It's a Christmas wrap!

Christmas was wonderful, but now that it's over, it's time for the wrap party! Errrr, wait. I hate wrapping. Is this a real wrap party? ;)

Aaaanywaaay. Here's how my holiday went...

Christmas Eve my sister and I always go to my parents house for a crab legs and Bailey's dinner and to open presents. This year my sister's boyfriend joined us for the first time, and I have to admit, I was kind of being a jerk about it at first. I'm really protective of that tradition, and for some reason I was just worried that the dynamic would change and it would feel different with him there.

{ My sister and I! I like to put the bows on my head... ;) }

Luckily, I realized what an asshole I was being (hopefully it was only my mom that noticed) and I decided to make the best of it. We ended up having a really good time! My sister and her boyfriend brought over lobster so in addition to the crab legs we always have, we had lobster too! I make the same mistake every year and I always snack too much and drink too much before the actual meal, so I usually end up just eating some of the crab and whatever side dish my mom made. This year was no different and I gave practically all of my lobster away because I was so full! ::faceplam::

{ Holy yum! The crab legs are my favorite part! }

The food was so good though, and the Bailey's this year was delicious! My dad decided to make it home instead of spending the $20+ on a bottle of it. I will never buy Bailey's again! This Bailey's was so good and so easy to make! After dinner we always play board games and this year we played a new game called Headbanz. Has anyone heard of it? You wear this headband thing and you put a card on the headband that has a word on it. You then have to ask the group questions to figure out what the word is. The group can only answer with yes, no, could be...etc. It was so hard! But, it was so much fun! I even ended up drawing Harry Potter and everyone cracked up laughing when they saw it!

{ I drew the word bookstore too - apparently this game knows me VERY well! }

We started this tradition on Christmas Eve around five years ago, when we decided that we enjoyed sleeping in on Christmas Day. I'm soaking up as much of it as I can, because it's hard saying what will happen to that tradition when my sister and I start having kids.

{My mom aaaalways says she isn't going to go overboard, but every year she does. ;) }

Christmas Day we all sleep in and then we go to my grandma's house out in the country. She used to live near my parents on the east side of Des Moines, but pretty much everyone is moving away from the area, my grandmother included. She now lives about 30 minutes west Des Moines in a really small lake community. It's really nice out there, but we hate that we don't see her as often anymore.

{Over the river and through the woods to Grandmother's house Lexi and I go! Quite literally over the river and through the woods too... Haaaa! }

There we had Christmas dinner and opened presents with the extended family! I didn't get a lot of pictures on Christmas day!

That evening some friends of mine had planned a Christmas pub crawl, and I kind of debated on whether I wanted to go or not, but eventually they won and I met them out for a few one too many drinks...

{Here we are the first bar - I don't know how they ate pizza (see the empty pan?) I couldn't believe I was even consuming beer, I was so full from dinner(s)! }

The pub crawl was so much, I was so glad I went! I even had an old high school friend of mine that was in town decide to join us which made the night even more memorable! This group of friends does this pub crawl every Christmas, but this was my first time joining them. I think I may have to join in on the fun every year now...

How was your Christmas? Did you start any new traditions this year?