Well, we're back from another epic holiday trip. Strangely I felt significantly less internet-withdraw this time around. Still, it's good to be back on the web.

Here's kind of a general fly-by.

We went up to my parents house last friday and were there for almost 20 hours before heading out on the first of two trips to OH for christmas with my mom's side of our extended family. The second trip was made the following day (after returning to IN for church sunday morning - I really miss getting to hear John Sichting speak) for christmas with my dad's side of our extended family. They were both fun, if short, gatherings. It was good to see people I hadn't seen in quite a while.

Monday (christmas eve) was official 'do nothing' day. After all the traveling, I was ready to kick back with some mario golf and just hang out with the family I hadn't seen in more than a year. And kick back, we did. My parents quickly became addicted to the game, and we played quite a few games of it over the week. In fact, they liked it so much that when sheri and I went up to visit her family in indianapolis, I left the gamecube with my parents so they could play it. They must have played it quite a bit, because they got really good at it over the course of those three days. My mom even got a hole-in-one - something I tried for 45 minutes to do on a training hole and couldn't pull off.

Christmas day was cool. It was nice to get to spend it with the family again. Last year, none of us were together on christmas. We didn't do much that day either except spend the day together - which was great.

Wednesday, we headed to Indianapolis (as previously mentioned) to spend time with sheri's family. I took quite a few *great* pictures of a charades game. I'm not sure which ones I'm allowed to post here, though. ;-). We also played a *lot* of cards (of course). Shanghai Rummy in particular. I'm terrible at that game, but it's fun (if generally frustrating) to play. We also played a couple games of Up and Down the River and we even got out sheri's new(est) Ticket To Ride game (the US version - she now has them all) and taught them to play. It was a good time - if a bit crowded. With 9-10 people in that house, we had some spacial issues at times. Despite the temperature fluctuations and lack of sleep (due to leaking air mattress), I think I managed to avoid getting sick.

On saturday afternoon we returned to my parents' house. We went out to Noble Romans for dinner (at my request - i try to make it by there whenever I'm in IN) - which was tasty. After that, I helped dad make a couple of Kubb sets - so now I have my own! I think he's made 5 or 7 now - and has done quite a bit to spread the game to OH - as those were also his exchange gifts for the two previously-mentioned OH christmas parties. Of course, after that was more mario golf. Till 2am. It takes something special to keep my mom up that late.

On sunday, we went to church, I made some spaghetti for lunch, we played a last game of mario golf (addicted - i'm telling you) and then sheri and I headed back down here. Ally was very glad to see us.

That's pretty much it. Over the course of the week, I took 275 pictures. I had room for about 53 more on my 4gb card - so I'm glad I was able to get the 4 as opposed to the 2gb. I'll post some up here pretty soon. I love my camera :-D.

In terms of the less-important stuff, I got some new speakers for my computer (it's nice to have some that aren't dying), a nice golf practice-hitting mat, some dvds (including abbott & costello and victor borge!), some legos (yay!) and quite a few new additions to my penguin army. My shelf can no longer hold them all.

~PS

Sounds like a great time. I can't believe someone made a hole in one. Wow!

I made Penguinsushi's blog...and in a positive way! That made me feel good. J & S, come visit me some time at johnsichting.com.

....good to see you. I'm gonna go ahead and fix you post - by actually putting some of it in the content area. ;-) ~PS