Annual Christmas Party 2009
I was up at an average weekend time of 9 am today. After getting ready for the day I got on the computer to check messages and work on pictures. I had hoped to get some things done before heading out so I could upload them to flickr at Tom's. Well that didn't happen because I really had too much to do. Bo had upset me the day before and wanted to talk about it before we left. I also had Christmas cards to finish up before we left and a number of other things that we needed to do and get ready before leaving.
After stressing over a lot of things and loosing time to not being sure of what to do next in the list of things to do we finally got on the road. After stopping at grandmas to pick up the fondue pot and forks, paying for my car tabs and filling up with gas we were finally out on the freeway and on our way by 1:30
We talked a little more on our way down but ultimately I listened to my music (compliments of my daughter who loaned me her MP3 player).
Our first stop on the road was going to be McMenamins to pick up some gift ideas for my sister but I didn't want to go that far out of my way now that we were running late. I came up with a back up idea for her gift instead and we headed down to Uwajimaya for our first stop.
I picked up a few things at the bookstore, Kinokunia. One of those things being my 2010 anime calendar. For years now I have consistently gotten a One Piece calendar for my office. This year I actually passed it up for a Hetalia calendar. It was a really tough choice but I couldn't afford both and I like the Hetalia one better (that's not to say that the One Piece one isn't good…).
I picked up a few groceries at Uwajimaya and then we headed out. Originally we were going to head to Costco next but I detoured to Target to pick up some gift bags for the gifts I had to hand out. I found a nice selection of bags in the Christmas section and a snack because I was really hungry by then.
I had Bo drive from Target to Costco so that I could eat my food. We arrived to a full parking lot as expected but found a parking spot relatively quickly and headed in. I took a chance on things and brought in my rarely used Costco bag. This turned out to be a good idea because we picked up over $70 in stuff at Costco, which is a first for me. I also found a gift idea for Chris there and picked up one for Alan and Pia. :) I also picked up some stuff for my grandma and then we headed to the check out lines. Because I had so much stuff this time I wasn't able to use the U-check lines but that was fine.
I was still a little hungry so I got a hot dog and split it with Bo. From there we headed out. When we got to the car I took the time to quickly get the gifts together in the bags I had purchased before putting everything back in the trunk. I wanted to get that done before I arrived so no one would see what they got. :)
We headed out to Tom's house and arrived at just after 5pm. I was surprised to find that Tricia wasn't there yet. About half the people had arrived. We unloaded everything we had to bring in and set up what we had, like the cooler. At Costco I had picked up a case of the real sugar Coca cola in bottles and it's been a great thing to have at parties. The cooler just adds to the fun with the bottle opener on the side. :)
After unloading things I promptly handed out gifts. I was going to wait but I couldn't so I handed out the ones for people already there. That meant that Chris and Valeska got theirs and so did Tom. All three were happy with their gifts this year and I was very happy to have chosen so well. I got Chris and Valeska the first and second seasons of The Big Bang Theory. I got Tom a crystal cube with the Vikings Logo and helmet etched in it. It comes with an LED base that lights up the logo. :)
I spent the next while occasionally online, but also taking pictures and chatting with Valeska about what was new. James and Cindy showed up to make an appearance for the night. James was in between concerts for his church so he couldn't stay long. I got a nice picture of them before they headed out. Not too long afterwards Tricia and her husband arrived.
Tricia brought some things for the fondue but we knew we would need a trip to the store down the road anyway. So we worked up a list and four of us headed to the store (Tricia, Dan, Chris and I). None of the other vehicles could take 4 people so I ended up being the one drive people to the store. It was just my luck that Tom's neighbor's friend had his truck parked in front of the driveway where I had parked so I had to go up to them and ask him to move. -_-
We headed out to the store, which wasn't too far down the road. As we pulled into the parking lot we all recognized Maharo and I pulled into the empty spot next to her honking my horn so that Alan and Pia knew we were there. :) Dan got out of the car and told Alan that he had no control over the horn. _~_ All 6 of us headed into the store after that.
I didn't know how much I could afford or what I would be getting so I decided just to help out where I could. We weren't able to find strawberries for the chocolate fondue but we found everything else on our list. I picked up some more soda so that I could have some diet cherry coke for myself. It always sucks for me that I buy the real sugar coke in bottles but can't enjoy it. :(
We checked out and I paid for my share before we all headed back to the house. Tricia and I began prepping the food for dinner (what wasn't already done). Tricia worked on the cheese fondue and I worked on cutting the bread up. When I was done I got online for a little bit with my laptop. While I was online Tricia made a comment that stirring the fondue was a lot like Café World. I laughed and said that I had given up on that application and I asked if she was on Facebook. She said she was and asked me the same. I turned around my laptop screen to show her that I was playing Mafia Wars at that very moment. :) So I found and added her, her husband and daughter. :)
Dinner went really well. We were down to two fondue pots this time but made due by making the chocolate fondue in a sauce pan on the stove. It made the table less crowded. I ended up sitting at the breakfast bar near the wall and had to repeatedly be reminded that I had something cooking because I would inevitably end up cooking it to a crisp by forgetting. -_-; I eventually just made what I was going to eat and gave up on cooking more.
I was closest to the cheese and chocolate fondues so I got more of those. The chocolate one was dark chocolate so not as much to my liking. It was all though and I enjoyed all of dinner. ^_^ Tricia was a big help getting things organized and prepped. I helped out a little but she did a good portion of the work.
After dinner I picked up the camera and took more pictures. Actually during the prepping of dinner I had Bo walk around with the camera some to get pictures I wouldn't be able to capture. :) I showed off some of my pictures to Valeska and Pia as well.
After a while I wanted to setup the Apples to Apples game but there seemed to be a conflict between that and showing off Alan's pictures. I was disappointed but figured the pictures would win out eventually and just let it go. I spent some time in the living room talking with Dustin, Bo, Suzie and Tom before Alan called everyone downstairs to look at the show of pictures from Singapore.
Completely unintentionally I missed the show of pictures. I had intended to head downstairs but started working on cleaning up things in the kitchen instead (everything from dinner was till out). Then Tom came up and talked with me for a bit. It was nice to get to talk with him. We haven't talked one on one in a long time.
He said that he is looking at going to Sakura con again this year and not just for one day, but for the whole weekend. I told him that would be more than happy to have him join our rooms and I look forward to having him back with us. :)
Then he mentioned that he was heading to bed because he had to work the next day (yes on a Sunday). We got into a conversation about his work and what has been going on. I didn't mean to keep him up that long but we ended up talking until the slide show had finished. Tom then promptly headed off to bed leaving the key for whomever left last to lock up.
I continued to clean up in the kitchen and put food away. Around 10 or so the last of the people from downstairs headed up stairs and got ready to leave. Soon it was just down to Suzie, Dustin, Bo and I. I commented after everyone made their mass exodus that no one had even offered to help with the clean up. Suzie, being like me and not wanting to leave a mess as a guest, promptly jumped up and started helping. I thanked her, Dustin and Bo for their help to get things done. It still took us until 11:30 to get everything cleaned and get out of the house. I would have done all the dishes too but there were dishes in the dishwasher and I didn't know if they were clean or dirty. That was a small amount of things to leave behind compared to what we cleaned up; so it wasn't too bad.
We got all the sodas out of the cooler, the ice and water dumped out and then the cooler re-packed with things to ship home. We headed out of the house and got everything into my car. I locked up and kept the key with me. In retrospect I could have left it with Dustin and he could have returned it to Tom a lot sooner, but I was tired and not thinking very straight. Of course we talked a bit outside as well and didn't end up actually leaving until closer to midnight.
We got on the road as Bo drove home and I rested in the passenger's seat. I remember us getting on I-5 for the ride home but was out like a light shortly after that. I woke up at home and could barely get myself awake enough to get out of the car. It took several minutes for me to fully wakeup. Naturally I just headed inside, upstairs and back to bed anyway. :)
After stressing over a lot of things and loosing time to not being sure of what to do next in the list of things to do we finally got on the road. After stopping at grandmas to pick up the fondue pot and forks, paying for my car tabs and filling up with gas we were finally out on the freeway and on our way by 1:30
We talked a little more on our way down but ultimately I listened to my music (compliments of my daughter who loaned me her MP3 player).
Our first stop on the road was going to be McMenamins to pick up some gift ideas for my sister but I didn't want to go that far out of my way now that we were running late. I came up with a back up idea for her gift instead and we headed down to Uwajimaya for our first stop.
I picked up a few things at the bookstore, Kinokunia. One of those things being my 2010 anime calendar. For years now I have consistently gotten a One Piece calendar for my office. This year I actually passed it up for a Hetalia calendar. It was a really tough choice but I couldn't afford both and I like the Hetalia one better (that's not to say that the One Piece one isn't good…).
I picked up a few groceries at Uwajimaya and then we headed out. Originally we were going to head to Costco next but I detoured to Target to pick up some gift bags for the gifts I had to hand out. I found a nice selection of bags in the Christmas section and a snack because I was really hungry by then.
I had Bo drive from Target to Costco so that I could eat my food. We arrived to a full parking lot as expected but found a parking spot relatively quickly and headed in. I took a chance on things and brought in my rarely used Costco bag. This turned out to be a good idea because we picked up over $70 in stuff at Costco, which is a first for me. I also found a gift idea for Chris there and picked up one for Alan and Pia. :) I also picked up some stuff for my grandma and then we headed to the check out lines. Because I had so much stuff this time I wasn't able to use the U-check lines but that was fine.
I was still a little hungry so I got a hot dog and split it with Bo. From there we headed out. When we got to the car I took the time to quickly get the gifts together in the bags I had purchased before putting everything back in the trunk. I wanted to get that done before I arrived so no one would see what they got. :)
We headed out to Tom's house and arrived at just after 5pm. I was surprised to find that Tricia wasn't there yet. About half the people had arrived. We unloaded everything we had to bring in and set up what we had, like the cooler. At Costco I had picked up a case of the real sugar Coca cola in bottles and it's been a great thing to have at parties. The cooler just adds to the fun with the bottle opener on the side. :)
After unloading things I promptly handed out gifts. I was going to wait but I couldn't so I handed out the ones for people already there. That meant that Chris and Valeska got theirs and so did Tom. All three were happy with their gifts this year and I was very happy to have chosen so well. I got Chris and Valeska the first and second seasons of The Big Bang Theory. I got Tom a crystal cube with the Vikings Logo and helmet etched in it. It comes with an LED base that lights up the logo. :)
I spent the next while occasionally online, but also taking pictures and chatting with Valeska about what was new. James and Cindy showed up to make an appearance for the night. James was in between concerts for his church so he couldn't stay long. I got a nice picture of them before they headed out. Not too long afterwards Tricia and her husband arrived.
Tricia brought some things for the fondue but we knew we would need a trip to the store down the road anyway. So we worked up a list and four of us headed to the store (Tricia, Dan, Chris and I). None of the other vehicles could take 4 people so I ended up being the one drive people to the store. It was just my luck that Tom's neighbor's friend had his truck parked in front of the driveway where I had parked so I had to go up to them and ask him to move. -_-
We headed out to the store, which wasn't too far down the road. As we pulled into the parking lot we all recognized Maharo and I pulled into the empty spot next to her honking my horn so that Alan and Pia knew we were there. :) Dan got out of the car and told Alan that he had no control over the horn. _~_ All 6 of us headed into the store after that.
I didn't know how much I could afford or what I would be getting so I decided just to help out where I could. We weren't able to find strawberries for the chocolate fondue but we found everything else on our list. I picked up some more soda so that I could have some diet cherry coke for myself. It always sucks for me that I buy the real sugar coke in bottles but can't enjoy it. :(
We checked out and I paid for my share before we all headed back to the house. Tricia and I began prepping the food for dinner (what wasn't already done). Tricia worked on the cheese fondue and I worked on cutting the bread up. When I was done I got online for a little bit with my laptop. While I was online Tricia made a comment that stirring the fondue was a lot like Café World. I laughed and said that I had given up on that application and I asked if she was on Facebook. She said she was and asked me the same. I turned around my laptop screen to show her that I was playing Mafia Wars at that very moment. :) So I found and added her, her husband and daughter. :)
Dinner went really well. We were down to two fondue pots this time but made due by making the chocolate fondue in a sauce pan on the stove. It made the table less crowded. I ended up sitting at the breakfast bar near the wall and had to repeatedly be reminded that I had something cooking because I would inevitably end up cooking it to a crisp by forgetting. -_-; I eventually just made what I was going to eat and gave up on cooking more.
I was closest to the cheese and chocolate fondues so I got more of those. The chocolate one was dark chocolate so not as much to my liking. It was all though and I enjoyed all of dinner. ^_^ Tricia was a big help getting things organized and prepped. I helped out a little but she did a good portion of the work.
After dinner I picked up the camera and took more pictures. Actually during the prepping of dinner I had Bo walk around with the camera some to get pictures I wouldn't be able to capture. :) I showed off some of my pictures to Valeska and Pia as well.
After a while I wanted to setup the Apples to Apples game but there seemed to be a conflict between that and showing off Alan's pictures. I was disappointed but figured the pictures would win out eventually and just let it go. I spent some time in the living room talking with Dustin, Bo, Suzie and Tom before Alan called everyone downstairs to look at the show of pictures from Singapore.
Completely unintentionally I missed the show of pictures. I had intended to head downstairs but started working on cleaning up things in the kitchen instead (everything from dinner was till out). Then Tom came up and talked with me for a bit. It was nice to get to talk with him. We haven't talked one on one in a long time.
He said that he is looking at going to Sakura con again this year and not just for one day, but for the whole weekend. I told him that would be more than happy to have him join our rooms and I look forward to having him back with us. :)
Then he mentioned that he was heading to bed because he had to work the next day (yes on a Sunday). We got into a conversation about his work and what has been going on. I didn't mean to keep him up that long but we ended up talking until the slide show had finished. Tom then promptly headed off to bed leaving the key for whomever left last to lock up.
I continued to clean up in the kitchen and put food away. Around 10 or so the last of the people from downstairs headed up stairs and got ready to leave. Soon it was just down to Suzie, Dustin, Bo and I. I commented after everyone made their mass exodus that no one had even offered to help with the clean up. Suzie, being like me and not wanting to leave a mess as a guest, promptly jumped up and started helping. I thanked her, Dustin and Bo for their help to get things done. It still took us until 11:30 to get everything cleaned and get out of the house. I would have done all the dishes too but there were dishes in the dishwasher and I didn't know if they were clean or dirty. That was a small amount of things to leave behind compared to what we cleaned up; so it wasn't too bad.
We got all the sodas out of the cooler, the ice and water dumped out and then the cooler re-packed with things to ship home. We headed out of the house and got everything into my car. I locked up and kept the key with me. In retrospect I could have left it with Dustin and he could have returned it to Tom a lot sooner, but I was tired and not thinking very straight. Of course we talked a bit outside as well and didn't end up actually leaving until closer to midnight.
We got on the road as Bo drove home and I rested in the passenger's seat. I remember us getting on I-5 for the ride home but was out like a light shortly after that. I woke up at home and could barely get myself awake enough to get out of the car. It took several minutes for me to fully wakeup. Naturally I just headed inside, upstairs and back to bed anyway. :)