Christmas break

I woke up this morning with the cheerful message that clinic would not open until 10 due to inclement weather. Well after braving the snowy, treacherous roads, both my patients ended up canceling. So now I find myself with an entire day to entertain myself, so I figured I'd start out with some blogging!

Well this is basically what I accomplished over Christmas break. Wrapping the presents is pretty much my designated job when I come home every year. I actually don't mind - in fact I think it's kinda fun. I put on a movie and go to town! Yeah, pretty sure the brothers have figured out I work for Santa.

We also have this tradition of exchanging sibling gifts on Christmas Eve. I'm not really sure why we don't wait till the next day, but who am I to mess with tradition, right? Well we have instigated the art of "crap wrapping." That basically means you try to make it as difficult or time-consuming to open the present as possible. It usually involves multi-layered duct tape, a couple of boxes, some shredded up paper, and so on. I didn't take a picture this year, but it was pretty entertaining!

Since most of us are getting older, we also tend to stay up way too late Christmas Eve. My poor mom was mad at us because we didn't even go to bed until after midnight. That also meant that Carson (the youngest brother) had to drag most of us out of our beds at around 7:30.

This was my favorite present of the morning:

Yes, that is a Speedo with a Canadian flag on the butt. Ha ha ha!! That's Mitchell showing off his swim-gear. He's a pretty talented little swimmer, and apparently he can show off his skills in style now! He also got a one with a big eagle on the butt.

Among other things that happened, we set out on a mission to tie quilts for all the brothers (and me). It was somewhat entertaining to see my almost 20-year-old brother attempting to pick out fabric for his! We also set out to watch all three extended Lord of the Rings while we working on these projects. I only got through two, but Carson and my mom made it through all three. Here is my lovely quilt!

We also attempted to go skiing, but bad weather halted those plans. We made it up to the ski resort again on New Year's Eve, and went tubing for a couple of hours. After dark, they have all the ski instructors come down the hill with flares, then they do a fireworks show. We sat down at the bottom of the run with our cousins, and it was fun, but it was freezing! I believe the temperature was somewhere around negative 5!

I reluctantly flew back to Omaha the next day, and I am pleased to report that I had no cancellations, no delays, and no lost baggage. In fact I didn't hardly even have to wait in the airport. It was awesome!!