Bethany, Cookies, and B-Day

Ok, I'm getting caught up. Starting with the trip to David's family in Colorado:

Stayed for 5 days with David's parents and youngest sister. Got to see the whole fam though.

Got to go to David's old church twice - Sunday morning, but Christmas Eve too. Complete with candlelight singing. I'm diggin'. Celebrating Jesus' birth on Christmas is a recent-years thing for me, and I really love it. Good to now have some familiar faces in their church too!

Got to see what Christmas looks like to David. (Family reunion plus presents.)

He and I pulled out the Muppets' Christmas Carol the day after Christmas. Neither of us thought ahead though about Tiny Tim. Both of us ended up sitting on the couch crying. Great. Not really what we were goin' for.

We flew home. Zzzzoooom!
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December 31st, David got off work. (We'd saved a vacation day till the end, figuring we could easily need it for a doc appt.) We drove 45 minutes to get our 3rd Musketeer, Bethany, from her parents' house. Panera, Trader Joe's for junk food, our apartment, David spends 2 hours at church while Bethany and I talk, Monopoly (I give you one guess who won), bubbly apple juice, "Auld Lang Syne" at 903 decibels, sleeping in, Clue Mysteries, Ikea, Bethany back home.
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Saturday night, we got crackalackin' on a Christmas tradition I want to get in place. Christmas cut-out cookies! (Having been very sick our first 2 Christmases, the only tradition we've had going so far was the tree.)

We made 33 cookies. One broke and had to get et - shucks. Of the other 32, David decorated about 10 and I got the rest. Once the 5 colors of icing were ready, it took 2 solid hours. David pointed out at 11 that I hadn't had dinner yet. I.had.FUN.

The bottom pic is David and I. We made them for each other. Theoretically, that's a skirt I'm wearing. And do notice David's beard and wedding ring.

David explained to me how he decided to decorate one of the cookies:
"I thought to myself, 'If I was going to eat this cookie, how would I want it decorated?'"...
*He picks up green icing.*...
*SMEARRRRRR.*
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Sunday morning, we picked up Bethany for church. It's extremely fun to have your bff see what your world looks like. And Vineyard is of uber importance in our world. It was good to have her there.

One of our favorite sandwich places for lunch. Ice cream afterward per David's brilliant suggestion. And planning to go to Ikea after dropping off Bethany, she helped us disassemble and measure our car. On the 1st, we'd found shelving appropriate to replace my cardboard "shelves" in the kitchen, but wanted to think on it first.

Then David and I went to Ikea. We put down the passenger seat and the half of the back seat directly behind it. The shelves went through the trunk, into the passenger seat area. I rode home behind David. Totally worked.
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Around this time was my birthday. (The date ain't goin' on the blog.) It has to have been the most depressed I've ever been on a birthday. We didn't even remember it was happening until the day before. Not even a chance to get excited. All day, I couldn't think what the world I like to do for my birthday. Then someone mentioned a cake. I was excited for 3 seconds then realized I shouldn't be eating cake. (Lyme junk.) No chance for anything. Although, our uncle called and sang Happy Birthday. It was the highlight of my day - likely the only time I laughed.

The next day, we tried to have the excitement we'd missed. We went to a big JCPenney's with the gift card David's mom gave me. I've never been to Penney's and not found something I *had* to have. Though naturally, when I actually go with money in my pocket, everything would be picked over post-Christmas. A long time into looking, and immensely frustrated, we stepped back and scoured the store for *anything* not on sale and picked over. Nothing. The whole store is currently on sale - good, if you're not wanting to get something you truly like.

On the one hand, I can not depend on birthday cake and new clothes for my happiness. On the other hand, I freely admit I tripped over my bottom lip on the way out the Penney's door.
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Sunday night, I fell asleep at 6:45. Due to this, we bailed on our house group. I woke up at 8 Monday, only to box some of the cut-out cookies for my little bro. (The 2nd pic from the top is basically what I sent him.) I slept 2 more hours and have scarcely done a thing today that required standing. Probably doing it again tomorrow.

Whew. You're pretty caught-up. If I can't get back here before then, this coming Friday is another MI run.