I'm back!!! Did you miss me? Better yet. Did you miss this guy?

I had planned on taking some time off from the blog during the holidays. I then debated returning because the amount of free time I had was magical. But the blog world sucked me back in. You can decide if that's good or bad. Especially after this extremely long post.

***Skip to bolded summary below if you're not into philosophical blogger crap***: I've been pondering where I want the blog to go in 2015. I miss the "old way" of blogging like when I started in 2010. (Has it really been 4 years?) The blog world is an interesting one and it's easy to get sucked into thinking things have to be this way or that. I also have been a little bit hesitant to share more personal things in our lives beyond our house. I don't know who's reading. People have opinions on lots of things. People are offended by lots of things (like what I'm feeding my dog). I honestly don't love writing tutorials or the "helpful" posts that draw traffic from Pinterest (which is what everyone tells you that you should be doing as a blogger). I miss writing random nonsense and sharing the stupid things that happen to me. (Like our office chair breaking and bruising my rear. That story is coming soon.) I'm hoping for a balance of those things in 2015. This blog does bring in extra income (which mainly funds our projects and could no way feed us for a year (unless I really like raman)) and I appreciate that. But I also still want it to be fun and not like work. Work is lame. Being a pharmacist already fills the lame spot.

Blah, blah. In summary, be prepared for more stupid Michelle nonsense posts coming soon.

So what did we do while we were away from the blog? 1 million house projects? Traveled to exotic locations? Unfortunately but fortunately, no. We were incredibly lazy human beings. We spent a lot of time with family. We watched a lot of tv. I read a lot of books. I organized a bunch of stuff. Ike barked a lot at the poodle across the street. All in all, we had a fabulous time.

We spent the weekend before Christmas with my family.

All my poor mother wants is a nice photo of all of us each year. It's super hard with the two on the left. This is as good as it gets.

I made my dad take a photo of us in our wellies. I get my love of fashion from my father, obviously.

Ike hopped in bed with my parents at 5am, started a fight with their cats and then spent a good chunk of time getting into presents. (Note to my mother: Do not wrap large bones and place them under the tree. He will find them.) Wire Foxes aren't just a pretty face.

He also REALLY liked to help unwrap presents. He ripped that paper right off and would spit it on the floor.

I do have to share this super cute pillow my parents got me. It's an Ike pillow! Ahhhh!

We spent Christmas Eve and a few days past with Nate's family. These few days were louder. "Indoor voices." "Aunt Chelle's ears hurt." "WHY MUST WE SCREAM?" But they are pretty cute. And funny.

Ike was on like day 6 of Christmas by this point and the poor guy definitely doesn't know how to pace himself.

We spent a lot of time in the kitchen. Here I am yelling at Nate to get back because he likes to do this thing where he swoops in at the end and acts like he's done a ton of work in the kitchen solely to get out of dishes. I wasn't letting that fly. He also likes to tell people that "dishes are Michelle's jam" while he runs off and pretends to do important things. Like puzzles.

He was allowed to photograph me and my delicious, not-made-from-scratch cheesy biscuits.

He was also allowed in the kitchen in the morning to make us all Mickey Mouse pancakes because pancake making is his jam. He's a keeper. On most days.