My grandma’s birthday is the day before mine, so we always have a little joint family party down in Olympia. My sister and I headed down there the day after my Seattle party (no, I wasn’t feeling too hot) and had a really great time. I also got some really cool presents including a super cute necklace from my aunt and cousins, and a cook book from my brother which I’m sure Stewart will be thrilled about (since I seem to be the one doing all the cooking lately!)
My real birthday was on a Monday this year, and since I had already celebrated with my friends the weekend prior I really wasn’t planning on anything fancy. However, Stewart thought it was unacceptable to do nothing, so he took me to dinner at my favorite sushi restaurant, Wasabi Bistro. We had tons of sushi and wine, and when the waitress found out it was my birthday she took it upon herself to bring me a free dessert, nice!
You might think it was over by this point – but no! My mom and sister had planned an additional family birthday party for me in Seattle. I have wanted to Ride the Duck ever since I moved to Seattle almost three years ago, so we thought this would be the perfect opportunity. And if you’ve ever seen those duckmobiles around the Seattle streets, filled with tourists and their cameras… well that was me. It was incredibly entertaining. Kind of cold, but I have to admit I actually did learn a lot about Seattle, and we all laughed a lot at our extremely entertaining driver.
After dinner we went to dinner at Bucca de Beppo – also something I’ve always wanted to do. Unfortunately, this experience was NOT all that I dreamed it would be. Italian food – mainly pasta of any kind – is pretty much my favorite food on earth. So obviously a family style restaurant serving nothing but pasta is my dream come true. However, I found the menu overpriced, the food bland and the service unmemorable. I don’t think I would go back. And to top it off, we left the restaurant to find that my parent’s car had been broken into! Although the night ended on a sour note I still had a great day with my family – they’re fantastic and really made me feel loved and happy during my whole birthday month.
Also in December Amanda and Luke came to visit Seattle. I hadn’t seen Amanda in months since she moved to Canada with Luke, and I hadn’t seen him in even longer, so it was great to spend some time with them. Drinks, bars, video games, more drinks, card games, food, even more drinks and a several seriously intense Super Nintendo tournaments was basically how I spent my time with them. Fun times.
Each December Vanessa hosts an annual Christmas party at her house. Required attire this year was "Ugly Sweaters." Stewart and I didn't have ugly sweaters of our own, but leave it to Larisa to supply an entire garbage bags worth of old lady sweaters for us to choose from. We drank and ate way too much before participating in the White Elephant Gift Exchange - my favorite part of the evening. Stewart ended up with a bag of chocolate, coffee and tea (meh) but I actually got a really rad present this year - Catch Phrase; Music Edition! I can't wait to play...
This year I have become a huge Seahawks fan and watched every single game with Stewart – most times wearing my brand new Seahawks jersey! Even better, my friend Mike was able to get us tickets for a couple games. So Stewart and I spent the Sunday before Christmas Eve at Qwest field drinking beers and watching the game – so fun!
For Christmas this year Stewart and I had big plans – well, big for me, anyway. For the first time, my boyfriend invited me to spend Christmas with him and his family. Huge, in my opinion. So we planned on going down to Vancouver, WA to spend Christmas with Stewart’s dad and his family. However, they got stuck in New York at the last minute. Great. I absolutely hate it when plans get changed at the last minute, but obviously there was nothing I could do. So I went home and had a fantastic Christmas with my family.
Stewart even came down to spend the day with me and my family on Christmas day. My mom made a huge dinner and we played games including my new favorite – Catch Phrase Music Edition. I know how uncomfortable it is to spend time with someone else’s family when you don’t know them very well, so I give Stewart a lot of credit for spending the day in Olympia with my family. I think he had fun though and we had a very Merry Christmas.
This year I got some pretty radical gifts, but I think my favorite came from my sister: My So-Called Life: The Complete Series on DVD. Most people who know me well know that this is my favorite show of all time, and it was only released on DVD this year – I can’t wait to watch it!!But as cheesy as it sounds, my favorite part of Christmas is gift giving. And this year I really put some thought and consideration into one particular gift. Last year my family had an unconventional Christmas – we went to Cabo San Lucas. And for the past year, my mom has been talking about how it was “the best Christmas ever.” So this year my sister and I decided what better way to remind her of that Christmas than by gathering up all the memories for her – in the form of a scrapbook. So throughout the last few weeks of December we met at my house and worked for hours on an intricate scrapbook of photos and memories from the trip. I don’t think I’ve ever put more effort into a gift before, but the look on her face when she opened it was totally worth it.
I went snowboarding for the first time toward the end of the month at Snoqualmie Pass, where I get to snowboard for free because Stewart is on Ski Patrol there. Surprisingly, I wasn’t as bad as I thought I would be after a three year hiatus, and I had a really great day – although the next day was more painful than I could ever imagine, and I ended up with multiple bruises covering various parts of my body. I can’t wait to go again!Well, there’s only one thing left to wrap up 2007 – New Years Eve. And I think that deserves its own blog…
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