Time for Food, Fun and Family

Well, it's crazy to think that Christmas has come and gone for 2008. I got what I wished for: a white Christmas...and oddly enough, so did my brother and sis-in-law in Tumwater, WA (which almost never happens), so they really enjoyed that.

Last weekend my parents and I made the trek down to Wayne America (as people like to call it...although its a lil dinky town in NE) to attend my sister-in-law's graduation for her Masters in Education - Way to go Erin!!! Talk about snow - Nebraska got hammered with snow, the poor college grounds crew had to work like crazy to clear the parking lots and sidewalks for this ceremony to happen, huge snow piles were banked up on each side and in the middle of all the roads. But the show went on and and Erin walked across the stage.

From there, we headed to Fremont to hangout with her family and do our Christmas thing. Ben had to work the day before and after Christmas back at the running store in Washington so they only had a quick "long" weekend to spend with both families. It was a good time with lots of homemade goodies and loud laughter. Surprisingly Ben and I get along a lot better now that he lives so far away, distance really does make the heart grow fonder =) Naw, I always loved him, but that sibling rivalry can get to be a lot when you're living so close...

Below is their finished present:

The best thing of the whole weekend was probably bowling. Erin and I started out strong and strutting our Team Crabtree shirts...but quickly faded when our mom's drastically out shown us - making us take off our Crabtree shirts, no Crabtree would want to claim us with our poor performance. Good time all in all.

This weekend was low key, with lots of fun family time. I got mom to play a little Wii but dad said he was completely content just watching...party pooper....we did some after Christmas shopping and got some great deals.

With all said and done - Merry Christmas to All, I hope everyone's was a blessed holiday!

The Light in the Darkness

Well, I had my EEG and the results came back normal, so good news all-in-all. My previous post was all about my list and explaining what I was going to do during my sleep deprivation time frame. However, I came to one main conclusion.... While I had plenty of things to do, it is very hard to get motivation to do ANYTHING at 1 in the morning.

I was shocked but pleasantly surprised to see that some of my friends are online long into the night. One of them even stayed up until 4!!!! Crazy and insane, but helped me stay awake and kept me company. I did get all my presents wrapped (even ran out of tape but improvised with my UPS packing tape). With chatting with friends and talking online the wrapping took a little longer than planned, but honestly from 1-4 in the morning...what else is there to do. Slow and steady wins the race...

Come about 4, I decided it was time to work on my brother and sister-in-law's present. I had already gotten them a present that they can use on their door step at their new house. I also was trying to be a little crafty. They had sent me a picture of them running together, which I then cropped them out and put them into a prettier background. Once that was all arranged, I traced the picture then retraced it with carbon paper beneath onto a piece of wood.
Here is what I had gotten done by 6:

...To...

About 6 my hands were not as rested and steady as needed to complete the background, so I let my tools cool as I finished a little present for my dear cousin's girl that I can't wait to give her.

Finally about 7 I was done with my projects, at least those I had the motivation to do and was ready to shower. Ready just in time for papa to come pick me up and drive me to my appointment. Luckily for me, north of us got hit pretty hard with quite a bit of snow and bitter cold so his work crews got called off and he didn't have to drive up there and was able to chauffeur me around for the morning.

Much to my happiness, the appointment only lasted a half hour, we stopped at a few stores then ate breakfast at Perkins. The rest of the day: All Mine to lay down, sleep, relax and yeah...not have to use my already very tired brain...

Making my list

Wow, what about this weather??? Ugh, I am not one to really enjoy the cold. I love South Dakota and it's hard for me to picture living anywhere else, but each winter I ask myself why. Today is a pretty rough day, when I was driving to church my car said -1 and that's without the windchill - the wind is terrible! At least it is a good reason to stay inside and be lazy. And to put things on top of that, there isn't even any snow to play in. What good is winter and cold if you don't have snow? Honestly. Oh well, I'm sure the snow will come, maybe in time to have a white Christmas, which would be nice. I love how Christmas lights reflect off the snow.

Anyway, other than the weather life has been trucking along. Today and tomorrow will prove interesting. I have an EEG tomorrow. For those of you who don't know, like I didn't until I had to schedule the appointment, EEGs need to be sleep deprived. My appointment is at 8:30 which means I have to go to bed at 9 tonight then wake up at 1 am. Then I have to stay up. ARE YOU KIDDING ME???

So, if you can imagine that, good for you. I can't. I'm kinda nervous to see how its going to go. Honestly, in the last 3 months I've probably stayed up past 11 once. I know, I'm an old lady in a 23 year old body.

I'm done with my Christmas shopping but do have a few Christmas present crafts to finish as well as wrapping up the gifts. I'm not doing anything today. I'm saving all that for 1 am-7am Monday. I may cook some goodies. Who knows, WalMart is open 24 hours a day so I might even go shopping to help keep myself awake. I have plenty of movies on my DVR saved as well as books to read, however, those make me sleepy. I may practice my banjo but that's not the quietest past time and I don't want to irritate my poor sleeping neighbors.

I mean it's one in the morning on a Sunday night - no one is going to be up. However, my dear cousin has just moved to Hawaii and that'd be about 8 at night her time, so maybe I can call and chat with her for a few hours, then get nitty gritty down to work with my list:

• crochet
• wood burn
• laundry
• dishes
• cooking
• wrap presents
• play wii
• trip to WalMart (weather pending)

I'll let you all know how it goes. Oh I also need to add to my list: shower. There are three stipulations for the test: 1. sleep deprived, 2. no stimulants (that means no coffee or caffeine for you who thought this staying up thing would be easy), and 3. clean hair (wow that one came out of no where, but OK, I guess I'll shower - twist my arm, it's not like I'll be sleeping).