to the manager. Before we could even tell him what theater we were coming from he had already guessed. We got our money back - took Jennifer home and then went back to the house and went to bed.

Day after Christmas
I didn't feel very well from the time that I got out of bed, but we were still keeping our plans to go meet Steph for lunch. We met at Hunan for lunch. I couldn't really eat - I just felt sick. Then we went over to the mall. I just felt like I was getting worse. So, we had to call it a day. We said our goodbyes and we went back to the house to start packing. I tried taking some pepto while Eric was packing and loading up the car. I still wasn't feeling well and Eric just wanted to get me home. Well, on the way home - yeah - didn't make it home before we had to take a little detour. I had gotten sick IN the car! All over myself. Eric helped me the best he could by getting me a change of clothes out of the trunk and stood cover as I got changed on the side of the road. I had to sit in the back with Hannah for the remainder of the trip... Poor Eric, he could barely handle the smell. Yeah, it was rather bad!! I did start feeling better from that point. As soon as I got home. I took the LONGEST shower ever! I was a big ol' prune afterwards, but it was worth it!