Christmas Time 2011 Part 1

'Tis the season. This will be our 3rd christmas since we moved to Seattle and the first one in our house. As you saw before we got a christmas tree to help get into the merriest of moods. Our neighbors graciously gave us their old christmas lights so that we would have some external decorations. Though they looked like a small child decorated them, it was nice to have some lights up.

This was also our first year for a holiday office party. It was held at the Boeing museum of flight. This was a beautiful venue for a party and we filled it up with ~700 people in attendance. There were drinks, dancing and even casino games to play. It was great for Chrissy to finally meet my coworkers that she hears so much about.

We also stopped down at the Market to pick up some delicious chocolate covered cherries for Aaron.

Before we left for the midwest, we had our own christmas in front of the fireplace. I got Chrissy some scrap booking supplies, a book and a headlamp for camping. he got me some stylish clothes. FYI, that vest i'm wearing was featured in GQ. Looking good :)

Upon arriving in Milwaukee we awaited the arrival of our chariot in the form of Jesse's new Subaru WRX. All wheel drive, turbo cars run in the blood of the Egan boys. Jesse pulled up and we were pleasantly delighted to see that it was full of Packer Gear. Look good little bro.

We arrived late (11:30pm) christmas eve and headed back to Madison. We had christmas on christmas day with my dad's side of the family. Unfortunately my grandparents were the only ones missing, however they were staying warm, living the life in Florida.

The Egan boys are a funny bunch. Why is it though that I am the oldest, but also the shortest? On the other hand, Jacob is the youngest and it by far the tallest.

Christmas night we headed over to my friends Matt and Willy T's place to watch the packer game. Of course we had to get everybody in packers attire, including Chrissy (who later got yelled at by her family for 'crossing sides' ;)

The next day we had some members of the Wisdom family (my mom's side) stop by. Unfortunately we weren't able to make it for the Wisdom family get together, so it was great that some were able to stop out to the house to see us. It was also fun because there is a whole new generation of grand kids running all about.

During our time back I had to stop at my favorite pizza place, Rocky Rococo's!!! It is soooo good and I have never came across any pizza that has tasted like it.

Since my parents live about 20 minutes outside of Madison, they have a beautiful sight of the stars. As you may know I've been working on Time-Lapse photography lately and this gave me a perfect opportunity to shoot some pictures of the stars. I set the camera up outside and took a picture every 30 seconds for about 6 hours. Despite it being ~20 degrees and windy, my camera survived the harsh condition and delivered some beautiful pictures. This is definitely my best time-lapse to date. I just wish we had clear skies here.

(watch in HD)

We then headed to Minnesota for the 2nd half of our christmas trip. Hopefully tomorrow or tuesday me or chrissy will get a chance to post part 2. Though I figured I'd finish up the rest of our time in Wisconsin.

After getting back from Minnesota on New Years day, we watched the Packer game at my parents house then headed to Milwaukee to stay the night at my brother's place. We of course had to meet midway at our favorite restaurant, Applebees. It was close enough to my dad's birthday that we celebrated it there. We even got the wait staff to sing to him.

My brother has an AWESOME place in Milwaukee. It is right downtown, has a computer room, a community kitchen, a theater and a party/events room. The apartment itself is spacious, modern and well decorated. We spent the night playing Mario Kart, shooting the nerf gun and just having fun.

This is what eventually ensued:

It was really really great to see everyone over the holidays. It was so nice to have the time off from work so that we could spend it with family. It is definitely something we really miss, seeing family. So any chance we can get to see family and friends we take advantage of. We love you guys! Even you too Matt and Willy T :) Thanks for the random package of randomness.


UPDATE* Here is some pictures that my dad took while we were there.