the holidays and the new year!

well, the busy holiday season has come and gone and it's a new year!  hard to believe that 2009 is already upon us and i still find it amazing how quickly the year passes by.  

our holidays were great.  mike's been off training for about a month now, so he had to work xmas eve, xmas, new year's eve, and new year's day.  i made all the holiday rounds solo this year.  i felt bad that mike had to be at home by himself on xmas eve, so i put up a few decorations to make our apartment feel more christmasy for him.  so, i spent christmas eve with mike's mom and stepdad in vista.  we had a wonderful dinner and it was great to see everyone.  shelby even got some of the mother-in-law's delicious chicken scraps to enjoy.  

after dinner, i headed down to my parents' house in rancho bernardo and sam and i got to open one gift each.  like every year, they were new pajama bottoms.  it's funny because i know exactly what i'm going to open on christmas eve, but i still look forward to it to see what kind my mom picked out.  oh, how i love the holidays.  we watched the end of 'a christmas story' and went to bed early.  i know i'm not five anymore, but i still had trouble sleeping that night--it could have been the fact that christmas was the next day, it could have been the fact that shelby was taking up most of the bed, it could have been that i wasn't sleeping in my own bed, but who knows?  i like to think that there is still that kid in me that can't wait to see what santa brought me!!

we opened all our gifts on christmas morning and my mom made "monkey bread"--a delicious cinnamon roll type creation with plenty of sugar and what seems to be a syrup glaze that gathers at the bottom.  yum!!  we lazed around during the day and went to dinner at the bradley's house up the street.  it was a full house this year with many of my friend aimee's relatives--some i hadn't seen in 10 years, and others i had never met.  it was a fun evening.  i scooted out early to exchange gifts with julie and sabrina--my two saviors from high school.  i love seeing them and it's too bad we all live far apart and i can't see them everyday anymore.  

after gifts with them, i drove back to san clemente and woke mike up to say hello before he dozed off again and had to get up the next morning to work.  when mike got home after work that day, we did our own xmas.  we only exchanged stockings this year since we're on a little bit of a tight budget, but it was still fun and i got to see mike open the gifts from his mom and my family.  

new year's was really uneventful.  like i said, mike had to work new year's day so we didn't make any plans and i didn't have any plans of my own to ring in the new year.  mike and i hung out at home and i was in bed by 11pm.  no ball drop for me! oh well.  maybe next year we'll get to do something more exciting.  

and since the start of the new year, we haven't really been up to too much.  mike's been working his new schedule and i've been trying to find the motivation to keep running--that's about it.  mike and i don't have any days off together anymore.  i have weekends off and he had tues, wed, thurs off.  it's been weird trying to get used to that, but at least he works during they day so i still get to see him every night.   

that's my story for now.  happy new year everyone!