November, December & January Ketchup

November:

-We celebrated Mike's bday, he got a snow blower and is very, very excited about it.

-We celebrated my niece Ayla's 4th birthday and Jessie & I treated her to a fun sleepover (her first) party at my house where we: baked cookies, went shopping & out for pizza, snuggled on the couch and watched movies and had pancakes (her favorite food) for breakfast.

We also had a wonderful Thanksgiving with both of our families and Xena even got a giant bone from my parent's butcher to keep her busy and very happy.

In December we had my office Christmas party at Riverside Casino and I was in charge of the entire event (part of my job I like). It was a fun party and I even won a massage as one of the prize give-aways which I totally think I deserved! It kind of felt like I was planning another wedding reception and spending someone else's money was really fun!

We also decorated the house for Christmas (my fave time of year!) and continued our tradition of going to cut down our own tree (though none were big enough so we went with a Frasier fir that was already cut down but still AT the tree farm so that still counts doesn't it?)

Christmas with our families was wonderful as usual and I could hardly contain my excitement over the gift I planned for Mike....a surprise trip and tickets to the Packers vs. Bears game on January 2nd! He was so surprised and excited! The game was awesome and freezing cold (-5) and the Packers beat the Bears to make it to the playoffs! We saw Urlacher eating at the same restaurant as us (Lombardi's in Appleton) the night before the game which was kind of cool, too. Mike ended up getting sick while we were there but he rallied for the game thank goodness!

In December we also celebrated Chris' golden 30th birthday with surprise party planned by Jessie. It was so much fun and he was truly surprised!





One other fun thing we did in December was dress up in ugly Christmas sweaters and go to a local Rough Riders hockey game. Our outfits were a hit!