Christmas Eve

Let's be honest here.... Christmas Eve is my favorite day of the year!!! It's a day that the whole family gets together to celebrate Christmas at my Grandma's house. Now, when I was younger, we didn't have the two youngins so it was an entirely different celebration. But each year brings more memories and more laughs. This year was - hmm, let's say a little stressful with all the events leading up to it!! But in the end, we all enjoyed some raviolis, gifts, and laughs! Man, my grandma can make a MEAN ravioli!!!

After dinner, Doug and Tommy assisted Ben in building his Star Wars lego... wait, where is Ben, anyway?? Good thing he was ok with Doug helping. :)

Oh! I found him! My dad and his godchild looking at digital pictures in my Grandma's frame after dinner!

My cousin and I posing before playing a rousing game of Uno!

Uno with the family before gifts! We were driving the young ones NUTS while they were waiting for gift time!

Me opening a GPS stand for my car!

Doug looking pumped to get some new headphones!

I love my cousins!!! All the kids were chilling while the parents opened their presents!

Ben posing with his favorite cousin ever! :)

I love this picture! Annmarie, Megan, and the boys posing together!

A shot of the rest of the room. It looks chaotic, but after all these years, we've got it down to a science. ;-)

The annual family picture. I'm not sure if we've ever gotten a really organized one, but they make me smile regardless! I love my family!

Christmas 2009 is yet another year to remember! I think it's safe to say all 7 of us love this tradition of going to our grandparent's house to celebrate! We stay really late and eat dessert while watching Christmas specials until the parents get tired. :) It's awesome to spend a day like this with them!

Christmas with "Family!"

As I mentioned earlier, we are lucky enough to have friends that are so close, we call them family. :) Every year we celebrate Christmas with them, and it always adds more memories between our families. This year's celebration was held at our house, and we served... can you guess? Spaghetti! I think it'll be breaking news when we serve something BESIDES pasta! This year was obviously different as we missed having Erin celebrate with us. But we took plenty of pictures to have her feel like she was there! Next year, I have a feeling, will be amazing!

V-A Christmas 2009
The "family" sitting down for dinner!! :)

I am a good dish washer!

Enjoying our group's favorite wine and discussion before presents!

The Christmas tree with V-A presents under it!

Adam opening a John Deere gardening book! Between their house and gardening, he is going to be a busy man!

Uncle Ed and Aunt Kathy on the couch, while my Dad video tapped this year for Erin. :) Lookit how stunning Uncle Ed is in this picture!

Doug made a very sarcastic comment to Uncle Ed and then opened his gift to find a sign that said "National Sarcasim Society" on it! It was perfect timing. That sign will look great in Doug's new house next year.

Stephanie and Adam opening some Wii accessories from our family! Now they can Wii race!

We got Uncle Ed a head lamp for all of the work he has been doing on his house. Let's say he had a lot of fun with it! :)

Picture with the flash to see his goofy face. He was willing to help light up anyone's gifts to help us see!

We are so happy that Stephanie, Uncle Ed, Aunt Kathy, and Adam could join us this year for our annual celebration! It always is a blast; with new jokes, new memories; and new gifts. Next year we'll have to sit down and discuss a possible name change as Adam and Stephanie will be married! We'll let the big four decide on that one. :) Meanwhile, it has been another year with great friendship in our "family!"

Decorating the House

Sorry I am a little behind, we have had quite a bit of excitement here the past few days!! But I mentioned earlier that I would show some Christmas decorations around our house to everyone. :) I only get a little carried away normally!!

Our fake fireplace with our beautiful nativity, stockings, and candles in the cavity

This is dark - but it's our organ with a dancing Snoopy and a beautiful Snoopy Christmas tree. (It was a Snoopy Christmas this year!)

Our Christmas tree (with LED lights!) and full of Peanuts ornaments!

I loaded up our windows with window clings. ;-) Classy!

The banister leading upstairs with evergreens, icicle lights, and all the light up Peanuts ornaments plugged in!

Here is a close up of one of the light up ornaments on the banister!

Our homemade Advent calendar. One of my most favorite traditions. :)

Above our sink: More window clings, and figurines that spell at "NOEL" with lights. Can you tell I LOVE lights?

Window by our kitchen table: Peanuts bobble heads, with plug in candles :D

Nook in the corner of the kitchen: One of mom's snow globes and a Snoopy bobble head

Our family room. More lights ;-) and intermittent Snoopies everywhere!

These guys all dance and sing when you press their feet! So adorable!

Our bathroom, hehe. I decked it out with... LIGHTS, a Peanuts tree, and more Peanuts things

There's a little tour of our house for the season! That's only part of it, I didn't include how tacky my room looks. ;-) Every other year we put up all the Peanuts decorations, and this year, we were lucky enough to showcase it all for friends who came by during the season. I enjoy making the house cozy and jolly for the season!

SALT Bid Saga Continues

Ok, so in this entry, I had updated everyone on the SALT bid, what it is, and how we won it for the region.

We have been waiting, and waiting, and waiting, and waiting....

Wait.

We? No, it's been ME who has been waiting anxiously for an email. Let me start again.

I have been waiting, and waiting, and waiting, and waiting, and waiting, and waiting, and waiting.... for an email to say our bid is eligible for National recognition. Reminder: I submitted this sucker the Monday after Thanksgiving! The wait has been incredibly awful. I kept reviewing things to make sure I had included all the appropriate aspects, and then second guessing myself.... I just wanted to get past this first step! And it seemed to be taking the National Board of Director forever to decide :(

I can honestly say I have been checking my school email about.... 48 times a day. Everytime I had an email, I would load it, then normally be really sad when it was junk. But today, TODAY was different. I got an email from the Conference Resource Consultant today. It read the following:

"Good evening, I am writing to officially inform you that your bid for
this year's Student Award for Leadership Training
has fulfilled the requirements as
noted in the national policy book.
Thus, your bid will now be considered for the national award."

Oh HECK YES! I got the email squealed, and did a dance. FINALLY! It's good to know we actually got to this stage. *big sigh of relief* A friend told me today, "Now, you just have to sit and wait, no more worrying." HA.

Ok, he's right, there's no reason to worry, it's totally out of my hands now. Not like it wasn't before, but now that we are actually able to be considered, it's such a relief. However, I am on this streak of SALT all day, all night, and that has got to stop.

They announce the winner on the 20th. My friend also told me, there are no finalists, just the winner. So, somehow, I need to get to January 20th (a random Wednesday) to see if we won! I am not even sure how I feel about our chances, the bids aren't posted anywhere! Basically - I need to just STOP thinking about it!

But I wanted to share the good news. We're in. Now - we wait. The longest wait ever.

V-A Christmas

Or is it A-V Christmas? Which comes first? It doesn't really matter because it's ALWAYS been awesome!

Each year since... forever, my family and the As get together for a Christmas celebration. I believe we have not always served pasta, but that has been the case for the past 10 years or so. :) Sure, we've filtered in various boyfriends throughout this couple decade tradition.... but the important parts have remained the same - family. :-)

We are holding our annual traditional dinner, gift exchange, and good times on Sunday, and I am just so excited! This year will be different as Erin will not be joining us (as she is still serving in Morocco) and the only boyfriend attending is actually a fiance now! (My dad made the rule a few years ago that boys are only allowed to come if they are going to end up marrying into the family!) At least Adam has that official invitation now!

Trip down memory lane preparing for this year's tradition:

V-A Christmas 2007
Myself and Doug watching Aunt Kathy open a gift she was not expecting!

Erin and nonimportant boy watching Aunt Kathy realizing that the gift is cute snowman bowls! She loves snowmen!

Stephanie received holiday flip flop ornaments from us!

First thing about this picture: The caption was 'Adam H' on my computer because I wasnt sure he was going to stick around and just incase I needed to remember his name. Second: Adam and nonimportant boy both got puzzle boxes from us and they raced to see who would open them first. Adam won. He's a keeper!

V-A Christmas 2008
Adam and Stephanie as we arrive at their house for Christmas! This year will mark Adam's 3rd V-A gathering! Do we need to add H in the name now?

Stephanie, Doug, and I orchestrated a video for Erin from VBS while she was in Morocco. We surprised her with the finished product and she couldn't help but cry at how much the kids missed her! My mom, Erin, Aunt Kathy, and Stephanie enjoying the video.

Erin brought home a knife for Doug, and we all joked around all night, "Doug, put the knife DOWN!" I think Adam got one, too!

Adam and Uncle Ed enjoying pictures and memories we were scrolling through on their huge TV!

This is a selfish picture, but I just love it! Erin, me, and Stephanie for our celebration in 2008. We will definitely miss Erin for this year's dinner, but she'll get to see as much of it as my, Stephanie, and Doug's cameras capture!

I wish I had more pictures electronically to share from past years, but they are sitting next to me as hard copies right now! I dont have a printer near me, or I would certainly scan them in and embarass Stephanie and Erin! Though I'm sure there's a few good ones of our moms, too! ;-) I am looking forward to creating more memories and enjoying another V-A Christmas with the best used-to-be-neighbors-ever on Sunday. Stay tuned for pictures of that!

Christmas in Room 215

Ever since freshman year, I have brought a plethora of Christmas decorations back to school with me after Thanksgiving break. It's sad/sick that I end up bringing 2 whole boxes of JUST decorations, but I absolutely love having such a jolly room. :)

Somehow Shannon has put up with the loads of lights, junk, and three Christmas trees - for the past 4 years! This year was no different, and I spent about 3 hours putting it all up the Sunday after Thanksgiving. (And a few hours that week refining it all.) We only have 1 week of classes and 1 week of finals between Thanksgiving and Winter Break... but I still do it anyway. :) Hey, even though it's finals, it's time to enjoy the season!

Regardless, I stretch the rules juuuust a bit during this time of year. :-P Don't worry, all of the decorations were taken down and returned to Schaumburg when we traveled back from finals. It's back to plain, boring room 215. Here are some pictures of what we had hanging up:

Starting on the back of the door, we hung up the swag I made in class!

Above Shannon's bed, I put our 3rd (mini!) tree and some random other things

This is the shelf above Shannon's bed: A dumb garland, random snowmen, a duck, and a creepy necklace!

Space between our desks: stockings, stuff animals, more lights, and a brick reindeer

Two Santas representing my heritage on the DVD player: the one on the right is Czech and the one on the left is Italian. :)

On top of my printer: our 2nd Christmas tree, with LED lights! ;-)

On the shelves above my bed: a jolly pig, random figurines, and snowy trees

Our 3ft Christmas tree on a table! Right in the middle of the room. :) I have the best roommate ever to let me do this!!!!

Myself and Shannon posing in front of our tree. We always take a "family" picture in front of the tree.. and this will be our last :(

As I'm sure you can tell, none of this is actually of real quality. :-P It's actually all stuff my mom threw into the garbage at one point, and I took them back out! After she saw these pictures, she couldnt believe the junk I salvaged! But even the rejected stuff makes Christmas jolly for Shannon and me during the stressful time of finals! Even the ugly ornaments, atrocious garland, and broken figurines make us smile!

Some of the things I did not take pictures of: we have 2 strands of lights going around our room all year long - needless to say they are on 24/7 during this season, 2 strands of icicle lights hanging from our celing light, a rope light around our TV stand, a long garland strung from Shannon's bed to mine, a yule log DVD that plays all day on our TV, and a star above our door.

Most of what I mentioned in the above paragraph is not allowed in the residence halls! :\ Needless to say I didnt take pictures of them, but I did take a nice long video of them. It's on facebook if you're interested, it's a little too long to put on here! Dont worry, it is all taken down, and was only up for a short time. Even if we got into trouble for it, we thought it was worth the Christmas-y feeling we had for these two weeks! :) We're seniors in the res halls, for goodness sakes!

Soon I'll post pictures up of my house in Schaumburg to show you just how crazy I REALLY am! I brought most of this home to decorate ;-)

I hope your home is jolly and cozy this season, too! No matter how classy your decorations may be! :)