Pictureless Christmas of Karma

Well it is now 2010 and we enjoyed our first Christmas as Mr & Mrs Young. We spent the holidays with my family up in Michigan-leaving Tampa at 4 pm on the 23rd and arriving in Flint a little after mid night.  We had a very pleasant surprise when we arrived at baggage claim.  My Dad's cousins, Denny & Carrie, were waiting for us at the bottom of the escalator.  They had driven over to see us for the brief time we were in Flint (they live near by). It was so sweet of them to do and great to see them as always.  My parents, who were picking us up, were waiting in the cell lot so they parked and came in for a quick visit too.  We got started towards PW around 12:30 and pulled up to the house somewhere around 3 am...I'm thinking we had a night cap, but i don't know-I was very tired.  Joseph & Jen arrived Christmas eve morning early-so we were up by nine. Let the festivities begin.  We spent time preparing food, drinks and playing games.  Out side it was cold and rainy.  After a wonderful Christmas Eve dinner we attempted to head to mass at 930-only to be told by Father to stay home.  So for the first time in my 31 years I did not attend Christmas Mass!! (mishap #1)  The roads were covered in ice.  We sang  few Christmas carols and called it good.
Christmas morning we were all a little slow to rise...I believe it was Joseph who woke dad with the video camera in his face.  However...this will never been seen. Dad inadvertently deleted all but two clips of our Christmas eve/morning footage when switching to his internal drive. (mishap #2) He was not happy.  But not to worry dad, I'm taking lots of still pictures with Adam's camera.   (Note mom & Jen both got new cameras-charging and Adam a new camcorder - charging).  We finished with gifts around noon-had breakfast then Jen and Joe left to go to her family's in Muskegon.  Our good family friend Chris joined us for the Day-which happens to be her birthday-so we began with the holiday cheer and went way into the night with drinks, food-the best dinner ever!- and lots of fun games!
We went to bed with fresh snow falling outside and awoke to at least 3" of fresh powder!!! We were so excited-we found boots and pants and coats and gloves then crammed our heads into helmets and fired up the snowmobiles.  It was Adam's first time on a machine and as I came out of the basement i saw my dad giving him a quick lesson driving one-then i was told to hop on the back!! What!?!? I'm not riding with him-I'll drive! but no-he wanted to so i held on with a death grip and hoped he wouldn't kill us.  We were having a good time on the trails when all of a sudden our machine just shut down. (mishap #3)  Luckily Jonathan was behind us so we weren't left alone for too long-dad came back and began puttering around with it.  Eventually they towed it back to the house and we had a hot lunch.  Afterward Joseph convinced Jen to out and with the machine fixed we headed back out-this time i was riding with Jonathan due to space on the seats. (he takes up less space then Adam)  We had  good time riding around through the woods neighborhoods and out to the river-snapping lots of pictures to commemorate the occasion.  Good thing Adam's camera is waterproof and freeze proof! I had it zipped up safe in my pocket. We started to get cold and headed back at 4 to get ready for the party my parents were throwing.  I rand in the basement and stripped off my gear and headed upstairs to help.  Friends arrived at the house after 5 and we began eating and drinking a catching up.  My very good friend Brian arrived with his girlfriend Cathy-and i noticed a lovely diamond ring on her hand!! I grabbed it and said WHAT IS THIS!?!?!?!?! We were all soooo happy and over the moon! What great news.  OH! and I found out my good friend Felicia-who was in our wedding-also got engaged on Christmas! It was a great party-lots of friends and fun.  We headed out later to attend a local party and then onto the Antler-I went to grab Adam's camera out of my jacket-But it wasn't there! No worried it's probably in the bedroom-we would find out the next day as we were packing that it was not-nor was it anywhere to be found. (mishap #4)  I still feel awful-but certain it's going to show up.
Sunday we got up early and headed to church than back to pack-it was time to go home :(.  We left Pentwater at noon and arrived home at 1:20 am.  It was a LONG day.
Monday Adam was back to work and i was headed down to Marco Island to see my cousins and Aunt and Uncle.  Just when i was 10 min from their door traffic stopped.....for a LONG time. I called Joseph to check the traffic report and sure enough there was a wreck blocking all 4 lanes! finally after sitting for 30 min I was able to drive over the median and head back up to 41 to take the LONG way to the island.  I arrived at 1 pm. 4 hours after i left. (mishap #5)  Once there we had a great time, good food, lots of  laughs and plenty of play time.  The next day i headed north and stopped off to see my friend Stephanie and her family. Then it was back up to Tampa and to work the next day-oh and my parents, Jonathan and grandma were flying in at 2.  So i worked half a day-as did Adam- and picked up the family.  note I have been home awake for about 6 hours at this point.  Mom and Dad took grandma to Marco on NYE and Jonathan stayed with us.
We had a very low key NY's-dinner-movie-cards-drinks.  Tara joined us completing our foursome.  Oh and surprise surprise-i had a cold.  Friday and Saturday we spent time with my family (they came back w/o grandma) and had a really good time.  Sunday we got up early and took them back to the airport and for the first time in a week and a half had the house and time to ourselves.  The tree came down and the laundry was folded....and then we relaxed.  It was a busy-fun-busy-happy holidays-despite all the mishaps.  I wish I had pictures to share; but they will have to wait until the snow melts.
Happy New Year to all!