Good morning! I hope you all had a fun and safe and New Year’s Eve. Kevin and I had no plans this year so we decided to have a cozy night in. We watched some bowl games and New Year’s Eve specials all while in our pajamas – it was pretty awesome! Today I wanted to finish recapping our Christmas for you. You can read part one here.
MONDAY | My brother and sister-in-law flew into Chicago early in the morning so Kevin and I picked them up on our way down to West Lafayette. The weather was pretty bad this day and over 900 flights were cancelled at O’Hare so they were pretty lucky their flight made it on time. Once we got to my parents’ house my mom had lunch ready for us so we filled up on our traditional Christmas fare which is ham and appetizers.
We opened all of our presents later that afternoon and did stockings as well. There were a few surprise gifts which are always fun to open!
Later that evening we had soup for dinner and then built gingerbread houses. For some reason none of us were having much success with our houses this year and they kept collapsing. I ended up making mine a “Home Alone” house full with Marv sticking his burnt head in the snow and using an M&M as the “M” branding on his hand from the doorknob.
TUESDAY | I met my friends Mary and Kelly for lunch at Red Seven. It was great getting to see both of them and catching up over lunch. I ordered my favorite Black and Bleu Salad (recycled picture from earlier this year).
After lunch I met back up with my family and we all went to Target and a few other stores for some after Christmas deals. I picked up the cranberry trees I had been eyeing at Target for 50% off.
My mom made our “formal” Christmas dinner this night of beef tenderloin, roasted veggies, and baked potatoes. After dinner we spent the rest of the evening playing board games late into the night.
WEDNESDAY | My dad is really creative and comes up with the best games for us to play. Last Christmas he made a scavenger hunt for us so we insisted he come up with another one this year. For this year’s family “Amazing Race” the teams were me, Hilary, and Kevin vs. my mom, Kyle, and Faith. We had clues that took us all over town and we had to send a selfie at each location to my dad before receiving our next clue. At the end of the race we also had to collect certain items as part of the scavenger hunt. One of the things was to get a red cup from Starbucks and have a random customer sign the cup. My team was victorious which means I was on the winning team two years in a row!
After the race my mom made us lasagna for dinner and then we went bowling. We played two games and had such a fun time! At 9:00 the bowling alley turned into cosmic bowling with black lights and rap music videos and all the teens came out. I’m pretty sure we were the oldest people in there at that point. Never too old to bust out the selfie stick though. π
We also took some selfies at home. All the girls got plaid scarves this year so we took a scarf selfie.
The whole family. π
The one picture I took of me and Kevin.
We played several more board games before going to bed.
THURSDAY | Kevin and I drove back to Chicago in the morning. My sister got us hooked on Making a Murderer on Netflix so we watched a few episodes that afternoon. We had no plans for New Year’s Eve so we stayed in and watched the Alabama vs. Michigan State bowl game and some of the New Year’s Eve specials. I got the best new cozy blanket for Christmas and pretty much stayed under that all evening.
We ordered takeout from Piggyback BBQ for dinner. I read online that pork and greens are a traditional New Year’s dinner so we were set.
It was a nice little New Year’s Eve with just the two of us. π
And just like that the holidays are over. Back to the real world on Monday. π
Leave a Reply