Christmas Break and Ugly Sweaters

Sorry I have been neglecting you, blog. The days leading up to Christmas are always extremely BUSY, and this year is no exception! Good news... I am FINALLY done with the semester, and I did really well, so I'm very happy!! Now, there is light at the end of the tunnel... I start my first internship on January 9th!

Rick and I hosted an Ugly Sweater Christmas Party at our house yesterday. We had a white elephant gift exchange, and it was so fun! We invited (roughly) 21 people, and 17 showed up! I thought that was a very good turn-out, considering that the party was very last-minute (we planned it Saturday), and most people have a lot of Christmas plans this week! The only annoying things about the party were that Rick and I had a very difficult time finding ugly sweaters (they're a hot commodity around here), and our house is SOO SMALL with 17 people packed into it.

Beautiful ladies in the newly finished room!! Yep, Rick and I are DONE with the floors and everything in my new office! It looks amazing. I'll post a picture of the finished product in a later post!

The LOVELY belly-sweater that Rick picked out at the thrift store. He thought the flowers on the back of it looked like poinsettias... they didn't at all. Thank goodness he bought another sweater with snowflakes on it and wore that the majority of the night!

Good times with great friends! We were so glad Matty could come!

Isn't our basement small?!

During the white elephant gift exchange, Matt was re-gifted the infamous crow from another white elephant party a few years back.

Squid showed up too!! She got a weight lifting belt.

This barrel mug thing was a hit. I don't remember who ended up with it after it was traded though.

Jaime picked MY present. The Shake Weight!

Rick showed him how to use it, naturally.

Here, we have a lovely sign that Rick hung on the wall. I'm already thinking of ways to re-craft it into something cute.

What's it gonna be, Aud?

Only the BEST present EVER! Yes, that is Rick and I in the frame. Chelsi always gives white elephant gifts that have to do with me. At the last party, she gave away a photo album full of pictures of me acting like an idiot. It was called "A Day In the Life of Amanda". Nice.

Another highly sought-after mug.

Robbie really wanted it, but I'm pretty sure Nick ended up with it.

Who wouldn't want that?

Jessica was gifted a disgusting old recorder from Shane...

Which Robby proceeded to play... without disinfecting it first. YUCK.

Michon got a box that said "Candy Cigarettes"... turns out there were real cigarettes in the box. Oh, she also got a lighter. Classy.

Hmmm...

The new Crow tree-topper. Cute, huh?

Sibling and sibling-in-law love.

I hope you're all having a WONDERFUL Christmas week. Rick is working all week, which leaves me home bored with not much to do, since I don't have class. I've been trying to stay home and spend less... but there were a few days (3 in a row) when I went to Target every day, which is not exactly close to my house... oops. I have been doing some crafts now though (to curb my Target addiction), which may or may not end up being gifts, so I can't show them yet!