Christmas Festivities

Sorry it's been awhile. I was busy with end of the semester things and then Christmas, and Urbana, and I just didn't blog. But I'm back for at least a few days with some posts about what I've been up to.

My Christmas festivities started the Saturday after I was done with finals (December 15). We continued my moms family tradition of going bowling and wearing ugly Christmas sweaters. More people participated this year, which was nice and also funny. We make up strange things for us to do while bowling instead of normal bowling. For instance granny style, backwards, under someone's leg, etc. It's a lot of fun to just be silly with the family. The top 4 scores from the first 2 rounds of bowling then played a championship to determine this years winner. Isaac took away the top prize of the "traveling" trophy. I say traveling like that because it's supposed to be traveling, but people just leave it at my grandparent's house (which they love).

Then I sunday I helped with the Christmas program at Hope. My job was to help walk my class up front and then back to our classroom. It was a really cute program based on How the Grinch Stole Christmas and they all did a great job of memorizing their lines and knowing the actions the songs.

On the 22nd we headed to my dad's side for Christmas. We did the usual gift exchange-this years theme was 'as seen on tv'. I ended up getting grey away and a hearing aid thing. I really wanted a chia tree, but it was stolen from me too many times. It was good to see a lot of my cousins that I haven't seen for a while and to catch up with my family.

On Christmas Eve we went to my grandparent's church for our traditional oyster soup and chicken noodle soup dinner before the service. This is with my grandma's side of the family so a lot of our extended relatives. I mainly hung out with Carina and Isaac and a few of my younger cousins. Isaac and Carina also began to master the art of cats cradle once again with the help of my aunt and her smart phone.

Christmas day we woke up and my grandpa's side of the family came over for the day. We have Swedish pancakes and then catch up throughout the morning. We also usually have frozen pizza and beef stew for lunch. I spent the day talking with family and then played some games with my younger cousins. After everyone started leaving Carina, Isaac, and I went to the movie Silver Linings Playbook in Sioux City. My cousins from my mom's side Lacey and Kylie were also there so we sat with them. It was a really good movie that I would recommend to anyone.

We celebrated Christmas with my immediate family on the 26th when we were all back home.

Happy Birthday Traci!!

Instead of being the typical friend and mailing my friend Traci a birthday card I decided to dedicate a blog post to her birthday plus she's one of like 3 people that reads this blog. (It may also be that I forgot to mail a birthday card, but that's not the point-instead the point is how really awesome of a friend that I am).

My friendship with Traci started in high school. It started out as me being scared of her (like most people who meet her because she's intimidating) and eventually we became friends (I'm not exactly sure how this occurred). Throughout high school we hung out a lot whether it was sports, school, church or just hanging out at one of our house we had a lot of fun. She also became apart of my family and my dad refers to her as his favorite daughter. Once she left me for college we still hung out when she was home or I would go visit her. I also started a tradition of staying with her the weekend of her first home indoor track meet so that was always fun.

I'm really glad that we've stayed friends when we both went off to college and that we've kept in touch. Whenever we hang out it's like we haven't been apart for too long and we can quickly catch up on each others lives. I'm very blessed to have her as friend.

Now here are some wonderful pictures that I could find on my computer of our friendship.

Happy 24th Birthday Traci (you're getting pretty old)!

Thanksgiving Break Recap: Sunday

On Sunday we also slept in since driving to and from Brookings wiped us out. We then headed back to my grandparents and had lunch. We then got to work on making a family Christmas tradition of cookies-that I don't know how to spell.

After making the cookies we also set up my grandparents Christmas tree (we're getting really good at this) and then we hung out for a bit at my grandparents before we each headed back to school.

Thanksgiving Break Recap: Saturday

Earlier in the week my mom got the idea for us to go to the SDSU playoff game and my dad, Carina, and I also thought that was a good idea (Isaac's a loser-which should explain everything). So we decided that we were going to go.

We got up early for the 4.5 hour drive to Brookings and also used our experience from the previous day and dressed up even warmer. We arrived to SDSU and were greeted by Kris at the family and friends of the players tailgate. It was a lot of fun to hang out with the Shafrath's and Pratt's at the game and even better that the jackrabbits won and are moving on to the next round of playoffs.

I had a lot of fun at the game and really enjoyed the atmosphere. It reminded me a lot of high school football in that way that everyone seemed to know everyone. It may have just been because I was around the players friends and family so they all knew each other.

Thanksgiving Break Recap: Friday

On Friday we woke up and headed to Ames for the ISU game. It was going to be a cold one so we tried to put on as many clothes as we good as you can tell from Carina in the picture below looking so (not) stylish.

While we were outside tailgating it wasn't too bad or cold. Then my mom and I went to our seats on the hillside and were sitting on the ground and not a lot of people were around us and we got really cold. We were planning on leaving the game early anyway because we were going to Beauty and the Beast so we decided to call my grandma at halftime to see if she would be ready to pick us up and found out that she was actually on her way to Ames already to shop and such until we were ready to go. So my mom, Carina, and I headed out from the game and she picked us up.

It's strange that the ISU regular season is done. I will miss going to the games on Saturdays and it's strange not knowing where I will be next football season so I don't know if I will be able to watch the games at Jack Trice.

After the game we headed to a few stores in Ames to do a little shopping and then changed our clothes in the Starbucks bathroom, which was an adventure in itself. Then we headed to Ankeny and ate before heading to Beauty and the Beast at the Civic Center.

Beauty and the Beast was great and I really enjoyed watching it. It was really similar to the movie and so I knew all the songs and were able to sing along (in my head of course). It was also longer than I expected it to be, but the time just flew by. They really did an amazing job with the performance!

Thanksgiving Break Recap: Thursday

For Thanksgiving we headed to my Grandma and Grandpa Albers house for festivities. After stuffing our faces with tons of delicious food the family headed to a farm to go shooting. It's become a new found love of my family to go shooting at events such as camping or whenever we're all together. I've never actually shot a gun, so this year was a first for me. I found out that I am too weak to hold the gun for very long and I didn't actually hit the clay, but I at least shot it. Here are some pics from the fun:

After the shooting adventure we went back to my grandparents. My cousins Alicia, Brooke, mom, and Carina all played the Game of Things and had a lot of fun. It would have been a little better if halfway through the game more people didn't come and listen to what we were saying, but it was still a good time.

After that people started snacking some more and then started to head home. We stayed for awhile because I wanted to watch Love at the Thanksgiving Day Parade on the Hallmark channel, but part way through the movie my dad reminded us that he had to work in the morning so we headed home. I made it home in time to watch the ending so that was good.

Thanksgiving 2012 was a successful one I will say. It was a little disappointing not going to the Hanson side as well, but we will get to see them for Christmas so that will be great!

Thanksgiving Break Recap: Wednesday

I'm going to do a little recap of my Thanksgiving break the rest of this week so I hope you enjoy it. These next few posts will probably be my last until after finals, but I'm not for sure.

I had class until 4 on Tues. and headed home after that. I didn't do too much at home that night so that's why I'm not really including it.

Wednesday I got to sleep in, which is always welcome. Then I ate breakfast and attempted to do a little homework. I didn't really get anything done [and that was the only amount I got done while at home]

In the afternoon my mom made us put up our Christmas tree. Last year we ended up not putting one up, which was fine with my siblings and I, but not my mom so she made sure we did it over Thanksgiving break this year. I'm not really sure why we aren't a fan of putting up our Christmas tree, but none of the 3 of us really like it. It may be some suppressed event in the final.

Then I went with Traci to her church for their annual Thanksgiving potato bar. I've gone with her either the past 3 or 4 years we really couldn't remember. This year the potatoes were extra good so it was a wonderful dinner. After eating we went to her church's Thanksgiving service. After the service we headed back to her house.

I helped Traci make snicker salad with her mom and then we just chatted for awhile. It was great to catch up since I haven't actually talked to her in quite some time. We also got scared by a little mouse that was in her house. We probably should have tried to give it a cookie, but instead tried to set a trap, which didn't work. After chatting for awhile I headed back home and went to bed.