Holidays!
Well, it's that time of year again! My birthday was early last week, Christmas was this past weekend, and New Years is fast approaching!
For my birthday I had to work during the day but Jeremy sent flowers to my office with a cute little bear hugging the vase. The bear is currently guarding my monitors from the evil cleaning people who like to trash my desk (don't worry, I'm as confused about it as you are). After I got home from work I got to open my presents! Jeremy's parents sent a deep dish pie plate from Pampered Chef that I've had my eye on and Jeremy got me a lovely ring from Tiffany & Co! For dinner, we headed over to the Chicago Diner. After dinner we came home, put on our pajamas, laid on the couch and ate carrot cake from the Diner and played video games until it was time for sleep. Other than the having to work part, the whole day was exactly what I wanted :)
Unfortunately we couldn't be on two sides of the state at once for Christmas, so we decided to head to my parents place for Christmas this year. Since we wouldn't be able to be with them during Christmas, Jeremy's parents sent us our gifts about a week and a half ago. Now, I would like to say that we were good and put the gifts under the tree and waited until Christmas to open them... but temptation got the best of us and we ended up opening them as soon as they got here ;) Not only did they spoil us with a ton of stuff from Pampered Chef but I also got 2 cookbooks that I've been wanting for months! Vegan Brunch and Vegan Yum Yum. Both cookbooks are awesome and we've already made a few recipes out of Vegan Yum Yum! I think Jeremy's favorite thing that we received was the Garlic Peeler & Slicer Set which works amazingly! To peel the garlic you just put it in the peeler, roll it around in your hands for about 4 seconds and you have perfectly peeled garlic! The slicer is equally as easy to use, just put the peeled cloves of garlic in the slicer, turn, and you have perfectly sliced garlic.
Before heading to Iowa, Jeremy and I exchanged our gifts. One of the things we picked out together were matching robes from Brookstone. Now, I'm not normally a robe person, actually I think I've only worn a robe twice before in my life, but these are by far the softest and most comfortable things I have ever had the pleasure of lounging around in. In addition to some smaller items, the one gift I'm most proud of getting for Jeremy - a knife skills lesson at the Chopping Block cooking school here in Chicago. The class looks like it should be a lot of fun and informative. They'll teach us how to cut up all sorts of different vegetables properly, how to pick out knives, and all about how to properly care for knives. Some of the neat things Jeremy got me were a Magic Mouse for use with my laptop when I'm working at home, a book that I'm excited to get started on, and donut pans! Of course, after receiving said donut pans, I promptly made a batch of cake donuts the next morning. I've got to tell you, having donut pans is as dangerous as it sounds!
On Thursday the snow finally changed to rain and we were able to make the drive to Iowa. The roads weren't too bad for the most part but a little icy in some spots. When we got to my parents' house, our niece was there so we got to play with her for a few hours and give her her gifts. One of the things we gave her was a little kitten that you pet it's back and it purrs and kneads it's paws. It came with a little purse to carry the kitten in ala Paris Hilton style which she loved. Friday morning we opened presents and the big thing we got was a toaster oven which I have been wanting for years! We gave my parents a digital picture frame with about 250 pictures (150 of which I spent a whole day scanning a few days before) which they loved. For my brother we decided to go with things that were more practical and got him new dishes, silverware, glasses, towels, candles, etc for his apartment which he appreciated.
After all of the gifts were opened, we spent the better part of the next 48 hours playing cards, napping, and watching movies. I think my dad described it best when he said, "It felt like a 2 day party!" I taught everyone how to play a variation of the game Oh Hell which we ended up playing for hours. After everyone had had enough Oh Hell, we switched to playing Texas Hold'em. The first night everyone was pretty much even but the second night I went on a winning streak. I got first, second, second, first, second, first, second, first and ended up coming out about a dollar ahead after 2 days (we were only playing for a quarter each game). On Sunday, after our 2 day party, we finally headed back to Chicago.
All in all, I honestly couldn't have hoped for a better holiday season. This was, by far, my favorite Christmas/Birthday I've had in years thanks to my amazing husband and all of our wonderful family. :)