What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas....

In my case it's nothing scandalous, no great stories, just ME "staying" in Vegas! Long story short, when I bought my tickets I bought two one way tickets, I just didn't realize they were both Milwaukee to Las Vegas!
Marshall had a conference here, at the same time Arbonne was having there's so I talked my way into free conference fees and hotel room and booked a flight! The conference was great! (Head on over to jennyography to read more about it.) The night before I was leaving Las Vegas Marshall's foot was really hurting him, we blamed the new shoes, but reailzed he was having Gout!(Guess he won't be having Foie Gras any more. Don't send PETA after me, it was soooo good!) He was checking on the flights to see if he could come home earlier with me and he couldn't find my flight. That's when I realized I had done it wrong! Huge pit in my stomache! A little bit of finagling on the phone with the airline, and $75 later, my flight was changed. If this ever happens to you, get them to waive the flight change fee, buy the cheapest ticket for that day, pay the price difference and hope to get on standby for the flight you want. Good thing the original ticket was cheap!So here I am, one more day in Vegas. One more sunny fabulous day! Right now it's minus 1 degrees at home! I actually think my face is getting sunburned and ask me if I care!
I didnt feel compelled to bring my big camera so I-touch pictures will have to do. (In fact, I was travelling very light. This is all I brought for 4 nights!Literally what you see in the picture is all I brought! I forgot to pack extra underware! Yup one pair for the whole trip! Good thing they were quick drying!)
Took me a bit to figure out how to get clear pictures with this thing. Blogging from it rightnow. Thanks Santa! This picture is for the kids. We flew over the Grand Canyon on the way home!So, Marshall and I got on the same flight and thankfully I didn't have to "stay in Las Vegas!"

Year in Pictures - 2010

A look back at 2010.

Happy ThanksChristmasYear

It's a new holiday! You can also call it the EndlessFamilyGettogether!
Let's count.

My side:
Three gatherings for Thanksgiving.
Two for Christmas
None for New Years.
TOTAL = 5

Marshall's side:
None for Thanksgiving
Three for Christmas, 4 if you count cookie baking.
One for New Years.
TOTAL = 5

GRAND TOTAL = 10 + all the other random get-togethers in between = Lots of time to ourselves in January!

For Thanksgiving week, we celebrated the November Birthdays including my Dad's and also had a Wild Game feast with all the things the boys have "harvested" this past year.

For our pre-Christmas activities:
First big snow fall - Dec 4th A Christmas Carol for the 4th year in a row.
St. Nick filled our stockings.The kids did great at their Christmas Concerts. Both with speaking parts. (Bragging Rights!) We really noticed how, compared to most of the other kids in 3rd grade and up, Trent spoke so clearly and with good volume.

We baked cookies and went sledding at Grandma's.
New this year: Marshall borrowed my Uncle's smoker and we brought smoked salmon, pheasant, oysters and scallops to all of our gatherings.
Thinking about A Christmas Carol and remembering how my family and parents friends used to hop on a hay wagon and go carolling, Marshall decided we should do it ourselves this year. We hosted a neighborhood Christmas Caroling party. It was great fun. You should have seen the smiles on the faces of the people we sang for! If you're in the area, you gotta come next year. Everyone really enjoyed it.
Other than the frequency of family commitments, Christmas was relatively free of chaos. The kids were so excited for their gifts! I noticed Santa hid the best ones toward the back of the pile. Those little stinkers dug them out first! Of course - at Grandma's request after opening the robes she made out of these super soft comforters she found. Callie's was a "real" guitar. Trent's - Rogue Shadow lego ship. Callie already has the rock star attitude even if she can only play the first 6 notes of the Iron Maiden song Marshall's cousin Polly who was visiting from Australia taught her. (Some day we will go there to visit her!) As I write she is strumming and singing.
We spent New Years Eve at Marshall's parents for game night. Everyone brought at least 4 games along! We only got to one from each family. Marshall and I were the champions of Luke & Amy's game, Pass the Popcorn. It's a movie trivia game. A given for Marshall, but I was surprised at the number of questions I was able to answer. Time went by fast, I didn't feel a bit tired when I realized it was 11pm! I couldn't believe it, I was actually gonna make it this year! HAPPY NEW YEAR 2011! It's been great having Winter Break. Today is a pajama day, and later, skating on the lake. We went from 50 degrees to less than 20 in one night. The rain melted all the snow and the lake was smooth as glass. I've been working a little over this break but the kids love to hang out with the Grandma's so it's a nice blend. Tonight, hockey and my bowling league. New tennis racket and bowling shoes for me this Christmas.

Marshall got us an after Christmas present: NetFlix. I know how we'll be spending our no family boycott!