Happy New Year!

Hello everyone, I hope you all had a fantastic Christmas and will have a great new year in 2006!

I had a wonderful time at home in Illinois. I will recap a few things. We drove about 11 hours to Champaign, IL through the night on the 22nd, arriving on the 23rd. After a short nap, we headed to the Big B Christmas. As usual the food and company were great, as was the carolling.

On the 24th we had the Little Wag Christmas. I got a Selah CD from my Aunt Trishie and a calculator from my Grandpa W, and Nate got an electric shaver from Grandpa W and a Rob Thomas CD from Sheila. Aunt Paula made some truly delicious cream puffs for dessert. Mmmmmmmmmmm... oh how I love cream puffs. It was also nice to see my Grandma out of the nursing home for the night.

Christmas day we went to church. Then my immediate family (little, little B) had Christmas. It was quite superb. My mother bought two entire beef tenderloins (i.e. 2 very long pieces of filet). We each had as much filet as our hearts could ever desire. My father seared the outside of the beef on the grill, then cut it into pieces and grilled each piece separately (I'm told this is Brazilian style grilling). We had fettucini alfredo noodles (I made that) and cheesy potatoes, along with some sort of vegetable and a fruit plate.

After dinner we made our way to the family room for some Christmas carols and gift opening. We got way too many gifts to recount, but I will name a few (not to bore you). Nate got a pair of speed rollerblades. They have huge wheels, and he got to oven the boots and mold them to his feet. He also got a pair of boxers with glow in the dark hamburgers on them that say "Fresh Buns" in strategic places (from Katy: ) I got a Dutch Oven, some warm winter p.j.'s, a Dirt Devil broom vac (yes getting domestic), oh and can't forget the Fat Chef soap dispenser from Sheila! We got many more awesome things, but that would take up way too much space!

The rest of the night was filled with board games (The Farm Game, sigh) and laughter.

On the 26th we had the Little B Christmas. Grandma's turkey and famous stuffing were again a hit. As was the lovely chocolate cake mix (accompanied with some cash!) for the gift. We also played instruments and sang, and talked ourselves blue in the face before the night ended. I got to play with my cousins' babies, which was a delight for me. Nothing like getting to play with babies and not having to take them home at night!!! ; )

The 27th was fun. We spent the morning eating pizza and playing softball with the Rassi's. You know you are getting old when after a slow game of softball with two young children you are very sore the next day. Sigh! We then went over to a hotel , and spent two nights there in East Peoria.

At the hotel we did a lot of swimming, shopping, and general relaxing. It was nice to relax after running around for so many Christmases! On the 28th Nate's family came down to our sleepy little town to visit us for a few days! The 29th was Tim's birthday, so we stayed home and had some great teryaki steak for supper (and chocolate cake with chocolate frosting, yeah!). The 30th we went to a German restaurant for dinner. All of us ordered something different and passed around the plates. After dinner we finished up with some kirschwasser (cherry brandy). Oh yeah, and then afterwards my dad played the accordion and we danced wildly about our living room to waltzes and polkas! I don't think that Nate's family quite knew what they were getting into when they let Nate marry me!!! We opened presents with Nate's family afterwards, which once again I won't list as it might get boring... but they were awesome!!! We got way too much cool stuff this year!

On the 31st we drove up to Rockford for a wedding, and left that evening to drive back to Virginia.

I am still pretty exhausted from the trip and from trying to adjust back to going to sleep at 10:30 EST. My body is used to going to bed about 1:00 CST, which is 2:00 EST. Sigh. More green tea : )