I Can't Wait For Christmas!!

Filling in my December calendar with fun Christmassy things is something that I just love. So much celebrating! As has been stated many times, there's never enough Christmas. I supposed I'd get sick of it after three or four...or five months but I'm just not sure about that. Try me. 

One of the first events of the season was my annual Christmas Date with Becca. The tradition has of course changed a little over the years that we have done this. Most sadly for us, our evening no longer includes a trip to Modern Display, which used to be right on 7th East downtown, and is now in a bigger (and not at all cute) warehouse kind of space out in Murray or something and it's just not as fun to visit. So that's off the list. We have added going to the Christkindle Mart at This is The Place State Park. That has become such a popular event in the city that it has started to cause problems with traffic for a mile or two surrounding, and the parking is almost impossible. We braved it though, and lucked out by finding street parking in the neighborhood behind the zoo. The walk to the park was a little long but not too bad. The event is extremely crowded, so we stayed just long enough to watch some alp-horn players, shop a little, and finally just flee the crowds. We went for the best hot chocolate on the planet at Hatch's, ordered some CupBop for delivery, and landed at my house to watch the fantastically silly The Holiday, which has become our tradition. Knitting ensued. 

Another evening that kicked off our holiday was the return of the "I Can't Wait For Christmas" party once held annually by Troy and his buddies while they were in high school. Since we had gotten together for dinner in the fall and had so much fun being together, we decided to reconvene in December. It was such a fun night. We all brought salads and appetizers and desserts, Misty made these awesome pulled pork sandwiches, and we ate and enjoyed talking and laughing together. Then Emily, wife of Craig, pulled out her favorite couples game, Rate Your Mate. It sounds slightly awkward, maybe even aggressive...I wasn't that excited. But it's more like the newlywed game....for oldy-wed people. We separated into the wife group and the husband group, and answered questions in the way we thought our spouse would answer them. Then we rejoined and asked the questions again. If our spouses answered the way we thought they would, we got a point. Troy and I were only one point away from a perfect score. My fault. I second-guessed myself which I should not have done. That's ok. We still totally kicked butt and won the game. We did some good laughing. It was really wonderful to be together. I really love Troy's friends and their wives. We were missing at least two couples - hopefully at our next event we won't be missing anyone. These kinds of friends are what makes life such a blessing.

Yay December! Yay Christmas! In the words of my children....Let's GOOOO!!!!!