"ya'll want some pie"

Canada let me back into the country, yay!
(Wow, long entry. Grab a drink and read my novel here...)

This was a great trip. I got to hang out with both of my sisters at the same time FINALLY. We got to my sis and bro-in-law's place Monday shortly after supper and did some gift exchanges. My oldest sister and her hubbie got me a gift certificate to UO (yessssssss) which was promptly spent 2 days later. More on that in a jiff.

Tuesday, we all headed out and about and wasted time (and $) in the afternoon. In the evening, we all decided to go see Avatar. Okay, so you might all be thinking either a) that movie looks lame....your family's lame, or b) you're awesome, 'cuz that movie is awesome. If you picked b, you're probably awesome too. This movie was so good! I had seen the preview, but didn't really know what it'd be about. I was very enthralled the whole time. I recommend it.

Wednesday we got up ready to make the trek out to the MOA for a day of spendy-spending...yikes. This girl went straight to her store and spent a solid amount time in the sale section (love it). After getting all shopped out we headed back home. Of all places, Minneapolis was hosting a Canada vs. USA women's pre-Olympic hockey game....of COURSE we're not going to miss this! 5th row seating and we got to see Canada kick some American ass (2-1) and make slick comments loud enough for all the Americans around us to hear (despite my bro-in-law being American, he's a good sport about it). If you're going to have a household name for Canadian female sports, it's going to be Hayley Wickenheiser...yep, saw her...and Gillian Apps (another Great...she's on those CTV Vancouver Olympic commercials).Thursday, my parents headed back to Canada-land; sister #2, her bf, and I stayed behind to ring in the new year Minnie style. We all puttered around during the day just doing whateve's, and when the evening rolled around, we decided it was time to get our New Years festivities started. The five of us headed out for supper to The Cheesecake Factory. The food was AAAAmazing...but I almost choked when I saw how much my ONE drink cost: $10!!!!! Are you kidding me?!!? Whatever..I'm over it.

What else did we did? Well, we went skating! I had not been skating in years so this was exciting. It was an outdoor rink surrounded by some neat historic buildings and tons of trees lit up by white mini-lights. Quite neat! There were hardly any people on the rink, so it was awesome just blazing around owning the ice (or trying to). I re-mastered stopping haha, and my re-mastering of crossovers was slow, but I could've had it down pat had I been there a little longer. With 20 minutes til midnight, we ditched the rink in hopes of watching the ball drop on tv. We were pushing it time-wise, so this meant we had to drive quite precisely and quickly...

No luck.

We took one wrong turn and then and there I knew we would be in the car come 2010. So I made the executive decision that wherever we were at midnight, we had to get out of the car and party like it was 1999 (except 2010 style..obviously)...and we just hoped we wouldn't be on a freeway.

Midnight struck....and we were safely in a residential area! Yes! Out we got and did some sort of Chinese fire drill with a bit more party style. And what could make the night better? Fireworks in the sky as we continued driving the rest of the way home! Epic.

We got home and watched the new Star Trek movie and hit the hay around 3am (yep, two pseudo-nerdy movies in one week, deal with it!)

I am home now with less money, but more memories. I feel rich! (Haha...cheeeeeeesey).
Here's to the new year! Cheers!