I'm Home

Going home for the holidays to spend time with family.... it's like sleeping with an ex. Ugh! My best friend says to me before I left, "Every time you go visit your parents I get a tearful drunken phone call from you about halfway through the week. Why do you keep going back!?" LMAO! She's right though. This time I didn't call, but was tempted to.

Ok, we had a nice time for the most part, and had a really good Christmas together, so that's something. Matt was a real trooper about dealing with my parents. My dad wasn't so bad, but my mom was really aggravating. I'm trying very hard not to be like that. My dad deserves some sort of award or medal for biting his lip. I'd have chewed mine down to bone by this point. Luckily, my parents were cool with us staying in the same room. Nobody mentioned it or asked how we slpet or anything... I guess it's like dont' ask don't tell. Anyway, it was fine. Damn that bed makes some noise! Luckily the floor doesn't. ;)

Matt and I had a fight. An actual one, not just a little thing. Long story short, I am a sore loser and really competitive and my mouth got me into trouble. He's hard to read (picture Silent Bob), and he wears his heart on his sleeve (*cough* only child). I get a little (ok a lot) competitive and sometimes say things that aren't very charming, so technically it's all my fault. We're ok now, we talked it out and I apologized about 15 times before he really started coming around again. By the next day everything was fine.

For Christmas he did WAY too much. I feel bad because I stayed under $300 and he went far over. My top two favorite things he got me: these beautiful saphirre earrings I'd admired in a shop (and I know how much they are, and am shocked he'd feel comfortable spending that one me yet- my husband never spent that much on my jewelry!), and a black t-shirt that says in green and grey "Achievement Unlocked- Left the House" with the XBOX achievement logo and an icon of a guy walking out a door. I LOVE IT!!!

In the mountains we encountered a ton of snow, and made good use of it. We hiked several miles yesterday and got some AMAZING photos. I'd never done a winter ascent of this particular mountain, so it was new to me too. I loved it. Thought my heart was gonna pop on the way up! We saw several hundred elk, some giant birds, a coyote pack, squirrels, etc. I'm used to seeing the wildlife, but it was a first for Matt so we did the tourist thing and pulled the car over so we could take pics of elk butts. LOL! We visited Boulder and walked around, shopping a bit. Ironically one of my co-workers was there too (didn't bump into her, but we texted). We had the most amazing crepes there!! OMG drool. It was kinda fun doing the touristy things that I never do. Usually I just lay around the house, watch TV, play the old Nintendo (yeah, the original Nintendo. I played Kid Icarus and Marble Madness this morning before we left) and eat. Oh we did go out to some nice restaurants this time. We had prime rib and lobster one night (thank you Uncle Richard for the gift certificate to my favorite restuarant up there!) and seafood to die for. The visit to the cheese shoppe was remarkable, and we came home with three fantastic cheeses: a port wine cheddar- it has a little zing to it!, a Barely Buzzed white cheddar (white cheddar coated in Chickory coffee grounds as a rind), and a Pave D'Affinois (much like Formmage D'Affinois brie). Also we visited the largest liquor store in North America and bought a bottle of Kina Lillet (for making Vesper martinis- see James Bond's drink in Casino Royale). The brewery- had a perfect buffalo burger and a honey wheat Stinger beer. It was definitely a food experience type of trip. Matt is a skinny guy but I've packed ten pounds on him since we met. He's enjoying the benefits of someone whose culinary exploits have a wide range. I'm just glad he really enjoys it too. He knows more about cooking stuff that I had surmised, and practically worships Anthony Bourdain. Ironic. Anyway, it was a fabulous food experience and a pretty nice time all around. New Years plans... haven't made any yet but am hoping to do a quiet dinner party at home if everyone wants to.

Hope your holidays were nice! It's good to be back. Now it's time to get my XBOX fix. I've been jonesing for it this week!