Vacation Update

I know, it has been a long time without any blog posts. Sorry! I have been enjoying our long break from school and trying to relax. Here's the recap of our holiday events:

Dec. 23rd. Last day of school. Everyone was antsy to leave by 3:00, teachers and students alike. When the clock hit 3:30 I was out the door!

Dec. 24th. I shockingly had some last-minute shopping to do, so I ventured out to a few places to get a few things. Our afternoon was weird--Sam was waiting for information on whether or not he would have to work the next day and we were trying to orchestrate 4:00 church and 4:00 nap time. In the meantime, a stray dog wandered into our yard. We coaxed it into our garage and called the vet number on its tags. Sam left a message, we left for church, and the dog stayed in the garage. Christmas Eve is always a bummer service for me because I end up sitting alone. Mom, Erin, and Sam were all in the choir and Dad and Will were ushering, so Anne and I sat in the back row. I tried to keep her with me because I knew she was tired and I didn't want her freaking out in the nursery, ruining someone's Christmas. I tried to keep her quiet and happy, but it wasn't gonna happen. About halfway through I was tired of wrangling her wiggly body and trying to appease her with any little toy or snack, so I plopped her in the nursery with everyone else! I always feel bad when I do that--some moms stay and kind of explain what their kid likes and what they might want to play, etc. I basically toss her over the little door and say "See ya!" She was fine, but the worker commented when I picked her up that she looked very tired. Um, yeah, naptime was an hour ago.

So off we went to my parents' house for the traditional Droogsma Christmas Eve. This involves dinner and the opening of gifts with my parents and siblings and the annual photo of the 4 of us on the couch. Anne went to sleep when we got there and we tried to help get dinner ready. This is always the longest part of the evening--we're all hungry and waiting for potatoes to boil or the grill to heat (yes, Florida relatives, we grill on Christmas, cold be damned!) So we waited and peeled potatoes and waited and ate cookies and waited and "opened" our stockings (we all got socks!) and Sam grilled the steaks and we ate! Then it's the rush to load the dishwasher and open presents. Mom gets more help in the kitchen on that night than any other night of the year. Even though we kids range in age from 20-26, we still like to open the presents and watch the "Yule Log" on tv. A good time was had by all and Anne was a good sport. She got many nice gifts, including her own Wild jersey from Opa. Adorable pictures will follow soon.

We tried to do the right thing with the stray dog and find its owner, but the vet couldn't track anything down until the next day and when Sam went to put the dog in the yard to potty it ran away again. Lesson: put proper tags on your dog. Hopefully if Mikey ever got really far from home someone would try to help and call us.

Dec. 25th. Since this day was a Thursday and Sam works on Thursdays, he got up early and went to work. He had 3 jobs to do that day and ended up working for 14 hours! He gets holiday pay, so he'll get paid for 24 total hours, but it really wasn't worth missing the whole day with his family. Anne and I drove to my grandma's in Minnetonka to see our extended family. Some of my cousins spend this day with their in-laws, so the whole crew wasn't there, but we still had a good time. We had awesome brunch food and opened presents. Anne got to spend some time with "cousin" Emma, who is just about 1 year older than she is. It is fun to see what Anne will be like next Christmas!

Fast forward to Dec. 30th. We spent this day with Sam's dad and stepmom and step-siblings at their new house. Auntie Sarah and Uncle Ben came with us, so we all piled in the Jeep and made the long snowy drive to their place in Brownton. We had a good time there, too, and Anne really enjoyed Grandpa's dog, Babe, who likes to jump and kiss!

Dec. 31st. Sam has yucky stomach bug and stays home from work. We finally get around to giving Anne her "Santa" presents (!!!!) She got 2 new books, some shape and color flash cards, and a "popcorn" push toy from Ikea, which she loves. We did stay up until 12 to ring in 2009, but Sam felt yucky still and so did I, so we were in bed by 12:30.

Jan. 1st. Corrie has yucky stomach bug and stays home (of course). Annie and I played the day away and I drank lots of ginger ale. My dad called late in the evening and said "Hey, bring the baby over." Turns out they hadn't seen Annie in 6 days! It was cold and I am lazy, so we decided Anne could go to daycare the next day.

Jan. 2nd. Anne went to Oma's for the morning and I did things I can't easily do with her around the house. Anne hates the vacuum for some reason, so we get creative with how to do it. So I vacuumed, washed and replaced our couch slipcovers, did the dishes, folded laundry, etc. I also went to Target for groceries and discounted Christmas merchandise. Erin came over that evening to hang out a little and we discussed many important wedding-related things.

So that's our vacation in a nutshell. Tomorrow is church and a wedding-planning trip to Woodbury, then it is back to work on Monday. Oh, and did I mention? Sam is leaving to work in North Dakota for 17 days. He's leaving Monday. He'll be gone the 5th through the 21st. It is a good chance for him to work a lot and earn a lot, but that's a LONG time to play single mom. It is funny, because the day after he gets back is the last day of the semester at school, so I have 2 simultaneous countdowns going on. As if the month of January isn't long and dreary enough on its own... :( So I'll probably be much better about posting each day so Sam can see what we're up to (oh yeah, apparently in ND Verizon has a 60% service rate, and his Sprint/Nextel phone is even worse, so we may not speak often) Lame!

We hope you all had a merry Christmas and a safe New Year celebration. From what I gather, most people were ready to see 2008 end and have high hopes for 2009. It will be quite a year for our family, I'm sure.