Phew!! Here is a Big Bulleted Update with Lots of Pictures!

Holy Cow!! I'm actually sitting down on the couch with the laptop on my lap writing a blog post! Can you believe it?? I'm so so very sorry for neglecting my blog lately. The month of December has just been crazy busy. It seems like when I have time to sit down and compose a post I just get tired and end up dozing on the couch. Lame I know, but what can I say? I think what it comes down too is that I just need to have better time management skills. Then I think I would have enough time to write a post a few times a week. That is going to be my New Years Resolution, to manage my time better so I have more time to write my blog. I can not believe that this is only my second post in all of December. Totally inexcusable if you ask me! I love, love writing my blog, I love reading yours and reading your comments to me. With that said, I'm going to try much harder to get my stuff together and be on here more for you. Thank you for those of you who have understood that life "got in the way" and who have stuck with me during the last few weeks of absent posting.

I had a crazy long post all wrote out in my head, but after thinking about it I decided that nobody really wanted to hear all about my Thanksgiving beings that it was over a month a go. So instead what I'm going to do in this post is catch you all up of what has been going on during the last month in a picture/bulleted post. Hope you don't mind.

*So ya, my Thanksgiving was pretty great and totally different that any Thanksgiving in the past. However, it was totally different in a totally great way! Ry and I were going to spend Thanksgiving day with his family and then the day after with mine, doing our family traditions. However at the very last minute we got invited by one of his best friends who lives in Columbus, Ohio to go and visit them and watch the OSU vs. UofM football game and spend the weekend hanging out. Ry and I jumped at that chance. I mean really who would turn down a chance to see the OSU vs UofM football game versus going shopping on Black Friday. I mean I love to shop and have always, always gone with my Mom and Sister, but I just could not pass this opportunity up. So, we split Thanksgiving Day between both of our parents houses. Then on Black Friday we loaded up the car and were off for a weekend of SUPER FUN!!

As we were just about 45 minutes from Ry's friends house he called and asked us if we wanted to go to a hockey game. It just so happened that the Red Wings were playing Columbus. Holy Cow are you serious?? Do we want to go see the Red Wings. Uh, hell ya we do!!! So we got to their house, unloaded the car, hung out for a bit then we jumped back in the car and headed to the arena. We didn't have tickets so we just figured we would "scalp" crappy tickets once we got down there. We found some guys selling tickets and they said they just wanted to get rid of them and to offer them something. The guys told us they were lower level seating, which typically are good seats but he didn't think these tickets were the best. So between the four of us we paid $160. We thought it was a huge steal considering the tickets we got were $90 dollar seats. So we walk in and keep going down the stairs to our seats. We kept going and going and going. Little did we know our seats were ON THE ICE!! I kid you not our seats were one row off of the ice. Ry and I about crapped our pants. We couldn't have been more excited. We also had a great time and to top it off the Red Wings WON!!

You see the glass in this picture, we could reach out and touch it. Holmstrom and the team were so close to us you could see the beads of sweat on their faces. It was truly amazing!

Here is a picture of the Head Coach and the team, we were sitting right a crossed the ice from their bench.

Last but not least a picture of Ry and I at the game.

So the hockey game was on Friday, on Saturday the four of us got up kinda early and then spent the day at the football game. Unfortunately, UofM did not come up with a win like the Wings did but the four of us sure did have fun at the game. After the game we were all pretty tired so we went home, chilled out for a while and then we headed to a local sports bar for dinner and drinks. We went back home, watched a movie and were all sleeping by midnight. It was a fun, amazing day, but it was also long and the four of us were beat. On Sunday Ry and I got up and headed home to our families.

*Okay, so that sums up our Thanksgiving weekend. The next weekend we went to a winter ball. One of Ry's friend's dad suddenly died a few months ago. They found out that he died from undetected heart disease. Well, his daughter in law, who I have gotten to be great friends with has to put on a charity ball every year. This year because of her Father-In Laws passing she teamed up with the American Heart Association and the money from our tickets went to that cause. Obviously, with Shawn dying from a heart attack the cause was near and dear to me. So Ry and I and a bunch of our friends all decided to go and support Nicole and her family. It ended up being another, totally fun, amazing night. It was one of those nights that you really did not want to end because everyone was just having so much fun. We all sat around our table, talked, bid on silent auction items, had a few drinks, and danced our feet off. Awesome, awesome night, it was three weeks ago and our group of friends are still talking about it and the fun we had.
Ry and I

Us again.

Here is our big group of friends. See we had fun! I'm so glad that Ry's friends and their wives have embraced me and have welcomed me into their big happy group! I love each of them!

*The weekend after the ball I had to go to Ohio for two purposes. One of which was to take care of some things dealing with Shawn. Not fun at all and was a totally stressful day.Once again the love and support from Jennie, Lora, Meg and Ry totally got me through the day. I really have the best friends and the best boyfriend ever! Even though I had a stressful day it all ended great because I got to spend time with Jennie and Lora. Since I was already there Jennie, Lora and I decided to have our third annual Christmas party. It was cut kind of short and Lora and Luca had to leave a little early because Youngstown I swear to you was experiencing a blizzard during my three day stay. Despite the snow we all had a great time. We all tried to be crafty this year and make our gifts to each other. Lora totally blew Jennie and I out of the water by making us Christmas wreaths made out of garland and Christmas bulbs. With her "crafty-ness" we made a rule for next year. We each have to make our gifts. Nothing pre-made or bought at a store, we must make it! We are all slightly competitive so it should be interesting. I'm about sure that Jennie and Lora have already started thinking of their ideas...I know I have.
Here are the three of us in our matching winter happy scarves, part of our gift from Jennie.

Well, that takes us to last week. Since then I have been doing all things Christmas. I have shopped, and shopped some more. I have written out over 45 Christmas cards...all by hand mind you. I decided not to write my annual letter and just write in each of them so it took me forever! I just have to put the darn things in the mail box. Last Friday was my work Christmas party and Ry and I went. It was fun and guess what my Christmas bonus was? Okay, I will just tell you because you will never in a million years guess it. We each had to play these little games and after each person won we got to pick our prize which ended up being our bonus. Well, for some crazy reason I actually won the first game, so I got to pick the prize. My boss took me to this room and told me to pick a prize. I could not believe my eyes. I was totally expecting a bottle of lotion from Bath and Body works and maybe $25, which would have been totally appreciated. However, much to my surprise we could pick from a variety of "big" items. I picked the 32 inch flat screen hi-def t.v. I could not believe it!! I jumped up and down and told my boss thank you so much. She thanked me for doing such an awesome job and loved what I was doing in the baby room.

Today I took a grave blanket to the cemetery and put it on Shawn's grave. With working so much I got it out there later than the last two years and I felt kind of guilty about that, but it's there now and I got to have my little talk with Shawn and I guess that is all that matters. Boy, I sure do miss him, but I also can still feel him with me and I'm so grateful for that feeling.

The rest of this week I will be wrapping about a million gifts for my family and friends. And then this weekend Ry and I will be splitting the days between our families. It should be fun, but a little bit busy and crazy. However, I'm looking forward to Christmas this year and that is something I have not been able to say the last two years.

I have some time off coming so I will have more time to update my blog the next week or so. Thank you for sticking by me and for reading my blog even with delays between posts. I love you guys!