Yay for break!

Whew! It's been a busy weekend!
Spent Friday evening with the pharm kids, hanging out and enjoying the relaxed feeling that comes with the end of finals week. Saturday, which had unseasonably warm weather, I slept in for the first time in weeks, literally. Wrapped presents with Mum in a flurry of tissue, tape, and ribbon, finishing just in enough time to squeeze in a shower and makeup before it was time to head to the family party at my aunt and uncle's house. Skronky and Em (Dork's galpal) went with us so they got to see first-hand how crazy, wonderful, dysfunctional, and hilarious we really are as a group.
Lunch was great so we ate too much (since my aunt cooks like a pro) then we moved on to the opening of the dedicated gifts (ie for us cousins and grandma and grandpa since we get our own personal gifts, of course!) before doing the "dirty santa/white elephant" gift exchange for the adults (plus Skronky and me since we're technically adults according to someone). That's the real fun of our family Christmas. You never know what will turn up (the hideous green lamp of legend??) or who will steal it from you (in a nice way, since that's part of the game). I ended up with a drill press (??) or something like that, something very feminine, that I sent with Skronky down to Norman to live at his house for now. But don't think I will forget it's really mine, so when I get time to read about how to use it I will eventually drill press the socks off of something. And it will be neat!
The Aunts, collectively with consent from the grandmum, have decreed that next year us females will exchange gifts we made ourselves, while the menfolk will continue on with whatever they were already bringing. (I was the lone semi-dissenter since, even though it is a year away and I could, oh, plan ahead for once, being in pharmacy school with the end of the semester/finals that week before the party doesn't give me much time to plan and execute a handmade gift when even a bought one was hard to find time to procure this year. We all know I'll procrastinate and who seriously makes their Christmas shopping list in May?? But frankly, I knew I'd be overruled so thought, "why fight it?" and just barely complained - probably sounded like a whiny little kid, which couldn't help my plight. I'll just whip up something really lame and thus fill the position of "worst gift" so my elders won't have to endure the shame of earning said position.)
Enjoyed the evening with lots of family and Skronky over at our house, playing Xbox and card games. Went with Mum to take pictures of Em and Dork before they headed off to the HS's winter dance (Snow Blitz as it is affectionately refered to by pretty much everyone). And of course they were totally adorable, matching in black and shades of grey. Then back home for more fun. Stayed up very past my bedtime but don't regret it in the least.
Sunday slept in again and lounged around (watched a hilarious Japanese-made English-dubbed film) until it was time to go help Skronky's sister move (since I have a baby truck that holds more than Skronky's little volkswagon). She and her fiance have 2 houses (his and hers, haha) just a couple of blocks apart but it still takes time to move things over from one to the other. I mostly stayed out of the way, favoring watching after Skronky's nephew so he wouldn't cry (he's about 7 weeks old) to being in the way of the packing and hauling.
Worked around the house yesterday, organizing my room so that someday it will be in order once again (finals week is hectic and my room reflects that). Then met up with Julia to go shopping (started with the book she is reading somehow missing 33 pages! I'd read it from the library so I checked it out and took it with me for her) thus knocking out two Christmas gifts and earning me the reward of a really cute sweater and polo, both on sale! Yay for sales!!! Oh, and of course getting to see Miss Julia was great since we've both been swamped with school for the last, oh, several months! (Rumor has it that she got her hair cut today and the result is super-duper cute! Rumor also implies that she's seeing a cute boy and is happy about it... Yay!)
Haven't accomplished much today... Started a crockpot of beans and have been actively working on the laundry most of the day. Balanced the checkbook (eek!) and have been looking at my class booklist for next semester; Am thinking of trying this online textbook shopping thing that has become so popular since the campus bookstore is, nicely, not the best priced place to get books. I'll let you know how that goes if I do it that way...
Hope you are all surviving the renewed cold weather. Much love and happy thoughts are radiating from this post to you!