Happy Holidays 2009!

It has been a busy week since I've written to my blog. I had my eyes examined about a week before Christmas and I was lucky enough to get them back from the lab on Christmas Eve. Here is a picture of me before heading to Mass:

We went to 5:15 Christmas Eve Mass at St. Aloysious Parish located on the campus of Gonzaga University. It was amazing. Mom, Dad and I arrived to Mass about 15 minutes early and it wasn't early enough. St. Al's is the largest Catholic Church in Spokane, holding 1,100; however, on Christmas Eve it was standing room only 15 minutes before Mass started. Luckily, we hit the right time and they were bringing up folding chairs so we got a seat, but people continued to enter the church until 5 minutes after the service started. There were people standing all around the church and at points, people were standing three and four rows deep! There were tons of children at the Mass and they were going crazy. Their parents tried to keep them under control, but they were extremely excited since Santa would be coming soon. They were all so cute! It was hard to hear the priest because of all of the children, but it was okay. The priest said that he was so happy to have all the kids at Mass that he didn't care. In fact, he said that he expected a lot of crying babies children and that they can just "let it rip" because this is a family Mass and kids cry. After Mass, we came home to make dinner. I had made home made scalped potatoes and we reheated up the ham. It was such a great Christmas Eve Meal! Then Farley and I got on webcams and opened each other's presents. That was nice because I surprised him with a couple things and it was fun to see the excitement on his face when he opened his presents. After that my family did some family things and then we opened our presents, which we always do late on Christmas Eve. Mom and I decided to watch midnight Mass from the Vatican, which was beautiful and they even showed much of the beautiful artwork in St. Peter's Basilica. At about 1:00am all of the sudden, the t.v. turned off the Mass and onto an infomercial--we couldn't believe it! After searching for 20 minutes, we decided that no other channel was airing the midnight Mass so we headed to bed.

Christmas Morning, Mom and I slept in because we were up so late! We opened our stockings and then made Belgian Waffles for breakfast. Mom prepared the prime rib for dinner and we all relaxed until late afternoon when the neighbors came over for a wonderful Christmas dinner, wonderful conversation and super deserts.

Below is a picture of doctor wine caddys that my my parents bought for Farley and me. I just think that they are so cute!!

The weekend after Christmas, we were very busy. On Sunday, we went to my half-sister's house and saw her, her husband, my other half-sister, and my niece. It was a nice to see everyone. Then we met up with Molly and Albert at P.F. Chang's for lunch. Then we window sale shopped downtown before heading over to Clinkerdagger's to meet our family friends, Tess and Lou. Tess's son, Alex, is the same age as I am and we have not seen each other since we were in Junior High, so it was fun to catch up. After having appetizers, we decided to go see Nine. It was a musical that was jam packed with star power. I am not a huge fan of musicals, but I did enjoy the music, dancing, and Italian scenery; however, I didn't think the story was all that great.

Below, is a picture of Mom and me at P.F. Chang's:
On Monday, Mom and I downtown again to look for snow boots for me. We managed to find a great warm pair that are not too big. I also found this cute 1920s styled hat and a cute scarf that I bought with Christmas money! Next, we headed to Coeur d'Alene Resort to meet up with Crystal and her mom, Pam, for a great lunch. We had a wonderful table with a beautiful view of the lake and it was so much fun to catch up with them.

On New Year's Eve, Mom, Dad and I met up with my friend Kelly, her husband Gabe and their 5-month old at the lobby of the Davenport Tower for a drink. We walked in at the right time and managed to get a great table. Later Molly and Albert met up with us for a drink too. Here is a picture of me in my Christmas hat and scarf at the Davenport Tower.
After drinks, we headed over to the original Davenport Hotel for our dinner reservations at the Palm Court. We ended up eating in the lobby which was a great place to people watch. There were lots of brides, tons of people in tuxes and other fancy dresses. It was Molly and Albert's 33rd wedding anniversary so it was fun to be able to share that with them. Below are pictures of Dad and me at the table and the second one is of Mom and me.

After dinner, we headed down to First Night Spokane to look at art and ice sculptures, watch dance and music, amongst other fun activities. We watched a juggler and comedy team, Brothers from Different Mothers, which was wonderful. We had such a great time! After their show, we headed down to the park to watch the fire works I didn't think to grab my camer

a soon enough, but here is a picture right at the end of the show. It was a cloudy and rainy night which combined with the smoke it looks as though the clock tower is on fire. I just love this photo!

After the fireworks, we headed back to the Davenport tower to have appetizers and champagne. We headed home about 1:00am, which was perfect. It was between the people leaving at midnight after the fireworks and at 2:00 when the bars closed. The only problem was that I was wide awake when I came home. I ended up reading my book, World Without End by Ken Follett, until almost 3:00am. The book is SO good that I didn't want to go to bed at all!