Bad Daughter-In-Law

While we were home for Christmas, my mother-in-law asked us to put a wedding announcement in the local paper.  I think she started to regret asking when the maniacal laughter started...  My good daughter-in-law facade is definitely slipping.  Here's what we decided to send in...

Andrea (spawn of Lin and Marsha) and Cody (get of Kelly and Lisa) were married on October 1, 2011 in a very short, unique ceremony on the shore of Lake McConaughy, followed by a great party in a two-car garage.  Andi was raised on a road trip and Cody grew up near Palisade, NE.  The couple resides in North Carolina with their two furry children, where they love traveling, running, yoga and Andi likes hanging upside down with her legs in the air...doing aerial dance.  They are both engineers and spend a lot of time saving people from themselves.

Despite my ongoing quest to scandalize my mother-in-law, we had a pretty good time at Christmas...although, I could have done with a little less hectic itinerary...or even to know the itinerary in advance.

"Christmas is on Friday," my in-laws told us when we got to their house on Thursday.  Christmas also happened to be across the state, at the husband's grandparents house in a little town called Colon.  Seriously.

Colon, NE

The town swimming pool...

The house was very noisy from a three year old and twin five year olds excited about presents and lots of people to play with.  I'm perpetually surprised at how much fun we have with my husband's extended family...it's just not normal to me!  It might take me awhile to get over that.  We had lunch (or dinner, as some people insist on calling it), opened presents (with the three year-old loudly celebrated every present with a WWE roar), played card games and Christmas Bingo (their version of white elephant...gifts ranged from spices to a potato).

Christmas Bingo

Although we'd been invited to stay at the grandparent's place, we elected to stay in a hotel in a nearby town.  Sharing one shower between eight people just wasn't going to work for me.  The twins parents also elected to stay in the hotel...and leave the kids at the grandparents house.  Brilliant.

On Christmas Eve, we went on an ill-fated trip to Omaha to get me a fix...of yoga, that is.  I'm kind of a workout junkie.  I found a studio that was actually open on Christmas, so you'd think it'd be open Christmas Eve?  Apparently not.  All we ended up getting out of the trip was coffee and missing church because we'd thought we were attending the late service.

Christmas Day we had another big meal, then packed up and headed back across the state.  We stopped at a truck stop on the way across...and the parking lot was packed!  Not just single people, but also lots of families.  Who spends Christmas at a truck stop?  Other than us, that is.  Well, at least they had a Santa...

Santa at the Truck Stop

We had a day to chill out, play more card games, open presents and work on drinking the wine left over from the wedding (we killed four bottles) before it was time to get back on a plane and head home.  I had to go back to work on Thursday and Friday.  I don't really mind working during holiday weeks (you get a lot done when most of the plant is on vacation) but I was calling the husband nasty names when the alarm went off at 5:30 AM, since his work was completely shut down this week.

We opened presents from my parents and each other when we got home.  Cody gave me a Garmin Forerunner (GPS for running) just in time for my running to hit a lull.  I got him a leather jacket, which we had to return for a better fitting (and, purely coincidentally, cheaper) one.  It's the thought that counts.

Our New Year's Eve was incredibly exciting.  We stayed in and watched NCIS and South Park marathons.  We're awesome, I know.  Oh well, we needed to relax more than we needed to find trouble on amateur's night.