The Rest Of 2012 Adventures

So it's the last day of January so it's about time that I finished blogging about the rest of 2012. Here is what we did from Thanksgiving thru New Years.

David and I went to his parent's house for Thanksgiving and had a great holiday. David's sister, Rachel and her hubby, Mike were there as well as his youngest bro, Michael.

I made my 10 pounds of mashed potatoes as usual. We had a great time hanging out and eating tons.

After Thanksgiving, David and I said goodbye to our downtown loft apartment. *sniff sniff*. We were sad to go, we love downtown, but due to a few things we decided it was time to go. We decided that it was time to either move away from Omaha all together or buy a house. While we decide which one to do, we are staying with David's parents for the moment. I think we are close to figuring out what we are going to do...hopefully. Cross your fingers. I'll share news on that as soon as we know.

Anyway, November was our last month downtown at the Tip Top Lofts. We loved the 3 years we spent there and in our branch at church.

David and I headed to California to be with my family over Christmas. There is a really long story about how we got out there that I'll try to consolidate and tell now. We bought our plane tickets to Cali long before Christmas, of course. David ended up having to work in Denver up until the day we were scheduled to leave, Dec. 19th. Our flight was scheduled to go from Omaha to Cali with a layover in Denver so David was going to have to fly from Denver to Omaha just to get on the same plane with me an hour later and fly back through Denver. I was to meet him at the airport with his luggage for our Christmas trip.

Well, everything got messed up because, of course, it decided to blizzard on that same day. No snow yet all winter, then the day we need to fly, every flight gets cancelled. I was stuck at the Omaha airport with no flights available until AFTER Christmas, while David's flight in Denver got cancelled and he was told to get on a flight to Cali the next morning. Other people on my cancelled flight were rescheduling and flying out of Kansas City the next afternoon or taking the 11pm Amtrak to Denver and catching a flight there. While in the Frontier line contemplating which to do, I met a gentleman named Rick. He was from Denver and trying to get home. We both decided that the Amtrak was our best bet with the snow and we shared a cab over to the Amtrak station, which wasn't opened yet, so our cab driver took us to a nearby restaurant to wait. We randomly ended up having dinner together and I found out that he worked for the same company as David and knew all the people David was working with. It was quite a coincidence. After dinner we hitched a ride with a hotel shuttle van to the Amtrak station again and got aboard the 11pm train. Rick was such a great help to me. I think he felt a bit responsible for me after finding out my situation and helped me with all my suitcases (I had 4 because I had mine AND David's still) and watched out for me on the train. He was very nice.

Our train trip was supposed to take 8 hours, but because of the snow it took 13 1/2 hours. It was a very long and slow train ride. I was so tired and upset, but I held it together. David was able to get a morning flight to Orange County in the morning and was on the phone all day with Frontier trying to get me on a flight in Denver. He kept having to buy and then reschedule flights because the train took so long. Rick and I finally made it to Denver. Rick had his wife meet us at the train station and they drove me up to the airport. They were so nice to do all that for me. Eventually I was able to get on a flight and made it to LAX that night. It was a really long 24 hours, but I'm so glad I made it. I found out later that all the flights out of Kansas City got cancelled too so if I didn't choose the Amtrak route I never would have made it out of the Midwest for Christmas. I'm so thankful I did! And thanks to Rick and his wife too.

Once I was rested we had a great time hanging out with my family. Christmas eve some of us met to eat before heading over to my parents for Christmas eve festivities.

While we were eating this table of old guys started singing. I guess they are a barbershop quartet and were headed to a gig after dinner and decided to warm up and entertain us all. They were good!

After dinner we headed to the parent's house. My mom always decorates so pretty. She had 3 trees this year. This one was all decorated with different manger scenes and Bible stories.

It's not Christmas eve without the eggnog toast in the Santa mugs!

This year we finally had enough kids to act out the Christmas story. We had an angel, two shepherds...

...3 wise guys...I mean men. The bro-in-laws, Sam, Marty and David.

a giraffe/sheep and Mary and Joseph.

They all acted it out while my dad read the story out of Luke.

Here we are Christmas morning on our way to Kelly and Sam's. Merry Christmas!

It wouldn't be Christmas at Kelly and Sam's without Kelly's cinnamon roll wreath and Sam's fried eggs. Yum.

David and I did stockings...I mean, Santa brought us stockings!

David and Kelly's youngest little man.

It was a crazy morning! The kids had a lot of fun.

They had time to play for a little bit too before heading to my parents again.

We all met at my parent's house for an early Christmas dinner and presents. My parents had this Christmas eating area set up in their backyard. Complete with heater. It was so yummy.

All us "kids" eating and hanging out.

After dinner we set out all the presents and had a gift exchange.

David didn't appreciate the wrapping Cindy chose for his gift.

He did love his gift, however. I guess Cindy didn't want David to feel left out when I wore my pajama jeans so she got him his own pair.

Thanks again Cindy and Marty. Really. They are so funny.

Merry Christmas again!

It wouldn't be Christmas without the Whitman's Sampler! It's tradition.

A day or two after Christmas, Worth took some of us here to the Company D store in Anaheim. It's a Disney discount store for Disney employees only. Super special!

There was a store and this warehouse full of insanely discounted items that are usually sold at Disneyland in the park.

With Worth's discount everything was an EXTRA 40% off. Princess dresses that are $50 at the park were like $15! Sweet.

Mickey ears galore for like $3!

We bought a bunch of stuff for friends and family's kids at huge savings like this huge giraffe that David brought home for his cute nephew in his carry on. Thanks Worth!

December 28th we flew back to Omaha without incident and just in time for McCune New Year festivities. Lots of yummy food and family came to visit and at midnight McCune's grabbed their traditional pots and pans to make a ruckus in the street.

Not sure what's going on here, but David looks excited.

Happy New Year! It was cold outside!

As always, Olde Land Syne was sung in George Bailey style.

There you have it! The rest of our year. Bring on 2013! Oh yeah, it's already February tomorrow. Yikes!