Christmas Date

Another week, another date from our date jars!

This week we figured we had time for a yellow date. Joe reached in and pulled out another one I was excited about: Christmas night! The idea was that we'd take some of our favorite parts of Christmas and enjoy them - the music, cookies, food, movies, etc. I wanted to buy ugly sweaters from a thrift store, but I worked 50+ hours this week and didn't have the time to shop (let alone wash them). Instead, we settled on wearing red and green.

***Side Note*** After last week's Scattergories date and this week's Christmas date, I hope Joe doesn't get a dud next week. We are definitely starting off with some of the really fun ones. ***End of Side Note***

We started our date by grocery and Christmas present shopping. This ended up taking FOR-EV-ER, but Joe made the point that it was fitting since shopping around Christmastime is always a headache. That's my cup-half-full hubby for ya :)

I didn't originally plan that we'd exchange gifts, but COME ON - it wouldn't have felt like Christmas without presents. Since we are being careful with money, we decided to go to Dollar Tree and buy 3 or 4 things for the other person. It was a blast hunting through the store trying to avoid each other. Honestly, I'd consider doing something similar for our real Christmas gifts this year.

When we got home, I immediately turned on a Pandora Christmas station and started baking. Growing up, spritz cookies were a staple in our house around the holidays, so they were the obvious choice:

Please excuse the filthy kitchen. I am a messy cook.

While I was baking, Joe wrapped his presents for me and surprised me by creating a "fire" out of tissue paper and a fan. (We have Vornado fans which are designed to work sitting on their backs or upright.) I absolutely loved it! We don't have a fireplace, and celebrating by a fire feels so Christmassy to me.

Dinner was absolutely delicious. In my family, we celebrate Christmas with risotto (we're Italian). Since Joe was disappointed we did ribs instead of risotto for our "R" Scattergories date last week, it was the perfect main course.

Joe made the risotto, and I made the green beans. Being the disaster in the kitchen that I am, I royally screwed up and they turned out looking more like over-cooked asparagus. (The recipe called for simmering the green beans for 25 minutes after having cooked them for a short time on medium heat. I never turned the heat down. Oops.)

Nevertheless, the green beans were DELICIOUS and I can't wait to try them again so I can see what they taste like when not cooked to mush. Here's the recipe in case you are interested. Oh - and now that I am looking at it again I realized I never added the herbs or the pepper. I really need cooking lessons haha.

After dinner, it was time for presents!

The first present Joe opened were these toothbrushes that don't need toothpaste or water. Perfect for his backpack or glove compartment.

My first present was a pack of hair ties. I am always running out even though I've probably bought a million.

Buster even liked them. (Actually, he likes anything from Dollar Tree. Must be the smell. Weird dog haha).

Joe's next gift was a head massager. I knew he'd like it, but he pretty much lost his S.

I even got an, "I've always wanted one of these!" and "Dollar for dollar this might be the best gift I've ever gotten!" out of him. For $1, not too shabby ;)

He was doing this the rest of the night. Seriously.

My next gift was a sweet snapband kit. You can see that I am pretty pumped. We had just talked about liking snapbands as kids (those bands you hit against your wrist that close into a bracelet) and this kit came with some fun sequins. I'm totes going to bling this thing out!

And do you see the blur from Buster's tail wagging? He was also very excited.

Next, Joe opened a flick football set. I figured he could have it on his desk and play with it when he was studying. He was excited, and said he'll flick a field goal when he makes a breakthrough.

My final present was a movie with John Stamos in it. Haven't heard of it before, but I'll watch anything with Mr. Stamos. Anything. If he was paint drying on a wall, I'd watch and proclaim, "Have mercy!"
 

I wondered how they could sell DVDs for $1, and then noticed this sticker on the back:

Is there a ghost in this picture? WTH is that green orb???

Gotta love the phrasing ;) I'd say they were being pretty assumptive with the "enjoyed" part, but let's be real. It has John Stamos in it. I am sure it was thoroughly enjoyed.

Joe's final gift was a puzzle. I am always looking for puzzles that look fun, and so many are of stupid things and are really terrible pictures. Example: chances are I probably don't want to do a puzzle of a lighthouse. But if said lighthouse was a particularly awesome image (or had John Stamos peeking out of the window), then it would be worth buying. But no. It's a totally amateur shot of a particularly boring lighthouse on a hill with dead grass and no water visible.

***Side Note*** Disney puzzles are the exception. There's no such thing as a bad Disney puzzle. But unfortunately those usually have about 50 pieces. ***End of Side Note***

So when I found a football stadium puzzle, I felt like I hit the jackpot. Joe loves football and it should be pretty tough to do with the crowd and sky.

After presents, we watched Jingle All The Way and then three Christmas episodes of Full House. I was always under the impression that sitcoms ALWAYS have a holiday episode every year, but when trying to find Christmas episodes of shows we like, I realized that they rarely do more than a couple. During the 8 seasons of Full House, for example, they only had 3 Christmas shows. There was such a large break between the first and the second that Becky and Jesse had their first kiss in the first. By the second? Nicky and Alex were about 2.

Also, DJ was dating Steve. Ahhh, Steve. I had such a crush on him.

***Side Note*** On the topic of Steve, I told the girls I nanny that Steve is the same person who voiced Aladdin and it blew their minds. Then I told them that the actresses who play Michelle are 6 months younger than me and their minds were further blown. See parents? That's the type of education I can provide for your children ;) ***End of Side Note***

We never got to the egg nog we planned to make from scratch, because we both passed out fell asleep on the couch. Maybe we can do our make-up rummy game from last week's date while drinking egg nog.

I guess making it through 100% of our date next week is a good goal ;) Can't wait to see what we will be doing!