First stop...Ballard for an Ugly Christmas Sweater pub crawl. My first one EVER! My friend Ashley threw it and it was sooooo much fun. My coworker Suzanne came with me and we(along with about 100 other people) crawled to 3 bars(and encountered 2 extremely rude bartenders) before leaving the group and heading to this bar that had 2 people in it. I don't remember the name of this place,but I'm gonna HAVE to,cause they had the BEST burger I've ever eaten in my life. I'll find out and get back to you...you gotta go!
Me and Ash,who received my vote for best ugly Christmas sweater...it's a Nativity Scene that she sewed onto a red sweater. Honorable mention goes to her jingle bell "over the pants"underwear and heels with tiny santa in them:
Me and Suz loved this pretty lit up tree:
Ok so did me and Ashley:
This night was SO much fun. More than I even expected...I can't WAIT until the 3rd annual Ugly Christmas Sweater pub crawl!
The very next day was my last day of work before my 11 day Christmas vacation!
On Christmas Eve I woke up early and drove to my parents house because...my SISTER was here with her family!!
We didn't do a whole lot that day. A lot of lounging and last minute Christmas present wrapping. My mom got the whole family matching pajamas,which was pretty funny. My mom LOVES to decorate the house like crazy,so I took a picture of some of the highlights:
All of our stockings!
Dad,Mom,Pepper(our old dog),Me,Kobe(the current dog),Justin,Samantha,and Connor
The tree! My mom gets all the credit for how beautiful it is(my phones camera didn't even come close to capturing it)
This is a cute little mini tree sitting on top of one of my moms cabinets:
The outside of the house is decorated too! You can't see everything,but there's candles in every window, and lights all over the place. I love it,it's soooo pretty:
This is just a random thing...this is hanging on my parents staircase...it's of me and every year of school I attended(except for 8th grade,apparently),with the middle picture being my senior picture. I was sooooo cool. Obviously.
More random...there was a super adorable little girl in my preschool class last year that I called Hannah Banana,so I thought it was super fun that there was an ACTUAL banana bread store called this!
The next day was CHRISTMAS!! I stayed the night at my parents house because it is tradition that me and my sister wake up SUPER early to open our stockings. Yes,we still do this. Even at 27 and 23. It's tradition!(we're big on tradition,in case you can't tell,haha). It was great to also have Justin and Connor up with us to open their stockings as well. A couple hours later mom and dad woke up and we were able to open presents.
Santa was here!
Cutest present ever!
The rest of the day was playing Guitar Hero and enjoying each others company and cooking!for our Christmas dinner. My dad made an AMAZING filet mignon. My sister made this great vegetable mixture that I need to get the recipe for, and I made crack cookies! They were,of course,devoured within hours of being made.
The Godfather:
getting tickled by grandma:
The Christmas dinner table:
My dad cutting the steak(yes,that is a Guitar Hero tshirt):
Sammy Pooh making the veggies:
This may have been the most delicious dinner I have ever encountered. Forget food baby,I had food triplets after devouring this meal.
Kobe was sooooo pooped after that long day!
The festivities kept going the day after Christmas. My sister's very best friends from high school came over for a gift exchange with each other. My mom(thankfully)decided that this would be a GREAT time to make lumpia, a delicious Philippine dish similar to an eggroll,but BETTER,especially when it's homemade :)
Mom making the lumpia, I helped!
The lumpia on the table with all the sauces:spicy chili sauce,soy sauce,and some sauce my sister made. Also,rice!
Connor got all dressed up for the occasion:
My beautiful sister and her beautiful lifelong friends:
That night grandma decided to try finger painting with Conman:
So, I must stop and explain that my nephew Connor LOVES music. He is always dancing to songs. He's obsessed with drums and we couldn't keep him away from the piano that's at my parents house. For Christmas my parents received this singing Snoopy that Connor learned how to turn on and off. The following video occurred after Connors previously mentioned finger painting session.(you want to watch the WHOLE thing,believe me)
The next day was SUPER sad because the Reynolds' left to go home to Texas. I'm not sure why,but it was especially hard for me and my sister to say bye to each other this time. We both cried,which I'm pretty sure has never happened before. But,hopefully I'll be able to make a trip to Texas fairly soon, I can't go too long without seeing those guys!
Now it's Monday and I go back to work in exactly a week. I haven't planned toooo much except to DEFINITELY get my room and bathroom cleaned up. Pretty sure they could both be classified as toxic waste dumps. Also, I'm sure I'll get a Forza/Phase 10 session(or 2) in with Amanda while I'm off.
New Years is coming up! I don't have specific plans for that quite yet. Me and a few friends are getting together,but we're not sure WHERE yet...so hopefully we figure it out and it'll be a blast!
This year really was amazing. I almost couldn't have asked for a better one. Talk to you next year! Cheers!!
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