Traveling... Traveling...

I’ve been very fortunate this year. In January I went to the Bay Area to celebrate my niece’s 10^th birthday and spend time with my sister.

In April I went on a short weekend trip with my husband up the California Coast to celebrate our 1^st Wedding Anniversary.

In August my husband and I will be heading to Las Vegas (because of one of those lame time share offer things) for a few days.

In October my husband and I will be going to a Rascal Flatt’s Concert with his parents and then to Scottsdale, Arizona to spend a week at the Four Seasons there. I’ve never been to a four seasons, but my husband tells me that it will be worth being in the dessert for 6 or 7 days.

And then in December I will be going to my sisters’ house again to celebrate Christmas with her family and enjoy her fantabulous cooking!

At the end of this month I will be heading to Maryland and to Washington DC for almost a week. My husband travels for work and has some work to do in Maryland at the beginning of July, so we figured we should take advantage of the hotel his work is paying and get me out there with him so I can tour D.C.

I’ve bene to DC before, but it was exactly 20 years ago when I culminated 5^th grade. It was our end of the year field trip. I was only 10 at the time, so while I do remember some parts of it, most of it is lost to the pictures I took (really BAD pictures, that is).

This time I get to plan where I go and what I do. I already got tickets to tour the Capital through the office of my Congressman (but since it is sort of a last minute trip it’s too late to get into the White House – although I DID get to do that in 1995). I am also planning on doing a walking tour of the area (FREE!) and maybe, possibly a hop-on, hop-off tour – but I haven’t decided that part yet.

I know I definitely want to go to the Arlington National Cemetery and see the Grave of the Unknown and the changing of the guards (there is a great documentary about this on Netflix) and see the Kennedy graves. I want to check out all the monuments and take pictures on the mall.

If you have any suggestions as to where to go, what to see, or which restaurants I really should check out – PLEASE let me know! I love recommendations!

Blogger Men Tell All (Round 4) + My Conversations

I love doing these with Thomas. He is just too funny to ask questions to. 

Me: Okay, before we play I have to ask you the questions.

Him: Oh, yay. I would love to answer questions. 

• What is one thing you really want for Christmas/the holidays this year?

Him: Already done.

Me: Okay, what did you really want. 

Him: A new pair of headphone. 

Me: Did you get what you want.

Him: Yes. 

• Does your family generally do Christmas Eve or Christmas Day (or other sorts of) celebrations?

Him: We do Kwanzaa.

Me: You know that's not true. 

Him: Hahaha You know the answer.

Me: Yea, but I am asking the questions for other people, not for myself. 

Him: But you know the answer. 

Me: Why don't you just tell everyone else?

Him: Because you know what it is!

Me: Will you just tell me?

Him: Kwanzaa.

Me: Moving on...

• What is your favorite part about the Holidays?

Him: Spending time with my loving wife.

Me: This is the first Christmas as husband and wife. What was your favorite part before. 

Him: Winter Break.

• What's your New Year's Resolution?

Him: I don't do that. 

Me: Why not?

Him: Because it's for ****** lamoes. 

• Where will you be at the start of 2015?

Him: Right here. 

Today I'm linking up with....

Holiday Traditions

A day late and maybe a dollar short but I’m here!

I love Christmas. I don’t want to be cliché but I think it really is my favorite holiday/season.

1 / / Decorations I just love love love looking at Christmas decorations. I will go out of my way on the way home from work at night so that I can see different houses decorated. I’m a light lover. I can appreciate the blow up decorations but a house with really nicely done lights are my favorite. If they have music that go with the lights it’s even better. My husbands’ parents do a HUGE get up with blow up decorations.

There is a neighborhood nearby that has beautiful houses that go all out with decorations and you can do a nice car tour through it during the season. Usually a funnel cake truck shows up and you can enjoy one of those while you take a break from the lights. They also tend to have people selling hats and other light up toys/Christmas items. I plan on going this weekend with the kids  and I’ll take lots of pictures!

2 / / Family I wrote in the past about the problems I foresaw for Christmas this year. For 10 years I spent Christmas at my sisters’ house. She did a fancy 10 or so course dinner on Christmas Eve (we celebrate Christmas Eve), we all dressed up fancy, and had a delicious dinner before chatting around a fire and the tree and opening a present or two from my sisters’ best friend who also spent the evening with us.  Then I got my current job and I don’t have seniority to take the time off. Oh, and I also got married.

Somehow I married the only white man who celebrates Christmas Eve. Somehow I was able to get my parents and brother with his family to agree to come to my in-law’s house for Christmas Eve. I still miss spending Christmas at my sisters’ house, but I know it will be a nice time to be surrounded by so many people that night. There will be a big and long game of White Elephant.

Next year I’ll get to go to my sisters’ house since Christmas is a Friday and I’ll have the day off. I’m going to try to get the 24^th off as well (putting in my request on 1/2/15!).

3 / / Traditions Now that I’m married we are starting our own traditions. Well, really I am starting traditions (since Thomas is not too interested in that type of thing). The first is to go to a tree farm the weekend after Thanksgiving to pick out a nice tree and then decorate it. I’m also starting a tradition of having new pajamas on Christmas eve (I bought some this year, but they aren’t really Christmas-ey).  I also have the tradition of going to look at Christmas lights, as I mentioned above. I will also be getting a new ornament for any events that happen in the year (this year I have a new house ornament and a wedding ornament and I need to get a doggy one, too!).  I didn’t really have set traditions growing up, and it’s something I want my kids to have – something they can look forward to every year.

4 / / Music! I LOVE Christmas Music. I get so excited when the local station starts playing it round the clock. I love that they keep playing it a couple of days after Christmas, too. I may not like ALL the songs or all the artists, but for the most part it is probably my favorite part of the season in general.

There are plenty of other things that I love about the season – I mean, I didn’t even talk about presents! But I’ll spare you my giddiness!

O Christmas Tree, O Christmas Tree!

I am so excited about this!!

Growing up my mom NEVER ever EVER bought a real Christmas tree. Why? I have no idea! It was probably too expensive and too much work for them. So I’ve always wanted to have a real tree. One that I could smell throughout the month.

I sort of got my wish when I spent the majority of the past decade at my sisters’ house for the holidays. My sister also loves the real Christmas tree smells and always gets a really nice tall Douglas Fir tree. We would sit in the flow of the lights while it rained outside and enjoyed the Christmas smell in the air.

Now, I live in Southern California which tends to have very hot and dry conditions year round. Not the best growing place for Christmas trees. Still there are a few Christmas Tree Farms in the area. I decided on one about 20 miles away after reading a good review on Yelp. They only had Monterey Pine trees to cut, but not knowing the difference really I decided to head there. The price to cut a tree, no matter the size, was $55, which seemed fair.

However as we got closer to the trees I didn’t really like them. We walked through the trees looking for the perfect one. None looked right. As Thomas commented… they didn’t really feel like Christmas Trees. They just looked like pine trees somewhat shaped into Christmas trees (well that is what they are, after all!).  We decided to take a look at the pre-cut trees. They were lined up in height order and then by kind. They had Noble Fir and Douglas Fir (and I think one other kind, but I can’t remember what it was). The one that looked like what my sister always gets and that smelled the nicest to me was the Douglas Fir. The price also was nice! $35!

  

There was even a bird nest on our tree. I knew it was a good one at that point.

We let the guy know we would take it and headed over to have it shaken out to get rid of any loose needles and bugs (and in this case a birds nest – no birds or eggs were harmed).

Then they wrapped it up for the trip home…

And then, after trimming the trunk, the nice guy Angel went ahead and loaded it on to the roof of my car. I was a little nervous about driving on the freeway on the way home, but the man assured me that he did a very good job at securing it. He was right, we had no problems.

We had to make a stop at Target to buy a stand. I didn’t like the ones they had at the farm.

That’s when things started to go wrong. I had seen the stand that we bought on a previous trip to Target. It looked neat because it had a nice little spout type thing to put the water in. What I hadn’t realized is that there are different sized stands for different sized trees. I bought the biggest one which was for trees up to 10 ft. Our tree is just over 7 feet, but it was too big for it.

Of course we didn’t realize this at first and we spent a good amount of time screwing the screws in (which was insanely difficult), then putting the tree in and tightening the screws. Then we realized that the trunk of our tree is very short and didn’t go far enough down into the stand for it to reach the water. Of course we then had to undo the screws, take the tree down, and take a trip to Target.

A few hours later we attempted again with a new stand (with no water spout area). This time it worked, although it was still difficult. The tree kept leaning and I was afraid that it would tip at any time. Luckily Thomas had perseverance and figured out how to fix the way we screwed it in so that it stands up straight.

At that point we were tired and it was late, so we went ahead and left the decorating for Sunday. We had a good time doing the decorating on Sunday afternoon while watching Home Alone. Since we are just starting out all our ornaments are new to us, but we have a couple which are of special meaning.

I went ahead and decorated the rest of the house as well – although we are still missing some lights, so I'll go ahead and post those pictures when everything is up! 

Christmas Cards For.... YOU!

I love getting Christmas cards (or birthday cards, or any kind of cards) and so I love sending them. In past years I haven't been too good at it. 

But I want to get better at it. 

In order to do that I need to have people to send cards to!

That's where YOU come in! 

Now I know that giving out addresses on the internet can be weird... but if you are trusting and are willing...

Send me your name and address and I'll send you a Christmas card! 

E-mail me for XMAS Cards!!

Can't wait to hear from you! 

Splitting The Holidays

With Thanksgiving in a couple of days and Christmas getting here before we know it I’m starting to stress out about where we will be spending these days and how long we’ll be there.

Thomas’ family is very close and they spend a lot of time together, including the holidays of course. For Thanksgiving there is a big gathering at his parents’ house. People bring in food and everyone watches football while eating some delicious meals. There is always a big family picture.

This has worked out the past few years. My family was never big into having Thanksgiving – it was mostly me organizing a dinner with my family. We’d have some honey ham and assorted sides. For a while we did that and looked at the Black Friday ad’s and made a list of what we wanted to get. Then I started dating Thomas and I started spending the day with his family.

But this year I feel different. We’re married now, of course. But my sister is also not here this year. Even though she might not have participated in the holidays in the past years, I feel strange leaving my parents’ home alone that day. My brother will be doing a road trip through the week and into the following week, so it will be just them. While they are invited and welcome to come to Thomas’ parents’ house (and my dad did last year), they don’t really want to. My mom is not a social person and does not like being in social situations at all.

So I’m not sure what to do. I tried talking to Thomas about it the other night and he gets offended that I don’t want to spend time with his family. But it’s not about me not wanting to be with them, it’s about me wanting to be with my family. Most likely what will happen is that I will spend the afternoon with him and his family, and then go home and spend the evening with mine (possibly enjoying Thanksgiving dinner out at a restaurant).

Then there will Christmas. Typically I have spent Christmas with my sister and her family up in the bay area. But last year and this year I cannot go because I can’t get the time off from work. Last year I went to his parents’ house for Christmas Eve for food as well as a gift exchange with the whole crowd. Then on Christmas Day we went to his aunt’s house for a Christmas dinner.

As you can see they do a lot of celebrating and there isn’t much time left for my family. My feelings of not wanting to leave my parents alone for Christmas is the same as they are for Thanksgiving. Maybe even more so since my sister did celebrate the day with them. In our family we do Christmas Eve dinner, and really Christmas is just a day to hang out.

You can see my problem. Suggestions are welcome. I want to be fair to Thomas, but I want to spend time with my family too. My parents are older (my mom is 70 and my dad is 80) and not in the best of health. I want to take advantage of every Christmas I can with them. I’m also not requesting or requiring him to come spend it at my parents’ place. I can do it on my own and he can spend time with his family.

Next year will be another story all together. Christmas will be on a Friday and I want to go to my sisters’ house to spend it with her and my nieces again. Maybe even my parents and brothers’ family will make the trip. I know Thomas will not like the idea.

Once we have kids I know that I will want to have a nice Christmas Eve at home to exchange pajama presents and then watch a movie by the fire (did I mention we have a wood burning fire place?) before setting out some cookies and carrots.

My Traditions

I was definitely drawn to this topic.

I love traditions.

That being said I don’t know that our family has many of them. My parents were never big into traditions – everything was done whenever we wanted it done. Everyone made their own meals, no dinners at the table.

A tradition that did have to end was that I spent every Christmas at my sisters’ house. It started in 2000 or 2001 and continued until 2012. Beginning with last year it has become impossible for me to get Christmas Eve or the days after off of work, so I’m unable to make the trip north.

I would like to start traditions though. I am hoping to start a 4^th of July tradition of throwing a BBQ party at our place before heading out to catch some fireworks.

Thomas’ family has their own traditions for Christmas. They spend Christmas Eve at his parents place (with cousins, aunts, uncles, everyone there) and eat a pot luck before exchanging presents via a game. They also spend Christmas day at a different family members’ house.

While I love his traditions, we will have to learn to compromise and split them between both our families. In 2015 Christmas day falls on a Friday, which means that we could either fly up or drive up on Christmas Eve and spend the weekend with my sister and her family.

We will see if I can get him to agree to that.

However, I am sure that once we have children I will want to spend Christmas Eve’s close by and to be home early to open a present of new pajamas and then going to bed so that Santa can come and leave presents for the little ones.

What are your traditions? Or which ones would you like to have?