Merry Christmas!

First off let me just say Merry Christmas to all of you who celebrate it. I hope you had a wonderful holiday filled with all the people and things you love.

It started to feel a little more like the Christmas season for me this past Thursday, when we finally got some snow. It looked really pretty coming down, and even though it was pretty heavy and slushy, it left a beautiful wake (see a pic of our backyard below). It's funny what a little wintertime precipitation can do for my holiday mood. I left work feeling very festive and ready to tackle the holiday head on.

The past few days have been a whirlwind of activity. Friday I worked, but our whole group (about 14 of us) was treated to a holiday lunch at a local Chinese restaurant. We sat at the hibachi table, which is where they cook your food right in front of you. The chef does a lot of cool stuff with his utensils and the food and it was all very fun and impressive. Sushi is not really my thing, but I tried some and then really enjoyed the meal prepared for me on the hibachi. I was able to leave work a little early that day to finish up some shopping, and then headed home.

Friday night and all day Saturday we worked to get the house in order and food prepared for Husband's family to come over for their holiday celebration. Our place is perfectly suited to host Christmas, as the carpet on our main floor is a delightful (can you smell the sarcasm?) green color. But preparing the place for 20 people to come over is no small task, and by the time 4:00 rolled around and people started to arrive, I was already pretty tired. But it was a great time. Husband's family is pretty casual and easy to please, so we just had a buffet of sandwiches and appetizers to which everyone contributed. We had A LOT of food. Our niece Hayley and cousin Mason also opened gifts, and that is a treat for everyone. Christmas is great fun with kids around!

On that subject, this holiday season we fielded several inquiries and innuendos about status of our family's potential growth...

Official Laabs Family Statement:
Yes, we would like to have kid(s). No, there are no immediate plans. God willing, the time will come and things will not be complicated for us when we do decide to try. For now we are just enjoying being married and spending time with Brandon.

Speaking of that rapidly growing redhead (I swear he'll be taller than me soon), Brandon also opened gifts and one in particular sparked my attention...a box full of dollar bills! Genius gift for a teenager, in my opinion...

The party ended about 10:30PM on Saturday, and after cleaning up we decided to do gifts with our little family. I was thrilled to see that Brandon loved his gifts, and we all had a particularly good time with the "Deal or No Deal" game and the farting/belching/dancing/etc. robot he received. We had some good laughs and stayed up way too late...

Sunday morning came early, and after some final preparations we dropped Brandon off and headed down to Storm Lake. It was a long drive as Husband and I were both pretty tired, and we had to go straight to Grandma's house. After a few minutes to change clothes and stretch, we had a great time. All of the cousins were there, which doesn't happen very often, and we had two new additions this year, so it was nice to have babies in the house again. Grandma's house on Christmas Eve is a long-standing and cherished tradition in my family, and I am grateful to my husband for honoring that this year when everyone was home.

After another late night, we headed back to Mom and Dad's and stayed up for awhile chatting. We all got up this morning and had breakfast and opened gifts and it was just really nice for us all to be home...but we missed my sister-in-law Abbey, and hope she can be with us next time. Everyone was heading off to other celebrations by noon, and Husband and I left shortly after.


Now it's almost 9PM, and Husband is downstairs watching football, and I am upstairs blogging and watching "Deal or No Deal". Order is restored to the universe! Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good night!