A weekend to forget...

I don't mean I want to forget the weekend; I had a blast.  I mean the weekend and the liquor helped me forget.  After posting last week on the not so great events surrounding my life as of late, I got a lot of replies to just take it one day at a time and to enjoy the holidays and whatnot.  Let me tell ya... I did just that with a bit of alcohol to guide me.

Wednesday night (Christmas Eve), I got off work right around noon and, because I was a day behind from my travels, I still had some Christmas type things to do, wrapping gifts mostly.  So I went home and wrapped the gifts I needed for that night, plus a few for Christmas Day.  I figured I could wake up and wrap the rest before I had to be to my brothers... little did I know Christmas Eve night would be a late one.
I was able to get a nap in, which was much needed and greatly appreciated!  I woke up, ran the triple barrel iron through my hair, and made my way down to Erin's parents house.  Erin is my BFF, her family is my second, and I spend every Christmas Eve with them; I love them.  Here is a picture of Tony, Erin, and myself:

We eat, we talk, we do gifts (I'm part of their drawing of names for gifts), we all have a wonderful time.  She has 3 nieces and a nephew, her nephew is the love of my life... or used to be.  When he was little we used to say we were boyfriend/girlfriend... but now that he's getting older and too cool to even give his mom a hug, he also is too cool to be my boyfriend or even talk to me.  I end up making him feel bad about it and, because he is also tired, he starts to cry.  dammit.  We make peace and move on.  Erin's sister, Niki, lives way out in BFE... up past Cold Springs, so they had to get the kids home for Santa's arrival and Christmas morning.  Shortly after they leave I leave as well.
I talked to Steve to see if he wanted to get together for a Christmas Eve cocktail... I go pick him up and we make our way to Bennigans - they are closed.  Every bar in the area is closed.  Shit.  So we go back to his place for a few beers.  Jeff is there and we all end up watching Rambo until 3am, when I finally decide it's time to go home.
At one point I ended up crabby because of a phone call I had to deal with... which ended up ruining my night.

7am Christmas Morning - same person who ruined my night is calling... apologizing for their behavior.  After going to bed after 3am I'm not ready to be awake yet; I go back to bed.

9am Christmas Morning - alarm is going off, ugh!  I have to wake up, wrap more gifts, and be to my brothers by 10am.  I go in my pajamas, as I was instructed to do.  Christmas at my brothers was fun.  Jordan wasn't so much into opening gifts, but she sure did enjoy playing with them!  I got her a Care Bear and she loved it... even gave it kisses:

I got a lot of nice gifts, but I'm only going to tell you about 3 - because it's hilarious.  My mother is a very random person... all growing up she would buy my brother and I funny things that really are not funny at all... or at least to you they wouldn't be.  For example: because my mom rarely bought brand name cereal when we were young, she would wrap a box of Captain Crunch with Crunch Berries for Christmas... this turned into a big joke and she started buying food as gifts.  We never expect anything on a list from my mom... just funny random stuff.  Here is the highlight of my gifts from mom: I got a 4 pack of toilet paper, a box of Rachael Ray Chicken Stock, and a box of 4 Champagne Flutes.  Here were her explanations for each; TP because every time she goes to Walmart and asks if I need anything, I say TP - Chicken Stock because I like Rachael Ray and thought I may want to cook like her - Champagne Flutes because she heard me mention recently that I should get new wine glasses and even though the box said Champagne she figured I could put wine in them.  Oh, my mom!  A separate note: I ended up with 3 copies of the Britney Spears CD!
We eat brunch, which was a delicious egg bake, banana bread, and pomegranate.  We hang out for a while and talk and be merry.  I had to be at my aunts around 3:30 and was hoping to get a nap in before hand but because we stayed at my brothers so long and I still had gifts to wrap for the extended family, there was no nap in my future.

3:30pm Christmas Day - Christmas at Aunt Jackie's.  The Taylors (Jayne, Tim, Bryan, Shannon) were out of town this year for Christmas and boy could you tell!  I had a great day, but I really needed my cousin there!  Michelle is there but so is Justin and, while I'm trying to put the Justin thing behind me, I'm still very apprehensive about how I treat him.  It also meant that I didn't want to bother Michelle with my petty issues when my dad and his wife showed up.  I turned to wine (which sounds bad).  All in all it was a good day with the family, no games were played... which was different, but we still had a wonderful time.  Family is very important to me and I'm glad I could spend the day with them, plus I got to see Jordan almost all day long!  Here is a 3 generation shot (my Grandma, my dad, and me):

'round about 9pm - I leave and make my way home.  I give my mom all the gifts from the family then turn around and head back out.  Christmas night is generally a night to get together with friends and have a cocktail or two.  I head to Steve's and we wait for Jeff to get home then we all make our way to Bennigan's, this time they are open.  It was the whole big group of us and my friend Amanda was near by so she stopped through as well:

We all drink our hearts out and take a cab back to Jeff and Steve's.  I'll just say this about the remainder of the night... Steve and Dave were doing shots, no big deal, right?  They were taking salsa and putting it in the bottom of the shot glass, then filling it the rest of the way with vodka.  It was a great time.  I have amazing friends.  We may have been up until 5 or so in the morning.

Friday morning we wake up and I feel fine... the rest do not.  I'm not silly enough to do shots like that.  I decided Friday was the day to cut and donate my hair, so I do that.  I also try to get a few estimates on how much it's going to cost to get my car fixed, I only ended up with one quote ($2110) because the other places were closed.
Friday night we all met up at B-Dubs for wings and beers, then head over to Johnson's house because the boys are going to be involved in a game of Risk.  Jess, Tim, Cianna and myself end up playing the Wii.  We started out by playing a game of Mario Party, I was Princess Peach and have since adopted the motto: I am the Princess.  We then decided to play a new game Cianna just got called Raving Rabbids; it is the most random game I've ever played!  After having several beers though... it's TONS of fun!  We call it a night relatively early that night...

Saturday was really just a day.  I finally got a ride home and decided to do some cleaning and trying to catch up with everything from being out of town and Christmas; my dungeon was a pit.
Saturday night was fight night, UFC fighting.  Johnson was kind enough to have everyone over for the fight.  Steve, Tim, Jess, and myself met up at B-dubs (again) for wings and beers (again) before heading over to Johnson's.  Before going up there I was getting ready and trying to decide how to do my hair now that I have none... I ended up feeling like I look 12 and throwing on one of my best boob shirts to make myself feel better.  At b-dubs I ask this dude if anyone is using the barstool, he never even looked at my face, stared at my chest and said no, you're fine.  Obviously I'm fine... look at me.  I didn't feel 12 just then.
So we finally make our way to Johnson's for the fight and have plenty of beer in the process.  After the fights end we bust out the wii again and have some more Raving Rabbids fun.  We took a cab home that night as well... Jeff, Steve, and myself stayed up drinking until somewheres around 3 or 4 in the morning... listening to old school rap and having deep conversation about everything from spicy cheese dip to the Universe.  It was a great night.

Sunday... oh Sunday couldn't come soon enough.  A long weekend full of drinking needed to come to an end!  Woke up Sunday and went to brunch at Billy's in Anoka - the Vikings played at noon and we knew we were watching... so why not watch and drink?!  I run home and grab a half full bottle of vodka and stop at the store for some OJ; screwdrivers!  Vikings win, even though they were already in the playoffs because the bears lost... still, a win is a win, right?  I end up drunk because we may have gone back to my house for my other bottle of vodka (I didn't drive)... Jeff and Steve play a game of Football on the PS3 and I take a nap.  I finally make it home around 8:30pm.

What a weekend!  I left work on Wednesday in a funk... I cured that funk with a lot friends and a lot of drinking this weekend.  Now we have another long weekend ahead of us and I'm scared, so is my liver.

Last, a very Happy Golden Birthday to my dear friend, Steve.  Drinks tonight I'm sure.