starchild228

How was everyone's Holiday? Mine went quite well, I had to work Christmas Eve into Christmas morning- a 10 hr. shift. I went home and had Christmas with my boyfriend- I got him a stainless steel kitchen knife set with a block, and some of his favorite movies that I knew were missing from his collection. He gave me a beautiful journey pendant that I am wearing right now. I got changed and headed to my Dad's place for breakfast (biscuits and sausage gravy! Yum!) and Christmas morning with my Stepmom's family. My stepnieces and stepnephew were all over the place, it was rather chaotic. I gave my 2 year old Stepnephew a fisher price saw, and he couldn't figure out how to work it. I would demonstrate it for him, and the instant it started making noise he would snatch it back from me and stare at it in fascination until it stopped. Then he would look quite sad and hand it back to me to make it work again. We probably did this little process about 6 times before he found out how to push the button that made it run himself. It was funny. My four year old stepniece was as precocious as ever, and it was the first time I'd met my youngest stepniece, who was an adorable and very even-tempered baby. I was quite tired after everyone had eaten and opened presents, and headed home to get some sleep after exchanging sweets with my stepmom. Both she and I had been baking like fiends for the holiday season- and had more cookies, candies, and sweet breads than we knew what to do with. She actually took pains to make me a butterscotch fudge that I could eat. I'm violently allergic to nuts and chocolate makes me sick, so my dessert options are rather limited. I had never gotten ahold of fudge I could eat, so I thought that was really nice of her. My boyfriend and I took our loot (lots of gift cards, cookbooks, a sketch pad and pencil set, and the new Twilight book I got from my brother's girlfriend. We crashed for several hours, then I got up and tested out a recipe I had found in a cookbook for gingerbread cake. My grandfather's favorite is gingerbread, so I gave it a shot. I had never come across a recipe where you were to mix the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients while alternating cups of water. It turned out quite well and was very, very moist. I was really glad it was good. The entire family on my Mom's side was there (save for my Uncle's ex-wife and their kids, who are too good to associate with us- which is just fine with me) and there are a lot of loud and crazy personalities in that crew. It was a lot of fun. We had a huge turkey dinner, complete with potatoes and gravy, stuffing, green bean casserole, mac & cheese, and my mother's scalloped oysters. The present exchange was massive, we don't draw names on that side- everyone buys for everyone. That was fun. My Mom received "bling" from both my boyfriend and I, so she was a happy camper. My boyfriend and I made out like bandits- one of my favorite gifts was a beautiful purple faux- wrap sweater in my favorite color from my Mom. My boyfriend got a hoodie and some cash and gift cards- oh, and lots of candies. We stayed there late, talking and laughing. A few days later, my boyfriend and I went to his parents house to have Christmas with them. It was the first time I had ever met his sister, brother-in-law, and his 2-year-old nieces and 7 month old nephew. The kids were funny and adorable- the more outgoing of the twin girls came right up to me as soo as she saw me and held up her arms to be picked up. Her sister looked at me suspiciously for the first few hours, and slowly warmed up to me. My boyfriend's nephew was a little tank, he was a pretty happy guy, grinning and playing, until he got hungry. Then, all hell would break loose. My boyfriends sister and her husband- a minister, were a good deal more conservative than my man and I. We weren't sure if they would object to us being an unmarried couple living together or not. They didn't say a word about it, and I got along quite well with his sister. My boyfriend told me later that he would kill to have audio surveillance in that house, though. While they didn't say anything to us about it, they very well may have said something to his parents. It went better than I dared to expect. We had lasagna and fresh baked bread, and I brought snickerdoodle cookies and scotch shortbread for dessert. They liked the cookies, and asked me to leave them some shortbread, which I'm told promptly vanished the day after. We stayed for quite a while, then spent the following few days sleeping in, eating, watching movies, and making love. It was wonderful. Saturday we went shopping in Des Moines with his family, then stopped in Ames to eat at the best barbecue place I have ever come across- Hickory Park. I had baby back ribs. My boyfriend's brother and his wife- who is expecting- came in from Illinois yesterday. We went over and had dinner with them- chicken and egg noodles over potatoes (very midwestern fare- carbs and more carbs- but oh, so good) I baked a butter recipe yellow cake and frosted it with cream cheese frosting for dessert. Everyone came over to our place and took a tour of the house, and my man took his brother down to the garage to see his hot rod. We went back and hung out at his parents place until the weather took a nasty turn. Freezing rain made the roads into a skating rink, we wound up driving home at about 10- 15 mph. My grandmother is through with her series of chemo, but has been hospitolized in Ames for dehydration and pnemonia. I went to visit her Friday. So far, her fever has gone from high to low-grade, and IV fluids have made dehydration a thing of the past, but the pnemonia isn't letting go. She may be in the hospitol for several days. I'm praying she will be all right, and think she probably will be, but I know pneumonia is a known killer of people her age. I'll go to visit her again early this week. I go back to work today- I've been dreading it for days. I'm scheduled to work 9 days straight- the last 4 being 10 hour days. I'll be half-dead. Ah, well. I'll live. If you all haven't gone to check out Wendy's new set, please do so. She is so gorgeous, and I love seeing a girl with curves like hers modeling.