Monday, December 29, 2008

Mixin' It Up!

Hi hi! How is the Hive? What's buzzin'?* I, like so many of you, have been in Holiday Hibernation down in the great state of Texas. After a series of travel snafus, Mr. Dragon was finally able to join me and my family in Christmas-ing it up! Chicago weather was amazingly unkind to fliers this year, and Mr. D didn't get to my house until early afternoon Christmas Day (he was supposed to arrive Tuesday.) We held Christmas until he could get here, and I was so glad he arrived at all! This is how I felt until he showed up:



Cheesy yes, but true. I suppose this is a symptom of the fact that Mr. Dragon and I have become each other's family - we REALLY have a hard time spending holidays apart now. For the last two years we have spent Thanksgiving together, and this was our first year spending Christmas together. Obviously, once we are married, there will be no more questions about spending holidays together. Eventually, I am going to have to "cut the cord" and be ok about not going home to Texas for Christmas... I guess. ;) I will delay that moment as long as possible though.

I WILL say that Mr. Dragon was extremely brave to return to my home in Texas. The last time he visited, we played innumerable practical jokes on him - from which he has still not recovered. I am not going to tell you what they were, because you will judge me. :)

Let's just say the most tame one was that Mr. Dragon has Night Terrors. Once my siblings found this out, two of them staked out his guest bedroom at 2a, making little noises in order to send him into Night Terrors. No wonder he is still scarred. ALTHOUGH, in my family, this means you are loved. They would never waste their time terrorizing someone they hated - trust.

I do have to say that SnapSister A began texting him before he arrived threatening to dunk his sheets in ground beef. I THINK this threat went unexecuted.

Anyway, I was so happy when Mr. Dragon finally arrived. My family loves him, and they only get to see us about 2-3 times per year, so for Chicago Blizzardry to keep him in the Midwest would have been really disappointing.

Here are a few photos from Christmas Day...

Our new dog, Oliver - I think his legs are about 4" long!!!


Yes, Snapdragons wrap presents in Albertsons grocery bags (well, Snapsister L and the BIL do!!)


This is Snapsister L and her hubby's present to me. About a year ago, Snapsis and I took a girls weekend to San Antonio (as we are wont to do,) and we ordered a couple of hamburgers poolside. What a shock to find our bill was $60 - most expensive fast food ever. Since we are packrats, we each kept a tiny condiment bottle as a memento. Snapsis turned the mustard bottle into a Christmas ornament! So yeah... this is a $60 ornament. :)

ANDOHMYGOD, WE GOT OUR FIRST AWESOME WEDDING PRESENT! I present to you, a real deal KitchenAid mixer! Mr. Dragon and I are already dreaming up our first batch of homemade ravioli and sausages! Snapmom and Snapdad were the heroes of the day!


And now, the two most hilarious presents of the day...
Sidenote - I have only posted two pictures of Snapsis A on Weddingbee to date, and in both pictures, her eyes are closed. I promise she generally goes throughout her day with her eyes open. Really!



And here was the real kicker of the day... When my grandfather died, my dad and uncles found a box FULL of 32 years worth of letters between my parents and all of us Snapdragon kids. My grandmother had carefully catalogued and organized each and every missive. Over the past three months, my parents have been secretly typing and scanning in every single one of these letters. My Dad took 120 minutes worth of audio recordings of my grandparents and of us Snapdragons from the early eighties, which he also loaded onto a CD. Christmas morning, my parents presented a 400 page binder of those letters and the CD to each of us. This is our family history. We were extremely overwhelmed, to say the least. Best present ever.


So I put two questions to the Hive -
A) Have you and your fiance begun spending all of the holidays together already, or are you putting that off until after the wedding?
B) For you KitchenAid users, what's the best accessory attachment? Any advice to those of us who are registering for a KitchenAid or who might be new owners of said Wonder-Device?

*Sorry, sorry. ;)

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