Christmas & New Years Wrap Up

Holy guacamole! The last two weeks have just been CRAZY! My life is normally pretty crazy to begin with, but Christmas this year took it to another level.

I'll try my best to keep this as short & sweet as possible (:

On the Sunday before Christmas my sisters & I went up with our mom to visit her dad & stepmom. As we were driving through the neighborhood about to pull into their driveway we saw 3 deer in the yard across the street! They weren't even phased by us, they just took their deer (pun-intended) sweet time crossing the street.

Christmas Eve night I slept at my Aunt's house so I wouldn't have to get up early & drive. She didn't get a tree so this is what we had to work with. My dad, stepmom, step-brother & little sister all came over & we opened our presents there.

 My older sister made a photo album of my dad & stepmom's wedding & I found this sweet picture of my grandpa & me dancing at their wedding. My grandpa died 2 years about this December so this was a nice little treasure to find.

Then we headed over to my aunt & uncle's house for our Christmas Day celebration!

 We decorated some delicious cookies...

My sisters, step-bro & I all got these sweet Santa hats...

Sung some Christmas carols...

 Played some Quelf (which by the way is soooo much fun & everyone should go out & buy it. It's awesome)...

 Drank some coffee from a Santa mug...

And took some family photos...

 

Now what to do with all of this stuff...?

The 26th I spent a few hours with this handsome guy & his amazing family doing their Christmas stuff. 

My favorite present by far that day was from his grandparents. His grandpa made these cutting boards for all of the adult women in their family & they gave me one! I was so surprised & felt so blessed to receive one. Hs grandma told me he personally picked out all the different types of wood for it & that he only made 3 or 4 that had a handle. I could see all of the hard work & love he out into these. It's simply stunning & something I know I will cherish for years & years to come.

I had to leave Ben's family's party early ): but I had to leave early because I was heading to Great Wolfe Lodge with my sisters, dad & stepmom. It was all of our first times ever staying at GWL & we had a good time. It was still all prettied up from Christmas too (:

My always cute little sister:

I don't know what that face is..

 My dad & little sister licking the fake lolly--pops

 Found my initials on a Christmas tree!

 & found a Starbucks tree!

The next day we spent about 2 hours in the indoor water park & then we were done. It's definitely designed for kids, but it was still fun.

Also picked up this sweet new sweatshirt from the gift shop. YAY for new fuzzy sweats!

Friday consisted of shopping & trying to get rid of as many of my gift cards at one time as possible. Also, we went to see Lord of the Rings with the family. Mine & Ben's second time. That's right.

Saturday & Sunday were days of rest & recouperation. Man was I wiped out. For a solid week, every time I would get in a car or sit down for any length of time without doing something I would fall asleep, I kid you not. Not to mention I only slept in my bed every other night, so needlesstosay, it was a long week.

And finally, we come to Monday. Boy oh boy was this quite the day. It started off by me getting up at 8:30 am (on a vacation day) to go to Ben's house, stopping at the grocery store on the way to get snacks & coffee. Why was I going to his house do you ask? Well as you might have guessed from the picture above, this was the day of our Lord of the Rings, Extended Edition, Marathon. This day had been in the making for 2-3 weeks. It. Was. Long. Each movie has two discs, & each disc is give or take 2 hours. At ~4 hours per movie (but I'm pretty convinced that the 3rd one is waay longer), that comes to a grand total of 12 hours of LOTR. That's a long time people. Don't get me wrong, it was super awesome & fun to hang out his his siblings, eating chips & pizza, & snuggling with Ben on the couch pillows we set up on the floor cause all of the chairs were taken. Plus it did help me to actually understand the storyline & not just be totally lost & confused the whole time.
We finally wrapped up the movies at 11:35 pm (& poor Ben was about 75% asleep at this point) & then went out to drink sparkling cider & do poppers outside at midnight to celebrate the New Year! It was such a fun, wild, crazy, busy, blessed, & wonderful Christmas break.

That being said, tomorrow I head back into the realm of reality with school & work so who knows how often I will get to be on here to blog & read & follow & all that jazz. But here's to hoping it's often enough!

May your 2013 be filled with lot's of laughter, great memories, & blessings from our Heavenly Father Above.