bonding at the bowling alley

Saturday was a big day in the lives of Sarah and Katie. For the first time ever, the men in our lives were in the same place at the same time. (Technically Christopher and Zachary meet at Katie's grandfather's wake two days earlier, but who wants to say they bonded for the first time at a funeral parlor?) We decided that such a momentous occasion deserved the level of sophistication that can only be reached at a bowling alley. 

I was in charge of entering the address of the bowling alley into the gps. Naturally I entered the wrong address. Instead of entering South Street I entered South Road which lead us on a nice little detour away from the bowling alley. I have bad luck navigating that town. Once I was in charge of finding a park for us to have a picnic with Katie's family. I did some research and found the BEST park. Turns out it was in a town in ENGLAND with the same name. 

Katie and I felt it was very important for Christopher and Zachary to spend some time together before we take them on a camping trip we've been planing for the last twelve years. Besides the fact that Zac has 1500 times more energy than Christopher (which really is remarkable when you consider that he's older than Christopher), they get along well. We have high hopes for the camping trip to go well. We'll pack an air mattress for Christopher to nap on.

I'm no expert at bowling, but I'm pretty sure the two X's near my name were kind of a big deal. (My score is by the letter B as in B is for Button which is my nickname.)

Sarah: Let's smile for a picture.

Christopher: Let's take a nap.

 

We were unable to get a picture of Christopher and Zachary together (Z was moving way too fast), but we have high hopes of a tent and campfire themed photo shoot.

Poor guys. They had no way of knowing what lay in their future when they started dating us. 

The snow only lasted a few hours but it still counts as a white Christmas

I wasn't going to write about our Christmas until tomorrow or Saturday (procrastinators unite!), but I'm sitting on the couch soaking my foot and since I have nothing else to do, I might as well blog. For those wondering (which is probably exactly zero of you), I appear to have an infected cut thanks to the day I smashed my foot against a shelf at Walmart four weeks ago. I guess injuries are to be expected when you're running around in heels trying to find the shortest check-out lane.

We spent Christmas Eve next door with the relatives. It's a pity they ended up with such a skinny tree.

This was Christopher's first Christmas with my family, so he was able to experience things like Matthew and Aaron protecting themselves during the annual wrapping paper fight. 

Molly was there in all her loud and boisterous glory. She was very excited that Daniel and Erika gave her a check for Christmas. She was boasting to Zachary that he didn't get a check too (in reality it sounded more like "Zach! ZACH!! Did you get a check? DID YOU GET ONE? You didn't?! I GOT ONE AND YOU DIDN'T!!!"), but he wouldn't have liked the check anyway because it was really a gift certificate for a pedicure. 

EXACTLY at midnight it started snowing!! It was truly a Christmas miracle. I was so excited. Last Christmas I was surrounded by palm trees and missed the snow so much. 

Christopher was really! excited! on Christmas morning.

We spent the day at home doing two of my favorite things- giving gifts and eating food.

We gained a new family member this Christmas. 

Aaron gave the fish to Dad so he'd have some company at work. I'm really hoping he'll last through New Years but I'm not holding my breath. Aaron forgot to buy fish food so the fish  hasn't eaten in two days. He's still unnamed but based on previous fish experiences, he'll probably be named Joe. Over the years we've had Joe, Joe Jr, Joe the Third, and Joe the Fourth. All have died in infancy which has really discouraged me from naming any of my sons Joe.

I spent some quality time during the day posing with the giraffe mask Daniel and Erika brought back from South Africa. 

It seemed like the thing to do at the time.

from us to you

(Our last name isn't really Awesome, but it should be.)

a few favorites from Florida

Christopher's grandmother has an old tan phone plugged into the wall near the guest bed. It has a curly cord and reminds me of the olden days (aka my youth aka 12 years ago). It made me so happy to see an "old" phone that I picked it up just to hear the dial tone and made Christopher listen to it also. I don't think he was quite as excited to hear a dial tone as I was.

Thursday night we stopped by Walgreens for wine and water bottles. An hour later I asked Christopher how he liked the wine and he replied with (and I quote), “Eh. It’s…eh. Just eh.” You can’t set the bar too high when you’re purchasing wine from a drug store. Walgreens is hardly Napa Valley.

long live our marriage

We drove 1,389 miles across 12 states in two days.

And we still love each other.

coming to you live from sunny east Florida

Despite the threat of the world collapsing around our ears, it appears we’re all still alive. To be honest, I never fully understood all the hype and was confused about the specifics. For example, I thought the world was (supposedly) going to end on 12/12/12. Apparently that was just the day when all the cool people took photos of their clocks and posted “12:12 on 12/12/12 make a wish!” as their status on Facebook. I’ve been a little too excited about my future nieces and/or nephews- the future prince or princess of Great Britain and Channing Tatum’s child- to worry about dates and times.

While the crazies of the world have been focused on trying to do the impossible and predict the world’s end, I’ve been spending the week looking at this.

 And this.

Four days in Florida is not a bad way to start off our Christmas vacation.

Winner of The Most Reassuring Sign Ever Award, 2012.

I tried recreating the poem Footprints In the Sand but it didn't work so well. It looks like we were a couple of drunks walking down the beach.

Our grandparents live in neighboring towns so we spend the days with Christopher’s grandmother and the evenings with my grandparents.

Grandma Connie and I are so similar you’d almost think we’re twins. Besides small details like she’s 58 years older than me, has gray hair, 8 children and 17 grandchildren, we’re pretty much the same person. 

We don't have many plans for this afternoon, but I wouldn't be surprised if we spend some quality time out on the beach with this cheerful fellow.

The best way to celebrate Christmas is to fill your home with lots of trees

This is a big year for me. For the first time ever, I have my own house to decorate for Christmas! Last year we were in between homes (we were basically homeless) so I wasn't able to decorate. I did insist we get a little Christmas tree anyway because it was our first married Christmas and it was so cute. This year I had big plans for DECORATIONS GALORE. When we finalized our Christmas plans and realized we'd be away for Christmas, we decided to keep things to a minimum. I wasn't able to bring to life many of my Pinterest ideas, but there's always next year to make a snowman out of wreaths!

Welcome to our living room, the place where Christmas exploded. (I just wrote "Christopher exploded" by accident. I'm happy to say that has not happened. Although, had I made all those Pinterest crafts he just might have ended up in a million pieces. MOVING ON.)

I made this Christmas sign one week when Christopher was working late. I hope it lasts for at least 12 years because that's how long it will take me to recover from all that cutting. 

We set up the Nativity #1 on the bookcase in the kitchen. Two of the wise men didn't fit with the other pieces (there's a lot going on in this nativity what with the sheep, people getting water from wells, unknown characters with huge bags on their backs, etc.etc.etc), so we put them one shelf up to make it seem like they're traveling to see Jesus. I think it's very biblical. Either that or they were just late to the party because they stopped to read  The Story of Wine, the book they're sitting on. Somehow that seems slightly less biblical.

Grandma gave me this nativity last year. She couldn't find the correct baby Jesus so she gave me a Jesus from a different nativity set. Look how huge this baby is. He's practically bigger than Mary and Joseph. 

A few more decorations we have around the living room. I made the little people decorations after the first Army ball we went to together. (The clothes are accurate, but the extreme roundness is not.) Nativity #2 came from Christopher's parents. Jesus is the correct size .

 

We have no mantle or staircase to hang them on, so the stocking were hung on the windowsill with care. The pumpkinman stands besides them, keeping an eye over the proceedings. 

If I was impressed with how well the people decorations turned out, than I was BLOWN AWAY with our gingerbread house. Never in my life has a gingerbread house looked anything like a house when it was finished. I might keep it forever because like the Christmas sign, it will probably never happen again.

We have two three trees this year. A fake tree, a was-supposed-to-be-small real tree, and a Charlie Brown tree. I affectionately refer to it was The Forest In Our Living Room. 

This is our non-themed fake tree. For your viewing pleasure, I've included a picture of the tree at night and during the day. Or possibly I couldn't decide which to put so I put both. 

We decided to do a red and gold theme for our real tree. I didn't have an extra tree skirt so I used burlap. (It looks greenish but it's the regular color.) 

We found some gaping holes on two sides after we set up the tree. (Obviously we didn't do a thorough tree investigation before we bought it.) I attached little birds among the branches so it would look like we got a tree with holes for a reason.  

I love love love how our living room looks at night!

Christmas is forever, not for just one day,
for loving, sharing, giving, are not to put away 

like bells and lights and tinsel, in some box upon a shelf.
The good you do for others is good you do yourself...
~Norman Wesley Brooks~

Linking up with Kelly's Christmas Tour of Homes.

just because a good cell phone miscommunication makes me laugh

Our Sunday- an hour by hourish documentation

I feel like it was just the other day that I did one of these "A day in my highly exciting life as told through pictures", yet here I am doing it again. The cool kids are all doing it so I decided to join in. Translation: I broke under the peer pressure. Unlike previous posts, all pictures were taken with my phone which explains the sometimes superb subpar quality. 

9:00~ Putting on my face for the day. (Laura introduced me to Bare Minerals and I love it. Christopher probably loves what it does too.)

10:00~ Attending Sunday school in my kaleidoscope/psychedelic dress.   

11:00~ Waiting for church to begin. My friend (he is not yet aware we are friends) Ken the Commander wasn't there. This is only noteworthy to me and probably Ken's wife. (No one needs to remind me that I am married. I am merely very interested in Ken's life because he's commander of a large group of soldiers and I have a GREAT and very well documented fascination with such people.) 

12:22~ Contrary to what the clock says, it was 12:22 when we left church, not 7:22. The clock always says the wrong time and we don't know how to fix it. We have to add 5 to the hour whenever we want to know the time. We've spent some precious moments of our life trying to figure out the time.   

1:00~ We stopped at the mall on the way home and I found the perfect gift for that special man in your life.

2:00~ We bought some German cashews before we left the mall. They are so tasty. (For the record, I don't believe the cashews themselves are German. I think it's probably the special seasoning that's German. I hate when I feel the need to clarify what doesn't need to be clarified.) 

3:00~ I bought a package of festive red napkins for 90% off at Hobby Lobby. We quickly discovered they are not absorbant in the least, so we have to turn them inside out in order for them to work. I'd be willing to bet that's why they were 90% off.

 4:25~ I laid down for a "quick" nap. It was delightful. 

5:00~ Watched a video about a man who keeps people from jumping off the Golden Gate Bridge. I'm all about saving lives, but that job would stress me out.

6:00~ My father in law came by for supper and we took him out to an Indian restaurant. I didn't order the angara because I enjoy eating for pleasure, not pain.

7:00~ Gingerbread house decorating. Jenn bought one at Target during our trip there last week so I bought one too. Again with the peer pressure. 

8:00~ Snuggles on the couch in front of the Christmas tree.

I hope your Sunday was full of happiness and lacking in the refolding of paper napkins.