Entries Tagged 'Family' ↓

bryan, karyn, hannie and i drove down to south dakota on christmas eve – despite really nasty winter weather.

my mom was thawing a ham for the family meal on christmas day. it was my brother’s ham, so it was like he was there with us. right?

but for christmas eve dinner, mom made two giant vats of soup – chicken noodle and split pea. yum!

hannie likes bread best.

as we finished eating dinner, dad got a phone call from a friend. “looks like someone hit the front side of your van…” he said. dad looked outside, and though there was no damage to the van, there was a very large package next to it. bryan and i ran outside to bring it in…

a 55″ lcd hdtv! dad was stunned and hannie was very excited.

bryan, dad and i went to wal-mart to get a new entertainment center for the tv, while karyn, mom and hannie frosted and sprinkled cookies.

hannie had an icing mustache, which was pretty funny, but she wouldn’t let me take a photo of it.

so, that was a pretty exciting night.

we also had a turducken for christmas day lunch. this was very exciting for everyone involved, i assure you.

hannie got really excited about opening presents, so she got to open her stocking right away. i also let her open a small present i got for her.

so many presents for hannie!

but there were a few presents for the rest of us, too. fun!

jason gave me a wii for christmas and now i have a new game to play on it – epic mickey! i started the other night. it’s kinda dark, but will be fun once i get into it, i think.

karyn got her very own masher! wahoo!

“hannie, are you silly?” “yeah!”

mom and dad got a new camera for their trip to taiwan next month! take lots and lots of photos, okay, guys?!

karyn disguised my last gift (which hannie helped me open) by wrapping it with a few random other things inside at least 5 different bags and boxes – it was a new ipod nano!

we went to uncle tom’s & aunt kim’s for our first christmas day meal. grampa bob brought some “mystery wine” he made at home. it was pretty tasty!

but kim opted for poinsettia cocktails instead.

newest christmas tradition: cousin micheal’s robotic santa.

tur! duck! hen!

then it was time for the always hilarious dice game.

shih tzu party central.

cousin jenny and jeremy got married this year. they still seem to like each other, so that’s good, ‘eh?

cousin jon got a pregnancy test. let’s hope it negative!

hannie got a whoopee cushion. i have a video, which i’ll upload to youtube… someday…

all tuckered out! i guess that was a pretty exhausting gift exchange for the puppies.

oh, wait! one more gift for jeremy from cousin micheal!

… it’s an… alligator?

and for another oddity, steve made a christmas poo. but it was delish!

for dinner, we joined aunt deb, gramma d, and cousin brock just down the road.

gramma d got just a few more owls for christmas.

good thing hannie was around to help gramma open all of her presents!

we went home around 9pm. sioux falls was a-glow as we left it.

we had to get on the road back to minneapolis by noon, but i was glad that kelsey and aurora could come over before we started packing up.

can you imagine what life would be like to be that adorable? those eyes! she’s such a sweet little babe.

hannie was a little unsure about not being the center of attention, but she hung around anyway.

thanks for the visit, ladies!

when we got back to minneapolis, jason picked me up and whisked me away to st. paul for that night’s wild game. i won the tickets through email bingo at work! so even though the wild lost (unfortunately), we still had a pretty good time.

the final score was 1-4.

when i finally got home after the game, santa had brought jason another, special gift to give to me. santa sure is a sweet, generous guy!

i’m feeling very blessed this holiday season – lots of great family, a wonderful boyfriend, and really super friends. i’m currently in indianola, iowa, with jason’s family – waiting for 2011 at midnight and a few more christmas festivities tomorrow. i hope you’re having an equally fantastic holiday season, too.

happy new year!

I have two older siblings.

Karyn, my sister, is the oldest. She lives in the cities and actually works at the same company where I work. She is married to Bryan, and their daughter, Hannora (“Hannie”), was born in April 2009.

Ryan, my brother, is the middle child. He lives in Taiwan, teaching English and learning Chinese. He is married to Jane (Yi-Chen).

It’s a fitting day for this post; my brother served in Iraq a few years ago. Thanks, bro.

And thanks to all of those that have served this country.

My parents are Sue and Dave.

Just a couple kids from small towns in Iowa, they were married before they had even finished high school. I think. I know for a fact that my sister was born before they had finished high school. That was in the mid-1970s.

They are both very hard-working. The reason my family moved to Vermillion was so that my dad could be the produce manager at the then newly built Hy-Vee store (1986?), which he continued to be for many, many years. We had pineapple at every holiday meal, pretty much. He now has his own siding and remodeling business and the whole town keeps him busy. He recently returned home from his annual “guy’s trip” to do hunting and various other man things somewhere up north.

My mom also worked at Hy-Vee in a variety of departments: bakery, deli, customer service. She worked in food service at the University of South Dakota (“Take Your Daughter to Work Day” was a blast, we made donuts). She now works as the produce manager for Wal-Mart. We don’t eat as much pineapple, and that’s quite okay. She’s been on a bowling league since before I can remember, and her team has even gone to state bowling and done quite well!

My parents are good people and they are proud of their three children, who all have college degrees (I’m the only one without a master’s degree), even if we are a bit “slow” to get married (my brother was recently married, so I’m the only one not married) and give them grandbabies (my first niece, Hannora, was born in 2009).

The past year has been amazing — full of love and opportunity and adventure — and the future seems to hold even more greatness.

—

And I feel guilty for thinking this way when I know so many of my family members and some friends are going through health problems and other shit. My happiness seems really selfish at times, especially lately since I haven’t had time to call anyone to let them know I’m thinking of them during their hard times.

And when I do have time it is hardcore catching-up-on-sleep and being-alone time, so the cycle of selfishness continues. Sigh.

—

I just wanted to let you know that you’re on my mind, even though I’m terrible at correspondence.

here are photos from two parties that happened in may. belated but not forgotten.

sangria, spaetzle, speck, und schnitzel

oh! and chris’ fried sauerkraut balls.

while watching inglourious basterds.

these cats are lazy.

cousin jamie organized a surprise 50th birthday party for aunt laurie at buca di beppo. she really was surprised! it was fun.

ooh! and delicious!

happy 50th, laurie! i hope the first month of it has been stellar.