Day Eighty Nine.

    When we woke up yesterday morning it was "Mock Christmas Day". It ended up being pretty much a perfect day with my family and boyfriend. The first thing we did was open our Christmas presents to each other. I'm going to definitely take a moment here to say that the presents I got from my family were so sweet and thoughtful. I loved every present that I received! In all sincerity the company was the best part of the morning....it was very special! After we opened presents we decided to all go to the skating rink together because it's been a really long time since we've all been on the ice with each other.
    When we were young we were always ice skating together but since we have become adults it's been a while. Honestly, I can't believe how long it has taken us to get together and go ice skating because to me it felt wonderful. I was also pretty proud of myself because with my sisters help I was able to try a jump I had been too fearful to try in many years. I knew that with their help I would be confident enough to try the jump and I landed it successfully! All of my sisters went to the ice rink as well as my boyfriend and my oldest sisters husband. I was so impressed with how well my boyfriend skated and he seemed to have a really good time.
    Once skating was over I was absolutely freezing and could not wait to get in the shower. I took a nice, long shower and was actually pretty relieved to find out that instead of us going out to dinner we were just going to order some pizza in. I usually really enjoy going out to dinner but we had a lot of things we wanted to do together and we knew going out would take too much time. My second to oldest sister and I went out to pick the pizza up and we looked at a lot of Christmas lights on the way. It was actually one of the only times the entire weekend I was able to actually talk to her and we had a great conversation. It actually reminded me a lot of the "old days". When I was in college, after I turned 21, I decided to spend the summers with her. I made the decision because I felt as though my Mother would not give me any freedom if I lived at home and I needed to grow up on my own a little bit. At the time I felt really bad that I was leaving my twin sister but I knew that moving away would be the best thing I could do for myself. Obviously, we spent a lot of time together and driving around where we used to definitely gave me a very nostalgic feeling. I don't think I will ever be able to completely repay my sister for everything she did for me during that time....I just hope that she knows how much I appreciate it.
    After dinner was done my sisters and I worked on these mini gingerbread houses which my twin had bought us all. It was actually a lot of fun! We also played a few board games with the significant others and had a lot of laughs. When I'm around my sisters I tend to get so silly and goofy; I don't know how they can stand it! Once it had gotten to be almost 11pm we decided to throw Aladdin in for old times sake and then go to bed. It's impossible to write in this simple little blog just how important it was to me to get to spend the weekend with my sisters. I feel like the older I get the more I cherish the time I spend with my family because now I know how fast life goes by.
    I was very glad when I woke up this morning that I had a decent nights sleep! When I got out of bed we pretty much had to pack everything up and leave. I will definitely say that the drive home was terrible. First of all the weather leaving my sisters house was horrible....it was so snowy that we were driving at 35mph for the first hour. After that was over we heard a very strange noise which my boyfriend thought was just snow under the tires, but when we stoped at a rest area we realized it was part of the car! Apparently there is plastic underneath the car which protects the engine which had some how, after time, become loose and was scrapping against the road. My poor boyfriend, with no gloves on whatsoever, spent almost 45 minutes in the freezing cold trying to unbolt it from the bottom of my car. He even had to buy a $30 crappy tool set from the rest area to get it loose. Of course he did manage to get if off and threw it in a bag in the trunk. We both decided on the way home that at the age of 30 years old we definitely need to get warm winter gear. That was only phase one of the trip!
    I had promised him that I would drop him off at his mechanics to pick up his one car with four wheel drive, which needed to be returned to the dealership for a warrenty issue. Once I dropped him off there I followed him to the dealership, then dropped him off at his work where he could pick up his main car, then drove to the food store to pick up dinner. I got to the food store at almost 6pm. A car ride which should have taken two and a half hours ended up taking almost six! I felt really bad for my poor dog....it's a good thing she was so exhausted or she really would have had a hard time dealing with the whole thing. Once I got home from the food store, my boyfriend was working on shoveling snow which my plow guy doesn't do, so I started unloading the car. We decided to make chicken parmesan for dinner, then watch a Christmas movie.
    It took every bone in my body not to start a load of laundry once we got home or start un-packing all of my Christmas presents. I simply told myself to walk away from it so that I could enjoy time with my boyfriend while I could. Also, I kept telling myself that I have the whole day tomorrow off to do all that, which isn't interfering with anything! I was actually really good....once dinner was completely cleaned up I poured myself a glass of wine then we watched a movie together. It was an absolutely wonderful ending to a perfect weekend! I must say that I tried really hard not to obsess too much this weekend and I did better than even I could have expected. There were many times which I felt like I had to wash but just being around my family members, who weren't obsessively washing, helped. I rationalized that the first 25 years of my life I had no problems with obsessively washing my hands and it helped me get through the anxiety of not washing. Once I got home obviously the first thing I did was wash my hands, but maybe this weekend was a slow step towards progression! Alright, I really have written enough for one night:)