I'll be home for Christmas

Saturday, December 22nd, I drove home to philly right after work.  Other than being exhausted  it was one of the smoothest drives I've ever had.  There was no snow, no rain, no slick roads, no construction, just smooth sailing!  I made it home by about 7:30 am and then slept till 11.  I spent the rest of the day relaxing and hanging out with family.

Sunday evening Grandma threw a big family dinner.  Everyone was there!  Aunts, Uncles, cousins, grandparents and parents were all in attendance!

While I was there it was a bit too crowded to get any good pictures on just the 'rents and I, so waited till we got home to take a picture:

Cousin Mara then dropped by to give me a scarf she had made!  It looked so cute I had to take a picture:

Mom mentioned we should play pinochle.  We played, and, of course Dad won.  

I took advantage of his good mood and asked for some homemade hot chocolate.  It was  SOOO good.  He made it with real chocolate bars:

He also added home made whipped cream on top.  It was AH-MAZING.  Seriously, I have the best dad!

The next day, Dad came home after grocery shopping with a mighty fine brand of pudding:

He then said "why are you taking pictures of the pudding??!" 

My Cousin Mara, her hubby Zach and I all went to see the hobbit in 3D.  My dad paid for it (and lunch afterwords).  Did I mention I have the best dad ever?  True story.

The movie was good, although it probably would have been better if I had realized it was part 1 of 3!  Sigh.  The book was good, but I don't think they needed to make it a 3 parter.  Over all a solid 3.5 stars out of 5!

For Christmas eve, Joel's girlfriend Kate came over and brought gifts!!  I got a "make your own zombie" kit and some Doctor Who pins (SQUEEEEE):

We then all played Bandu, a stacking game:

I lost 2 games...

but rallied, and  won 3 games...so I was the ultimate winner!  YAY ME! (note that I'm wearing the awesome Doctor Who buttons Kate got me!!)

Christmas morning rolled around way too early.  Dad made pancakes and waffles for us and grandman/grandpa...then I was time for presents!!  Yesterday, Joel and I had taken the santa's from the window:

and them wrapped them up up and wrote "SANTA" on the package, so, come christmas morning, mom, dad, grandma and grandpa all went to open presents that they thought were from santa...but were ACTUALLY Santa!!  HAHAHAHAHA.  Pure winning!

I got a bunch of gifts, so I won't list them all here (I'll put them all on FB), but I got a bunch of zombie paraphanalia from Joel:

A fire extinguisher and crystal set (both of which I forgot to take back to Ohio with me, argh!):

And, a book called Star Babies.  I feel like I need to be tripping acid to fully comprehend this book.  Below is a page from star babies.  Almost all of the pages are this trippy:

The drive back to Ohio on christmas was uneventful.  Again, no rain/snow/construction.  I hope you all had as good a holiday as I did!

30th Birthday part 4 (FINAL) - VEGAS

Day 2 in Vegas:
I got such good bday presents from Jeff and Rachel (sorry, no pics cuz I'm an idiot).  Jeff got me a heart monitor/watch for when I'm working out!  Rachel, to even out the healthiness of that got me peanut butter cups from trader joes, which may be my new favorite candy of all time now!

After presents, we took our time getting ready.  Rachel offered to curl my hair, which turned out SO SUPER CUTE!  You can tell how much I liked it by how many pictures I took:

We then went to the Imperial palace to get breakfast at Hash House A Go Go.  Sadly there was an hour wait, so we decided to try again tomorrow.  Did I mention that there was a rodeo in town?!  We saw SO MANY COWBOYS.  Heck, even Caesar himself was wearing a cowboy hat!

Rachel, Jeff and I had tried to see the Bellagio fountains at night last night, but it was taking too long so we got bored and wandered off.  We did finally see them during the day time.  Sadly I was too busy watching the show to get any good pictures...

We took a quick eat-break at panda express:

...which turned into a technology break.  Turns out Rachel and I are total tech nerds.  Thank goodness for wifi!!

We had tickets to a magic show, but it wasn't for another 45 minutes.  We stopped at a fancy '50s themed store and HAD to have Rachel try on clothes!  While we were waiting, Jeff and I sat on this fancy car couch:

 When Rachel came out she looked stunning!  She was definitely born in the wrong era!

I also noticed that the same store had a "dungeon".  When I asked what that was, the lady said that it is currently just a storage room, but previously, if you bought a t-shirt, you could get spanked by the spanking machine!  Lol wut?!

We then stopped at a hat store.  I had Rachel take this picture before I realized there were signs EVERYWHERE that said "no pictures"!  Oops.

Next stop was the Magic show.  The magician, Nathan Burton, had been on americas got talent.  Honestly, his magic was pretty good, but his stage presence was lacking.  It was only 12 bucks, so, for the price I would recommend it!

After the magic show I talked Rachel into to going on the New York, NY roller coaster.  Jeff, took no convincing.  The roller coaster runs outside of the casino, which makes it all the more terrifying.  It was SO MUCH FUN!!!  Rachel did not love it, but I think Jeff and I could have gone 10 more times and still wanted more!

To calm our stomachs we walked around a bit and eventually found ourselves in the M&M store.  Wow, they had every kind of M&M imaginable!  The only thing we got there was a free raspberry m&m sample

We tried going to the Paris Casino/Hotel Buffet, but it was packed solid with people, so we decided to go back to the Rio.  This is what our hotel looked like at night from the road:

When we got back to the Rio, the buffet line was non-existant, but it was also 33 dollars, so we decided to got to Burger King instead.  Wise and delicious choice.

The next morning we got up early to hit Hash House A Go Go.  On the entry way we saw NPH had been there!!

And one of Rachel's favorite people, Martha Stewart had been to Hash House A Go Go!

For Breakfast Rachel ordered the Mango Coconut Pancake:

Jeff ordered the (banana?) french toast:

And I got the sage chicken and bacon waffle tower:

The food portions were HUGE!  We had been warned,  but nothing really prepares you for the sheer amount of food they give you:

Rachel and I made it 1/2 way through our meals:

While Jeff was the only victorious one.  He SLAUGHTERED his meal.  There was nothing left but banana peels!!  He truly is his fathers son!

Jeff and Rachel left shortly after breakfast and an AWESOME Vegas vacation!  The rest of my trip was spent between buffets, walking around and going to Chippendales!  There is no full nudity in that show (did you know that), just a couple of bare boy butts.  They came into the audience a couple of times, and I got a kiss on the cheek once and a lap dance once.  By lap dance I mean a hugged my arms into my body and giggled awkwardly while he tried to grind on me.  It was awkward for everyone involved, but I got a good story out of it!

 I got home and KW picked me up from the airport.  When I got home, I found this note from Mitch and Dom (who had awesomely driven me to the airport and got my mail/checked on my condo while I was gone).  The note also came with  TWO Doctor who toys!!!  I have the best friends ever!!

Well, that's it.  I'm 30!  It was a great trip!  I wouldn't do it differently if I could!