Christmas, etc.

Another Christmas has come and gone. This was probably one of the best ones for me.

Last Saturday was the Van Rooy family get-together up at Adam’s uncle’s house in Green Bay. The house was full of relatives and sugar-shocked children. At times the chaos was deafening - but in a good way. I got to meet some of the people I’d heard about but had never seen. Adam did his Santa Claus bit for his younger cousins and apparently even some of the adults had no idea it was him until we told them later! While at first I kind of felt out of place, I entertained myself by discussing wedding stuff with Adam’s mom and sister, talking a bit with his aunt, and then having a conversation about forensic accounting with his uncle, the detective. Many people were taking pictures the whole time. I’m not sure if I’ll be able to get my hands on any, but I’ll try and get the one of me sitting on “Santa’s” lap. :)

Sunday was Christmas Eve and the handbells were playing before the 10pm mass in a concert with the adult choir. It was packed up in the choir loft and Adam ended up sitting directly behind me for a while. That was kind of disconcerting, but I can adjust. The program went well. I was having temperature issues though. Playing bells is relatively physical and you can elevate your body temp just doing that. But when you have a break for a bit and the windows are open it can get cold pretty quickly. I was pretty wiped out and had a big headache by the time we left. We got home around 11:30 and headed directly to bed. Yay for drugs.

Monday morning we got up and had our Christmas at home before heading to Adam’s parents’ house. Adam was inspired to make waffles even though I told him there was only one egg left and waffles take two. In any case, they were still edible, if not aesthetically pleasing. We arrived at his parents’ right on time only to find out his sisters were at the hospital. His younger sister had apparently hurt her foot getting out of bed that morning but hadn’t gone to the doctor until his older sister looked at it. We watched Ice Age to kill time until they got back. We had a light dinner of sandwiches and cranberry fluff. When his sisters returned we exchanged gifts. Adam took pictures of this all and they’re posted on my photobucket site. His aunt and uncle showed up later on and we did some more gift exchanges. After that I was getting a headache again (I haven’t been sleeping very well lately and I tend to get headaches when I’m tired) so we left early. We took some cheesecake home with us though. :)

Tuesday was a holiday for me but Adam had to go back to work. I went grocery shopping early in the morning. Our little $20 weekly trips for the last month and a half caught up with us. I spent enough to get 4 scratch-off cards. And I didn’t even get everything I needed. They were in the process of restocking the shelves and I couldn’t find some things I needed. I ran a bunch of errands later in the day including Sam’s club, Wal-mart, the library, the bank, and Bed, Bath, & Beyond (thanks Evan & Jodi!) I made a slow-cooked spaghetti sauce that simmered in the crockpot all day. I also cleaned the house a lot in preparation for dinner with his aunt, uncle, grandma, and cousin. It was a busy day. I was in the middle of making dinner when Adam came home. The rest of the crew arrived a little early so I was kind of frazzled trying to finish everything while his aunt and uncle and grandma poked around the house. Everything worked out and the meal went ok. I made turkey meatballs and mashed potatoes (made from real potatoes.) (The spaghetti sauce I mentioned before was a backup in case what I intended to make didn’t work out.) We have lots of leftovers so I no longer trust Rachael Ray’s serving sizes. After dinner and dessert I banished myself to the kitchen to clean up the gigantic mess I’d made. His aunt kept me company while his grandma relaxed in the arm chair and his uncle and cousin discussed wireless internet and laptops and then set to critique our movie collection. They then began to watch a not-so-family-friendly movie. Thank goodness Grandma has bad eyesight! And his uncle is hard of hearing so he cranked that baby up. I took refuge in our bedroom with a book until they decided it was getting late and they should be heading home. The kitchen is still a mess, waiting for me to be motivated tonight after work.

The rest of the week should be relatively low-key. I mean, as low-key as year-end prep can be. We have a ton of file shredding tomorrow and then year-end inventory on Friday. Monday’s a holiday and then the fun begins. Yet another year-end in a different position. One of these years I’ll keep my job for more than a year!

Our open house in Saturday and while I don’t doubt people will come, I do doubt that Adam has informed them all about it. And given them the right times. He seems set on 1-5 when it’s really 11-4. But whatever. We’ll be there all day anyway. I’ve got one more shopping trip to make to get fresh veggies but other than that I’m pretty much prepared. I’ll be cooking Saturday morning. We’re trying to have a variety of things for people to eat. We baked and frosted cutout cookies on Monday morning and I plan to bake a few more kinds tonight and tomorrow. I got a box of different cheeses from work (that I’ve had to keep swatting Adam away from) that we’ll put out with crackers and summer sausage. I’ll be making the yummy spinach artichoke dip, Adam is making mini pigs-in-a-blanket, and I’m planning a little chicken appetizer, assuming I can find the wonton wrappers by Saturday. Some fresh veggies and lots of sparkling grape and apple juice should give everyone something to love. And if not, too bad. :) I don’t want to make all kinds of things I don’t like because I’m the one stuck with leftovers the next day. I’m stuck going to Dad and Cheryl’s open house alone since Adam works all day on New Year’s Eve. I still don’t know what we’re going to be doing at midnight. Knowing me, probably sleeping. I’m so pathetic.

After the new year, I should have my yearly review at work and then I can submit my vacation requests for the wedding/honeymoon and our two camping trips. I’ll also be able to revamp my 401(k) distributions. We just got moved over to JP Morgan so there are new funds to choose from. Adam looked at them last week and I’ll be moving my contributions around a little from where they mapped them. We’ll see how much I can accumulate this year. I really like the company match though. Free money rocks.