Semester Vacation

My semester vacation began (for me) on the 13th of December and will end the 9th of January. Almost a whole month! While I am loving the time to do absolutely nothing, I past the point of 'slightly bored' a while ago. My brain has shut off so completely that I am saying things I never thought would come out of my mouth. Yes, I am blond, but this is ridiculous. Just the other day I asked if the Kalua (we needed it to make chocolate ice cream) needed to be "refridgerized." This is an example of that yes, I love this vacation time, but I wouldn't mind being back at school either.

I can't complain about Christmas though. This year was the biggest one we've had yet. While there were enough presents that they stretched a good few feet out in front of the tree, that's not the point. Most were for my seven month old niece, Jade, anyway. Our family grew by a few people this year, and it made the difference.

My family has always been it's own unit. My mom, dad, brother and I occasionally stretch to include my mom's parents whenever we are in the Bemidji area, but outside of that, I rarely see any of our family. And I have been informed that we have a lot of family. It has always made me a little sad (okay, a lot sad) that feuds and distance (most my dad's family live on the west coast) have kept us apart, especially when I grew up knowing nothing of the arguments between them all. Just that one great uncle smokes like a chimney, another great uncle is German and therefore awesome, and my dad's sister and I used to write to each other all the time. . . ect.

So seeing our living room full of people this year made this Christmas special to me. Not to mention it was fun opening presents and not having everyone stare at me while I do it. When Jade is around, no one looks away from those dark sparkling eyes.

Speaking of Jade, I got a kick out of watching her with her presents. She started by trying to eat the wrapping paper, but when someone made a tear in it, she began smacking it and attempting to get a good enough grip to rip it apart herself. She was almost as eager as Nikki (our Pomeranian) was to open what I know she smelled to be her favorite bones. Nikki was so much in the way and licking my fingers it took three times as long to get it open. Man, that tickled.

Here's the rest of the family (Mom was taking the pictures):

Marc is happier with his juicer than I thought was possible. I mean, it's a juicer. But I don't like cooking of any kind, so perhaps that is why I can't fathom his excitement.

 I bought Nilda this hilarious book called "Porn for Women." It's on Amazon, if anyone is interested.

Poor Jade looks a little irked in this snowsuit. It could be that her arms are a bit too short, but her torso is long enough that she might outgrow it before her arms grow into it. . . But at least she'll be warm!

This was also Marc and Nilda (and Jade)'s first Christmas together. They got married on the 12th of December.

Nilda made the cake herself. The top was vanilla, the bottom was chocolate. She's a talented woman. She even made the frosting from scratch. No wonder Marc is finally beginning to grow (width-wise) after all these years.

Nilda's mom, Alicia. The smallest, sweetest woman I've ever met. Dad wasn't able to make it to their wedding, but I video taped it and we all went to see him in the hospital so he could watch it. Funnily enough, he was discharged just a few hours later.

Time to ring in the new year! I've got to figure out what my resolution is going to be.  Hmmmm. . .