*Merry Christmas*

Whew! It has been a rather busy last few weeks so I'll take awhile to enjoy a cup of coffee at Woods with my sister and recap of all of the activities from the last couple weeks....

We celebrated Sister's *18th* birthday with a night by the fire and family games. 

The Boy and I took Brother #2 out for a night of glow-in-the-dark mini-golf and bowling. 

I think I earned my code name of 'Destroyer' with that great score. Record high! 

We kicked off the Christmas parties with a night at Grandma Dee's. 

Brother #1 with his nice new knitted hat. 

After all the gifts were opened everyone was buried into books of Ripley's Believe It or Not until we played a few games of Qwirkle.

Then a couple nights later we made our way to Grandpa and Grandma Van Dalen's family party.

A fun night playing with family ~ chasing cousins and spending time together. 

Ignore brother #1 - he hasn't learned to smile yet.

love this beautiful girl :)

there was an unattended auntie's camera so we took some lovely pictures *hehe*

Then we saw most of the same family the next night at Grandpa & Grandma York's for Christmas Eve.

We couldn't wait to open presents! 

Once again at least half the people were lost in some sort of book or checking out what they could share from someone else's pile. 

But what party is complete without a camera being unattended?

After such a fun night {tons}of laughs and food it was time to go to home and to bed so Santa could come! And as a tradition Santa dropped off a gift early ~ PJ's! 

We made it home and everyone hustled to bed to dream of sugar plum fairies and snow. Neither of which appeared sadly. But the next morning there were gifts awaiting under the tree! 

I am rather pleased with how the gifts I found for my loved ones turned out!

 Morning picture in our PJ's

We enjoyed our morning by making sticky buns and as they baked we opened our stockings. Then we ate the most delicious sticky buns I've ever tried. Then ran {well at least the kids did} to open the gifts under the tree. Santa left only a few presents for us to open hmmm what could they be? 

We got to open one which told us that we had to present some sort of clue to the parents before we could open the big gift. Inside the box we did open were a couple of puzzles. Two weren't even opened so we moved past those and poured out the one in a zip lock bag.

Refusing to be stumped by a puzzle with no picture

We slowly assembled these sections:

Sister presented our best guess that it was some sort of Route 66 road trip. Bingo! 

from here

We opened the big box to find out this summer we are going on a 3 week road trip along the old Route 66! We will travel down in an RV to start in Santa Monica, California then follow Route 66 all the way to Chicago, Illinois! I'm stoked to see parts of the country we haven't seen before and to maybe catch a glimpse of what America looked like way back in the day when gas was about 10 cents and life was simpler.

Christmas day also included an afternoon at The Boy's family get together but I don't have pictures from that. 

So that's how my Christmas went! I hope yours was just as much fun and filled with as much love and laughter :) Now all that is left is to ring in the *New Year*!

DONE!!

WOOO HOOO done with finals ~ done with finals 

*happy dance* 

Phew! 

Survived finals! And I think I actually did fairly well. 

{well I already know I finished with an A in psych woot woot} 

It was a fun quarter but I am ready for a break! 

I can't wait to spend time at home with family and friends. Enjoying good food and company :) 

Singing Christmas songs and hopefully getting *SNOW* 

Well I'm going to go find something to do with all of my spare time! 

Busy, Busy, Terribly Busy

Goodness me! Has it really been almost 2 weeks since I last updated you all on my life?

Well that is quite unfortunate! 

So i'll run through all the exciting events that have occurred since that last post ages ago. 

Of course there was Thanksgiving to start and I was far too busy enjoying the yummy food and company to snap pictures!

This year we spent the day with all of my Mom's side of the family, it was so much fun to see all of them again and enjoy each other's company. Then the boy came over for a game of Pirates Dice and to steal me away to visit with his family. Spending more time with fun people and eating *more* food! That evening when I got home, the sis and I decided to hit up the Black Friday sales!

This is pretty much what Target looked like....SCARY

We finally arrived at the mall at 1 am and wandered around until 3 am when we decided it was time to sleep. 

The best part of breaks has to be the sleeping in and I certainly did that! 

The rest of the weekend was spent with family, decorating for Christmas, spending time with the boy, playing games, and enjoying time spent together with those I {love}. 

After that rejuvenating weekend it was back to the grind to finish off the last week and a half of school so that I can go back home for Christmas! As the week finally draws to a close I am so glad that I survived all the papers, presentations, tests, and readings I had due. 

Now just to study hard and finish finals!

Yesterday as a study break we hit up the annual SPU hosted event Tradition!! 

Dressing up in our winter best, the theme was really ugly sweaters but we didn't have any! 

Seeing friends, lighting the Christmas tree in Tiffany Loop, making cards and enjoying the air of joy makes going so worth being in the cold!

stolen from my coffee gal :)
waiting in line to get a photo with santa! 

Then today enjoying a 1st West reunion lunch at Red Robin! Goodness I miss seeing their faces and laughing with them everyday! They are all such blessings in my life :)

OK now to buckle down again and study for those pesky finals! Only 3 tests until I'm free to enjoy a month with family and friends!