Results of "The List"

Before I went home, I made a list of everything I was looking forward to doing while at home for Christmas. This is how it panned out...

· everyone in my family being there for the full two weeks
Check.
· the Christies coming
Check.
· watching Elf (especially with Dylan and Derek) over and over again
Semi-Check. I guess some things do eventually die down. We put it on Christmas Eve night as we were all in bed getting ready for Santa to come. Everybody fell asleep and we didn't get through the whole movie. Surprisingly, that was the only time it was on.
· watching Polar Express with Kevin and Cade
Check. However, Kevin wasn't awake when we watched it.
· going out to eat Indian food
Check. Gotta go with the buffet so you can get a little of everything!

Tay licked his plate clean:

Gpa's Cadillac comes in handy!:

· having unlimited amounts of Blue Bell ice cream
Semi-check. There was some Blue Bell there, but we didn't go buy a ton like I thought I would do. In fact, I only ate ice cream maybe 2 or 3 times. Kinda weird, but I guess that's a good thing!
· a completely stocked fridge full of soda/drinks
Check. Since it was cold enough outside and in the garage, we didn't have to put it all in the fridge:


· mattress surfing (assuming we can solve the problem of not having a twin mattress in the house anymore)
CHECK!! Kenny and Leah went out and found us a mattress the morning that they were leaving to go back to Houston. Needless to say, Mattress Surfing Dream Killer (Mom) wasn't too ecstatic. But everyone else was thrilled.

Now Dad can always fill his guilty pleasure when he thinks no one is around!:

· hot-tubbing
Check. No snow to go along this time. But still fun.


And daring each other to jump into the 41° pool was fun. Your body kinda seized up when you jumped into it, so you had to be not far from the edge to get out quick! The tingling sensation after you jumped into the 100° hot tub was pretty cool!

· playing Guitar Hero World Tour with everyone
Check. This was such a blast! It was totally worth it for me to buy this. Watching the 5-year-old beat it out on the drums was fun! I refrained from putting the video on with Lauren singing. For everyone's sake, and the sake of her embarrassment. It was awful!!!!

Alli is the bomb on the bass!:

Cutest drummer ever!:
(Yes Taylor, I know you're thinking "what about me?!" or "check out that good looking guy in the gray shirt!" I know you all too well.)

· Ham
Check. Love the big dinners!
· Nativity Reenactment
Check. Interesting, like every year. It was fun with the new donkey, Sam.

Mary, Joseph, baby Jesus, and donkey:

The angel and shepherds:

· funeral potatoes
Check. I made sure this was on the menu one day. Basically one of my favorites!

Complete with the maid/cook:

· Martinelli's
Check. Can't have New Years Eve without it.

The picture is from Christmas, but you get the point:

· corny Christmas crackers with the awesome paper hats inside!
Check. Mom sprung a little this year! The hats were of a higher quality than tissue paper. :)



· having fun people to be with for New Years Eve
Check. Nuttall Nest and Christie Chrew. It doesn't get a whole lot better than that!
· fireworks
EPIC FAIL!! I forgot we're in Oklahoma now, not Texas. There wasn't a single fireworks stand in sight. It was thoroughly depressing. Next time I think we'll plan ahead and make the drive to the Texas border and get the big stuff (who cares if it's illegal?!).
· spending 12+ hours New Years Day watching the bowl games with Tay
Semi Check. Many hours were spent in front of the TV, but we kinda got distracted during the games and would walk out of the room and do other things. It didn't help that most of Tay's teams he was rooting for, or against, ended up the opposite of what he would've liked. That made it not so much fun!
· slumber parties in the upstairs bedroom
Check. 7 people on 2 double beds. We all quickly became cuddle buddies!

Ok, so we're totally faking it (as evidenced by Cade's face). But this is really what it looked like every night. We had to capture it on film!:

· Jungle Uno
Check. One of the few games I can sit down and play for hours!
· an awesome breakfast Christmas morning
Check. Mom and Dad come through every year!
· Mom's cooking!
Check. It's always nice when someone cooks for you. And especially when it's always good!
· Christmas jello
Check.


· giving the best present I've probably ever given
CHECK!! I made a DVD of the Nuttall/Christie Family Escapades. It was basically a big slide show of tons of things over the last couple of years we've done together. With a bunch of videos thrown in here and there. And it really was a movie, it was 1 hr and 15 min long! Pictures from Disney World, Christmases, and many other fun things we've done together. And definitely the boating. Here's my tubing video, it's actually just the section with the wipeouts. That's the good stuff anyways, right? Too bad the clips came from a digital camera so the picture is very low quality. But you still get to see the awesomeness of it!

· 12 Days of Christmas puzzle that we put together in just a few hours
Check for AD. She got it out and her and Leah worked on it. I did not participate this year. Not sure why, I guess I was just busy doing other fun things!


· watching everyone open their presents and just the joy of Christmas morning
Check. It's so much fun to watch little kids on Christmas.


· going to the zoo
Check. And I didn't toss my cookies this time!

Gotta have the pictures on the statues:

Well, we did a good job!! I was truly satisfied with my vacation!




The Office Calendar:
Jan 7th: "My girlfriend and I broke up recently and I must say I am relieved. Gives me a chance to sow my wild oats. In the Schrute family, we have a tradition where when the male has sex with another women he is rewarded with a bag of wild oats, left on his doorstep by his parents. You can use those oats to make oatmeal, bread, whatever you want. I don't care, they're your oats." -Dwight
Jan 8th: "Ladies and gentlemen, I have some bad news. Meredith was hit by a car. . . . It happened this morning in the parking lot. I took her to the hospital. The doctors tried to save her life, they did the best that they could . . . and she is going to be okay." -Michael