Christmas Festivities

Christmas is officially over. It seems the season has ended just as quickly as it approached. Instead of stores neatly aligned with product, everything appearing to be "perfect", it now is a scene of chaos and disarray as people scramble for the last minute deals. Such a sudden shift.

It was a good Christmas. It was low key, relaxing and exactly what I needed. My family is learning to create new traditions and schedules as we welcome significant others into the mix. Christmas has become a lot quieter than I remember it, but I'm finding that refreshing.

Christmas morning family picture.

This was some of my loot - both from Christmas and Grand Forks. I got some great deals on clothes in the States. It was a very successful shopping trip in that regard. For Christmas I got some great puzzles (yes I am a dork and I love to do puzzles), awesome monkey mitts, an Ingrid Michealson Cd, Starbucks gift cards, an awesome purse, and this great bath scrub that Dominika made for me, my mom and Courtney. It smells amazing. I was very much spoiled this Christmas.

Our Christmas trip down to Minneapolis got slightly altered this year due to the unfortunate bad weather. On the 27th we left the house at 4am, still hoping that by the time we got to Grand Forks, the roads would be opened up. Unfortunately that was not the case. We decided that we were going to make the best of our time in Grand Forks (even though the caliber of shopping does not rank close to that of Minneapolis).
The Canad Inns had rooms available and even let us check in at 7:30am so that we could all get some much needed rest before hitting the stores. Let me just say that if you have not stayed at this particular hotel before in Grand Forks, it is definitely worth it. The beds were to die for - none of us has ever fallen asleep so quickly and the water park is spectacular.


This tube ride was the awesome to say the least. We had so much fun. It looks like it could be kind of boring when you initially examine it, but when you go down it is sooooo much better. It involves an initial deep drop in an enclosed tunnel so you can't see a thing, followed by getting shot out of the tunnel into a whirl pool at a pretty decent speed. Like I said, it rocked.

I made a new friend while out for dinner one night. He was rather charming.

The girls indulged at Coldstone Creamery. I had the Mint Mint Chocolate Chocolate Ice Cream. It was divine.

So, that was Christmas and our trip in a nutshell. I hope everyone had a great Christmas season!