Christmas Eve Eve

Before we left for Christmas vacation in Seattle, we had one more celebration with Darin's family. It was a more traditional get together - nice sit down dinner and opening of presents.

One of their favorite simple meals was Boston Market's family feast. You get tons of food with this - an amazing array of food. And you get to pick it out!

The spread.

Darin carving the chicken.

Goestov's plate. He always mixed his food together.
It's a fun family thing he does!

After dinner, we all sat together to open presents by the pretty tree. It was very festive!

Quite nice, if I don't say so myself.

Opening our stockings, with care.

Lady was part of the festivities as well!

How great was this? She's one happy dog.

Darin with some new ahh golf balls.

Carol with an ornament I got her!

We had a great time opening presents with the family - how nice was it to spend the holidays with all of the family from all around Florida! Next it's onto Seattle!

Tropicana and Football

After dinner in Tampa with the family (on the 19th), Darin and I headed to St. Pete to join some friends for the UCF Bowl game. They were playing Rutgers in the Tropicana Bowl. I think. Not sure sure, but I'm probably right.

We went down to Tropicana Field (where this team played) - very strange to play football in an indoor baseball stadium. But we had a lot of fun.

The boys, gitty.

Brad and I. We were drinking, okay?

Inside. We were on the third base line. And in the end zone.
I decided I don't like end zone seats.

We left early, I know shame on us, because UCF was down and we had a long drive home. On the way out of the stadium we took the best obscene/fantastic picture that I think we have ever taken.

Pretty fantastic, aye?

And though UCF lost, we had a great time in tiny seats in the air conditioned area drinking beer and eating tasty pretzels.

Tampa X-Mas

This year for Christmas instead of going to Darin's parent's house, we all traveled to Tampa to be with the Tampa crowd. DJ worked very hard this season and deserved to have us come to her! Plus it's always fun to visit them and see what great stuff they serve us to eat!

We got there in the afternoon and talked and talked...

and I took very random pictures:

Me with beer. Why'd I take this? It's not very festive.

B. staring into space. Again, why?

And then a crazy picture of S.
He's definitely letting his personality shine through more and more!

Darin being grumpy because he sat at the adult table.
Ha.

Green jello stuff that was fantastic.
We also had spaghetti lasagna? Spaghetti pie?
It was good.

Dinner was very good. I am now thinking how the picture of the green stuff looks and how I should make it for myself to eat. But then I would probably eat all of it and then never want to eat it again (though I have to admit, that's never really stopped me before). Maybe next week?

After dinner, we got together and opened some quick presents! The kids were trying to figure out what everything was by checking all of the packages out. It was very entertaining! (And I totally pictured Darin doing it as a small child as well, though I think he, Diana, and Kevin were a lot sneakier.)

Peeking.

The best picture of the evening.
Understand why we thought it was funny?

And that was that. It's always fun to do different things during the holidays. Maybe next year we can go swimming. Sounds great to me!

A Visit Up North for a Special Birthday

On the weekend of December 12th, Jake and I traveled up to South Carolina to visit with everyone - KC (and Lilly and Macy too) had driven down from Canada for the holidays (and a much needed break and writing spell) and we just had to visit! Plus, it was Margie's birthday and the holiday parties!

I have been going to their house since I went to Clemson (2004) to help fix things up, make drinks, and talk to a whole bunch of people during the holiday parties. They have a neighborhood party on Saturday and then a church party on Sunday.

But first we had to celebrate Margie's birthday! She got a whole bunch of cool stuff - we got her a beautiful pin from here and Bob got her a Kindel! Also wanted to mention that it was my Grandpa's birthday too (though he passed away awhile ago, I'll always remember). He was born on 12/12/11. Isn't that cool? And I think it's very cool to think that 12/12/11 will be coming up again in a couple of years... amazing, really.

Anyway...

Opening up her pin, with dogs watching.

What were they doing?

Jake getting some love from Bob.
He was bonding because there were only two males in the house.

KC and her Liliput.

Back off from my Bob, little dog.

In the afternoon on Saturday, we prepared for the parties. Lots and lots of food. I mean lots. And most of it was some type of cheese. And veggies too, I guess. And ham. And cocktail weenies. And meatballs. Num.

Food!

The neighbors. And the food!

We decided there were over sixty people at the first party, and just about twenty at the second. Isn't that amazing?! It was a great way to spend the weekend I must say.

Looking forward to next year already!

Holiday and Memories

Wanted to send a quick post wishing everyone a Happy Holiday! I will work hard on getting the last two week's blogs together when we are in Seattle relaxing and over eating.

Looking forward to a nice break from work. And reading a lot of books. And opening presents. And (just a little) trying snowboarding again. And snuggling with Cricket. And my sister (like she'd ever let me do that).

It's nice to have a place to visit for the holidays because traveling makes a vacation (from work especially) a real vacation. I have to admit I think it would be pretty boring to visit family in the same town as you every holiday. Thankfully we will never have that problem as our families live on both sides of the country. It's a good thing!

So Merry Christmas and please await many fun and exciting posts.

Clemson in Florida

For some reason, Clemson ended up playing Georgia Tech in the ACC Championship. Don't really know how they got there (they were getting better mind you, just wasn't really expecting it), but we were over joyed to be able to celebrate with friends and fans.

And boy did we!

Ended up driving over to Tampa to the Bucs Stadium to watch the game.

It was crazy!

Clemson Side. Can you see anything BUT orange?



Our view - $5.oo tickets. Oh yeah!

Our seats were one from the back on the top deck. Row BB. It was great. We were expecting to be able to sit down and relax, but ended up standing up the whole time because the fans were just unbelievable. They wanted to cheer and watch a football game.

We had a great time, though we almost froze. It was cold.

And then the best part: I got to see some old friends. (They weren't old, I've just know them a long time.)

Cheryl, Cheryl's friend (don't know how to spell her name), and Cassie!!

Well Clemson ended up losing. But it was a great game. A fantastic game actually.

Until next year!

Our Favorite Visitor

Ms. Maggie Mo

Just wanted to post a cute picture of Maggie. We love her. She was visiting (her Dad, Russell, was on a much needed vacation during Thanksgiving) Jake, Darin, and me. She hadn't been over in a long time (though we have seen her, but it isn't the same) because her two cousins Daisy and Piper were at her Dad's (with their parents - Russell's son and daughter-in-law) and didn't need to be dog sat.

Anyway...

We love her.

And miss her already.

But Jake gets to visit at Christmas time (while we're in Seattle) and go swimming as she has a swimming pool. He's very excited.

She's definitely our favorite visitor.

Friends and Space

We went over (finally) to our friends Jim and Jill's the other night. Just a fun night, spending time together. (Actually, we were supposed to be eating s'mores, but it rained outside so we were inside.)

Ended up getting the movie St@r Trek.

It's fantastic I tell you. Watch it.

Went to try to find a video store to buy it, but there were none about. So we went to our grocery store... and ended up getting the movie for free because it was priced wrong. Darin and I couldn't believe it! How great!

Had just a great time watching the movie.

And Darin was attacked by these monsters:

S., K., and R.

They actually watched the movie with us! Trekkers in the making - kidding. Definitely the athletic type of kids compared to the nerdy type of kids (which Darin was). I was the naturally athletic type.

:)

We love hanging out with this family and might try something at our house next... if we're brave enough!

A Simple Day of Jake

I was in a cleaning frenzy on Sunday. Had to clean. Clean. Clean!

Jake would just follow me around the house, probably thinking that I should just sit down so that he could relax and take a nap.

He was a sleepy boy.

I was doing a lot of laundry and happened to put the dry and warm towels on the couch to fold.

And it was a bit chilly this weekend.

So up Jake went.

They were very warm and toasty, I have to admit. I think he would have been happier if I would have put a few of them on top of him...

Then I picked him up off the couch to fold the towels, went to do something else.

And came back to this:

The one brown towel was separated because it's a guest towel (the greens and white are Darin and my towels).

And Jake got his way, once again.

Birthday Wishes

Wanted to take a quick second to wish my new sister-in-law and new brother-in-law (they're twins, in case you didn't know this) a very happy birthday!

We really have a great time doing everything under the sun with these two. It's amazing to have them so close by to watch movies, build fences, go swimming, eat, and all the other stuff we do together!

So Happy XX Birthday Diana and Kevin!

Hurray for turning one year older and wiser...

Love you two (and the others in the photos as well)!

O' Christmas Tree

A fun tradition at Darin's parent's house was putting the Christmas tree up together. Well, since everyone's getting older and busier, we went over the weekend after Thanksgiving to keep the tradition alive. Though in a slighter way.

It was just us - Darin and I.

Others, Diana and Goestov, will also add ornaments at another time. They were busy, but were represented by Lady (their dog). The rest of the clan will come before Christmas when we open presents.

The naked tree.

Putting up the star.

And then came the ornaments. There were tons of them. Some broken, some unusual, some of the kids when they were little, some from the youngest (B., C., and S.).

My favorite of the bunch.

We put a gazillion of them on the tree.

And then we had to go home because Darin was playing his beloved golf.

Finished product.

Last, but not least. Lady. Supervising.

Christmas is almost here! Man, time flies.

Sweet Marty, ahh Mary

We did something new and fantastic Saturday night.

We tried out a new restaurant - on Church Street, downtown Orlando.

Called Hamburger M@ry's.

Now this place was not for 'everyone' - though the food was delish. It's for the open-minded people that that like to enjoy themselves, and who don't take things too seriously.

We were celebrating a friend's birthday - Cristina, a friend I know from the RMHC. She's pretty funny, and we were excited that she shared her special day with us.

Suzanne and I, waiting for our martinis.

Woo haa.

So it was a restaurant with a dinner show. And the stars were drag queens.

Fan.tas.tic.

Leigh Shannon - the main star

We watched and sang with pure abandonment. Swaying back and forth.

John (Cristina's husband) - being shy.

They have a cool birthday thing where the birthday people go up to the stage and get a free shot. Sweet! But then they have to dance a little bit... it was cute.

Cristina - second from the right.

Don't we look mini? It's their big hair.

Oh, and the hamburgers were great too. And we tried fried Twinkies for dessert. Drool.

I definitely recommend this place - we had a ball. No pun intended.