Christmas Holiday, first half

This has been a wonderful Christmas holiday so far.

I discovered that airplane stress decreases a bit when there is no connecting flight. My goal in life is now to only fly direct flights, no lay-overs. That means I need to move to a hub like Minneapolis or Chicago or something. I'll work on that in the next 10 years.

On Wednesday, my bro picked me up at the airport early early in the cold morning in Mpls. I crashed at his place all morning and then my aunt Lori picked me up that afternoon after work. We drove around so she could show me "her world" (the hospital she works at) and then we picked up my cousin Olivia at the bus stop and when to their house. I haven't been to their house since high school, I think, and it was great to be in their cozy home. They had just remodeled and nearly doubled the size of the house, so it was fun to see the work. We chatted, Olivia and I colored, I talked to my uncle Tim about my job, and we just relaxed. Then my brother came over with his girlfriend, Danielle, who I finally got to meet. She is way cute and sweet and I like her lots and told Mark he better hang on to her. :) The only sad part of the night was that my cousin Karmin wasn't able to come over because she had to work late, and we had hoped to see each other.

Thursday I packed my stuff up and Mark and I headed out of town when he got off work mid-morning. We made a stop at IKEA so I could check out their desks to see if I'll be aable to fit one in my car next time I drive to Seattle. We also bought cheap wrapping paper and napkins (50 cents each!!!). When we got home early in the eve, we had some dinner with the parentals, and mark went out with friends while I watched Must Love Dogs with my parents.

Today, I wrapped all my gifts (it took me like an hour and a half) all morning. This afternoon, we (me, my mom and bro) went to my cousin Kristin's house because I won't get to see my dad's fam this Christmas. It was good to see her and her husband Dana and their three kids, and my aunt Jean the Bean (ok, not really her name, just afun rhyme we say with her name) also came over. We chatted. Then when we got home, my dadd's bro Randy and his wife, who just moved to Denver, stopped by to wrap gifts and see us. Which was nice because it meant I DID get to see some of my dad's family while I was here! :) Tonight I went to dinner with my good friend Tami Renner and then we went to see the movie The Family Stone. Definitely recommend it...it's a good Christmas movie.

Now I'm gonna relax a bit with the parentals and get ready for the busy Christmas stuff the next two days!