Christmas 2015: Day 4

Today, my sister and her boyfriend and I set out for Milwaukee and we saw another interesting personalized plate.

This says "Soda Pup"

We went to get food at some point to a Thai and Sushi place. I wanted to get the Packer Roll for the table, so I did.

We also went to the AT&T Store where I ordered a Blackberry Priv. Later, we went back to their place and I took a nap before my sister took me to the airport. I believe I sat in some hot dog diner place before going through the security line. It was raining, and there was a massive thunderstorm in St. Louis when we landed and took off. It delayed our flight by about an hour, but we finally took off. Soon enough, I was back in Houston and Bruno and I were snuggling.

Christmas 2015: Day 3

Dad wears his Packer hat to bed.

We prepared for the family, I arranged cookies, arranged things on tables, arranged food things, then people came over. I was able to give some gifts to kids, including the adorable little tyke below. This photo is a bit of a lie, however, because she was surly most of the day. At one point, my aunt and I went to a cousin's house to get my cousin's kid. Lo and behold, my cousin was there too, so I got to see her.

Later in the evening, I got to show my cousin and his wife the Key & Peele East West bowl sketch that ends with A-A-Ron Rod-Gers, which they had not seen. It is relevant because other cousins call that cousin A-A-Ron often, but that predates this sketch. The same cousin routinely makes new pronunciations for names.

Christmas 2015: Day 2

I finally went outside today.

My sister and her boyfriend arrived later in the day, and after my sister had a drink with one of the hail stones my dad collected that summer in it, I did too. This is ginger ale and rum, I think.

Then we had dinner.

Before dinner, Mom asked everyone, "Snowman or Christmas Tree," and gave no context for the question. Would we rather make one of those two, have them, which one did we like more? We had no idea. No idea, that is, until dessert was served. Mom had some ice cream things in the shape of Snowmen or Christmas Trees, and we got the shape that we had earlier selected, thought my dad traded. I also combined some cookies with my ice cream for the photo below.

I believe that we also unwrapped our presents that night, since the family would be coming over the next day.

Christmas 2015: Day 1

Today was busy and tumultuous because my upper back hurt, yet I wanted to wrap presents and decorate cookies. Eventually, however, everything was wrapped and the cookies were made.

This year's ninja turtles.

The cookie on the right was not supposed to look like that, it kind of just happened.

The pink thing in the middle is the paper mache Interstellar Pig that would decorate Mr. Dern's display case every year.

Eyeball decorations make everything fun.

Some more avant garde cookies.

Christmas 2015: Day 0

Yes, it's all coming back to me now. I flew out of Hobby, of course, to Milwaukee, and though I had a plane change in my stopping point, it turned out that I just got off and on the same plane, so I didn't lose my early bird position in line. I wore my Go Pack Go shirt for the flight and ended up talking to two other shareholders while waiting to board the plane to Milwaukee. I also noticed (again) that so many people were wearing Badger and Packer gear. When I posted this observation to facebook, a friend that had lived her whole life in Wisconsin told a story of shock that they didn't find many other people in Packer clothes on game day when they were at Disney World, in Florida. Well, she called it "like being in another country", which, if you're used to Red & White and Green & Gold everywhere, I guess it is.

I arrived in Milwaukee for the third time in 5 months and got my suitcase and found my mom - possibly not in that order, and we were off. Or maybe we stopped by my sister's place? Actually no, we didn't do that. We stopped at a Culver's, I think, to recombobulate our directions, and set out for home. We drove and drove and drove, and then were home. I believe that I showed some of the things that I brought, then went to bed.