Yesterday we had Christmas on my mom side's of the family at my aunt's house in Garner, Iowa. Evan, the two and a half year old son of my cousin and his wife was there and he is the cutest little boy in the world! He had this John Deere toy tractor that played a 15 second jingle when you pushed one of the buttons and he would go crazy and dance whenever it came on. It was so cute! Jay told us when they took him to a wedding, he danced nonstop for two hours! He's going to be the ring bearer at my brother's wedding. Awww! I would tell him, "Evan give me a five" and he would slap my hand, then go to everyone else and give them high fives as well! I think he took a liking to me because he sat in my lap when he was watching his Elmo movies. He was just so adorable.

As for gifts, I recieved a cookbook from my mom's church, multi-colored measuring cups and spoons, a Grinch ornament, chocolate turtles, a cube cat box and cat treats for Milo, and a gift certificate to Barnes and Noble.

There was a grab bag for the older cousins and we could only pick one when we answered a question correctly from The Night Before Christmas Aunt Mary asked us. I have to say none of us did too well. (Hey, it had been awhile since any of us had read that poem!) Hehe, when she asked "What were their children dreaming of?", I blurted out "cranberries" even though that was obviously wrong. Despite that mistake, I got the majority of the questions right. I ended up with the B&N gift certificate and that was the gift I got in the first place. (Luckily my mom paid for it). In fact, the card says To: You, From: Sara. Hehe.

Yesterday Mom and Dad picked me up and we drove to my Aunt Sue's and Uncle Terry's cabin in Iowa where my Aunt Jane and cousin Lendie were already there with their dog, Lacey. We had dinner...something called coquvin, I think. It was egg noodles with beef marinated in red wine and mushroom and onions that you put over it.

I watched A Muppet Christmas Carol on their screen downstairs and later went into the hot tub with everyone else except Jane and Lendie. I think my mom was a little tipsy!

This morning the other relatives came around 10 am and we had brunch: omelettes, waffles, toast, hash browns, and mimosas! I had two of them. I've never had one before; they're really good!

Then we opened presents. It was really fun to watch Evan, my cousin's one and a half year old son open his presents and how his eyes lit up! He must like trucks because he got a couple of them.

I recieved:
-a snowman angel ornament from Aunt Mary.
-Cinderella's castle ornament from Grandma.
-Fossil clutch bag in a flower print from Aunt Jane and Lendie.
-Soap from Anthropologie in Vanilla Spice, Pear Cinnamon, and Orange Clove from Aunt Sue.
-Parmesan dipping and drizzling oil from my parents.
-Candy and Blockbuster gift certificate from the cousin grab bag.
-And even Milo got a few toys and treats!

Everyone on Mom's side of the family gathered this year at Mary's house in Garner. As always, Bill was the last to arrive. He came a little after one o'clock, just as we were dishing up our food and didn't bring Kelly with him. Apparently her grandmother slipped and was in the hospital. Oh! And there was a new addition to the group. My cousin Jay and his wife Rebecca, had a baby in July, so I got to meet five-month-old Evan for the first time. He was soooooo adorable! He was such a happy baby, playing with his toys. He liked to hit the plastis pig and cow that were dangling from his bassinette. He espeically liked his stuffed pony because it was so soft. He would grab my finger and take it towards his mouth.

The menu was pretty much the same at any other of these gatherings: ham, cheesy potatoes, corn, green bean cassorole, rolls, and some kind of cauliflower salad that Mom made. There were also plates of cookies and bowl of almonds out everywhere.

After we ate, I played a few rounds of foosball with Pauline, then later on I player again Bill, then Dad came down and he helped me by playing goalie, then Mom and Anjoli and Pauline came down so we played guys against girls and just kept switching around.

When we opened presents, Pauline played "Santa" as usual, passing out the gifts to everyone. (Ah, I remember when I was Santa. I was the youngest cousin on that side of the family for a good ten years!) From the cousin grab bag, I got a Target gift certificate for $15, from Aunt Jane I got the gray hat with yellow polka dots from the Gap, from Aunt Mary I got a wooden angel ornament, and from Aunt Sue I got a blue flower print apron. She made all the women aprons and said she had made 21 total, for all the women on Terry's side of the family as well. Hands down, I got the cutest gift of all. Grandma and Russ gave me the Merry Christmas Trio. It is so cute! The snowman and penguins dance and sing to Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree and the penguins shake their tails or wings and ring the jinble bells and the lights on the tree light up.

Evan was so cute everytime Jay opened a new present for him and showed him what it was. His eyes would grow so wide! He liked the rubber bathtoys of vehicles (train, motorcyle, plane) that Mom gave him and Aunt Jane gave him a one piece that said "Best in Snow" on it.

As if we didn't already have enough food already, after all the presents were open, Mary got out crackers and cheese, crab dip, cheesecake, pumpkin pie, and cherry pie. Plus, more cookies, of course. Add that to the three cans of Pepsi I had, I was pretty well fed that day!

Everyone started leaving around six. Mom, Dad, and I and Jane and Lendie were going to spend the night at Sue and Terry's cabin, which is only a few miles down the road. Bill also stayed for a couple hours and left a little after nine. He only lives about two hours away. Sue had her tree up, but only the lights were up, so Lendie and I put all the ornaments on it. I had eggnog with rum and nutmeg in it. Mmm, it was so good! I don't like regular eggnog, but add some rum to it, and you've got some good stuff!

I went to my parent's house for Thanksgiving and we went to see Stranger than Fiction on Wednesday afternoon. That evening, around 8 o'clock, Aunt Sue and Uncle Terry and Aunt Jane and my cousin Lendie arrived at our house, just as my mom was taking out the over the ranbow mac and cheese out of the oven. Luckily there was enough for everyone. Then Dad got out the wine and Aunt Sue got pretty drunk, haha! I brought my straightening iron and Lendie straightened it for me, so now it looks much better. We also played two games of Stratego: I captured her flag the first time, and the second time I had to forfeit because she killed all my men. Around 11 o'clock, Bill came with Maggie. He was going to bring Kelly (who was going to bring her dog, Stanley), but decided not to come at the last minute.

On Thanksgiving we had the usual traditional dinner of turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes and dressing, green bean cassorole, rudabega, cranberry sauce, sweet potatoes, pickles/olives/cherry rings with an assorment of pecan, pumpkin, and cherry pie for dessert. After dinner my dad and uncle and brother watched football and Lendie and I played another game of Stratego, this time we played with the tournament rules and I won again. My relatives left around four in the afternoon and Bill and I played a couple games of Stratego and he won both times, ugh! Then we played Monopoly with Mac and Maggie. I was the car, Mac was the top hat (because he's a top cat!), Bill was the ship, and Maggie was the dog. (Because she's a dog!) I made fun of Bill because he was the first to go and a dog and a cat beat him. Maggie ended up winning the game.

After watching Survivor and Grey's Anatomy, we went to the theaters where Bill and Dad saw Borat. Since I had already seen it and Mom didn't want to see it, we went to Happy Feet instead. After the movies, Bill and Dad kept quoting Borat. "This is niiice!" "High-five!" LOL. Bill said he laughed so hard he got a headache!

I came back home today around two.

I was in Lincoln last weekend to visit my parents because my brother came down from St. Paul. He had came to bring the presents he had bought for us when he was in Hawaii back in July. I already knew he had gotten my mom coffee and macadamium nuts and a bongo drum for my dad, except it was smaller than I expected. I was thinking he had gotten him one of those huge drums that sit on the floor! But this one is small enough you can hold. I think it's already getting on my mom's nerves, heh. I got a whole array of things including a Hawaii calender, dolphin keychain, matching dolphin earrings, necklace, and bracelt, necklace made out of tiny seashells, gardenia perfume, woven straw purse, and a braided bracelt that says "Hawaii" on a leather band.

While we were all together, we decided to celebrate my dad's, brother's and my birthday since all of our are two weeks apart from each other. Turns out my mom forgot to give my brother this memo. Luckily I was able to tell Bill what I wanted when we went to the Farmers Market downtown and I saw some cool jewelry made out of colored glass. I picked out a barrett which he got for me. Mom also gave me some earrings from the same place. I gave Bill a gift certificate to Barnes and Noble and my dad a licorice sampler with four different kinds of licorice from different countries. (It was all black licorice, though, yuck, give me the red!)

We all saw Strangers with Candy because it's such a family movie, you know. It was my dad's idea to see it because apparently Stephen Colbert is his hero. The movie was stupidly funny as expected and there were some cameos with Alison Janney, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Matthew Broderick, and Sarah Jessica Parker.

My brother and I watched the last two episodes of season 1 of Alias and we tried to copy the move where Sydney rolls over the back of the bad guy (wearing leather pants, no less. Sydney, I mean, not the bad guy) and kicks the crap out of the other bad guy. Let me tell you folks: it's not as easy as it looks! LOL.

Like I said in my previous entry, I was in Minnesota over the weekend, but now I'm back home. My parents and I went up to St. Paul because my brother bought a house and he needed some help on it. Here is my adventure!

( Chapter 1: The New Car )

( Chapter 2: Magic Tricks! )

( Chapter 3: Mall of America! )

Alright, I'm going to continue this tomorrow.

Jane hosted Christmas yesterday, so Mom and Dad picked me up in the morning and we drove to Webster City. Everyone was there except for Bill and David and Anjoli. Lendie came out to greet us and she was wearing a pink Edwardian jacket and I say, "Did you get that from the Gap? I have that very same jacket in green!" Haha, apparently she loves the Gap too. We saw her dress she's wearing to some winter dance. It was a pretty champagne color with beads. It was so small because she's so friggin skinny!

Everyone kept saying I looked nice and I said I felt I overdressed and Terry was like, "Do you want us to tell you that you look sloppy?" LOL. Everyone also liked my snowflake necklace and Grandma asked if they were real diamonds and I was like, "Um, I don't think so...this cost 12 dollars..." LOL.

Jane had a crockpot of spiced apple cider out and it was sooo good. I must have had six cups of it! There were also M&M cookies (with red and green M&Ms and I probably had about eight of those during the whole time I was there). Aunt Sue brough her Kringla (mmm) and there was so much cookies and chocolate and fudge out. It was no wonder I didn't each much of my meal when we ate!

I ate downstairs with Lendie and Pauline and we had some kind of meat (uh, I'm not really sure what it was, I didn't really like it), potatoes, green bean casrole, dressing, and rolls. That was the "kids" table since we were the three youngest there, lol. I could hear Lendie's cats meowing from the room they were in and I asked Lendie if we could see them, so we went into the laundary room and played with Sally Johnson and Fluffy. (Lendie named them when she was really young...) Then we went on the computer and I showed Lendie the sweater and cardigan from the Gap I was getting and I also showed her the new clothes I got from the Gap and Banana Republic and also showed her my wishlist at Forever 21, so we were oohing and aahing over all the clothes. One of her friends IMed her on her MSN messenger and it was some guy at her school who's a senior named Joey, so I took the keyboard from her and wrote, "Hi, I'm Lendie's cousin!" Then Lendie wrote, "LOL, that was Sara." Then I wrote "Isn't Lendie awesome?" (Because Lendie told me he always says she's awesome). And he said, "Totally." Then I wrote, "I had to say that because Lendie's sitting right next to me!" LOL, then there was a picture of him in the profile and he's holding a trumpet and Lendie told me he plays the trumpet, so I write, "Do you play the trumpet?" Then I add, "Lendie just said "DUH." And he said "LOL." (He wrote LOL a lot...he was probably scared of me). Then Lendie told me he won an award for his outstanding solo performance and I congratulated him on that and he said, "Thanks, did Lendie tell you about that?" And I said I was a pyschic, lol. Yeah, so that was amusing.

We come back upstairs because we're about to open presents in the living room. I take my seat on end end of one of the couches and Mom is at the other end and Aunt Sue (who's really small) wedges herself between us. I'm busy leaning over and putting my drink down and all of a sudden Aunt Sue has spilled red wine all over one side of my purple velvet blazer and black pants. She had been telling Mom a story and got animated and flung her hand holding the plastic glass and since it was so flimsy, it had flew out and spilled over me and the couch! My dad was esatic about this because two years ago he had spilled red wine all over Mary's white carpet, so he was all like, "Now I'm not the only one to spill red wine!" He went back to the hotel to get my change of clothes and Mom made me sit on a fold up chair since I had red wine on my pants and she didn't want me to stain anything. Aunt Sue felt really bad and kept hugging me and apoligzing profusely, but I said it was okay and that my clothes could get dried clean. (And actually, since my clothes were dark, you couldn't really see the stain!) So after that little fiasco, we were finally able to open presents.

From Pauline I got a box of chocolates and a $30 gift certificate to Best Buy (whoo hoo!), from Grandma I got an ornament of Dorothy's ruby slippers and they light up. (We had a little problem getting the batteries in, but Jay finally managed to get it to work). From Santa aka Aunt Sue I got a pair of green and blue shaggy socks, and from Mom I got a pair of earrings that are shaped in a small silver diamon with little jade beads hanging off it. Lendie really like the purse and Ice Cream Man I gave her. All the guys in the room were confused at what the Ice Cream Man was. They just didn't get it! LOL.

Later that evening, I played some Christmas tunes on the electric piano and Dad tried to join in with the electric guitar. He only knows how to play by hearing, so he had to listen to me play, then copy what I did. We weren't exactly great at this, lol. My piano skills are a little rusty, so I would sometimes hit the wrong note, lol.

Soon the only ones left were Jane and Lendie, Sue and Terry, and Mom, Dad, and me. Dad had gotten two DVDs of the Beatles, so we watched the one where they were featured on the "Ed Sullivan Show" in 1964. There were four episodes of that and Mom and Jane were acting like fangirls when the Beatles were on, especially Jane. She is so in love with Paul McCartney. They were really corny on the show, espeically Ringo! He would just sit there and play the drums and smile! Poor guy never got to sing, haha. During one song, the camera would go around to each of them and their names would be printed below. And when they got to John, they had written, "Sorry girls! He's married!" Soooo corny! And the fangirls? Oh. Lord. They reminded me of the audience at Oprah's show when she does her favorite things. There were mostly teenaged girls (although we saw one older woman, lol) and they were all screaming and crying and having heart attacks. It was hilarious! During a couple times, Ed Sullivan had to tell the crowd to "be quiet" and he did it in this really mean, assholey kind of one, like BE QUIET! and he would look really pissed off. We saw some of the other acts and they were all so amazingly lame. There was some comedian named Sooey Sails or something and gave this really dumb comedic monolauge. Yeah, it sucked. Then there was this singing cow and caterpillar. It freaked me out. Oh, and the best part were the commericals. When they showed the first one (a shoe shine polish) I thought it was a parody, you know like something you would see in SNL or Letterman or Leno, but no it was the real thing! But it was so cringe-worthy, it could have been a parody! The funniest one was a commerical for Anacid where this guy comes home from work and his wife asks him how his day was and the guy just EXPLODES at her. He snaps "DON'T BOTHER ME! I'VE HAD A HORRIBLE DAY! I HAVE THIS AWFUL HEADACHE!" Damn, talk about your spousal abuse! But he takes Anacid and he's all better. LOL, Mom was like, "If I were her, I would have smacked him!" Then there was another commerical for Pilsbury biscuits and the mother was in the kitchen baking them and wearing pearls and a skirt and high heels. :::rolls eyes::: I'm so glad I didn't grow up in that era!

Late Wednesday night, Bill came home with Maggie. He told us all about the house he bought and is now renovating. The next morning, he and I took Maggie for a walk before our relatives arrived. Turns out he loves Arrested Development as much as I do and we were both talking about that and he even has the first two seasons on DVD so he's going to bring those during Christmas. Yay! I love, love, love that show.

When we got back from walking the dog, our relatives arrived shortly later: Aunt Sue and Uncle Terry picked up Grandma, then Aunt Jane and Lendie and they drove down here. We had so much food: turkey, dressing, mashed potatoes and gravy, cranberry sauce, chutney, rudabega, lefse, green bean cassorole, rolls, olives (green and black), pickles, wine, sparkling cider, pumpkin pie, cherry pie. It just never stopped!

After we ate, Lendie and I took Maggie for a walk. The boys watched football, and my mom, aunts, and Grandma all yapped and gossiped. Later that night we played a card game called Screwy Louie, then Bill, Mom, Jane, Grandma, Sue, and I played Scattergories. That game is a lot harder than you think it is! LOL we had the letter "C" and we were suppose to put down a shoe that started with C, and mom put down "thongs." Um, okay!

Everyone left early this morning while I was still asleep!

Mac and I went home for Thanksgiving Wednesday after work and Bill came the following day with Maggie. Mac wasn't as afraid of Maggie as he was last time and didn't hide run to hide under any beds. Instead he would hiss if Maggie got too close to him or started barking. It was so funny. Sometimes Maggie wouldn't even notice Mac, then would start barking when she did.

We had a Thanksgiving feast! Turkey, mashed potatos, gravy, dressing, cranberry sauce, sweet potatos, green bean casserole, black olvies, green olives, lefse, and for dessert: pumpkin pie and pecan pie. Mac and Maggie didn't seem to mind each other when food is present. They were both strolling around under the table (but always on opposite sides of each other) when we were eating.

We saw two movies over the weekend. On Friday we all saw Alexander which was really long and dull. On Saturday Mom and I saw National Treasure which was a lot better. That's more my type of movie. I brought my Mulan DVD and Mom and I watched that last night.

When I went home today it was snowing! And it's still snowing! Noo! Stop!

On the 23rd we decided to go to church on Christmas Day instead of Christmas Eve like we normally do, so yesterday, the 24th, we went bowling instead! Mom and I were going to see Two Weeks Notice, but when I was in the shower Bill and Dad talked about going bowling instead so I agreed with going with them since Mom wanted to do that too. I set up the scores and because Mom and Dad's name both start with "P", I named Dad "MrGilles." LOL. Well, I bowled really crappily. I got a thirty something the first game, and a forty something the second game. Dad bought us all a pitcher of beer along with some fries andI had two glasses and I had to pee really bad and I got REALLY dizzy towards the end. We played some pool after bowling, Dad and me against Bill and Mom. Even though I didn't get any balls in, we still won. But hey, I got the white ball in twice! LOL. After we left, I felt a little better. I got in the passenger seat and told Mom and Bill that loosers sit in back, hehe. We drove to the store so Bill could buy his supplies for the salad he was making for that night's dinner. Mom went in with Bill to show him where to find the stuff and Dad circled the car around the parking lot about ten times while I found Christmas songs on the radio that I liked. For our Christms Eve dinner we had lobster tail, asagio and olive bread, salad with dried cranberries, walnuts, mozerella cheese, and balsamic vinegear dressing, (Bill made that - it was acutally quite good!) and sparkling grape cider for me. I had put on some Christmas music while we were eating. I learned how to program it so it played random music that I liked. Then we opened presents and it was kinda funny because there were two repeats of the same gift. The first was when Mom opened her present from Bill - the DVD set of Band of Brothers. Then Dad gave Mom her gift and it turned out it was the same thing! Then later I opened my gift from Bill which was the U2 cd and it turned out that Mom and Dad gave me the same CD! Sheesh, I had five CDs on my list....Well besides that CD, I also got: a beaded braclet and socks from Terry and Sue, three bracelets from Sue and George, Atlanta Braves carry cup from Jane, fifty dollas from Grandma, Aldo blue slippers with little cows in them from the FVs, $25 gift certifate to Barnes and Noble and Bio shampoo with olive extract for damaged and stressed hair from Pauline (What? She thinks I have bad hair? LOL), ANOTHER cookbook from Ellie (Would she stop alredy?) and the rest of the presents came from Mom and Dad: a globe, red plaid pajamas and underwear from Victoria's Secrets, a red fleece blanket with my name on it, Molly ornament, $300 dollars, lots of chocolates, lint roller, ten dollars worth of quarters in a coin purse, rubber hot pad, and a travel calendar. On Christmas we went to church then Mom, Bill, and I decided to go see the 1:10 showing of The Two Towers but it turned out it was sold out, so Bill and I got tickets for the 8:45 show. We watched Analyze This on DVD and and had our annual fondue dinner which was delicious! Bill and I went to the movies around eight and he was pissing me off so fucking much in the car and saying I was too high strung so I was pretty pissed at him. It was crowded when we got there, but we managed to get decents seats. The movie started and it was AWESOME, totlly AWESOME. Afte the movie I was doing Gollum's voice. LOL...."my precious!" Gollum was creepy and cute at the same time, the trees were pissed off!, Aragorn and Legolas were h-h-h-hot!, Merry and Pippin were so cute and funny, and Frodo wasn't in the movie that much! And the big battle scene was pretty intense! And Gandalf was back! Yay! I really need to read these books. Mmm....Legolas.....mmmmmmmmmmm.
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After work on Friday I went back to my place and packed then left for Lincoln around 9:30. I actually like driving around that time of day. The traffic isn't heavy. When I got home, Mom made me an omelette since I barely had anything to eat all day (except some dressing at work) and I watched the tape of Survivor and The Amazing Race. Funny thing was I taped the shows while I was at work and brought it home and Mom also taped them for me! Survivor was just a recap, so it was a bit ho hum. But TAR was a new episode and a great one. It was a non elimation round and John Vito and Jill were the last team to arrive. I'm glad it was non-elimation because I like them. Ian is an ass!

Thursday was Thanksgiving. (Duh). While I was helping set the table I asked Mom what Bill was doing. She kind of got this mad look on her face and said he was spending it with Nita and that they're back together. I asked her if she was joking, but she said no. Bill is such an idiot!! After all this shit Nita did to him and said mean things about his friends....they're exactly like a junior high couple like Mom said. Wonder how long it is before they break up again???

I said grace then we all ate dinner which consisted of the usual Thanksgiving trimmings: turkey, mashed potatoes and gravy, stuffing, yams, pickles, black olvies, green olives, lefse, and sparkling apple cider.

Mom and I went to Blockbuster where we rented Spider-Man (Dad wanted to see it) and Changing Lanes. We watched Spider-Man that night. I really love that movie. But damn, Kirsten Dunst has some RED, I mean really RED hair in that movie. I think she looks so adorable with red hair. My dad asked if that was her real hair color, lol.

On Friday we watched Changing Lanes which was a really good movie. Toni Collette was in it. She ROX! I don't remember anything else we did on Friday. I started to re-read Goblet of Fire. Damn, I want book five out now!

On Saturday I went shopping with Mom. We were trying to find Lendie a Christmas present. She either wanted a "good book" or "cool clothes." After dropping off the movies we went to a small bookshop and asked a young woman for help. She gave us some ideas, but none of the books seemed to strike our fancy. A lot of them were science fiction which we didn't think Lendie would like. We went to Barnes and Noble where we struck out again. Mom's gonna call Jane and ask her what she wants. We also went to the bank and Hy-Vee to buy some groceries for me. Mom and Dad went to a volleyball game that night. I rented Death to Smoochy. It was okay, not really my type of movie. I found out chapter 12 of I'm Not a Muggle, Not Yet a Wizard is posted. I'm so happy! I have 8 reviews so far. I also showed Mom the major I'm thinking of switching to: Writer's Workshop. Hopefully I'll be able to do that.

Sunday I got up around nine. Mom and Dad drove back with me since they took back the couch (they got new furniture for their living room, it looks awesome BTW), a Christmas tree. And Mac! Yep Mac is my new roommate. He's been meowing all day, poor thing. I rode with Mom in the van and Dad drove my car. Mom and I arrived first and were sitting outside for a few minutes since Dad had the apartment keys. I now have two couches in my apartment, even though I like the chair better. I think I'm gonna change it.

Went to work. Theresa, Brian, Phil, and Lisa were there. David came in at four. Brian was telling everyone his birthday was on the 19th and is trying to milk presents out of everybody. I asked him what he wanted and he asked me what price range. I said five dollars. So now he wants me to buy movie tickets for him! I got to buy pineapples for John and Katie checked me out. She's such a sweetie. Theresa, David and I played Go Fish around seven during our slow period. Hehe, I guess there was a customer we didn't see and Brian had to wait on him. Got home in time to see The Practice then watched my Faith Hill special. Mac was meowing all night. He was hiding under the bed when I came home, poor thing. Now he's sitting on my bed not making a peep. Let's see how long this will last!