I suppose I better write this before 2008...

Christmas this year was great. Kari and I were able to afford all the gifts we wanted to buy (for once), and we got totally spoiled by everyone else. We also saw tons of family, but not very many friends this holiday season. I'm a bit sad about the lack of friends this year, but hopefully that's what tonight (New Years) is for.

So starting with Wednesday, Dec 19, Kari and I did our Christmas. It was good. I got some fancy clothes, DVDs, my entire truck outfitted with Polk speakers, etc. And I of course had to give her one of those blasted little blue Tiffany boxes along with a fancy jacket, DVDs, etc, etc. One hilarious thing about our Christmas this year is that Kari and I bought each other same gift - SNL's: The Best of Cheri Oteri, haha. We rule.

Thursday after work, Kari and I drove through some pretty serious fog to my mom's house to get started with family Christmases. Her place is really shaping up nice - I think it's perfect for her... aside from having to worry about noise with her wall-sharing neighbors. It's really, really hard to not crank her nice new stereo when I'm there.

So anyway, Christmas was nice there as well. We got to decorate another tree, hang out with Jeff, Nina, Terry, and Carolyn, open funny gifts, eat, drink, etc.

Sunday, we attempted to drive to Cedar Rapids in horrible weather when Kari's car started shaking like a banshee. Long story short, it took us 3 hours to travel 80 miles. One of her cylinders was misfiring - bad coil, $500, awesome.

So once we got to Cedar Rapids we immediately tapped a keg of homebrew and started partying. More good food, drinks, gifts, partying, etc. Monday night we did Christmas with the family, Sunday we opened santa presents, then we headed home Christmas morning so we could spend most of Christmas day alone at our house.

The day after Christmas, Jeff came back to our house and we all met the Terronez family at King Ying Low for some chinese Christmas. It was pretty amazing. That place is like 100 years old and hasn't changed the decor since the 50s, haha.

Then we got to hang out for about 2 days before heading back to the QC for CJ's wedding, which was really nice. I was pretty stoked to have been invited. (past family troubles - long, dumb story). But anyway, the actual ceremony was nice - the church was amazing, everyone and everything looked good... but catholic weddings are a bit weird to me. Regardless, it was funny to watch how giddy CJ was - he had a huge smile the entire day.

The reception was also great. Good food, funny bridal party, fun people, fancy cigars... just an all around good party. It was a ton of fun hanging out with that side of the family again; I've missed out on that for the past 15 years. We had a blast.

Sunday, after the wedding, we drove up to Dubuque to go snowboarding at Sundown with the Terronez family. Kari and I were both a little sick; me with a head cold and her with a headache and possibly a dash of the wino flu... but we had fun. Sundown is the best snowboarding in Iowa I think, aside from how packed it was... and the spotty ice patches. I hit my first obstacle with my snowboard though (aside from back yard jibbing). I slid a rainbow box, haha, TWICE! That's right.

So yeah. It's been nuts. And here are some gifts I got...
gps, truck speakers, humidor, craftsman gloves/creeper/stool, garage heater, kreg jig accessories, jacket, jeans, shirts, sheik attire/parafanalia, alcohol (iowa made liquor, the hugest gulden draak, etc), bar stuff, DVDs, rain train, fire pit bowl, etc.

Plus I got some money and gift cards, which have so far bought me snowboard boots, a truck stereo, dynamat, and DVDs.

See? Totally spoiled.
Photos of Christmas things are up here: /photos/christmas-2007/, and CJ's wedding/snowboarding pics will be up soon. I left my camera in CR.