Christmahanakwanzakah

Happy Christmahanakwanzikah everyone! I hope everyone enjoyed their respective holiday! My family doesn't celebrate Christmas (unless a Chinese food and a movie counts!), and Tim and I don't really care, but it's always nice to have a day designated to spend with family. Unfortunately that's not quite how things worked out for us this year. To make a very long story short, I was unable to go home because of difficulties finding a lab for graduate school. It's disappointing, because it has been over a year since I have been home to Connecticut, but sometimes that's just how it goes. Instead, Tim and I are planning on visiting my parents Memorial Day weekend, during which the Stamford Young Artist's Philharmonic (an ensemble I was a part of during high school) will be celebrating their 50th year under the founding director (more to come in May)! So at least I'll get to go home then! We weren't able to visit Tim's parents either because he did not request off soon enough. We'll see them for New Years though!
In the meantime, Tim and I were stuck in Madison celebrating Christmas with each other and our puppy (bummer!). Since my schedule had been up in the air, Tim had not requested off, so he was scheduled to work the days leading up to Christmas, as well as the days after Christmas (lots of returns). But with lots of snow and freezing rain and regular rain and more snow heading our way, I'm not too disappointed that we stayed put! We watched The Big Bang Theory episodes (great TV show, highly recommend it!), a couple movies, a basketball game (guess who), made soup, opened presents, and had a very relaxing day. Here are some pictures:

To start off the "Christmas spirit", our very kind neighbors, Sarah, Wayne and their daughter Autumn brought us a plate of cookies! I got them some dog toys for their new puppy, Harley, to say thank you!


The highlight of Cooper's day was this GIANT rawhide shaped like a candycane! Rawhides never last very long, but I knew this one would take him awhile (and it was only $3)! He still isn't even sure how to chew on it yet!


He tried carrying it around, but it was hard to maneuver around the furniture, and it almost doesn't fit in his mouth. He didn't even notice his other toys because he was so busy chewing on it all day (and he hasn't even made a dent! Success!).

This is going to be part of my present from Tim (the other part is still a mystery)! It's a magnet that goes on your car; I LOVE IT (sorry, science trumps religion)! This also official confirms that we can NEVER move to the South... ever. For Tim, I finally cracked and got him a Sam's Club membership (I think it made his year). His favorite thing from Sam's Club are cheeseballs (imagine styrofoam balls covered in cheese; see picture). I also got him a new Wii video game!


We also made one of my FAVORITE recipes, cheddar cheese corn chowder! Unfortunately I never seem to make it in small enough quantities, so we have enough to last us through a nuclear winter! Cooper finally tired of working on his bone and cuddled up with me for the remainder of the night (it feels so good to be loved!).

Happy Holidays Everyone!