bitterSWEET.

"Home, Sweet, Home" ...really!

This past weekend I spent hangin' out with the good ole fam damily. Josh & I went to my parents' house outside Des Moines...it's always bittersweet going back to the house I lived in for 20+ years! I miss SO much about "home," the friends I grew up with & the gOoFy, qUiRkY things my brother & I found for entertainment living out in the country. It is very sad that our house, which once was surrounded by cornfields where we played flashlight tag, or navigated through the "ma(i)ze" to the creek nearby & hit golf balls or baseballs into the wide open spaces, is now enclosed by brand new, $300,000 homes. :( The eastern edge of Des Moines has grown so much & the country is being overrun by the city. So, there's our century-old farmhouse stuck in the middle of contemporary houses, sticking out like an iPod in an antique store! My dad always jokes that he's gonna buy a bunch of hogs so the place stinks & no one will want to build there... :P

When I stay at my parents', I always sleep in my old room. It is still home to my doll collection, but is painted a new color, is rid of the old 70's pink/orange/brown speckled carpet I lived with for years & holds new decor. It is nice that it's actually clean, unlike it was when I occupied the space, LOL! The old windows still rattle with heavy wind, the stairs still creak, & I can still faintly hear my parents' bedtime chatter from their room. I have SO many wonderful memories from that place & am grateful for such an awesome family life! I've always got along real well with my brother, who is only 17 months younger than me, so we had a lot of fun together playing dodgeball or foil ball (yep, we wadded up foil into little balls & threw it at each other, LOL!) in the basement, posing as statues as cars passed by (don't ask...), digging up "treasure" in the backyard, playing with our several cats & dogs, camping out in our treehouse with our big ole sheepdog Moochie, looking for a place to play in the big sandbox that a cat or dog hadn't marked its "spot," playing school (or...me making him act as one of my students, as I played the teacher, LOL), climbing on our dad's homemade playground (far more genius than those Rainbow playgrounds you see sitting outside Home Depot!), climbing trees, sliding down the slide into a big kiddie pool my dad fit into a large hole he dug, playing four-square (or, two-square rather) out on the "cement" or in the kitchen (yeah, mom loved that!) and playing baseball with ghostrunners... When you can't just ride your bike down the street to a friends house, you become pretty creative in what to do as a kid! In the words of SNL's Molly Shannon - "good times...good times"...!

It's about 3 weeks late, but this was the weekend we celebrated Christmas & my brother, Cory & his wife Crystal came down from Waverly. We were too ExCiTeD to wait till Saturday, so we decided to open presents Friday night, despite it being 9:00pm! I almost love giving gifts as much as I enjoy receiving them! :)

Some of the awesome things Santa, Mom & Dad and The Bro gave me were:

• Planet Earth DVD series (I gave this to Cor & Crystal & was a little jealous, so YAY for Mom & Dad giving it to me!)
• Hairspray DVD
• NY Yankee jacket with the 26 World Series Championship years on the back
• The book Amazing Grace by Jonathan Kozol (an education advocate & one of my favorite authors!)
• A few baseball cards, a NY Yankee lightswitch plate & a Yankees vs. Cubs game poster for our sports-themed basement (Josh is sadly a Cubs fan...yeah, it almost cost him the marriage...;P)
• NY Yankee watch ...yes, we're die hard fans!
• Some super-soft, fuzzy-wuzzy socks
• Some Bath & Body Works stuff in my favorite scent - Cherry Blossom
• Money - YAY for shopping this Saturday!
• A Beatles t-shirt
• Golf passes
• Peanut Butter M&M's, Dove chocolates & Reeses - quite possibly the BEST gift!

Cor & I showin' off our new Yankee jackets

As cheesy as it sounds, the best part of the weekend was just getting to spend time with the fam. The older you get, the more complicated schedules get & the more distance separates everyone. :( We played a few board games, relaxed, ate a delicious dinner & watched some good basketball & football games. On Sunday, it was time for Christmas on my mom's side, with my Aunt Julie, Great Aunt Ruby & cousins Patrick & Lief. We decided to go down to Simpson & shoot some hoops for awhile, so that was fun AND funNY...it seems as though the older I get, the further from the hoop my shot gets & the sooner my breath is taken away! We asked Coach Niemuth if he & the Storm basketball women wanted to scrimmage us, but he declined the offer, not wanting to be embarrassed by our mad skillz! ;P After an hour or so, we headed up to Granger for a soup & sandwich dinner (mmm, chili...) as well as open a few more presents before going home. The time went entirely toooooo fast!

The whole fam after playing ball at Simpson

i heart AcTiOn shots! ...this is what I resorted to after my old, out-of-shape body told me to stop playing basketball...

The difference in personalities is quite apparent in this pic of us with my brother & his wife!

a match made in Heaven ;P

The Poore/Berkenes Family Christmas - Dad, cousin Patrick, cousin Lief, Aunt Julie, Josh, brother Cory, sis-in-law Crystal, me, Mom, our friend Lhorsey & Great Aunt Ruby

Later Tators!

P.S. WOOT, WOOT for the American Idol audition episodes starting & the Hillshire Farms GO MEAT! commercials being back on! ...love 'em! ;P