Christmas of America

Earlier this week a certain naughty kitty decided he didn't like my puzzle and took apart half of it. I put tin foil across to stop him from doing it again. I heard cats don't like tin foil. Is that actually true or just a rumor? 

Brooke cleaned our upstairs closet and found two Chia Pets. Neither one of them are Chia Obama, though Homer does look awfully presidential in this pose.

They haven't been growing so she created some makeshift greenhouses.

My pops came back to pick up my mom and help me with my 1920's toilet. A week later and no leaks. Looks like we did a good job.

This gave me an excuse to try out my Christmas present from my in-laws.

 

 Then we headed to the Mall of America. I'm pretty sure we are the only ones we know that actually shop here. I worked here at a spin-off store of Forever 21 when I first moved to Minnesota. 

I feel no shame for shopping at this monstrosity. It often has the best sales rack of any Urban Outfitters I've been to. I assume the sad saps who shop at the mall have bad taste and leave all the good stuff for the clearance rack. 

We decided to go because I had a bunch of Christmas money to blow. Last year I paid off one of my student loans with my Xmas money so I figured this year I deserved to treat myself. I don't buy clothes very often anymore. I still wear things from 6 years ago. I wish I had luck at shopping at thrift stores. I'm pretty envious of people that can find things in their size or that aren't totally 90's looking. It's not that I don't like shopping we just don't have a lot of disposable income to buy things.

Afterwards we went to Fat Lorenzo's for dinner. 

  I love the painted tin ceiling.

I ordered a Schell's Snowstorm, which changes every year. This year's Snowstorm is "Wee Heavy." That's an apt description.

This was supposed to be me, but it quickly morphed into a surfing Jesus.

Mmmm, ham and pineapple. I have to say that there was something off about Lorenzo's typically perfect crust. Either that or we've become accustomed to NoMi's Papa's Pizza.

We went over to Tyler and Emma's to play some Catan and exchange Christmas gifts. I was excited to see my big ol' memory card. I had lent it to Emma for our wedding and forgot about it until we went up to the cottage for the New Year.

We hadn't seen these guys since before Christmas. That is very unusual for us. We usually hang out at least once a week. I couldn't believe how big Olive had gotten since we last saw her. And she just started walking!

Olive finally got to open her present.

Brooke knitted this darling scarf.

I think she likes it.

She's so happy and smiley now. She looks pretty excited to be standing on her own. 

Emma always seems to have a big batch cookies ready for us.

This time she made them out of almond flour that she made herself. I think she's starting to make more homemade things than we do. 

We opened our presents that have been waiting more than a month to be gifted.

I got cute fabric flower bobby pins.

Not from here, but similar to these. If you like them you can get them here.

I wonder what it could be?

A new pan. We made meatballs at their house awhile ago and they didn't have a big enough pan. Now they do.

The rest of the night was dedicated to learning Catan's Cities and Knights expansion pack.

We also got some homemade sugar scrub from Emma and jam from our friends in Seattle.