Been a LONG TIME!!

Sorry for being SUPER MIA...there is no reason what so ever for it!!  But, I am going to try really hard to make blogging a priority since it is not like I have much else going on right now.

Who is ready for the holidays??  I certainly am!!  There are lots of fun things coming up for me and my family over the next month.  First and foremost, THANKSGIVING!  It is a favorite holiday of the Rybicki family for sure.  I have cousins that are extremely close in age to my sisters, brother and me.  We have pretty much grown up together and I think of them as brothers more than cousins.  As children, we loved our Thanksgiving basketball games.  They were fun and generally ended up with someone in tears...one of the boys most of the time  As we have gotten older, we actually have way more fun!!  We eat at 2 so everyone arrives and my mom and dad's at around 11.  Generally, we started drinking at about 10.  Once we start we never look back!!  Tons of fun and lots of drinking!  There is usually a pretty intense euchre game that one time lead to a full table flip and then this happened last year....

Yes, that is my dad, in the kitchen, with the beer pong table!  After everything was washed, put away, taken back out, re-heated and washed again, we decided it was time for a little family beer pong.  Alas, we realized we had not ping pong balls.  What did we do, all but broke into my best friend's house and searched high and low through her basement while her family was at her grandma's house for the day.  Thank goodness for them never changing their garage code...in my defense, I called first!  It was a family affair and the people who wanted to play but not drink had "designated drinkers".  And to top off all the fun we normally have, my Brother's birthday is on Thanksgiving Day!  The beer, wine, whiskey and vodka will be flowing!  Thankfully, the wee one (my little sister) is a very good mixologist and we have a half barrel in the living room.
After all the fun family time at Thanksgiving, we will get to head up to Champaign to celebrate my niece's FIRST birthday!  I can't believe she is already ONE!!  I love her to death and would do anything for her.  It should be a great day!
I hope everyone else has an amazing start to the holiday season.  If I can offer one piece of advice to everyone, don't get too hammered the night before Thanksgiving.  While it seems like the best decision at the time, take it from someone who spent most of Thanksgiving day yacking or passed out, it's not worth it.  Thanksgiving dinner never tastes as good on the way out as it does on the way in.  And, let's face it, you become the laughing stock of the family until someone else does something really stupid!

Eat, Drink and Be Mary!