Merry Christmas

David and I love Christmas, and it makes it that much sweeter when we get to be back in Missouri and celebrate the holiday with our family and friends. David also loves that fact that it's pretty much a gift-giving and opening melee.

On Christmas Eve, we always go over to the Hackers for their annual Christmas Open House. I don't really remember ever not going. So, we do that in the afternoon, and I get to catch up with all of my parents friends, many who happen to be teachers of mine from high school. There is always good food and good times there, with people constantly coming in and out, but all of them making sure they stop by the Hacker's at some point during the day.

After the Hacker's we headed to Mass and then to my grandma's. All of my dad's side of the family is there, and we eat some more and then exchange presents with them. It's funny because my grandma is always telling people she receives too many gifts, and we always tell her she deserves them for all that she does. After spending time with family, we headed back to my parents' to finish wrapping presents and head to bed.

The next morning, we opened our stockings (always first), and unwrapped our ornaments from my mom and dad. My mom has given us each an ornament since we were born. Now that David and Truman are part of the family, they both get one, too. David and I end up with at least 3 new ornaments each year, plus the ones we give to each other (we want to continue the tradition in our family). Then we sat down for a scrumptious breakfast made by my mom: breakfast casserole, overnight caramel rolls, and fruit. Yummy!

We exchanged gifts with my family and then headed to Marthasville for the Bunge Christmas at his grandma's. The entire Bunge family gets together there every year. I think there are 23 of us, now. We had a nice big meal with brisket and ham. Then we exchanged presents (3rd time, if you're counting) and afterward David's cousins put on a sing-and-dance routine for us. They are extremely talented. I'm going to post the video at the end of my ramblings.

After all was said and done, we headed back to Mexico for Bunge Christmas at David's mom and dad's. This was gift exchange numero cuatro. Ridiculous! It was a lot of fun, but we were pooped at the end of the night and ready for bed. What an awesome day. Truman got himself a good bounty as well with toys and treats. We're not sure what we're going to do when we have children. We will definitely have to put a limit on gifts. Otherwise we will not be able to fit everyone and thing in the car on the way home. We barely achieved that this year.

We were so happy and blessed to spend time with our families, and that's what really mattered. The gifts are just a little bonus tossed in. We certainly don't make the long trip back for gifts. Christmas is always a special time, and this year was no exception. So, that happened...

Happy 27th!

On December 22, David turned 27! And, since I always bring up something about his age to annoy him, I reminded him this year that he would soon be 30. I can't help myself.

We started the morning off with chocolate chip pancakes and sausage. I never make sausage at our house, so this was a big treat for David. I let him go ahead and open my gifts to him. Unfortunately, not all of them arrived. At least not the correct items. I had ordered him some new running headphones, and instead received a tape-to-mp3 converter for your computer. Not sure how that happened. Another of his gifts, a shoe holder for his ipod sensor, didn't even arrive on time. I was only able to give him Juno. At least my heart was in the right place.

We headed to Columbia that afternoon with David's sister, Katie, to eat at the Flat Branch and do some shopping. We always try to hit up at least one, if not two, of our favorite spots when we go back to Missouri. The Flat Branch is usually at the top of our list. David had a good time ordering his beer sampler and enjoying the awesome food.

After some shopping, we headed back to Mexico to have David's birthday dinner with his family. Kevin wasn't able to celebrate with us since he was still in Lexington, KY with his girlfriend's family.We had a nice meal and then David got to open his presents. Despite being 27, this is still the part David looks forward to every year. His sister gave him a game for the Wii (not that he needs another game).

I think it is safe to say that David's favorite gift came from his parents. After opening a frame for his Master's diploma, there was one more gift to open. David was very confused as he opened the last gift. He first pulled out a Duke t-shirt which he was pretty sure was already his. Then he pulled out a Davidson shirt, which was also already his. At this point, I thought I knew what it was going to be, but I didn't want to say and ruin it. Well, sure enough, David pulled out 2 tickets to the Duke vs. Davidson men's basketball game on January 7th. David had an awesome expression on his face. Pure disbelief! It was definitely a memorable birthday. His parents are always good at making sure they are, though. We can't wait for the game. We'll be cheering on Davidson, of course.

After gifts, I brought out David's birthday cake. He had searched and requested a double-chocolate rum cake. It took awhile to make, but it turned out well. I think everyone enjoyed it. By the time we left for NC, the entire cake had been eaten by both of our families. It's always nice when a new cooking endeavor turns out tasty. This one will definitely be added to the repertoire. All in all, it was a wonderful birthday celebration. So, that happened...

-19

David and I left for our annual Christmas trek to Missouri on Friday afternoon. When we left NC, it was 70 degrees. Hard to believe, even for NC. We were so blessed not to run into any weather problems. There were some minor traffic setbacks, but nothing good conversation and music couldn't get us through. We had a few snacks in the car, too. Truman didn't seem to mind the long trip. I think he settled in for a nap once we got moving.
Well, we arrived in Missouri Saturday afternoon around 4:00 p.m., and it was maybe 28. Unfortunately, that was hot compared to today. Today, I think the high reached 7, and that was without wind chill factored in. Right now it is -19. Nothing like a -89 degrees from where we started. We tried to let Truman run around outside at the Bunge's, but that lasted for about 5 minutes. We quickly moved indoors to let him play with Apollo, Katie's dog. That wore him out.
It is certainly nice to be home. We didn't get to see our families at Thanksgiving, having to settle for everyone passing the phone around so we could talk to them. It's so nice to be here. We were ready to hit the road Friday afternoon.
Tomorrow is David's birthday. I am planning on making him chocolate chip pancakes for breakfast, and then we are headed to Columbia in the afternoon to grab lunch. I am going to attempt a double-chocolate rum cake that he requested. It doesn't look too difficult, but we'll see how that goes. If it all turns out, David will be certainly not go hungry tomorrow. Yep, so that happened...

Christmas Card Picture Take 20...

So today we embarked on the adventure known to many of taking a picture for our Christmas cards. This was the first time we decided to do such a thing. We thought it would be pretty easy since normally Truman loves the camera. We don't even have to tell him to look at the camera. Well, today was a different story. It probably had to do with the fact that we took the picture in our backyard, and it was only 40 degrees outside. This is very cold to Truman whose coat is not very long. To make it even harder on us, we decided to sit on this big rock. Apparently the rock was very cold to Truman, and he refused to do anything but hover over the rock.

We made more than several attempts to take our picture. We tried me holding Truman while David set the timer on the camera and vice versa. We're still not sure if we got a very good picture, so we might just go with one of the funnier photos. We have David looking at Truman, while I'm looking at the camera; me looking at Truman while David looked at the camera; both of us looking at Truman while he looked at the camera...

In the end we settled for a decent picture and decided to try something inside. That didn't exactly work. We weren't able to get one of the 3 of us, but David got some good pictures of Truman and me, and some not so good but funny ones. This one to the right is a good example. David seemed to think he should go ahead and take the picture even though he saw what Truman was doing. Oh, the holiday memories.

We'll have to wait and see what picture we choose for our Christmas card. We'd have you guys vote, but we're pretty sure this picture would be chosen, and that can't go to our grandmas. So, that happened...

'Tis the Season

We're finally finished decorating (for the most part), so I thought I'd take some time to post some pictures of everything we've been up to around the house. Last Saturday, David put the lights up on the roof, and I decorated our Christmas tree. Truman mostly slept.

It was a really tough decision, but we went with our fake, pre-lit tree. Last year we had a real tree, but we decided to go fake this year for a few reasons: We are only here for 3 weeks before we travel home to Missouri, and no one will be here to water the tree while we're gone, making it a fire hazard. We also have to put it upstairs right now because we're not sure what Truman will do with it. He was great with the trees at both of our parents' homes last year, but he was never left alone. He is a very curious dog, and we would really like to not have to take him to the vet because he decided to try a fallen pine needle. We'll go back to real next year, hopefully, but definitely once we have children.

One of my favorite parts is putting up the nativity scene. It's a beautiful nativity that we received from my Aunt Rosie and cousins as a wedding present. Last year we had it upstairs on a bench, but we finally have a proper place for it now and can display it downstairs.

We put the finishing touches on the house today (well almost). We hung some fresh garland on the porch and a wreath on the front door. We also decided to get some stocking holders this year. We didn't see any stockings we liked for ourselves yet, but we did find one for Truman. There is a place for a picture on it and you can flip it to read "naughty" or "nice". Truman can never make up his mind on that end, so we thought it was perfect. Not that Truman really cares, but since he's part of our family we feel he deserves a stocking :).

Truman did bark at the stocking when we first hung it up. He seems to do that when we place something new in a room. At least something on the mantle. When I originally placed the vase on the mantle, he reacted the same way. He seems very unsure of it. David let him sniff it and see that it was fine, but just a few minutes ago he was sitting up and barking at it. Yeah, so that happened...

Kids in my day had better manners...

So, we got together with Heidi and Evan tonight for dinner and a movie. We ate at Milton's, which was delicious. Our neighbors have raved about it, so we had to check it out. I had the eggplant parmesan, and it got me thinking that I need to get my mom's recipe and make some of that for us at home.

After dinner, we headed to the movies to catch "4 Xmases". It was one of those times where we had to wait in line for 10 minutes before we got to the window. Well, right before we got to the window, these punk kids showed up to cut in line to join their two friends in front of us. One of the boys flashed his cash at me and mumbled a "sorry" while continuing to cut in line. I spoke up and said, "Excuse me. I think you should go to the back of the line and wait like everyone else." Apparently the boy had a hearing problem because he didn't respond. Evan spoke up, and still, nothing. So, my pulse is racing as I'm plotting my next step, and I decide that I'm not going to let this happen. After the friend gets his ticket, I'm going to slide in and order our tickets. They are not getting away with this. This is how it went down:

The friends move out of the way, and I slide in from the left and just start talking; "Yeah, 2 for 4 Xmases at 7:15." As I say, "Yeah", the kid scoffs and gets all ticked off. Can you believe his gall?! I'm not sure what he says next, but Evan tells him, "Well, we're with them and we were in line." I think the punks kept trying to cut in front of the next people, but they eventually ended up at the end where they belonged. Victory!

On a side note, we didn't get tickets. The movie was sold out, as was everything else we were interested in seeing. I am proud of myself for standing up for what was right and good, but it was a huge bummer that we didn't even get movie tickets after all of that. I tell you, though, kids in my day had better manners.

Turkey Day

Well, it has come and almost gone, and I am pooped! This Thanksgiving meal thing is hard. I knew I had an ambitious meal planned, but I was sure that with David's help, we would be fine. Ha!

It started with breakfast; I made my mom's oven omelet. It was yummy. We looked through some of the good sales going on tomorrow, and then we headed out for Truman's walk. Once we returned, the leisure of the day was over. I'm pretty sure we started everything around 12:45, and I didn't really stop until we sat down and ate at 6:00. I knew it was going to be an endeavor (I've seen Thanksgiving happen a few times in my life), but I did not expect this. I thought I would have plenty of sit down time while things were in the oven, but that didn't happen.

David was a huge help. He not only helped with prep work, but he also helped make drinks :). That was much needed so that the cook could relax a little bit. I couldn't have made this meal with my sous chef, that's for sure.
When it was all said and done, the meal was a success. The menu: Roasted turkey with stuffing, mashed potatoes, cranberry relish, cucumbers, and cloverleaf rolls. For dessert, we had an apple cake with caramel glaze. Ambitious, yes. Impossible? Nah!
So, Happy Turkey Day, everyone. We missed our families, but we know we'll see everyone soon for Christmas. Maybe we'll host Thanksgiving one year for you guys. We certainly had enough food.

And the journey begins...

Well, I've decided after viewing the blogs of a couple of my friends (Rockie and Heidi), that David and I need a blog. Who knows how good we (probably I) will be at keeping up with this. I thought we needed a better way to stay in touch with our friends and family from afar without them needing to be on facebook :).
David and I are getting ready to celebrate our first Thanksgiving in our house together. This is also our first Thanksgiving not in Missouri. It is more than a little bittersweet. It's never easy to spend the holidays away from family. We still have a big meal planned, even though it's just the two of us. You cannot have Thanksgiving without a turkey and all the trimmings that go along with it. Hopefully it will all turn out. We'll take pictures of our adventure tomorrow and have them up for all to see.