Day 23- What is your most memorable Christmas or thing about the Holidays?

Again, pretty ironic with the timing of these questions!

Today just happens to be the anniversary of an extremely memorable date.  A friend of mine had met a guy at a club (who was home on leave) and wanted to date him.  Since we were 18 at the time, her parents said she had to double date to see this guy again.  The guy brought a friend (Hubby) who was also home on leave, and she planned on bringing one of her friends, but that girl got sick the day of the date.  My friend called me up last minute, on this day 12 years ago, and asks if I'll go on a blind date so she could go out with the guy she met (Are you following this?  Yes?  You get a gold star).  I was really apprehensive, until she said he was in the military.  Anyone who knows me knows I'm a sucker for a man in uniform.  :)

So, at 6pm on this day in 1998, I went to her house.  The guys showed up at 6:30 to take us out.  I took one look at Hubby and immediately fell for him, and was beyond excited that he was my date.  But even though I thought he was hot, I kept my expectations low- it was a blind date, after all.

About halfway through our date, I knew I was going to marry him.  I just knew it.  I even tried calling my sister to tell her I found the guy I was going to marry. 

We played pool, saw a movie (the theater is now a Babies R Us... ironic, huh?), and went to Dunks (like every date in NH ends up doing).  I pulled a ridiculous, obvious move- batted my eyes and feigned exhaustion, then asked Hubby if he would drive with me back to my house.  Naturally, he saw right through that and said yes.  We had our first kiss, and the rest is history!

It was definitely a memorable Christmas event.  This year, we are in NH today and will be going out tonight to kind of recreate our blind date.  :)

Day 19- What was your favorite Christmas vacation?

*I'm posting this early because, well, I won't have time tomorrow.  You'll see why...

Ironic that this is the question of the day!

I don't usually travel much for Christmas.  Sometimes, we'd make it over to my grandparents' house in Long Island.  And after Hubby and I got married, we'd spend Christmas wherever we were.  But this year is going to be epic.... and it all starts today!  We're off to NH to spend Christmas with our families, then Hubby and I are jetting to Spain for a week, sans kiddos (YES!!!).

I'm pretty sure this will end up to be my favorite Christmas vacation of all.

MilSpouse Friday Fill-in #25

1.What is the best gift you have ever received or given?
Wow, that's really tough to narrow down.  I'll keep it to this past year.  Hubby got me an AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am ticket for Valentine's Day.  I got to see Phil, Vijay, and Sergio, and also Tony Romo (ps- not cute in person), Tom Brady, Bill Murray, and Josh Duhamel (the best butt in the entire pro-am, hands on... er, down). 

I think the best gift I gave were wooden alphabet blocks for a friend of mine who is a new mom.  She's from China, and I found these adorable chinese blocks from http://www.uncommongoods.com/.  They have pictures with english and chinese descriptions, and even instructions on how to write the chinese character.  She really liked them, so I hope that's considered a good gift!  :)


2.Do you celebrate holidays differently when your loved one is deployed/gone or do you keep tradition?
I keep tradition.  I'm a tradition kind of person.  Although, when Hubby is gone for my birthday, I tend to let that one go (I feel stupid celebrating myself).  But I still break out the champagne glasses for our anniversary and such.  I even danced the couple's dance at GA's wedding with a pic of Hubby (he couldn't be there).
3.If you celebrate Christmas, do you put an angel, star or something else on the top of your tree?
My tree doesn't have a topper this year.  The ribbon bow we used to put up was just getting to be a pain in the ass.  Besides, I'd like a star on it.  Maybe I'll find a good post-Christmas deal.

4.What are your three favorite websites?
Besides the usual email and stuff (I've recently become addicted to Ebay), these are ones I like to frequent to get a good laugh.  The youtube link is a band from NH (you may have heard their "Granite State of Mind" song).  I went to high school with the lead singer.
http://www.wtfjapanseriously.com/
http://www.youtube.com/user/SuperSecretProject
http://www.awkwardfamilyphotos.com/
http://www.shitmykidsruined.com/
(Okay, so I put down four, but I couldn't choose between them.  And, SMKR also has "Shit My Pets Ruined", "Shit My Husband Ruined", and "Shit My Wife Ruined" sites, which are just as good.)

5.On your man do you prefer… boxers, briefs or boxer briefs? Or commando? (yeah, I’m starting to get desperate for questions!)
I prefer..... to not tell!  ;)

Day 16- What is your favorite outdoor Christmas activity?

When I was a teenager and young adult (meaning, before I moved in with now-Hubby), my sister and I would string the lights outside my parents' house.  We would bring a boombox outside, put in a CD of the Nutcracker Suite, and spend hours stringing and rearranging.  I thought I had a pic of it... I guess I don't, but imagine this:

All white lights.

Strung on about twelve bushes and trees. 

Wrapped around three light posts.

Wow, that doesn't do it justice... I'll have to dig up a pic.

Day 15- Christmas / holiday crafts

This year, I attempted to make Non-edible Cinnamon Ornaments.  My mom has made them before, and they always smelled really good.  Plus, I thought it would a fun thing to do with the boys.  I bought glue and googly eyes, and glitter (yes, glitter with two toddlers... I guess I'm a glutton for punishment).  Here's how they turned out:

The googly eyes turned out creepy, because they were huge, but LB loves them anyway.  I did this during naptime- I think JC is still a little young to do this craft, but whatever, LB & I had fun and the house smells like cinnamon.  :)

Random Tuesday Thoughts

Here are our two carseats with the covers removed:

Which one do YOU think is safer?  The one on the left with a hard plastic seat, or the one on the right with styrofoam covering the hard plastic seat?  I was pretty shocked at the lack of impact protection with the carseat on the left.
(By the way, the one on the left is the Alpha Omega Elite, and the one on the right is the Evenflo... I guess you really do get what you pay for)

I found this in my kids' Goldfish crackers this afternoon:

Overcooked fishie?  Or demonic fishie plotting to take over the world, one toddler at a time, mwahahaha?

I'm so excited for the Biggest Loser finale tonight!  Partly because I'm glad this season is over with.  I'm not impressed with the contestants, not like I was last season.  And I'm beyond shocked that Elizabeth is in the final four.

Target was an interesting experience today.  LB wasn't listening at all, so I put him in the shopping cart.  Luckily, I know the layout of the store and where to find everything, so besides mulling over a facial clay mask (can't wait to try that tonight), it was quick.  Good thing.  He threw an EPIC temper tantrum.  I mean, you could hear him throughout the entire store.  A lot of people stared.  I kept talking like I usually do to my kids, then JC started crying.  It was so humiliating, it was funny, and I laughed the entire way out of the store.  I'm pretty sure I can never show my face in Target again because they all think I'm a callous nutjob.

On a related note, I picked up a six pack for tonight.

How do I address thank you cards for the postman and garbage man?

I get hungry every time Norton tells me it has found and fixed cookies.... mmmmm, cookies.  Maybe I'll pick some up to go with my beer.

Head over to The Unmom to link up and find more random shit.

Day 14- Show us your tree

Please excuse the fugly plastic gate that overwhelms the awesomeness of the tree...

The tree is minus three ornaments this year because the little ones can reach over the gate and have broken them.  *sigh*