Woohoo! After a fierce bidding war (see bidding history) I bought new shoes! I desperately need a new pair of shoes to ride in and these waterproof hiking boots with a heel will work just fine. I'll keep using my Ariat Terrains for muddy yucky weather like we're having right now.. and once it dries up I'll bust out these bad boys. Awesome deal.. I feel great! WOohoo.. I'm going to hurry up and write about our xmas holiday before this adrenaline rush wears off...

Let's start with New Year's, shall we? We had planned on going to Walt's big New Year party, but instead ended up at 7-11 looking for herbal tea, tissues, and OJ. Both Matt and I got terribly sick (him way worse tham me), and ended up in bed. We are such crazy party people.. Matt spent the evening with the covers over his head and peeked out at midnight to purse his lips for a kiss and croak, "Happy New Year's, button.." before going back to sleep. Ah well. Last year's New Year sucked and 2005 turned out to be a pretty decent year.. perhaps this year will be a teeny bit better? :)

Continuing on with our story..

After spending Christmas eve in Santa Rosa, Matt's parents fell asleep and we snuck out of the house to make it to Pacifica around midnight.

Loot tally:
Matt: Oxo salad spinner, Serenity DVD, Teachings on Love
Matt's parents: beautiful dandelion earring/necklace set, scarf (to be returned - sorry!), yummy yummy fancy chocolates, flower wine topper

Christmas morning we awoke bright and early to leave around 7am for L.A. to spend with family. We arrived at around 1pm then waited until 3:45pm or so for Lizette and Andy to arrive so we could open presents (part 2). Andy came in with a walker, as he had spent the last few days in the hospital with nerve damage in his legs. See their website for a full explanation for what's been going on.

Loot tally:
Matt: Donnie Darko DVD (woohoo!!), Australian outback rain slicker (returned for a smaller size)
Mom: hand-knit scarf, an authentic Dooney & Bourke purse, gold/pearl earrings
Mark: $50 gift certificate to Best Buy.. haven't spent it yet. Have no idea what to get here..
Lizette and Andy: grooming shammy for Isabella, big rawhide bone for China, Serenity game (which turned out to be a book, but will be returned for Settler's of Catan, yay!!)
Dad: $200

I'm probably totally forgetting other things I got.. please remind me and I'll add it to this list!!


After we opened presents, we went to my uncle's house to have dinner with the extended family for even more present-opening festivities.

Loot tally:
Grandparents: $50
Uncle/Aunt #1: $50 Macy's gift certificate (purchased a track jacket, comfy yoga pants, and a very nice Angora sweater - all on sale for 70% off)
Uncle/Aunt #2: $50
Miri (cousin): American Eagle panties, which I exchanged for some corduroy pants (50% off), and berry breath mints. :)


The next day was a suprise for Matt. In addition to the new tennis shoes and Star Wars 3 DVD I purchased him, I told him we were going on a trip. The night before he had been racking his brain trying to guess where we were going. Among his guesses he had guessed Disneyland.. which was way too close for comfort. So I tried to steer him off the next morning.. "I hope you don't mind a little boat ride.." because he had also guessed Catalina the night before. Muahahaha. Mom and Mark were also in on it.. Mark "revealed" the destination by saying to Matt while petting China, "I guess you can't take China with you to Catalina.." to which Matt pummelled Mark with his socks saying that he gave it away.. hahaha. The day was drizzly and not very nice and when we started out on the freeway it really started to rain. Matt was very much not into the whole idea of a ferry ride out to a yucky day on an island with nothing much to do and started complaining.. "Why would you choose Catalina.. I thought you knew me.." "Can we postpone this trip to another day.." *whine whine cry cry* Meanwhile Mom and I were laughing to ourselves.. finally I gave up the ruse.. "Would it be better if we went there...?" and I pointed to the Disneyland offramp sign. We all had a good laugh and had a pretty good day at Disneyland, although it was crowded as hell and drizzled off and on throughout the day.

The rest of the vacation was pretty mellow. A few days of shopping and we returned back to the bay area on Wednesday. I got a ride in on Isabella on Thursday before the big storms came in..