Sick again

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This cold has been brutal! Thankfully husband has been taking good care of me. Next week I'll have some New Years resolutions up and hopefully some pics from New Years Eve! Let's hope I'm feeling better by then.

12 Dates of Christmas: Date 12, Christmas morning

Phil and I wanted to start a tradition of our own, and since this is our first Christmas married we decided now would be a good time to start! We spent Christmas morning just the two of us, and it was perfect. We had little food in the house, so I lovingly poured us a bowl of cereal for breakfast. Fancy I know.  Then we opened our gifts to each other! I gave Phil a vest and flannel shirt, which he looks rugged and manly in (see I’m getting better at calling him things he’ll like!). He bought me a gold Michael Kors watch!!! HELLO GORGEOUS! I flipped out because it is absolutely stunning and had no idea he would pick it out a gift so luxurious! I mean we had cereal for breakfast, for goodness sakes…. We aren’t living in the lap of luxury.  However, husband is brilliant and found my watch at Nordstrom’s Rack and got a steal! He didn’t actually steal it if that’s what you were thinking. Apparently he searched about 20 stores to find one that fit our budget and that he knew I’d love. He is such a keeper.

12 Dates of Christmas is done! Weeww heeeww! I can’t wait for next year. How was your Christmas? I’d love to know how you spent it!

This is us with our nephew James. They have matching vests! As you can see Phil and James are really excited about it. :)

12 Dates of Christmas: Date 11, Christmas Eve

We stayed the night at my parents on Christmas Eve-Eve, so on Christmas Eve morning we slept in, and my mom made us a delicious breakfast. Blueberry waffles, bacon, fruit, and coffee. I’m always surprised when my pants fit me a little tighter after the holidays. I shouldn’t be. I do it to myself. I only have myself to blame. Next year I won’t over indulge. Well, maybe the year after next. Let’s play it by ear.

Throughout the day we went to three Christmas parties and were completely spoiled. We chatted with family, thanked Jesus for coming and bringing life to us, gave each other gifts, and loved every moment of the day.

12 Dates of Christmas: Date 10, Christmas Candle Lighting Service

Our church puts on a great Candle Lighting Service every year and this year was no exception. We sang Christmas carols, the kids even assisted in one song and rang bells (so cute!), and we lit candles representing Jesus coming into a dark world and bringing Light. I, of course, wanted to take a few pictures for the blog and husband was embarrassed of me snapping pictures at “serious” moments. He was also embarrassed of me when I wasn’t paying attention to my candle while taking pictures and spilled wax all over my leg! Slightly scalded leg, and now I might need to replace those jeans. Small price to pay for some good candle shots if you ask me.

On our way there.

12 Dates of Christmas: Date 9, Burnt Cookies

Husband and I had a brilliant idea to bake cookies for our neighbors and pass them out last night. We know a few of the units in our apartment building, and thought it would be a great chance to get to know them a little more. We bought the ingredients, carefully mixed everything together, tasted the yummy cookie dough, preheated the oven, busted out our NEW cookie sheets, placed the dough on the sheets, put them in the oven and set the timer! Sounds perfect right?

Well apparently our new cookie sheets hate us. I also think that they should NOT be called cookie sheets, they should be called “I burn anything you put on me sheets.” After about 2 minutes of the cookies being in the oven, Phil and I started to smell something burning…… I glanced around at my candles that were lit thinking…. What did I just set a blaze? Is our very, Very, VERY dry Christmas tree going up in flames? Is my hair on fire again (yes, I’ve lit my hair on fire before… that story will have to be told another time)? WAIT…. It couldn’t be the cookies…right? Phil and I went to the oven, peeked in and saw those burn-sheets devouring our cookies! The bottom of each cookie was already black, and the top was still dough! Needless to say, our neighbors are not getting cookies this year from us. I assume they would think we hate them if we ding-dong-ditched their doors, then when they opened the door found severely inedible cookies.

Phil and I threw the cookies away, lit a million candles to try and get the burnt smell out of our apartment, and laughed about it the rest of the night. Date night #9 didn’t work out as planned, but husband and I spent it together so it was all good in my book. 

12 Dates of Christmas: Date 7, the Nutcracker Ballet

About a month ago I told Phil that I’d like to go see a ballet sometime. Husband remembered me saying that and found this one a week ago. We decided that we had to go for one of our 12 Dates of Christmas! It was playing about three blocks from our apartment, at the Long Beach Performing Arts Center, so of course we walked! Long Beach weather has been tricky lately and decided to rain on us half way through our walk. Phil, being the selfless man that he is, said he would run back to our apartment and get an umbrella. As sweet as that offer was I thought it would be fun to keep walking, and let my already frizzy hair keep on curlin’ up! We walked just a little faster and prayed that it didn’t rain on our walk home. Which it didn’t! 

This was the first ballet Phil and I have ever seen so we didn’t know what to expect. The music was phenomenal, the dancers were graceful (and so incredibly flexible that it almost made me uncomfortable! How the heck do they get their bodies to bend like that!?), and the story line was classic. Husband might have fallen asleep in the middle of it, and I might have taken a picture of him sleeping. I’d love to see this ballet again, or another one! Any suggestions? 

12 Dates of Christmas: Date 6, Naples Christmas Lights

This weekend Phil and I walked around the island of Naples and looked at all their fabulous Christmas lights. Each house is waterfront and about 90% of them own boats. Apparently they have a competition every year for which house has the best lights display, and several homes were beyond covered with Christmas lights. It was a beautiful sight and such a fun date. Throughout the night, I kept asking Phil what he thought the people that owned those houses did for a living. Then I’d peer into their houses trying to figure it out. Husband kept telling me that I was being creepy, but I ignored that and kept staring in the gorgeous homes. A few times the owners of the house caught me and stared back... slightly awkward... but it didn't stop me from doing the same thing to the next house. Here is what I came up with as possible jobs for those rich folk… doctors, lawyers, drug dealers, taxi cab drivers (seriously one house had several taxi’s out front! I might need to change professions. Of course I get lost often so that might not be a good idea. I assume people wouldn’t like it if they got in my taxi and I asked them for directions.), and naval captains.

Phil and I had a few more dates this weekend! I’ll post at least one a day.

How was your weekend? Did you go on any dates???

12 Dates of Christmas: Date 5, Home Alone

Of course one of our dates had to be watching Home Alone! It’s a classic Christmas movie from my childhood and definitely date night worthy. Yesterday was the perfect evening for it too. There was rain (and some hail) pouring down outside, the house was cold (perfect temp for cuddling), and I didn’t feel like cooking. We ordered a pizza because that’s exactly what Kevin McCalister did. Popped in the movie. Quoted our favorite Home Alone lines as the movie played. Laughed out loud throughout the entire thing. Made some Eggnog (well poured it into the cup, that’s making it right?). And spent the night enjoying each other’s company. Plus, as we were getting our drinks ready in the kitchen, husband swung me around and we slow danced to the soothing sound of raindrops falling outside. That’s what I call romantic.

Phil's Birthday Celebration, part 2

Confession, Phil’s birthday was about 3 weeks ago and I am just now telling you about it. Bad blogger? Probably. Hopefully you can find it in your hearts to forgive me.

To celebrate husbands 25^th birthday we decided to walk around Hollywood, then see Iris, Cirque Du Soleil. Holy moley this show blew our minds! Before the show, we spent a while acting like complete tourists, walking around Hollywood looking at the different stars on the sidewalks, taking pictures with Spiderman, and putting our hands in the stars handprints at the Chinese Mann theater. For the show we, of course, bought the cheapest seats in the house since we are on a budget, then decided to get there extra early so we didn’t feel rushed. Since we arrived about an hour early, as we were walking to our nose-bleed section seats, a show employee told us our seats would be upgraded! When the lovely employee handed me our new tickets I asked her if the seats were better. She looked at me with smirk and said, “Umm yea.” As we made our way down to the new assigned seats we realized that we had been upgraded to the bottom (rich people) floor, and in the second row from the stage! We felt like VIP’s and even conversed with some of the people in the show!  I couldn’t take any pictures during the show because there was a sign that said, “NO PICTURES PLEASE” right in front of us. Normally I ignore those signs and snap away. I know, I’m such a rebel. However, there was a rather large bouncer man near us, just waiting for me to pull my camera out so he could destroy it. So I decided to not take my chances. If you get the opportunity to go see Iris, Cirque Du Soleil, you must go. Trust me on this. Also, get there early, you never know if you’ll get the same upgraded seats!

Secret Santa

Husband is having a hard time picking out my gift this year. I told him I’d help but he was not a fan of that idea. Okay he pretty much shot down that idea before I even finished saying it. He always buys me something I wouldn’t think of and yet absolutely love. Every year I try to guess what my gift is, and make him give me a clue, but that guy is like a vault! Locked down!

Yesterday we went to the mall and while he searched the entire mall for my gift (unsuccessfully, so poor guy will have to keep shoppin’ for me), I spent about an hour and a half in Forever 21. Yay for early Christmas gift cards to forever 21. It’s just what I wanted from Co-Worker who got my name in our Secret Santa! Christmas outfit, check!

12 Dates of Christmas: Date 4, Work party

I wasn’t planning on counting my work Christmas party in our 12 Dates of Christmas. But surprisingly, we had too good of a time to not count it! Phil and I live about three blocks from the restaurant that hosted my work Christmas party, so we walked there. Husband and I love walking to dinner so the date was starting out pretty good. However, since I helped plan the party I was supposed to arrive early, so instead of taking a nice leisurely stroll there, we had to power walk. In my cute heals. Heals that are supposed to be looked at and not walked in. As we hurried our bums there, I kept saying, “Hurry babe, walk faster….. Faster…. I’m  going to be late!” Phil seemed confused every time I said that and kept saying we were doing fine on time, and that we were still going to be early. After about 4 times of me trying to hurry my stress-free husband, I remembered my wrist watch was about 10 mins fast. Dang this watch… always playing tricks on me! Am I late, am I not late? Who knows!?

The rest of the evening was blissful, we chatted with my co-workers, ate yummy food, walked around the Long Beach pier, then walked to see a movie. Date 4 (minus me hassling husband to hurry it up) was a complete success.

Date Night Gift Guide

Do you have any couples to buy gifts for this year? Would you’d like to spoil them for Christmas? Well here are a few ideas you can give without breaking the bank! If the couple you are giving a gift to has kids, add a babysitter to any of these options and they will love you for it!

1.       Date night movie with popcorn. It’s hilarious and always promises some cuddle time.

2.       Gift cards for local restaurants. Yes please!

3.       Cookbook for couples to cook together.

4.       Kites! How fun would this be!?

5.       2 Tickets to the local comedy club. You might want to check who’s in the line-up though. Some comedians can be extra raunchy.

6.       Scrabble, perfect for just two people! Also, it’s one of mine and husbands favorite games to play together.

7.       Picnic basket filled with their picnicking needs. You could include cheese, crackers, bread, wine, or whatever your little hearts desire!

12 Dates of Christmas: Date 3, Hillsong Concert

Now I know that the band Hillsong has nothing to do with Christmas. However, this date still counts. Why, you ask? Because it is in the Christmas season and……. I said so. Also, because it involved eating at a Panini shop that was decorated for Christmas, and that is drool worthy! Husband and I stumbled upon LA Café last year and have been craving it ever since! We don’t venture into Downtown LA that often, so we haven’t had the pleasure of stumbling upon it again. The Panini I had was excellent. I’m pretty sure when I took my first bite the heavens opened up and a choir of angels sang, “Laaaaaaa.” Either that or it was Phil tripping me out.

After dinner we spent the rest of the evening with thousands of other Jesus lovin’ people singing songs at the Nokia theater. Hillsong is an amazing band from Australia and it was an experience I will not soon forget. Sorry that the picture at the concert is a little blurry. Apparently when you jump up and down while snapping pictures they come out blurry.

3 Dates down, 9 to go! This little challenge has been a blast for Phil and I. Tell me about your 12 Dates of Christmas!

12 Dates of Christmas: Date 2, Long Beach Christmas Parade

Not all of the 12 Dates of Christmas need to cost money! Thankfully! If all these dates cost money then we would have to go to McDonalds twelve times. Plus McDonalds is only fun if you can play in the kids play area. You know the area where you climb through all the tubes, slide down the 3 foot slide and jump into the sea of plastic balls that always smelled like pee? Well when you try to play in that area as an adult people look at you funny. People can be so judgmental when I push their kids out of the way so I can slide down the slide first. Sheesh, I was there first!

 On another note, Phil and I had a blast at the Belmont Shore Christmas Parade in Long Beach for our second Christmas date. It felt like it was 30 degrees outside, so I naturally wore 2 pairs of socks, 3 shirts, 1 sweater, 1 scarf, and made husband cuddle me the whole time.  We saw about 15 school bands, a few Christmas parade floats, several Go-Green floats, and Ronald representing McDonalds. It was a good time and we plan to go back next year!