christmas vacation, part 1

vacation? what vacation?

it's amazing that i just had 11 days off of work. and even more amazingly, i'm relieved to be back here. for the past 11 days, if add it up hour by hour, i had about 2 days of being home with nothing to do. and by nothing, i mean cleaning. ouch.
of course, christmas equals craziness. and i knew that going into this break. it's still surprising to run around nonstop.
i'll split this into a couple entries to make it easier to get through....

december 22nd
it started with friday. jp and i were hosting a christmas party for us, will, shan, brian, and leeann. so we cleaned and baked cookies all day and handpainted some cookies (aren't they adorable? can you guess which one i call 'gingerbread girls gone wild'?). my parents ended up coming over to see the christmased apartment and we all eat lots and lots of food.
random trivia: over the holidays, a person consumes, on average, about 7,000 calories a day.
december 23rd
the next day i helped my parents decorate the tree and went to target with shan. hung out at brett's that night for a bit, and then drove to plum to wait for my sisters-in-law to arrive. they did around midnight and jp and i went home around 1.
christmas eve
wake up somewhat early to clean the apartment and pack ourselves up. it takes 5 tote bags and a duffel to carry my presents, cookies, and clothing for the next 2 days. i didn't realize we had so many packages to give. so jp goes to his parents' and i leave for mine. spend the day ribboning my presents. yes, that's right. i had a christmas free of cat puke full of ribbon or a multicolored litterbox. yay to preserving my cats' health by not feeding them ribbon.
everyone arrives at my parents' and we eat and drink and be merry. this year, we had my parents, erik, me, jp, jess, jen, doug, my in-laws, will, shannon, colleen, and our next door neighbor dorothy. the present opening takes over 2 hours this year. everyone is covered in stuff. i wanted lots and lots of books this year and got my wish. jp and i also got (from jess) a piece of jen's art from her most recent show. it's a really amazing porthole shaped, upside down, mermaid-ish character. i love, love, love it. i knew it was coming, and i managed to keep it a secret from jp for about 6 weeks. i don't feel like i gave any 'wow' gifts this year. it's kinda disappointing. everyone seemed very pleased, but there was nothing that i was super excited about that i had bought. mom2 was really pleased with her scarf though, which makes me happy.
christmas day
i wake up at 9:40 and erik is still sleeping. wow! he usually still goes for the 7-8am wakeup. i'm surprised. i wander downstairs and my dad is the only one awake, watching red rider bb gun ('a christmas story'? 'the christmas story'? whatever it's actually called). i make and drink coffee and at 10, we wake up mom and erik. there is much hoopla and lots of cool stuff, both from my list and otherwise. we finish opening presents and i have to run around like crazy to pack stuff up and get ready so i can be at the in-laws to hang out with doug before he has to leave. he only had xmas eve and day off, so he flew in the morning of the 24th and then back home late afternoon of the 25th. pretty rough.
so i get everything together and head back to my apartment so will and shannon can pick me up to go to plum. i want to drop off the car and all my stuff and visit the kittens. so i do and they are very pleased with the mini pop up tent my mother bought for them (sure you hate cats, mom?). we go to the fridy's and there are more presents to open, including some amazingly lime green luggage i asked for. yay! no more "is that my black bag? wait, is that?". i'm pleased. we hang out, we eat, we drink the jones soda holiday pack. now, i skipped out on much of it. turkey and gravy flavored soda just does not fill me with a sense of glee. i tried the dinner roll (yuck) and the sweet potato (which tasted like sweet potatoes, which i don't really like). it's amusing to watch the pea flavored one go around (the consensus was that it tasted like pralines, but i didn't really buy that). later on that night, we all curled up in the living room and watched 'little miss sunshine', the feel good classic of the year. i swear, you will never be able to listen to 'superfreak' again without cracking up.
jen's birthday
ahh, december 26th. the 2nd best shopping day of the year. and my sister-in-law's birthday. so she goes off to get a cute new haircut and mom2 and i meet her at the mall after. we wander and buy and wander and i find - gasp! - a super cute kathy van zeeland bag. red canvas, brown suede, lots of metal details. originally $90, mine for a mere $24.98! i was so pleased. we go back to the in-laws and get ready for dinner at plum's one and only indian restaurant. all told, we're a party of 12, which is super fun. after dinner, jp, jen, jess, and i all end up back at our apartment to hang.
december 27th
jess leaves and we hang at the fridy's for the day. end up asking jen to cut my hair and we go shopping yet again, under the guise of needing hair cutting scissors, which we do need and do get. also go to big lots for important things like abuelita, the yummy hot cinnamon chocolate drink, and hair ties. also make it to bed bath and beyond, where i manage to not purchase anything.
back to the house, where jen cuts my hair. we have a small discussion and she proceeds to chop. she's done in short time and it's amazing! totally 20's flapper little face framing bob. i love, love, love it! so i go to wash my hair and find a piece i decide should be a little shorter. no need to bother jen, right? i can surely trim a small chunk of my hair myself! disaster ensues. i manage to cut a large chunk right out of a very conspicuous part of my hair. in mortification, i find jen and she attempts to fix it by essentially trimming up everything else. it works, for the most part. if you ask nicely, i'll show you the missing chunk. and you'll laugh at me.