Dashing Through the Weeks!

:::waves:::

Hi guys! I finally have a hot second to sit and blog about my holidays! It was two weeks of chaos holiday joy.

On Tuesday the 22, my friend Erin from Georgia was home and I was finally able to meet her adorable newborn baby girl, Ansley.

JEGs and Me, Erin with Ansley, Dustin, Connie and Joe, Kay, Justin, Jamie and Phil

On Wednesday my brother Andy was home from L.A. so my mom cooked a big dinner for the family. My cousin Tara also came home from Pittsburg, so after dinner I picked her up and met up with some old friends of mine and our favorite watering hole, Isaac's.

Christmas Eve was a full work day for me, and after work I had to grab a couple last minute gifts. JEGs and I headed over to Connie and Joe's for a little dinner with her family (because there is nothing more Christmas-y then hanging out with a bunch of Buddists ;), but packed it in early because we still had some gifts to wrap. This is was also about the same time I realized I hadn't sent out any of my Christmas cards. Awesome.

Christmas morning we woke up early (7 am. Seriously.) and JEGs and I exchanged gifts. We decided since we had the wedding this year that we were going to cap our spending at $25. JEGs bought me a new pair of slippers, nail polish remover, make-up sponges, a wine cork that says "liquid happiness", and extra hair ties. I'm telling you, this guy knows me too well. Nail polish remover?? Liquid gold in my book. I got JEGs a travel coffee mug, an ornament, Jack Daniels coffee (sooo good), and a couple other stocking stuffers.

We planned on being at his parents by 10am, so we quickly showered, changed and was on our way. Once we were there we exchanged gifts and munched on Momma G's famous Brunch Bread. Om nom nom.

Now here comes the best part of the day.

JEGs had been working on a gift for his mom for about two weeks, and it was sooo hard for me not to post about it. But since Momma G is a religious reader of le blog, I didn't want to spill the beans! Now, I can finally post about it:

Back in the day (the early 70s) Momma G was in a band called MARZ. Word on the street is they were kind of a big deal too. JEGs happened to stumble upon a bunch of reel to reel audio tapes they made, so he got the great idea to transfer it to CD for her. He went all out for this too- bought a reel to reel player off of Craigslist, pulled it apart, cleaned it, fixed it up, transfered the audio, cleaned up the sound, the whole works.

But he isn't done, yet.
Oh no.
In order to really surprise her, JEGs made a CD of random songs from the era, and one of the bands songs in there (he found the perfect keyboard solo at the beginning of a Jethro Tull song). On Christmas morning he asked her to pop in the CD and identify the song and artist.

..and I got it on video. Check it out- keeping in mind she hasn't heard these songs in over 30 years. And please pardon my cackling at the end.

I cried. I was so happy for her.

After a couple hours there, we headed out to my parents house for a delicious turkey dinner. My presents included slouchy boots, and adorable mustard yellow bag that is unfortuanly the size of a queen sized bed, socks (yippee), a beautiful silk scarf and a cute sweater.

(BR) Angie, Russ, Bridget, Andy. (MR) JEGS, Me, Gideon and Abigail, Bruce, Daddy-O with Skylar, Grandmom in chair (Sitting) Bryn, Owen, Tim, Mommacita

The next day, Saturday the 26th, I spend bridesmaid dress shopping because all of my bridesmaids were finally availible! We picked out a stunning dress that I love. Later in the evening we attended our traditional Nasty Santa party at Connie and Joe's.

...and I would love to tell you more about the gifts I recieved at that party, but my mother reads this, and I would like to keep it PG rated. But I will tell you that your girl LB here got drunk. Really drunk. And paid greatly for it the next morning.

Moving on...

The next couple of days I was on the night shift so my life consisted of waking up, eating breakfast, showering and going to work. I was lucky enough to find someone to work for me on New Years Eve, so JEGs and I headed out to the Dub C to celebrate the end of 09 with friends.

I was planning on hosting our first holiday dinner at Falconhead on New Years Day, but I found out the night before that I actually had to work that night ( helloooo 9 hours of OT). My family was able to rearrange their schedules and come up on Saturday night instead. Bless their souls. They were rewarded with an awesome ham dinner- which I can take no credit for. JEGs cooked the ham and family member brought side dishes and dessert.

Sunday JEGs and I relaxed and undecorated the apt. Now the place looks empty.

So that's my holiday run-down. We have Ukrainian Christmas to attend on Thursday where I plan on eating my weight in MumMum's homemade pierogies, and then we are D.O.N.E.

I have to admitt- as much as I love the holidays, I am ready to get back to normal life.

Hope everyone had a great season!!

Always & Forever,

ME