Saturday, December 18, 2010

downtime

I was off work this entire week and the only outdoor physical activity I got the day Melinda and I took the dogs hiking in the snow.





If the temperature wasn't ridiculously low there was snow, rain or ice falling from the sky. Mother Nature has played a cruel trick on us, giving us an unusually warm fall and a ridiculously cold introduction to winter, which according to the calendar we have yet to enter. I hope Ma Nature runs out of steam soon as I don't think I can handle this much longer. I haven't been a complete slob, but the treadmill and spin bike can only do so much for me and working out in climate controlled conditions will only make me soft. Thank goodness we've had plenty of work to do outside at my job.
It hasn't been all that boring really, Melinda has been off the entire week with me so we've had alot of good down time together, something we've needed for a while but I think we're both ready to get out and do something active.

The weekend before last we hosted our 3rd annual Christmas party. Last year we went with the Tacky Christmas Sweater theme but this year it evolved into the entire outfit and there really weren't very many sweaters worn. Melinda and I worked on our outfits for almost a month leading up to the party and we probably spent too much $$ on them but once I saw the other guests' duds I was glad we did. To my surprise some people really went all out.







I used alot of glue and sparkly stuff just to pull my outfit together, this was the craftiest I've been in a long time. I know it's hard to see in this pic but my bow tie is covered in sequins.



Andy & Abby, Mr. & Mrs. "I'll punch you in your freakin' face" never disappoint. Andy looked like some sort of 70's pimp and Abby looked kinda of like a foreign princess or something, I'm not really sure.




I think Fat Tony was watching Dazed & Confused the night before he put his costume together.





He reminded me of Mathew McConaughey's character "Wooderson"




B-Rad came dressed in a full on Elf costume that Sara made. Ever seen an elf breakdance? I have.



Of course there was plenty of tom foolery going on and of course a bit of dancing to some of the oldest hip hop beats. Every year we have a white elephant gift exchange which is something we end up talking about all year. The gifts this year ranged from Jesus clocks, 6 pks. of Old Milwaukee, and toys of the more adult nature. It was definitely the funniest white elephant gift exchange I've ever been to. I laughed so hard at one point my sides cramped.
I wish we had a bigger house and could really go all out but we do the best with what we have. I lit up the entire deck with Christmas lights, Clark Griswald style and had two fire pits going at the same time. It worked out pretty well and despite the cold temps the deck was a good place to hang out.
Just the other day Melinda and I were discussing how difficult it will be to top next year's party. I don't know whether to continue with the same theme or find another.

Back during Thanksgiving my Dad and I were standing out in my sisters driveway while the bird was being prepared and he began reminiscing about his younger days and the coasters he and his brothers built out of wood. My sister has a really long and straight driveway that has a great slope ideal for racing wooden coasters down. He conned me and my brother in laws into building coasters between then and Christmas. We're all supposed to bring them over on Christmas Eve and have a race down the driveway. I kind of forgot that I work all that weekend so I
haven't gotten anything together. My Dad has his finished and I'm anxious to see it and ride it down the hill.
This could be a good opportunity for some Hero cam footage.


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