the twelve dates of christmas: date twelve

in what is becoming a tradition that i really, really like, AWD and i had an early, personal, just-the-two-of-us christmas at home before we left for his parents' house for the rest of the holiday festivities.

AWD is modest about this, but he's a gifted gift-giver; he always pays attention to things i say i want and then i forget about them and then then buys them for me and i open them and remember they are the things i wanted the most in the world and now they are mine!

and this year he did not disappoint.

so, this year i propose we all get over the post-holiday hump with some delicious food cooked in my fancy new digital crock pot.

lemme know if you're down.

from us to you.

merry christmas to all, and to all a good night.

the twelve dates of christmas: date eleven

we decided to send out some christmas cards this year, because i figure that is what married people do. so, for our eleventh date of christmas we addressed those suckers and sent them out.

we hope people like cards that consist only of pictures of us. because that's what they're getting.

the twelve dates of christmas: date ten

for the past couple years, AWD and i have gone to see "the nutcracker" around christmastime. it's one of my favorite traditions. but this year we were a little slow on the draw getting our tickets and there were only really expensive seats left and so we decided not to go.

and i was sad.

but then, i heard that they had released some seats for a sold-out killers concert, and it seemed like too good of a christmas miracle to pass up.

so, off we went for the tenth date of christmas to see the killers at the patriot center in fairfax.

you may recall that i am close, personal friends of the killers (they might not remember, but it's true), thanks to my catering work on the set of the music video for "human." and by catering, i mean that sallee and i made eggs over a camp stove, and banana boats in dutch ovens. but, a good time was had by all, and it was nice to see the band again after so much time apart.

they put on a pretty sweet show, complete with skinny jeans, fireworks, smoke and swoony dancing. i was a little worried about whether AWD was having a good time, as he is not a super fan of concerts, but as we were walking out he said, "well, that was definitely more fun that 'the nutcracker.'" so, i guess we found a winner.

the twelve dates of christmas: date nine

for our ninth date of christmas (are we knocking this out of the park or what?), AWD and i went to a little dinner party/white elephant gift exchange.

luckily everyone else approached the gift exchange the same way we did: as a chance to get rid of stuff you don't want in your house anymore. and even more luckily, i managed to trade away someone's broken snorkeling flippers for this box of chocolate.

i should have put it next to a regular sized box of chocolate for the sake of context, but this is a two-and-a-half pound box of chocolate. it was giant. and awesome.

knowing the risk it would pose to the health and well-being of our household if left there for too long, i brought it into work for our office holiday party. it was a big hit, and getting it  out of the house meant that i only ate three pieces of chocolate instead of nearly three pounds of chocolate.

win, win.

epilogue: when i came into work this morning, the day after the holiday party, the chocolate was gone. all two-and-a-half pounds. maybe some of my co-workers will need to put new pants on their christmas lists, too?

the twelve dates of christmas: date eight

on sunday AWD and i hosted a little christmas gathering, the subtitle of which could have been one of my favorite phrases: actually, i like treats more than food.

the reason being because i used it as an opportunity to get all my christmas baking done in one fell (and diabetic) swoop.

i made candy bar cookies.

and rocky road brownies.

and peppermint ice cream.

and my mom's gingerbread cookies.

your blood sugar went up just reading that, huh?

the main event was a short, as in one song, piano recital by yours truly. in the couple of months since i started back up with my piano lessons i managed to learn an arrangement of "what child is this" well enough to feel (reasonably) comfortable performing it. i followed my rule of under-promising and over-delivering, and everyone was duly impressed.

and, after eating all those treats, i added new pants to my christmas list.

the twelve dates of christmas: date seven

for our seventh date of christmas (are we killing this or what?) we headed up to the d.c. temple to see the lights. we were there right at twilight, which turned out to be a lovely time to be there. as you can see.

i'd like to give a shout out to AWD who indulges my passion for christmas lights of all kinds and in all places. and i'd like to give a shout out to dan diamond, who went to great and heroic lengths to help us jump our car battery after we left the lights on (irony?) and killed it.

christmas miracles all around.

the twelve dates of christmas: date six (with a bonus lesson on the true spirit of the holidays!)

i think we all remember the foul mood i was in on friday. it was bad. and i decided i needed to snap myself out of it, if i could, as fast as i could.

there is a principle mormons are fond of espousing, that principle being that when you are focused on yourself and your own problems, you should serve someone else. and that by the act of coming outside of yourself, your own problems seems less serious or, at the best, somehow work themselves out. i have always been skeptical of this principle, mainly because i think sometimes the solution to our problems really is for other people to serve us when we need it, but i decided to put it to the test on friday.

and now, for some back story. every saturday AWD and i have "cleaning day," wherein we clean our house. vacuum, mop, clean the bathroom, do laundry. you know, cleaning day. AWD hates cleaning day. and he especially hates it when we have to do some or all of our cleaning on friday night because there won't be any time to do it on saturday. this weekend threatened to be a friday night cleaning day weekend, and he had already been lamenting that fact.

it was perfect really. i left work a few minutes early, stopped at the grocery and did all our shopping (something else AWD doesn't really like) and then went home and cleaned the whole house before he got home from work. and it felt so good! partly because i have found that an aggressive session of vacuuming or scrubbing gunk out of the caulk in the shower can be a cathartic release of rage and bad feelings. but mostly because AWD was so, so happy when he came home. doing that for him made me feel better than i had in days.

plus, the house was clean. which also makes me really happy.

to celebrate, AWD took me out to dinner at one of our favorite places, where i got one of my favorite sushi rolls and enjoyed a night out with my favorite guy.

in this case, at least, it turned out that forgetting about myself and serving someone else was just the right medicine. even better than watching a break-up video on repeat. imagine that.

the twelve dates of christmas: dates four and five

AWD has been struck with a flu bug that's going around, so we've been laying low this week and taking things easy. which means lots of christmas movie watching! hurrah!

i made an unrealistically long list of christmas movies i want to watch this year and we crossed two of them off the list for christmas dates four and five.

first was the classic, it's christmas, charlie brown. the scene where linus steps out on stage and recites the christmas story from the book of luke has to be one of my favorite christmas movie scenes of all time. and i have a new determination to talk more like charlie brown characters, so don't be surprised if you hear a lot more, "oh, brother" from me.

we also started what i hope will be a new tradition of watching a christmas story. i didn't grow up with that movie like a lot of people did, but i am definitely an adult convert. i can never stop laughing when randy blurts out from under the sink, "dad's gonna kill ralphie!" the whole thing is so absurd and delightful. and i have a new determination to talk more like the parker family, so don't be surprised if you hear a lot more "on the double!" from me.

is it bad if i am sort of hoping AWD will stay a little sick so we can fit in a muppet christmas carol before the week is over?

the twelve dates of christmas: date three

for our third date of christmas we decided to just do something every-day and normal.

so we went to the white house to see the holiday decorations.

yep. we went to the white house to see the holiday decorations. because that's how we do.

we have our kinda-sorta-cousin-in-law, chase, to thank; he works in the white house correspondence office and scored some tickets and was so nice and generous to invite us along. it was AWD's first time at the white house, which made it even more exciting. and honestly, no matter what my aunt joyce says, going to the white house never gets old. i just love walking through those rooms and thinking of all the things that have happened in them. and the whole thing is even more magical when everything is decorated for christmas.

the theme of this year's decorations was "joy to all," and i think it was an apt theme indeed.

sometimes d.c. is just the place where we live and hang out and it all seems pretty run-of-the-mill. and then something like this happens and i think, "man, i live here! here." and it feels really lucky and special. i like those moments. and it has to be said: thanks, obama!

the twelve dates of christmas: date two

our second christmas date was an evening out at my office holiday party. last year's office holiday party was in october, and it was a carnival for children who had a parent (or two) who had been killed on a deployment, and as part of the carnival festivities AWD and i agreed to dress up like clowns and hand out balloons.

this is a true story.

so, i think you can appreciate AWD's apprehension about my office holiday parties.

but, this year we got to dress up in fancy holiday clothes instead, and go to a swanky venue and eat delicious food and see lots of work people in a non-work context, which is always awesome. as we were leaving i said, "that was a lot of fun," and AWD said, "i thought so, too," and that, my friends, is the mark of a good party. to be sure.

the twelve dates of christmas: date one

we are bringing back the twelve dates of christmas (hurrah!) and we decided to get an earlier start this year so we aren't going to a million christmas concerts one right after the other. not that the twelve dates of christmas is a quota or anything (and not that there's something wrong with going to a million christmas concerts), but it seemed like it would be nice to not be rushed this time around. because being rushed is not what the twelve dates of christmas is all about.

for our first date of christmas, AWD and i took advantage of being in salt lake at this time of year and went to see the lights on temple square. (i guess technically this was a double date with my mom and my aunt emily. which was just fine with us).

we also wandered over to the back of the joseph smith memorial building, where they had several nativity scenes set up from different parts of the world. i had never seen that display before, and it was really lovely. it made me want to collect nativity scenes of my own. maybe some day. 

the lights had just been turned on the day before, so the place was a total mob scene but i am so glad we took advantage of being there at such a magical time of year. i love the lights on temple square. and i love going on dates with my husband (and my mom). so, win win (win) there.

on the twelfth date of christmas my true love gave to me...

... well, christmas!

we are leaving in a few hours for denver, so AWD and i had a little christmas together last night. and it was lovely. among other wonderful gifts, AWD got me lamby, a stuffed animal i always buy for other people's baby showers and always hate giving away. but now i have one of my very own.

after we opened presents, we gorged ourselves on bluebird chocolates from grammie and grampa.

and now our bags are packed and we are ready for a white, colorado christmas.

i hope your christmas is merry and bright (as they say).

much love, my babies.

on the eleventh date of christmas my true love gave to me...

... the national christmas tree.