Life with Gling

admin January 4th, 2005

Ok, this is going to be a long one, but so much happened over Christmas break. In effort to keep myself from rambling…I’ll cut this into more managable bits and pieces.

Dec. 23rd: This was my birthday…and a great one at that! Jared and I went out to eat and went to see “Meet the Fockers.” GO SEE THAT MOVIE! He also got me Sirius satellite radio. It’s so awesome! I love music…and now with the help of this amazing new technology…I can listen to 80’s music ALL DAY LONG! Woo-Hoo!

Dec. 24th: Jared and I awoke early this morning to celebrate our first Christmas together as a married couple. It was so much fun to open our gifts in our pj’s in our own home. This Christmas we decided to get each other smaller gifts, and then to get one big gift for us to share. So I got him a thumb drive for his computer, Napoleon Dynamite, Mitch Hedberg dvd and a few other little things. He got me new fuzzy slippers, 3rd Season of Alias on dvd and Value City money for myself (for new shoes…which I bought yesterday…way awesome Steve Madden boots). Anyway…after gifts we had our own Christmas dinner. I made us cheesy potatoes, briscut, buttery corn, rolls and peppermint ice cream. After all of that we packed up the car and headed to Emden. We got there, changed and went to Christmas Eve service at Vale. Afterwords we went to Olive Garden for our ritual Christmas Eve dinner with my mom.

Dec. 25th: Christmas! We got up and opened presents with my mom and dad…which was great. Jared laughed at us because we always videotape the whole thing…and this year he got to experience that. We had lunch and Christmas at Grandma Cox’s house that afternoon and we also opened gifts with my brother’s and their wives and my nephews. That evening we headed over to Kristina’s (Jared’s sister) house for that family Christmas. Supper was awesome and we had a blast. We got so many nice things from everyone in both sides of our family…we are so blessed to have such caring people who love us. Best gift of the day….Jared’s old Super Nintendo which our niece, Sydny, re-gifted back to us after having it in her room for several years. Super Mario…here I come!

Dec. 26th: Went to Vale for church and then ravaged Bloomington-Normal’s day-after-Christmas sales. We got greens, lights and bows to decorate our porch next year. I’m so excited to decorate…and it’s a year away! We made it back to Emden that evening and my friends Amy and Karyn came over to exchange gifts. (It’s a tradition we do every year.) It was so great to see them and have time to just sit and talk. We don’t get to see each other much anymore, so times like that are special.

Dec. 27th: Mom and I decided to spend the day together. We went back to Bloomington and shopped some more. I got more Christmas decor at Hobby Lobby and Michael’s. Perhaps I went a little crazy…but it was so darn cheap! We will have one fancy Christmas house next year! I also got some new work clothes with my Christmas money. Spending time with my mom is great. Living 2 hours away means I don’t get to see her all of the time…and I miss having her around to hang out with. We ate out at Monical’s Pizza for lunch and went to see The Polar Express later that night. (Which was awesome by the way!) Jared got to hang out with his brother Steven for the day, which was exciting for him. I’m pretty sure they played with computer stuff the entire time, but hey, that’s what they like.

Dec. 28th: Got up, watched Alias, ate cookies, watched Alias, ate party mix, watched Alias, thought about showering, didn’t shower, watched Alias, mom made pork chops for dinner…yum, watched a few more episodes of Alias and then finally went to bed.

Dec. 29th: Replay Dec. 28th and insert Steak n’ Shake for supper. Oh yeah…we managed to pry ourselves off of the tv for a few hours and my mom took us to Peoria to see the Festival of Lights. Jared had never been to see it before…and it’s something that my mom ALWAYS took me to see. So that was fun. When we returned, we of course watched more Alias and went back to bed. (Addicted much?! NEVER!)

Dec. 30th: Went to Marseilles with my parents to have a late Christmas with Grandma and Grandpa Sparks. As always, Grandma Sparks made WAY too much food…and we, of course, ate all of it. (It was worth it….her gravy is so darn yummy.) Later that night, we once again went back to Bloomington to hang out with Nicole and Steve Cox. They were in town for the week and it was great to see them again. Lots of fun with Mario Kart and Culver’s Custard.

Dec. 31st: Around 5:00 a.m. I awoke to find that it was apparently time for me to puke my guts out once an hour for the next several hours. Needless to say…the flu found me and took me down. I spent New Years Eve day curled up in the fetal position in my bed…hopelessly trying to make the pain/chills/fever/puke…go away. I slept for most of the day, and when I wasn’t sleeping…Jared took good care of me. My mom left some chicken broth and noodles before she left….and some jello too. Ah yes, the staple sick foods. Let us not forget the many cans of sprite I consumed as well. Anyway, later on that night I managed to take a bath and go downstairs to watch Elf with Jared. I made it through that and through the ball drop. Happy New Year!

Jan. 1st: Much sleeping and tv watching. I sent Jared off to Bloomington to see his mom since I was still sick. I watched TLC for most of the day…since stupid Greenville cable doesn’t have it. I also did some laundry and my mom helped me get everything packed up. We also went through the rest of our wedding gifts that we never had room for in our current apartment. Since we’re moving soon…we’ll get to have all of those things at our new place. It was like opening presents all over again.

Jan. 2nd: Got up and went to church at Vale, ate lunch at Quizno’s (YUM!) and went to visit Jared’s brother Steven on his last day of work at the Vision Center. By that time I was feeling icky again, so we got back on the road, stopped through Emden to pack up our car, and then made it back to Greenville.

So there you go…our Christmas break and vacation. We’re both back to work now. I’m back in the office trying to get schedules put together for my Spring semester students and Jared’s working on some project with Prof. Cole for interterm. Good times! Hopefully everyone else had a great Christmas too. (Sorry for the novel!)

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