Christmas 2013
Posted on December 31, 2013 by Ching under Family.
This year is the first year that we brought our Christmas Eve and Christmas Day celebrations under one roof. It used to be we would celebrate Christmas Eve at my parents’ house in Derby and then we would be at my in-laws’ house in Wichita on Christmas Day. However, Brian’s parents sold their house and officially moved to Midwest City, OK last month.
We figured that, since we were going to be hosting Christmas Day at our house anyway, we might as well host Christmas Eve as well. It worked out perfectly also because our nephews celebrate Christmas Eve with their other grandparents (Jennifer Cannady’s parents) who live just around the block from us.
Christmas Eve started quietly enough with Brian showing grandma his new laptop.
Donna made deviled eggs. Yum!
Mom made lumpia, menudo, chicken macaroni salad, and fruit salad. For someone who never cooked when I was growing up, my mom actually makes really delicious food.
Brian made crockpot chicken adobo and chocolate chip cookies.
I made what we call el cheapo (ground beef, peas, and carrots) because it’s easy to make and goes well with steamed white rice.
We had way more food than we could ever eat. We could have invited all of our friends for dinner and still would have had leftovers. Seriously.
We played a few rounds of Catch Phrase
Brian and I got mom and dad a pasta night gift set and Downton Abbey Seasons 1, 2 & 3
I also got mom an Origami Owl living locket necklace and then a gift card to Tower Hobbies for dad. We try to keep the gifts pretty even.
We got Jenni $25 to Rue 21 (she loves that store for some reason) and I gave her a bunch of workout clothes (a couple of UnderArmour tanks and a pair of Zumba sweatpants) in hopes that she’ll start working out with me again.
There was nothing implicit about my request either.
After the boys arrived, it was all about them. Here are some photos.
We got the boys matching Superman shirts (because Brian likes Superman most out of all the superheroes) and then Eli and QQ both got PlasmaCars
Mom, dad, and Jenni got Logan a big TV for Christmas. I’m not sure what else the boys got, but they usually do pretty well. Christmas is not about presents, but it’s always fun to watch their eyes light up.
The next morning was all about grandma and my in-laws.
We each got them stockings full of their favorite goodies.
They all got booze and chocolates in their stockings, among other things.
Brian made quite a breakfast!
When Kevin, Kasey, Kyndra, and Andrew arrived, we all headed to the basement to exchange gifts while we waited for lunch to be ready.
We got Andrew a bunch of Thundercats
For Kasey we got a set of Hello Kitty glasses and a Hello Kitty flask because she loves anything Hello Kitty. We got Kevin the Alien Anthology [Blu-ray]
I got Donna an Origami Owl living locket necklace also just like the one I got for mom. I got the necklace, locket, mom plate, and two birthstone charms. The funny thing is other than the necklace (which I got in two different styles) the lockets themselves look almost identical because Jenni and Kevin were both born during the month of November so they have the same birthstone and then my birthstone and Brian’s birthstone are pretty much the same color (pink).
For David and Donna to enjoy together, we got a bar set
It’s not just kids who are fun to watch as they open presents. Adults are equally fun to watch also, specially grandma. We got her a tin of her favorite Christmas cookies from Sam’s Club (which David and Donna got for her also, so she ended up with two tins this year), a sleigh full of Ghirardelli chocolate goodies, a couple of Disney DVD movie collections — the Classics (Gnome-Mobile / Darby O’gill & Little People / One & Only Genuine Family / Happiest Millionaire)
After exchanging presents, it was time for lunch. Christmas Day lunch consisted of mac and cheese, Donna’s scalloped potatoes, pork loin, etc. Kevin and Kasey brought some treats too. Again, we had way more food than we could eat. Even after grandma took food home, Brian and still had a ton of leftovers. Our fridge was full for days!
This is our Christmas celebration in a nutshell. The two days were a whirlwind of food and merriment. It was actually kind of a relief when it was all over. LOL. We cleaned the house throughly from top to bottom the day after Christmas and then we take down both Christmas trees today. Slowly but surely Brian and I remove all evidence of the Christmas mayhem that ensued and prepare to welcome the new year ahead.
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Guess What Brian Got for Christmas
Posted on December 30, 2013 by Ching under Toys, Wishlist.
He’d been wanting a new laptop for a long time now since his old laptop started going on the fritz. It took forever for him to decide what kind he wanted though. To make it super challenging for Santa, this guy didn’t make up his mind until the Friday before Christmas. Seriously.
So I quickly ordered his present. The web site told me that the expected delivery date would Christmas Eve. Guess what, it arrived one day early so he was already playing with his new laptop by Monday night.
I knew that he wouldn’t let me wrap the new laptop because he’d want to unbox it immediately so I also got him Bond 50: The Complete 23 Film Collection with Skyfall
I think he really likes his bonus gift. We’ve already made plans to watch a Bond movie every Friday beginning next year. As long as we don’t miss any weeks, we should finish watching all the movies mid-year. But, you all know how busy we are, at least we have the whole year to watch the entire collection just in case.
I already know that we’re going to miss one Friday within the first month since I’m going to be in LA for the Zumba Instructor Conference. As long as we get to watch the whole collection before 2014 is up, I’ll be happy.
I hope you enjoy your Christmas presents. I love you!
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Holiday Bullshit
Posted on December 30, 2013 by Ching under Games.
So my favorite game, Cards Against Humanity, ran a special over the holidays where if you gave them $12 they’d send you 12 random things over the holidays. They called this promotion the 12 Days of Holiday Bullshit.
Here’s part of their plea for money:
Here’s how it works: You give us $12, and we’ll send you 12 mystery gifts over 12 days. Our accountant told us that this holiday stunt is “highly inadvisable,” so we’ve limited it to the first 100,000 people who sign up.
I’m a sucker for this sort of thing so naturally I signed up right away. Brian who is overly paranoid was really upset at first. He is very leery about this sort of thing. Specially when they sent me the following response:
Order #30131 placed on 11/13/13
Congratulations on giving $12 and your address to some strangers on the Internet. You can reply to this email if you have any questions.
He thinks I’m too gullible. However, as it turns out, the $12 was actually a pretty good investment. I got a ton of new, limited edition (since they only made 100,000) CAH cards and a bunch of other surprises. On the 12th day I got my very own card.
Okay, so some of the gifts were delivered out of order, but this card was gift for day 12. This alone was worth every penny of the $12 I gave them. LOL.
If I had to do it all over again, I’d give money to strangers on the internet in a heartbeat. Specially if these strangers are as brilliant as the CAH people.
If you’ve not yet discovered the fun game that is Cards Against Humanity, I suggest you go online right now and make one or, better yet, order it from Amazon
I can’t wait to see what they come up with next year!
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More Christmas Lights
Posted on December 30, 2013 by Ching under Events.
Every year April, who is the president of their HOA, rents a party bus for the neighborhood to look at Christmas lights together. What a great idea, right? I wish our neighborhood HOA would do stuff like this. Anyway, we didn’t get to go last year but she extended an invitation again this year and now we are finally able to go.
Except for getting lost and the three dead-ends, it was a blast. We had a good time drinking and making merry at the back of the bus. The bus driver didn’t partake that I know of, but when we got lost and hit the dead-ends I had to wonder. LOL.
We took the opportunity to deliver our presents to our friends since we were all together that day. We got the Dills and the Phelps the same thing and we had a small gift for Mama Dill. Our favorite thing to do is get gifts for Gavin, though. It’s always so much fun to watch kids open presents.
Brian and I each picked out a gift for Gavin. My pick, a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles – Blast N Launch
All jokes aside, now that we’ve given everyone their presents we may not need to host an annual holiday gathering. We’ve done it for three years straight now (though we had to do it late last year because people were out of town) and we’ve really looked forward to it every year. This may be the year to start a whole new tradition. Either way we’ve had a fantastic holiday and we wish everyone an amazing new year ahead!
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More Pictures from Last Weekend
Posted on December 21, 2013 by Ching under Events, Things to Do.
We were pretty busy last weekend with the Employees’ Association holiday party at Prairie Pines Christmas Tree Farm on Saturday night and then Illuminations at Botanica on Sunday night. I was really looking forward to both this year because I missed the events last year due to my thyroidectomy.
Here’s a photo of Joel and Misty from Saturday night.
Here are some of my favorites from Illuminations on Sunday night.
Visit Flickr for the rest of the photos.
I am so grateful that I had the opportunity to go this year. The weather on Sunday was fantastic also. I brought gloves but actually didn’t need them. I throughly enjoyed walking through Botanica with Brian looking at all the beautiful lights. Until next year!
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