taz_39 | Circus Xtreme - December Break week 2 (Reply)

We had a really nice visit with our Aunt Chris and Uncle Andy!

We spent a lot of time together doing fun stuff. Went to a mall, ate out, cooked at home, went to a movie, had a really fun trivia night with some of our Aunt's friends, and played a lot of fun games. We also caught up with each other; it's been so long since we were in the same room and that's a shame. In the future we hope to make more time for each other, even if it means planning far in advance. In any case, for a few days, we were together and it was awesome.

Kate, Jonah and I drove home, and Raven flew. Back at home there was Christmas prep to be done, as well as preparing for my parent's vow renewal and my sister's bridal shower (she's getting married in April). My parents are remodeling one of the basement rooms, and it's almost done, so I helped to move furniture down there. With the help of some ladies from church, we also cleaned, decorated for Christmas, and prepared the guest room for Kayle (my sister) and Skylar (her fiancee). They arrived on Saturday. Skylar just proposed to Kayle a few days ago, so it's a very exciting time! Here they are looking through a wedding catalog :)

We went to dinner at the local hibachi place, where we were treated to fried ice cream after our meal! This was actually a mistake...the waitress misunderstood that we wanted ONE ice cream to split between the FIVE of us, and instead brought us FIVE ice creams!! In any case, they were delicious!

Back at home we assembled the artificial Christmas tree that my parents had just bought. This is the first time in 31 years on this planet that I've had a fake tree...and I can see why they're popular. Setup was insanely easy, the lights are already on it, no mess, no wasps nests, no watering or vacuuming to worry about. I'll miss the piney scent, but gotta admit, this is pretty convenient.

Sunday was church, followed by our parent's wedding vow renewal. The ceremony was short yet beautiful and emotional. I want to apologize to anyone who wasn't invited and felt that they should have been, but my parents wanted a private, intimate ceremony. It's nothing personal. It was a very small gathering of mostly family and a very few friends. Afterward many of us went for late lunch at Rose Marie's, a local Italian place. The food was delicious and the company was wonderful.

I have more pics but my parents have said many times that they don't like their photos posted "for everyone to see" :P

Anyway, it was a great day. With Christmas coming up, we're bound to have a busy week next week too!

Other stuff:

The elephants enjoying their time off! Splash!