OMG Christmas

Whew! Christmas has come and gone and of course I haven't updated my blog in like a year or something. If there's one skill I've learned in 2009 it's how to be a slacker.

I hope everyone had a really nice Christmas with their families and safe travel! It seems like the older I get the more and more stressful the holidays become, but I always enjoy them when they finally arrive. I spent the week prior to Christmas with Mike in Ionia, which was so, so nice. The first night we visited Shruti in GR because it was her birthday!! :D I got to see her apartment for the first time (which was adorable and so her) and we exchanged gifts before going to the BOB in downtown GR (aka the most badass bar I have ever been to in my life). Shruti, knowing my love of dragons, actually drew and framed a piece of her own artwork for me which is a dragon curled around a heart! It is so beautiful! :D She also gave me a dragon figurine which has a light-up globe to be used as a night light. OMG! That girl knows the way to my heart. ;)

The second night I spent in Ionia we drove to our old stomping ground of Kalamazoo, where Mike and I originally attended WMU together for undergrad. Our friends Katie and Chuck were having a get together at one of our favorite pubs, the Old Peninsula! The Lovely Kate and the Handsome Dave were also there!! I got to meet their daughter Audrey for the first time, which was really nice because she's adorable, and I also got to see Ryan! So many good old friends to remember some good old times. It made me feel a little old, however, to realize that it's been nearly four years since we were all together in Kzoo. :-/

The weekend following the Kzoo trip was spent Christmas-ing with Mike's extended relatives for the Gibbard family party on Saturday, and then up to Claire on Sunday to see Grandma Dent for Christmas as well as her birthday. :) It was back to Ionia for a few more days then, where we finished the remainder of our registry and got to celebrate the holidays with each other. For Christmas Mike got me an iPhone and started us on a family cellphone plan together!! :D This makes me pretty excited because I was using his old iPhone as a PDA for school, so now I don't have to carry around a PDA and a cellphone (and I also have unlimited text messaging for the first time ever!)! He hooked me up with some sweet applications and taught me how to use them, and I've been having fun playing with it ever since. :) He also got me the necklace which matches my wedding dress!! :D It's so beautiful--it will be hard to keep it in my jewelry box until June!

I came back to Lansing the day before Christmas Eve to spend some holiday time with Mike's family. We ate a delicious dinner, played lots of our favorite games, and exchanged gifts!! Sandy and Debbie got us each matching 6-piece luggage bags to use for the honeymoon! :D They also got him a widescreen TV because his current TV is almost as old as I am. That gift was technically "his" but of course I'll get to enjoy it myself as well. ;)

Christmas Eve I returned home again to spend some time with my own family. We had a great time eating dinner and watching old, old Christmas movies together!! It felt good to have all 5 of us together in the house again. Of course we played Mariokart, as is our tradition, and I lost pretty bad once again. We all had to go to bed then so Santa could bring the loot, and then it was Christmas morning!! I love this time because we all take turns opening one gift at a time so we can each see what the others receive as gifts. We play Christmas music, have donuts for breakfast, throw wrapping paper at Chris, and just have a great time. I received several wonderful gifts from my family, including all 25 episodes of CareBears, $150 in giftcards to Michaels (OMG SQUEE), several new blouses, My Little Ponies, and new jewelry making supplies (because I'm interested in taking up jewelry-making post graduation).

After gifting it was time to pack up and head to the Jobin family party! We picked up my Aunt Diane and met at Grandma's house downstate for dinner. For the first time Mike got to come to the family party, and I was so excited that he was there! :D Dinner was delicious and then there were more gifts to open. A few plates of food, numerous family drama, and several hours later Christmas was officially over, and we made it back home for the night. My parents and brother exchanged gifts with Mike before we all hit the hay after a very long but festive day. :)

Since then I've been cleaning up, spending my giftcards, and spending some time with Chris before he goes back to school. On Wednesday I'll be going back to Ionia to visit Mike for the remainder of my break, and then next Monday it's back to pharmacy school. Oh ballz.

That's okay though--it'll be back to pharmacy school for one last time. :D