This past week...

I know I promised a recap of what went on while I was gone, and I will try my best.  On December 11th, we packed up and left directly after Sacrament meeting (I know, we're awful).  Due to the fact that I had packed nothing the night before, and the cat refused to cooperate, we did not leave until 3:30. 

Fast forward six hours, and we are finally arriving at my mom's.  I had a moment of pure naivete when I assumed that our dog would remember her crate training.  Silly me.  A few hours later, Amber is bathed and retrained, and Chris and I are finally able to get some sleep.  The next morning, I wake up when my mom comes in from work.  She is super sleepy, so Chris fixes breakfast, and we drag the tree up from the basement.  I can safely say that this is the first year I have ever gotten away with not fluffing the branches of one of the four trees Mom puts up. 

That afternoon, we ran some errands and put flowers on the graves.  I don't have high hopes that those flowers will make it to Christmas, but it was something I felt I should do.  I introduced Chris to the awesomeness that is the Salsa Cafe's spinach burrito with mango salsa, and we headed home

Tuesday, my husband took the car and got lost.  I was very grateful that we had no plans, and chilled at home with my mommy.  That night, we decorated the tree.  It took forever; my mom has 2.5 million bulbs, but by the time we were finished, it looked sooo pretty!

Wednesday, we went to Silver Chopsticks with Dad and Shannon, then went to see "New Year's Eve".  After that, we picked up craft supplies for wreaths and went to Longhorn for dessert.  Word to the wise:  the Chocolate Stampede should be shared by 2-4 people.  Chris almost managed the whole thing on his own, but regretted it greatly afterwords.

Wednesday night, we finished our Christmas shopping and I wrapped gifts until 1:30 in the morning.  I don't know that it was because I had so many to wrap, but rather that I was so tired and wrapped very slowly. 

Thursday, we slept in late and went to Bella Via for lunch.  Chris and I then went to the Highlands where I finished shopping for his stocking stuffers and we saw "Breaking Dawn".  After this, we went to Shannon's and had dinner and made cookies with Cece.  Shan showed me how to make a wreath with floral mesh and we watched the end of an awful movie ("Christmas Buddies, anyone???).

Friday came too soon, and we just made it to Cece's Christmas pageant.  All the kindergarten kids were adorable, and Cece was so glad to see us... especially her Uncle Chris!  We then went to Cheddar's for appetizers.  After lunch, we said our goodbyes to my Dad and went to pick up our anniversary cake.  Coming home, we somehow got lost and ended up coming into Bridgeport via some pretty scary switchbacks uphill, and then traversing 250 as we came down.  Thankfully we avoided meeting Jesus face to face and made it back to Mom's in one piece. 

Shan and Cece arrived in time to give us our Christmas/anniversary present, and we said our goodbyes and were off to Alliance.  Two hours later, we were having Chinese food with my BFF Jessy, but I wasn't feeling all that well.  I managed to put off getting any closer to Michigan until 11 or so, then I climbed into the car, snuggled my pillow, and slept until we hit the turnpike.  We made it back into town around 3:30AM.  Chris brought all the necessary things upstairs, and we were out of commission until 12:30. 

Saturday afternoon, we headed out to Frankenmuth to celebrate our anniversary.  The food was great, the room was amazing, but the thing I will miss most of all is the 2-person whirlpool tub. 

I do have to say, the bed was much too big.  I am used to being able to find my husband in the night when I need a hug; not so with this bed!  Sunday, we were lazy.  I looked for a close meetinghouse, but Chris insisted that since it was our anniversary we could skip.  I disagreed and pouted, but it did no good.  I was so tired that I pretty much sleepwalked everywhere we went, and was so grateful to be able to sit down at dinner.  An hour-and-a-half of awesome German food later, we were on our way home. 

This is what I've been doing while I haven't been posting.  I will do better this week, though I'm pretty certain Christmas Day's post will be a bit late.  :)