Christmas 2011

The boys were home and doing their typical napping before the real eating began..

I was relaxing too.

Well one of them is up at least...

Grandpa (:

My geriatric love muffins!

Opening some gifts with the family.

Now, the real fun begins...every year my uncles put together the most elaborate gift exchange I have ever witnessed. There are 3 rounds, everyone gets a gift each round. We are able to trade and be bribed each round. Within the gifts are a variety of things including: gag gifts, really nice gifts, keys to really really nice gifts in the final round, and "face-off cards." These face-off cards allow for the person who opened it to challenge other family members in a game. This particular game was trying to throw a ping pong ball into a red cup, stack another red cup on top off the ball and previous cup and then throw another ball, and so on. I lost... My cousin Melanie won.

My aunt was a competitor.

Melanie's cups are in the foreground...needless to say she won.

I got another face-off so this was the game that I played with RJ against my parents. We had to string a piece of linguine through the top of a pop can and carry together across the family room to another chair and stack. We needed to bring three cans over and stack them in a pyramid, all with one piece of damn linguine. RJ and I won!! Yay!

Oh geez mom, your losing it!!

RJ and I took this really seriously.

So the next game my brothers played was obviously taing nylons and putting them on their head with baseballs in them. They then had to knock over water bottles until they were all knocked down.

This is really funny because the items on the ottoman were would buzz you if you picked them up. So my parents got buzzed!!

This game was especially hilarious! My two cousins and myself put vasoline on our nose and were suppose to take cotton balls from the counter to a bowl in the family room without using our hands.

Melanie won!!

I was so happy to spend Christmas with my family and RJ. I had a great time!

Surprise Trip for RJ to Traverse City!!

I was actually having a difficult time studying for finals because I was SO EXCITED to surprise RJ and take him to "Michigan wine country" = Traverse City! His mom helped by packing his bag and getting the car ready for the drive while I was away. I flew in on saturday night, so sunday morning I went over to his house in the morning. I went into his room and woke him up and told him we were going on a little trip. I was suppose to wait until we were in the car, but I blurted it out then, "We are going to Traverse City!" His reaction was pretty typical for a male, "Alright, sounds good, let me brush my teeth" haha. We stayed for a couple nights at an Inn on a vinyard that specialized in Reisling, our favorite type of wine. They also gave a complementary bottle of different kinds of reisling in the room everyday (awesome).

RJ's surprised face

View from the room

This was the other area of the Inn, it was pretty much a big house with renovated rooms.

Dining room

Basement

This was the common area kitchen where the guests could eat breakfast. RJ and I were the only couple there the first morning....so we ate everything they offered with no shame.

The goodies that RJ's mom packed for us (: Thanks!

Secret door to the wine cellar in the basement!

Wine celler

Wine cellar

So the girl that was helping us get checked in shared a story about the owner of the vineyard/Inn, she said that the owner made a machine that produces wine by the ounce for wine tastings in the wine cellar. He sold his idea to disney....probably why the place was amazing!

Belgium waffle maker...yes please!

Yum!

RJ making his belgium waffle.

  

RJ wanted to go to some microbrew pubs downtown, I guess there are some famous ones in Traverse City. This particular one was called Right Brain Brewery.

I don't usually like dark beers, but this one was delicious! I had RJ take a picture of me drinking a dark beer...it was actually a whimpy lager disguised as a stout.

So I take my fiance on this romantic getaway and how do we celebrate it....Mcdonalds and wine?? haha Seriously, it was my idea! I wouldn't want to share Mcdonalds and wine with anyone else but my RJ (;

St. Kitts Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving here on the island was not much different than in the states. Minus family and RJ, it was pretty much the same. I wanted to make my Nanas' sausage stuffing, so I called my parents to get the recipe. They were really descriptive ingredients, where I needed to get specific name brand products. I kept repeating to my mom that I would do my best, but whatever was shipped to the grocery store that week was what I was going to get! This is comical because I actually found the exact name brand stuffing mix that I needed for the recipe, it took some hunting but I was grateful St. Kitts came through for me (: I definitely made way TOO much stuffing, I think that is something I need to work on when I start making dinners for RJ and myself. I don't think this trait is entirely my fault as I grew up in a house where my mom regularly made 3 full trays of 10 layer lasagna for just the family!

Awesome appetizers

Decorative table runner complements of my future mother-in-law!

Lindsey, Kat, Maddie (turkey maker), Kristen

Cooking up a storm!

Drinking and eating way too many appetizers.

The other side of the kitchen looked like this as well!

Good job Maddie! Teach me your ways!

Another hit in my belly....I LOVE salad!

Toast to the host and the cook.

So full and only laying on the floor sprawled out was comfortable.

Borrowed a projector from school and watched Elf and Rudolph!