Category: Holidays

New Years

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Well, it was definitely last minute, but I was able to get my home sleep study in before the new year! Tuesday after work I picked up the equipment and slept with all this crap strapped to me that night to measure my breathing and whatnot. I slept like shit thanks to that and some stuff going on with Joe’s son that had my mind going at 120 mph.

After work on New Years Eve we returned the equipment to the sleep center and had dinner at a favorite nearby Thai restaurant (Happy Elephant) which we don’t get the opportunity to visit often enough. I think their main entree prices may have gone up, though, and I didn’t feel that the portions were large enough considering. I think I’d stick to their crab rangoon in the future as they are AMAZING. Hands down the best crab rangoon I’ve ever had.

After dinner we headed over to my parents house to ring in the new year with them and both my brothers. We worked on my parents new computer briefly and then ate a second dinner. We also got a chance to play Aggravation which we haven’t done in awhile. We didn’t end up leaving until a little after midnight.

We slept in on New Years Day but eventually made our way to the mall in the early afternoon so I could cash in on my free birthday burger at Red Robin. We also hit up Kohls as is our tradition but neither of us ended up buying anything. In fact, we didn’t end up spending anything at all since I also had a gift card for Red Robin.

I feel like I’ve lost the ability to shop just for the sake of shopping which is definitely a good thing for our bank account. It’s not like I need more jewelry or clothes anyway. I’m glad I’m so picky or I probably would spend more.

Christmas Part Deux

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Yesterday was our Christmas with E. He seemed to enjoy all his presents: baseball cards, a White Sox collectors coin, candy, Dunkin Donuts gift card, McDonald’s gift card, Google Play store gift card, and $100 in cash (because he didn’t really give us any ideas for presents and we eventually ran out). Not surprising, to me at least, was how much he liked the oversized ceramic Pikachu bank we got him. He sure loves Pokemon!

Pikachu Bank

The only thing he wasn’t keen on was the Skullcandy bluetooth wireless speaker we got him. We had seen it at Target for 50% off so we took a gamble knowing he might already have one at home (he does). So I gave him $20 for it and I’m debating whether to keep it or take it back. I already have a wireless speaker but this new one has twice the battery life so it’s tempting to hang onto it but I’m not sure if I really need it.

We ran out to Target for a little bit in the early afternoon and E decided to use some of his money to buy some more baseball cards. I showed him how they were 30% off in the Target Cartwheel app and when we got home he had downloaded it and signed up since he goes to Target sometimes. I’m happy to be a role model for him on how to save a couple of bucks.

I made a delicious Cook’s shank ham that we got at Meijer. I used to get a spiral ham at Target but found that the shank ham comes out much more moist. The regular sides we have every year were included – green bean casserole, sweet potato casserole, crescent rolls, corn, mashed potatos, gravy, stuffing, and macaroni and cheese, except the latter was my homemade version instead of boxed.

We spent the day watching movies and just relaxing. It was nice.

Christmas

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Since we got to bed so late last night (1:30 am) we slept in this morning. Once we made it downstairs we exchanged gifts. I got Joe some candy, a work light and hunting knife he had asked for, a Quirky extension cord, and a Flip Belt for when he gets back to running.

Joe got me what you see below.

Nicole's Gifts

I asked for the Jasmine essential oil, nail strengthener, and facial brush. I also pretty much told Joe he had to get me the chocolate covered potato chips (sadly, they aren’t that impressive) and pretzels as stocking stuffers when I spotted them at Target last month. The Chromecast and webcam were complete surprises, though.

I’ve been talking about wanting to try the Chromecast lately because I love the idea of being able to stream YouTube videos on the TV, plus in March we will no longer be getting the incredible deal we have on our cable services anymore. Joe was let go from the company earlier this year when they decided to outsource his department (the outsourcer ended up hiring him so he does the same thing but for a different company) and part of the deal was to allow us to retain the heavily discounted services through March 2015. Once that time comes around the bill will probably quadruple (if not more), so we’ve been thinking of alternatives. Right now we have home phone, security, the fastest internet package, and every cable channel possible and we only pay $50 a month and that’s mostly for rental fees (for two DVRs & the cable modem) as well as $10 per month for the security system (the employee discount was very generous). So once that goes to regular customer prices it’s going to be outrageous. We plan to keep the internet and security and drop the cable and phone services so the bill will be closer to double what we pay now. Joe started an Amazon Prime trial and I signed up for free trials of Hulu Plus and Epix so we can get an idea of what shows we can watch without cable. So far it seems pretty promising. I’m pretty sure Joe already regrets getting me the Chromecast, however, since I spent like four hours playing YouTube videos and Hulu Plus content on the TV today.

As for the webcam, he got me that because I had mentioned awhile back that it would be cool to set up a camera in the rat room so I can keep an eye on my babies when I’m at work. So we’ll be hooking that up this weekend to test it out. I’m pretty excited because I miss them during the day!

Since E won’t be back until Saturday we are waiting to make our ham then, so we made some steak for dinner tonight. Now we’re just relaxing watching TV. Joe has to work tomorrow so I’ll probably be spending the day watching more YouTube videos on the TV, haha! My life is so hard right now. ;)

Christmas Eve

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Merry Christmas!

Last night we picked up E on the way to my parents’ house. But before that we stopped at Portillo’s to pick up some beef and salads. My mom wasn’t in the mood to cook so she asked us to get that while she had my brother pick up KFC. I was impressed how Portillo’s handled all the people picking up catering orders – they had a table set up with various stations where you checked in, paid, and people packed a nice box with your food. Everyone couldn’t have been nicer! It never ocurred to me how many people would want Portillo’s for Christmas until yesterday. Unfortunately, the beef didn’t end up tasting like a classic Portillo’s beef sandwich so I’m not sure I’d go that route in the future.

Once Brother # 2’s girlfriend got there we worked on getting the food ready to eat. As always, there was still more food than necessary so I couldn’t try everything, but what I did have was really good.

Surprisingly, my mom got really emotional over us buying her and my dad a computer. At first she thought it was a toaster oven based on the box size, so that was awesome unintentionally tricking her like that. I’m pretty sure when we bought them their last computer she guessed it right off the bat which kinda sucked. We grabbed their old computer so we can retrieve all their music files and whatnot from it, burn it to DVD, and then transfer it to their new computer next week when we’re over there for New Years.

Crazy BINGO Gifts
Crazy BINGO gifts before I wrapped them a week ago

Crazy BINGO was a bit of a letdown simply because no one wanted to steal except my mom who stole my dad’s present much to his dismay. They were both getting kinda angry over the whole thing which was funny since neither present was anything exceptional. My dad got the dollar store electronic candles, and my mom got the decorate your own reindeer. Brother # 2 got the ping pong game, Brother # 1 got the Christmas sign, R (Brother #2’s girlfriend) got the Pot of Gold, E got the pickle in the plastic canister, I got the coal in Santa’s pants, and Joe got the paddle with the $5 gift card (and he didn’t cheat because only I know what was in each present and even I forgot and grabbed a lame gift).

My brothers seemed to like the gifts I got them. I got Brother # 1 a Fart Ninja t-shirt and some candy (including five packs of Super Mario gummies that only come out around Christmas) and I gave Brother # 2 some hot cooca, candy, a “lens pen” to clean his camera’s lenses. Brother # 1 tried to give us a card with $60 in it and I made him take back $20 of it (I tried to make him take back $40 but he refused). He still doesn’t get that the whole reason I stopped the gift exchange years ago is because of what he just did. I don’t want someone to hand me cash. It means nothing. No thought is put into a gift of cash. I only started giving my brothers small gifts last year because I missed buying for more than two people every year. I enjoy finding stuff people would like. It’s too bad it’s not reciprocated. *sigh*

Anyway, overall the night went pretty well and even though it didn’t quite live up to my expectations it was a good time.

Employee Holiday Luncheon

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I decided to go into work on Monday since the office would be closed Wed-Fri this week and we were only working a half day on Tuesday.

At 11:30 am everyone headed over to a local steakhouse for the company’s annual holiday luncheon. This year it wasn’t nearly as long as last years because instead of waiting until after lunch, they did the grab-bag during lunch. Plus less people participated in this year’s grab bag. Our owner gave us a little talking to, calling us grinches, but the reason (at least for me and a few others) we didn’t participate is that 90% of the gifts are bottles of alcohol. I told the owner’s wife I’d love it if they could do a non-alcohol swap and then I’d participate. I think it would encourage more creative gifts too. There were a little less alcohol related gifts this year, but that’s because the owner put in two gifts of his own, one of which was a crockpot (and selected two non-participants to go in on the grab bag by way of selecting cards from a deck and picking the two people with the highest suit).

Lunch was better this year too. I had steak both years but this year it was filet and it was very tasty. I recall the baked potato tasting weird before so my boss and I both asked if they’d substitute it for rice pilaf instead which they did. So that was nice. Everyone received two free drink tickets and some people also visited the bar for additional lubrication, so people were in high spirits once things started wrapping up around 2:15 pm. I got a few hugs and a lot of Merry Christmas wishes. It made me happy to be working some place where I like my coworkers.

In addition to a nice Christmas bonus check, the owner gave everyone insulated cups with the redesigned company logo on them.

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Logo intentionally not show for privacy reasons

He explained how as a child he learned from his father how important drinking enough water is to one’s health. This has always been a challenge of mine personally, thanks to my bladder condition, but I have been making a bigger effort to drink water and he’s definitely onto something because I’ve been feeling pretty good lately.

I headed to Target afterwards to pick up Trivial Pursuit Hints.

Trivial Pursuit Hints Game

I’ve never been a big fan of Trivial Pursuit, but between a 50% off Cartwheel offer and a $3 Hasbro coupon, it only cost $5. Plus it seems easier than the traditional Trivial Pursuit games. I plan on trying it at my parents’ house on New Years Eve.