Entries Tagged 'Iowa' ↓

Jason and I drove down to his family’s home in Iowa the day before New Year’s Eve for more holiday celebrations. It was crazy foggy most of the way down interstate 35 until we hit Ames – then the clouds parted and the weather was just lovely.

There was no snow in central Iowa. We should’ve brought some of ours down and shared…

Since the weather conveniently cleared up, we stopped for dinner at HuHot just north of Des Moines. (My parents gave me a gift certificate for Christmas) (Mom, Jason really liked it!) (We don’t have HuHot in the Twin Cities, we have Khan’s.) Afterwards, we continued on and arrived at Uncle Fred and Aunt Renee’s house around 8:30 or so. It was a pretty quiet night.

The next night was New Year’s Eve, of course. I was wrapping up Project 365, so I spent some time taking photos of the Christmas tree and Nikki reminisced about some of the ornaments. Afterwards we all tried to stay awake for the ball drop in New York. There was even some dancing.

I was happy to be spending a second, happy New Year’s Eve with such a sweet man. And his family. Which may be why I got a little shy when he kissed me at “midnight” (11 p.m. central time, 12 a.m. eastern).

The next day, we celebrated Christmas with the whole gang! And once again, I was stunned by their generosity and general wonderfulness. They sure know how to make a gal feel welcome!

It was Jaxon’s first Christmas! (and he had his first birthday on the 6th!)

Nicholas even wrapped special gifts for everyone – nursery rhyme books, coloring books, etc. It’s pretty adorable to see kids get into the giving spirit. He was begging Jason and me to open his gifts for us since the moment we arrived.

I opened the brown paper bag first.

Off to a good start – both of these wines were from vineyards in Iowa!

I gotta start telling Jason’s family about other things I like… though these are awesome gifts! I’m really enjoying the goblets, but I think I need to start exercising some more restraint when pouring wine into them.

It’s nice that Jason was there to take some photos of me, too. (Some of the photos in this post are from his Flickr stream.) I don’t have any photos of myself from Christmas celebrations in South Dakota in my family… I’ve become the family documentarian, I suppose.

And he even makes eggnog cookies! He’s a keeper, for sure.

I was made fun of for taking even more photos of the beautiful Iowan sunset. They don’t realize how lucky they are.

Later in the evening, we played the infamous dice game. They play it a little bit differently than my family: there are enough gifts for everyone to choose one. Everyone draws a number, which determines the gift-choosing order. As everyone chooses, they also open the gift. They can then decide whether they’re going to force anyone else to trade gifts. The person who draws #1 has the best advantage, because they get one more chance at the end to trade their gifts with any other gift that’s been opened.

Nicholas got #1, so he was very serious for the duration of the game – studying all of the gifts being opened, weighing the advantages of each… I ended up with that “In a Pickle” game he’s holding (and I have some pickle-flavored chapstick to look forward to), because I opened a very big flashlight set – which I traded for a Wal-Mart giftcard and LEGO penguin keychain. Nicholas really wanted that LEGO penguin. All for fun!

The next day we had to return to Minneapolis. We tried taking a new route, and ended up driving right past the Des Moines skyline (adorably tiny) and the capitol building.

If we ever take this route again, I’ll be sure to use a nicer camera.

First Christmas

Due to a gigantic snow storm over the Christmas weekend, I spent my time being happily snowed in at home. I got home the Wednesday night before the holiday, and didn’t dig my car out ’til Sunday.

This is about half of the snow we got.

I probably should’ve tried to dig out a couple days earlier, but it was awfully nice being lazy.

Luckily Jason was willing to drive me around so we spent some time at his apartment (he has surround sound and satellite tv!), as well as an evening at Karyn and Bryan’s house.

Second Christmas

The following weekend, Jason and I drove down to Indianola on New Year’s Eve. We were spoiled by three days of sleeping in until 10 a.m. and having coffee ready for us when we woke up. Renee also made an endless supply of delicious food. It was a super weekend.

French toast and mimosas for brunch? Yes, please.

If I hadn’t let Nicholas and Alex take photos of me with my camera, this would’ve been the only real proof that I was there.

I think Logan found this Lego set – Lego Renee and a Lego chicken. Perfect (as Renee has chickens)!

We spent a lot of time playing Wii and card or board games in the evenings. I actually survived an entire game of Phase 10! Wine helps.

Third Christmas

And for weekend after that, I carpooled down to South Dakota with Karyn and Bryan to visit my own family.

My camera died when we reached the Sullivan Christmas party in Sioux Falls, so I took a bunch of photos with Karyn’s camera that I’m too lazy to post here.

It was Hannie’s first Christmas, of course, which is why she got so many more presents than the rest of us. (I kid!)

Ryan sent everyone their own Taiwanese banana case, which was pretty special.

Bryan knew these were SPAM, but he didn’t know which flavors! They came all the way from Hawaii.

I think I need to open this when I have friends around to help me drink it, in case it’s too weird.

That sushi pillow also came from Hawaii. I made a special trip to Honolulu’s Chinatown and sat on Waikiki beach with it all afternoon on my final day.

What a mess.

Kelsey and I have been friends since the 3rd grade and now she’s having a baby. Aren’t we somehow obligated to have babies at the same time so they can be BFFs, too? I am no where near ready for that, though. Oh, well.

Mom and Dad gave each other new toasters for Christmas. Dad hated their old toaster so much that he immediately threw it out… into a snow bank.

Karyn and I spent some time organizing and stuffing Ryan and Jane’s wedding invitations. Stamps and addresses were flying all over the room!

On our way back to Minneapolis, Karyn, Bryan, Hannie and I stopped at Grandma D’s house in Rock Rapids since we didn’t have a chance to see her in Sioux Falls. We had a delicious lunch, Hannie got some fun toys, and then we continued on our merry way.

That was the longest Christmas celebration ever!

The past week, summarized:

Wednesday
After working a very full day, it was time to enjoy a four-day weekend. That evening, I was joined at karaoke (at both U Otter Stop Inn and Legend’s) by Barry, Kristi and Karyn. It was fun. We ate nachos.

Thursday
Karyn turned 30 on the 10^th, and we both had the day off. I joined her at True Thai for lunch, then I hung around her apartment all day. She dozed and I played with the kitties while uploading music onto my new computer. That evening we joined Barry (who was celebrating his 32nd birthday) and other friends at Psycho Suzi’s. We ate almost every appetizer that was offered. And drank every tiki drink that was available. I love Suzi’s patio — it’s easily the best patio in Minneapolis.

(My photos from the birthday celebrations are on flickr.)

Friday
Karyn and I drove to my grandparents’ farm in Alvord, Iowa for a two-day family reunion. That evening was spent camping out in their yard, drinking beer, and playing with the pile of kitties.

And now for excessive cat photos (but they are so cute):

Saturday
On Saturday we spent the morning and early afternoon cleaning some of the house — a couple bedrooms and the kitchen cabinets. I took a walk around the grounds after lunch. Eventually I sat down in the campsite and took a brief nap in the sun. Afterwards, my dad joined me and we watched nature and drank beer. Very chill. That evening we were joined by my gramma’s sister, Mary, and her husband for dinner. Mom, Jane, Aunt Kim, Cousin Michael, and I worked on illegally igniting fireworks for the rest of the clan after dark. And we made s’mores.

(I took a bunch of other photos but I’m feeling really lazy about linking to all of them. I like a lot of them and you can check them out here.)

Sunday
After lunch, Karyn and I headed back to Minneapolis. We stopped in Rock Rapids, IA, to visit our Gramma Dee. Then it rained, rained, rained for the rest of our drive. It was a quiet evening at home, though, and that was nice.

Monday
Kristi came over to my apartment to watch the two-hour finale for Hell’s Kitchen. I’m so mad that Heather won! But it was very exciting and we enjoyed watching regardless.

That’s it. I’m sleepy.