Now, my readers are smart, but...

if you're going out tonight to celebrate the New Year, please remember to never drink and drive. Call a cab, call a friend, call ME for Pete's Sakes! Just don't drink and drive.

If you don't drink, be a designated driver for someone who does.

Have a safe and happy New Year!

The Worst Christmas Ever (Almost)

Yep, you read right. We're all friends here, so I'm just going to be brutally honest. My Christmas celebration pretty much sucked. I know that presents and parties are NOT what Christmas is about, but they are both something I really look forward to every year. I've always LOVED Christmas, and the fun stuff that we do along with it.

It all begins with the fact that not all of our children were home Christmas Eve/Christmas morning, so we didn't open gifts. In fact, we STILL haven't opened gifts, because we're waiting for Nans to come back from her mom's. Puckey keeps asking when we are going to let her open her Christmas "presidents". Poor kid. I have given her a couple of small things (although we don't have much for the kids to begin with, so I've had to be careful about that).

I started my period Christmas Eve. (Merry Christmas to me)

Christmas Day was spent wrapping presents for the family Christmas party and cleaning the house. It didn't even feel like Christmas. The only thing I liked was that we didn't have to rush off anywhere in the morning. We did go to Ande's parents later in the evening for a little while, but we just hung out a little and then went home.

My mom's family usually celebrates on Christmas Eve, but this year they changed the party to accommodate an out of town cousin who was coming in on the 26th. I was thrilled, because that meant I wouldn't have to rush around Christmas Eve. (I was even MORE thrilled when the weather took a turn for the worse Christmas Eve and we didn't have to go anywhere.)

The only thing that wasn't good about that was that Ande and his brother were going to play in their high school alumni hockey game the same day (the 26th), but it was prior to the family party, so I could squeeze it in. Then my mom decided that we should all (minus Ande because he had to work until right before the hockey game) should come to her house on Friday afternoon to open gifts. So that makes three things I didn't want to miss ALL on the same day, with overlapping time schedules. UGH.

Well, turns out I didn't need to worry about any of that, because I awoke (at 2:30am) on the 26th to the sounds of Puckey crying in her room. You know the one. The "I just threw up on myself and everything around me" cry. I got her cleaned up and went back to bed. In the morning, I continued to prepare for the day's festivities on the off chance that Puckey's mid-night vomit was a fluke. It wasn't. Around 11:00am she threw up again. This time on the couch.

It was at that point I had to call my mom and tell her we weren't going to be coming to her house, or the family party. She volunteered to have my stepdad come get Bubber and Bug so that they, at least, could see the rest of the family, so I sent them packing over to my mom's for the night.

Ande played in his hockey game, but I had to miss that because I couldn't exactly take my pukey Puckey out anywhere (even though she kept telling me "I feel better, Momma! I'm not sick anymore). Poor kid.

My brother in law and his family got into town on Friday, but we didn't get to see them until Saturday night (I kept Puckey in quarantine for about 24 hours after her last vomiting to try to prevent passing the sickness around).

Yesterday after church, Ande and his brother took the 3 year olds (Puckey and her cousin) ice skating. After skating, they went to Starbucks and then Puckey threw up again. I am HOPING that it was the hot chocolate and M&M cookie she drank/ate, and that she wasn't still contagious. She seems fine this morning. (YEAH)

But, see, the title says "The Worst Christmas Ever (Almost)" for a reason. Because although we haven't actually exchanged gifts, I did get a sweet (sort of) surprise from Ande.

On Christmas Eve morning, I dropped Nans, Puckey, and The Jib off at Ande's mom's house and drove to Waterford to pick up a visor/cage for Ande's hockey helmet. We don't have dental OR vision insurance, so I really don't want him to risk losing any teeth or damaging his eyes in any way. The visor was also to be part of Ande's Christmas present. It wasn't quite as fun to get it, because he knew I was getting it, but whatever. So where I was wasn't too far from where Ande was working that day, and he was getting out a little early because of the holiday, so we decided to meet for lunch.

We met at the Outback Steakhouse, which was a treat because we rarely go out to eat by ourselves and could never afford the Outback if we had the kids with us!! So after we ordered, Ande says, "Well, I want to do something for you for Christmas, but I hit a few snags."

Now, before I go any further, I have to tell you that my blog friend Devin and I have joked about visiting each other for months now, and I'm always telling Ande, "On Devin's blog she said..." and "I wish Devin lived closer, I think we'd be such good friends in real life" and things of that nature. Well, a week or so ago, I got on the computer and noticed that someone had visited the Amtrak website. I joked to Devin that I thought Ande might be planning a trip to Chicago so we could meet.

So, back to our lunch conversation....I asked Ande what kind of snags he had hit, and he said, "Well, I wanted to take you to Chicago, but I don't know if we should drive, fly, or take the train. To take the train or fly would cost about the same, but driving would be cheaper." I said, "With the price of gas so low right now, it would make more sense to drive, because not only would it be cheaper, but we'd have a car to drive around. Besides, Chicago isn't really that far to drive." Then I asked what the other "snag" was....

This is what Ande said, "I know you really want to meet Devin, so I was thinking we could have them meet us in Chicago....I wanted it to be a surprise, but I don't know how to get ahold of her to plan it."

My sweet husband was trying to plan a surprise trip to Chicago so I could meet one of my sweetest friends in person!!!!! How awesome is that? Now I just have to figure out how we're going to pay for it.

So, Dev - looks like we have some brainstorming to do!!! Chicago, here we come....

I'm so excited!

Old-timers and smoothies

Bathroom conversations in the Kirby home:

Ande: "I thought that by drinking two smoothies last night, I'd be in perfect health today"

Julie: "Um, it's a smoothie, not a TIME MACHINE."

Ande: "Hey, that was pretty good."

Julie: "I'm SO blogging that later."

(Ande played in an alumni hockey game on Friday, and since it had been 13 years or so since he'd played hockey, he is a little sore...)