New Year's, Badger Style

I managed to survive my first day back at work after 12 glorious days of vacation. My brain is still a bit fuzzy, but hopefully that won't prevent me from regaling you with tales of our adventures. We spent the first part of our vacation, including Christmas and the few days immediately following it, in Massachusetts with Carrie's family. I'll leave Carrie to tell you about those shenanigans.

After being thoroughly worn out by two toddlers, we flew to Wisconsin to spend a few days with my family. My parents picked us up at the airport and promptly whisked us off to Flat Top Grill, a Mongolian BBQ restaurant where you put your own stir fry ingredients in a bowl and they cook it for you. What distinguishes Flat Top from similar restaurants is, first and foremost, their roti bread; it's a delicious, flaky, buttery flatbread that I'm sure has an obscene number of calories but is totally made of WIN. Sadly, there are no pictures of said dinner on my camera because we ate too fast, but trust me, it was yummy.

My sister and her boyfriend drove up the next day, and we spent the evening playing multiple rounds of Cranium with them and my parents. Our time in Wisconsin was basically dominated by a. food and b. Cranium. Sadly, the Madison contingent dominated at Cranium, but we put up a good fight!

My other sister arrived home the following day, and we set out celebrating New Year's Even in style: with fun hats, more board games, too many snack foods (mostly puppy chow), and our beloved friend Asti.

We still didn't win at Cranium (or Pictionary, for that matter), but we dominated at Taboo! During downtime Carrie also created some lovely art for us to enjoy:

Old Man Cranium Clay

 

Carrie's depictions of me, Angie, Ian, and Jen

On New Year's Day we watched the Tournament of Roses Parade, then celebrated Christmas with my family. The rest of the family had celebrated earlier, but they decided to let us open our own presents. And Santa waited to fill all our stockings at once!

And of course, in a house full of Badgers, we watched the football team's valiant Rose Bowl efforts against TCU and their vastly inferior mascot. Sadly, Bucky was not victorious in the end, but it was not for lack of spirit at my house!

Why yes, as a matter of fact, I AM sitting on the floor cutting summer sausage in that picture. The smorgasbord needed to be spread, but there were still 3 minutes left on the clock and I was NOT about to miss it!

I hope that you and your family had a splendid time celebrating the holidays of your choice! Although I wish we'd had more time to spend with our families, I'm grateful that we were able to see everyone and celebrate with them for a few days.