last friday, jason hosted a get-together with friends for christmas celebrations and rock band (of course).

he made egg nog cookies. they are magical things.

egg nog (with optional rum) was served in very fancy glasses. we have a lot of fancy glassware, by the way. many options.

the host always spends time in the fridge. (right?)

after dan arrived (in his very festive vest), jason kicked off the christmas celebration with a “yankee” gift exchange.

everyone brought a gift that cost $1 or less.

during round one, after everyone had drawn a number, each player picked a gift from the pile — no unwrapping yet! player #2 could either keep their gift from the center or trade with a previous player (#1, in this case), and so on. i like this round because it is fun to create speculation about what a gift might be!

i actually think it’s fun to do this mystery-gift-trading round once or twice more, but jason decided to skip right to round two.

to kick off round two, player #1 unwraps his or her gift. then player #2 unwraps his or her gift, and can either keep it or force player #1 to exchange. player #3 can keep, or trade with one of the previous players. and this continues through all of the players…

but, in the end, player #1 get final choice! he or she can claim whichever gift, of all of the gifts, that he or she desires.

during our exchange, melissa was player #1. she picked a kazoo out of the gifts and at the very end of the game — she wanted that kazoo back!

i actually traded a yoda-shaped usb flash drive for this giraffe bust. i want the whole collection of miniature busts!

after this, some friends stayed to enjoy santa’s slay with us, then we played rock band until about 2 a.m. — another fun evening!

i’m wishing a very happy holiday season for you and your friends, too.

the word of the day was…

this past valentine’s day, my sweet boyfriend snuck into my house and left a big bouquet of flowers along with a couple groupons that i would like — one was for a visit to chateau st. croix winery & vineyard, which included a tour, a cheese plate, wine tastings, and two souvenir glasses to take home. the winery was across the river in wisconsin, so we decided to make a whole, fun day trip out of it.

we paused in st. croix falls at a scenic overlook since we were a little ahead of “schedule.”

i think this photo is hilarious because it was my idea to look DIRECTLY INTO THE SUN so of course i’m making a stupid face and ruining an otherwise pretty darn cute photo.

i’m now not sure if those (off to the left of the photo) are taylor’s falls or st. croix’s falls.

king of the world! … or at least of this rock.

look at all that lichen.

zooooom!

jason risked his life for this photo. i almost had to leave him behind. (but he had the keys to the car…)

james knox polk: thank you for making wisconsin and for providing a name for a great street to live on (twice).

chateau. lions everywhere. i loved it.

now entering narnia!

our first tastings: 2006 atelier alexander valley zinfandel (the zin) and jaune d’or port (“like drinking a sugar cookie”). both very delicious. i liked most of what we tasted, and i went home with a bottle of the 2009 wild river rose.

oh, now we’re on the tour.

it would be fun to volunteer on bottling day/weekend in september. who wants to join me?

jason got on the floor for this photo, reviewed it, then proclaimed he was a genius. yes, you are, sweetie.

the cheese plate for two. you mean i have to share this?!

jason was even gonna eat the whole plate, too!

super cute bottle. i would’ve bought a bottle if i had a “wine fund” set aside.

knights like us, baby we were born to runnn… to the winery… to drink wine…

this photo was an “accident” but it’s evidence of the face that i make at jason most of the time. it’s my i’m-falling-more-in-love-with-you-right-now face.

dead wine barrel converted into a charcoal grill = totally awesome! can also be used as a smoker.

it was a special festival weekend at the winery, showcasing some of the local artisans and businesses. the sun came out just for us to wander around the booths and take it all in.

at this booth i informed jason of my plan to some day have my own sheep and my own wool-spinning machine. heck yes, i’m gonna make my own yarn. maybe i’ll get a llama, too (that is the yarn used for the hats in the foreground).

i liked the chardonnay and roasted garlic marinade.

meow!

i wanted to steal this puppy.

this is his (her?) “good side.”

see? more lions!

hello, wisconsin.

this is in the bathroom. sort of rude, but sort of funny, too.

vineyard birds.

sign says: “open wine”
i say: “okay, i will!”

then we stopped at this goofy little sculpture park on our way to stillwater.

this is the work area. there was some art in production as we walked around.

jason told me i live here. it doesn’t even have a floor.

there wasn’t any gold leaf left for us.

hey, then we got to stillwater! the river here was really high — the muddy area is where it had been in the last couple weeks.

strawberry/banana malts at leo’s.

obligatory photos of the stillwater lift bridge.

see the water? those steps are supposedly leading down to a lower pedestrian pathway. i will have to imagine…

this photo is mostly to show the streetlamp in the water.

this is the one place on gowalla that i didn’t check in. dang!

all in all, it was a pretty perfect day with my sweetheart — good weather, good scenery, good wine…

thanks so much for the gift, jason. i love you.

i could tell you that this is my favorite flower, but i’m not sure it’s the truth. i proclaim every flower i see to be my favorite. so i’ll just tell you this is one of my favorites, for sure. and it’s growing on my front steps!

these are survivors i picked out of the mess that was my flower garden attempt last summer. i decided i didn’t have enough time or energy to devote to another flower garden project, so i was sort of cleaning up the area and discovered these guys, growing strong during a chilly minnesotan spring.

bleeding heart, periwinkle, lamb’s ear, and day lillies.

wikipedia just told me that periwinkle is also a kind of sea snail. the more you know!

this is me tonight: i drank a nordeast grain belt and watched the season finale of glee online. i laid on the floor. the kitties wrestled around me. didn’t turn the television on at all. it’s just quiet, except for the tick of the clock and the gurgle of the kitties’ water fountain.

in one month, i’m going to san francisco again! i’m bringing my special dude and we’re going to hang out in golden gate park, i want to see that japanese tea garden. oh! and this time i will make sure to see the full house house from alamo square. i’m also be attending voices that matter: web design. i’m excited! this lady needs an airplane ride.

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.

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!