A Christmas Miracle

On Tuesday December 23rd, I worked and then played some lax after, the first time playing lacrosse in a long while since I moved to the city and don't have time to stay and play anymore. Fun stuff. I drove back to Chicago that night and hung out with Rachel for a bit before bed.

Grandma with her Grandkids & Great Grandkids

Wednesday December 24th was the first Christmas Eve Rachel and I were to have together. I spent the morning slaving over some scrumptious chocolate covered pretzels, and Rachel made a delicious breakfast casserole. We did these things while having some mimosas of course! We packed our car full of presents, oh how I wish I was a kid again, getting awesome toys and gadgets, and headed out across town. We had Christmas Eve at my Grandma's as usual which was a lovely time for the family to be together. We then headed back to Naperville. On the way there I finished The Shining by Stephen King on tape. A great novel and actually way way better than the movie. We then opened Christmas presents with Beth and my parents. Once the presents were open and we watched a few family videos, we headed to New Lenox for my first Midnight Mass. What an experience. Got to love Church at midnight. It helped that there was an awesome choir providing the music for the evening. Afterwards we hung out with Rachel's family and then I got to experience a Hyma sibling tradition where they put on Lethal Weapon and wrap Christmas presents. Since we got a late start, we ended up being up until 4 am. Santa is on his way, get on your Santa Hat! Hard to believe this was 7 years ago. Freshman year of College on break.

December 25th, Christmas Day 2014 was here. We headed to Rachel's grandparents and had a great Christmas Day Dinner. I headed home by myself after the party was over since I had to work the next day. I watched the movie Rush with my parents and Beth. A great inspirational sports movie about formula 1 racing. I highly suggest all those to watch! I then watched a few Walking Dead episodes that night. Emma and Anna can't believe it's Christmas! 4 Years ago!

I spent Friday December 26th at my parents after work and had some of my Mom's chili. Yum. Then I watched a bunch of Walking Dead episodes and fell asleep late into the night. Oh, I also got gas for under $2.00. A Christmas Miracle for us adults. I think this is the lowest gas has ever been since I have been driving, circa 2005? Or at least since I've been filling up with gas since 2011... ha

Saturday December 27th was another long day at work, and I also successfully changed my windshield wiper blades, with some help from a co-worker. He had to get the blades off for me, as they proved to be more difficult than I thought they would. With new wipers installed, that are a bit too large for my windshield, I will welcome rain/snow with open arms (still hasn't happened). Rachel and I watched The Shining that evening which had a way different and worse ending compared to the book. I sound like such a book nerd.

New pots, new pans

Rachel and I finally cashed in all of our Jewel stickers on Sunday December 28th, and ended up getting a nice 12" non-stick skillet, a 12" every day pot, and a 13.5" lasagna pan. A $160 all for free! Well, actually we had to spend $4,100 to get these 3 pots, but luckily we didn't spend all of it, our parents and some other relatives did as well. Thanks everyone for chipping in! Now we get to cook with these new pans! We got some Wendy's for dinner, and as I received my food, a nice gentleman with dreadlocks said, "You have a great night, OH, and Nice hat too." I smiled and replied, "Thanks, Go Titans!" When I got home I attempted to change our kitchen faucet out. After about 3 hours of working, I finally was successful at getting the old sink faucet out and the new one in. Then I came to the conclusion that somehow the cold faucet ended up getting clogged because only the hot water works, but it works great! Yahoo!!

Gotcha son! Mission half complete!

On Monday December 29th, I ended up having to work late which I wasn't happy about, so I picked up 3 Buffalo McChickens on the way home. I finished Mystic River, on tape by Dennis Lehane. It was so strikingly similar to the movie, there were really no differences at all. So it was solid and great, just like the film. That night I ended up watched a lot more Walking Dead episodes before falling asleep late.

Oh for Christmas this year I was very satisfied with many wool socks, warm gloves, lovely sweaters, power drill, car shovel, whiskey, gift cards, a wine rack, an awesome calender, & a Titans Hat for Johnson from Management. Go Titans.

Get ready for my year in review for next week! As well as my top lists of 2014!

Josh

TV on TV

Tuesday December 16th, Rachel makes us a delicious pork dinner and we watch some Mad Men.

On Wednesday December 17th, I watched a bunch of American Horror Story Season 3 and did Laundry. Exciting times.

Thursday December 18th I finished up American Horror Story Season 3. Lots of TV in my life this week.

On Friday December 19th, Rachel visited me at work and then a nice lax dad, Ray, took us out for some dinner at Rancheros where I had a Modelo and some wings, chips, and quesadillas. A nice and pleasant Christmas gift. Grandpa Bob, Beth, & Mom & Dad then visited me at work while we were out. I told them to wait and they did which was nice, so I could show them where I work. After work we went home and watched some Maluta Home Videos. Great times with Grandpa Bob and the fam.

Saturday December 20th was a busy day of shopping for Christmas gifts, realizing the mall is super creepy, and hating department stores since they have kids running the registers who have no abilities to do anything and require "manager" approvals for all these things. Yea we waited in line at Macy's for over 30 minutes with 3 people in front of us. Luckily what we got was FREE! We had some pizza for dinner at my parents which hit the spot then headed over to our friend Michelle's place for her birthday party for a little bit. I started the party off by beating a semi-drunk guy in Super Smash Bros, battle of the pickachu's and then I also "assisted" by watching them "break" into a girls car who was at the party and locked her keys in the car. Luckily these guys were auto-repair guys so they knew what they were doing, but I also realized how easy it is to break into a car. Woah! We then headed home and I started to watch The Walking Dead.

On Sunday December 21st I played a fair amount of Call of Duty MW2, still behind on the times, and then watched Elf with Rachel while we wrapped some presents. After picking up the final ingredients we had a delicious baked mostaccioli dish for dinner. So good and cheesy. That night we watched some more of Mad Men and I watched more of The Walking Dead. Starting to like the show!

Monday December 22nd was a busy day at work with some private lessons, and then picked up gas on the way home for $2.04. The lowest gas has been in over 5 years people are saying. Pretty awesome and an early Christmas present for us adults. I finished up season one of The Walking Dead at night.

A pretty boring week, but Christmas is ahead! Get excited, Santa is on his way! Now enjoy a few funny videos I found this week.

NSFW!

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays! Be sure to watch some Christmas classics:
Elf, A Christmas Story, The Grinch, Die Hard, Home Alone, & The Polar Express

Josh

Go Cats

On Tuesday December 9th I did a bunch of car stuff, like get the wrong headlights for my car because I thought it was older than it was, and got my tires rotated. I also finished the book I have been reading, Tell No One, by Harlan Coben. A really good mystery thriller that kept me wanting to read more, highly suggested to mystery fans.

In the morning of Wednesday December 10th I hung up the mirror we got on black friday finally and spent over 90 minutes trying to make it straight without drilling a new hole, I think the floor/wall is crooked, I gave up. But it's not too bad, Rachel didn't notice, or was just being nice, so yay! That evening I hit up Tommy Nevins with Beth for some dinner, I got a tasty burger and she got some Spinach Artichoke Dip. Luckily we got in at around 9:50 and the kitchen was closing at 10. They were also out of all the beers I wanted, but besides that the burger was delicious. I watched some more of American Horror Story Season 3 that night in bed.

On Thursday December 11th I finally got around to changing my headlight bulb and did so with a slight struggle. I was doing really well, I just couldn't get the headlight to go back in, but with the help of my dad and a little bit of a push, I got it popped back in and successfully did something on my car, call me a mechanic. That night Rachel and I watched Mad Men while eating a scrumptious tort and nachos from Angela's Burrito just down the street. After a filling meal we watched even more Mad Men!

Friday December 12th was a standard day with more Mad Men and American Horror Story season 4 in the morning, and then a slumber party for Aly's birthday in the evening. Rachel and I wore our matching Deer Tick sweaters and I wore some Mario pajama pants as we hung out with friends and played some drinking card games. Here is what the night looked like: Pinky's Out

On Saturday December 13th I hung up 4 new photos I printed from our trip to Colorado. Here is my favorite from the set I printed. I hit up the local Best Buy and ran into an old friend/neighbor, Jordan, from the high school lax scene and we chatted for about 10 minutes. After an hour of browsing around Best Buy's non-organized DVD section, I departed with Alfred Hitchcock's essentials which includes 5 of his best films. I highly suggest coming over and watching these classic 1960s films with me. Ladies, Gents.

I did some more things around the apartment, had 3 hot dogs for dinner, and then John and Johnny came over around 8pm. Of course, with our great location, they couldn't find parking, so Rachel and I had to come out and help them try to find a spot, which we luckily did right after we got in the car. Parking in the city is so lucky in most places, just depends if someone is leaving as you are pulling up. It can take less than a minute to find parking, or over 30 minutes.

Once in our apartment, Jmon's first time, welcome Jmon, we started to play some 3 Man. Then the most incredible round of 3 man occurred. It started off with some doubles from Josh, then John and Rachel rolled doubles together, then doubles again, then again, and again. Each time doubles were rolled we cheered louder and louder with more excitement. Finally, after 7 doubles had been rolled in a row, doubles were failed to be rolled by John and Rachel. What an incredible round! We listened to some Deer Tick and The Doors on vinyl as we continued our game full of 3 man the hard way's and a plentiful amount of sloppy jaloppies.

After about an hour or so, we visited around the world with a variety of shot glasses from each person's homeland and headed over to Becca's for a party. We thought we would only be there a short time, so didn't come properly equipped. Brian was also going to meet us there as he was coming from a different party.

Once inside, it came apparent that at least half of the party not only went to our highschool, but who's older brothers were good friends with my brother back in the day. This was a fantastic thing for one reason and one reason only, Go Cats. After commandeering some brews, basically every 5 minutes or so, maybe 2 minutes, I would yell "Go Cats" and the crowd would respond with "Go Cats" or "Rawr" and we would then follow with a drink. We were chatting it up, going down the ice luge, playing some BP, and other games throughout the night. After raiding some chips and dip and being at this party for a few hours, great party Becca!, we headed out to a local bar.

Once at this cash only bar, I heard from others the next day that Rachel ordered us some drinks, but didn't have any cash so had to head to an ATM, after awhile we eventually walked home. The walk home was a dark dark blur to me, but luckily, Brian saved the day by snapping out our entire walk home, which was a pleasant and hilarious scene as I filled the streets with "OBAMA!" and "GO CATS!" and other simple phrases like that. Brian, John, & Rachel got some Wiener Circle and Jmon and I headed back to the apartment. Night Over! Check the pics.

Sunday December 14th was a rough day for me, but I survived it, as I am writing this blog. Rachel drove us out to Naperville to see Meson Sabika for a wedding venue. After seeing the venue and approving, I slept in the car while lunch was had and then we headed home. Oh we put a down payment on the place as well, so we will see you all at Meson Sabika in June of 2016! Once we were home from our trip out that day we watched some Mad Men and finished season 2. I keep thinking the show is going to break out into some incredible action, but never does, which is fine, just kind of disappointing.

That night for dinner Rachel made a succulent crockpot dinner with chicken and cream of mushroom stew.

I was awaken at 6:30AM on Monday December 15th to the alarmingly loud chants of "NO THIS, NO THAT, MIKE BROWN." The protesters had finally reached our parts of town and the sound was actually super loud they must have been right in the alleyway or in our hallway even!? Not really our hallway, but you get the point. After this event I had some crazy dreams about the world ending and being trapped in my apartment, pretty cool.

That night we set up our Christmas Tree at my parents house and then I spent the evening stringing 2 lax sticks while watching the Bears suck at John's house.

Also watched some more American Horror Story season 3.

Thanks to everyone for the wild weekend and I will see you all next week, G Bob is coming to town and we are looking to have another great week!

Josh