Vacation so far

Friday
I said goodbye to my kitties, and we left the house a little after 7 PM. We got to mom's around 12:30 AM on Friday. Mom and I stayed up and talked for a while. Kevin wasn't there b/c he had some sort of a virus that he didn't want to pass along. I finally went to bed - late again.

Saturday
Matt and I had some brekfast and opened presents with mom. We got her and Kevin a tripod for their camera, and I got her some perfume. She gave Matt a recipe book that he was pretty excited about, and she gave me Willow Tree Nativity set. I also opened my birthday present, since I probably won't get back in time for that. Mom gave me a few pretty necklaces for my birthday, which was extra good b/c I hadn't brought any with me. :-)

We got on the road around 10 AM and headed to Hobart intending to see Dawn, my best friend from high school and maid-of-honor. As we neared Hobart, we gave Dawn a call and found out she was busy preparing for a dinner with her boyfriend's familay for Saturday night - we were running slightly late and didn't want to have limited time, so we all agreed that we would com over on Sunday instead.

So we headed to Dad's. We unpacked and hung out for a while watching some cheesy Hallmark Christmas movies. Dad told us that he had run into one of my friends from the group of friends that knew Kevin, my ex-boyfriend. The whole group was getting together at Kevin's on Sunday night, and I was invited on the spot. Sounds like fun, so I called Kevin to ask if it was okay, and it was. Later on, we went to meet my brother for dinner in Hobart. We ate at Chili's. My brother didn't talk much, but it went okay. My Dad gave him his Christmas present from Grandma, which was some $$, and Dad's present, which was gift certificates for food from a few restaurants. My brother is not exactly doing well right now, so hopefully those presents will give him a chance to get by a few days. He was supposed to take a bus up to see Mom for Christmas. The bus ticket was Mom's present. Hopefully he made it to the bus stop in time. We left him at the restaurant and headed home.

When we got home, we went out to see the Christmas light display in Dad's town. It was a pretty large collection of those "animated" lights. Good times. When we got home, we stayed up for a little while longer, but tried to get to bed at a somewhat reasonable hour.

Sunday
We went to church in Portage, at the church where Matt and I were married. It has been a few years since we were back there, but not much has changed. Afterward, we drove about 5 minutes to visit with my mom's mom, and stayed at her place for about an hour and a half. She showed us around the facility and we sat with her while their informal church sung Christmas carols. It was a nice visit.

Around noon we called Dawn. She was making lunch, so we headed over. She and Nik hung out with us while lunch was being made. We also watched The Simpson's movie while we were there. It was good to catch up a bit.

For dinner, we met Uncle Bill at one of his favorite local restaurants. For those of you that don't know, Uncle Bill is nto really an uncle, but one of my dad's best friends. He has been friends with dad since before I was around, and he's stuck with Dad through everything. He's a great friend. Anyway, we had a nice visit with him over dinner.

Finally, we headed over to Kevin's parents' house. Kevin had just gotten the game "Rock Band" for Christmas, so the intent of the party was to play. I got to try each piece at least once, but there were so many people that that was about all that most people got to try.

People that were there: Kevin & Cassi, Kevin's sisters - Krystal and Kourtney, Kevin's parents - Kim and Ken (although Ken hid in the basement and Kim stayed upstairs most of the time), and friends - Mark, Greg & Rhonda, CJ, Rich & Samantha, and someone named Dave whom I vaguely remember.

Everyone was excited that my dad's old house had a "Sold" sign up. I also found out that they had not forclosed on the house, but that a deal was in the works, to be signed next week. Very good news for my dad, and all these friends had been watching and interested. I felt loved and thought of. I miss these guys so much!

I spent some time with Kim looking at wedding pictures for Kevin's and Greg's weddings. Very fun times. Krystal had designed some awesome centerpieces/necklaces/etc. and the weddings were beautiful. Such a community effort. That is something I really miss about this family...

Anyway, I was again reminded of why I married Matt - he is totally the right guy for me. I am so lucky to have a husband that meshes with me so well. God was definietly leading me to him.

So around 11 PM or so, we headed back to dad's house. We went to bed pretty quickly and were able to sleep in on Monday (a.k.a. today). I had such a good day yesterday, and I was sad to have to leave everyone, especially the big party, but I had to take care of my sweetie and let him get some sleep. :-) I told the guys at the party that if they plan a weekend when they can all hang out, I would be willing to come down and join them. We'll see if the opportunity arises.