Home for the Holidays

It is official. I will be home for Christmas. I am so excited about it. This will be the first Christmas Brett and I are actually together and we will get to spend it with our families. I might actually start to like the holidays.

And the whole reason we are actually going home - Cleveland Browns vs. Pittsburgh Steelers. I managed to get us tickets for the game. We won't actually be sitting together but we will be close. Brett will be sitting with my brothers and I will be the next section over with some of my parents' friends who have season tickets. But at least I got tickets.

Now everyone is probably saying we are crazy that this is the only reason we are going home. Normally I would agree but since the drive is killing his mental state I was okay with staying in Virginia and spending Christmas here. Now we have to figure out our travel arrangements. I am flying home on Tuesday for work and am supposed to come back on Friday. I was going to stay there if we decided to spend Christmas in Cleveland and he would drive up on Friday. We would drive back together on Monday.

However, Brett has done something to his back. It is very bad at the moment and has been like this for almost 2 weeks. (He looks like a little old man all hunched over.) So now I have to figure out if I can fly back earlier on Friday and then drive the truck home since we have to bring the dog with us. I am going to call the airline and see about flying back standby instead of changing my ticket.

Sounds like a bunch of work but it will all be worth it.

Registering Nightmare

They always tell you when you get married that registering is so much fun.  I tend to disagree.  This has been the most annoying part of the whole wedding activities.  First of all, I do not like to shop so I did all my registering online.  I didn’t even step foot into a store for any of the registering process.

Then there is the fact that we really don’t need anything.  Brett has lived on his own for a really long time so he has everything you need to establish a household.  The stuff we did register for was basically to update some of his appliances and make them ours.  We also chose some things that you wouldn’t buy for yourself (seafood utensils).

Today I was asked if we had registered for everyday china or silverware.  I told the person no and they asked why.  I explained that we both had dishes and that we had gone to Ikea (I love Ikea) and bought a set for $26.  They seemed a little upset by this.  I am sorry if that is what you wanted to buy us but there are a bunch of items you can purchase if you really want to get us something.

Don’t get me wrong – I am happy that people want to share in this moment with us but we are not all about the gifts.  I would rather not have them because it will be one less thing that we will have to pack each time we move.

Made for Each Other

And when we were going through our Christmas ornaments we discovered we had the exact same one that we made in grade school in the 5th or 6th grade. How cute!!!

My First Real Christmas Tree

Everyone has their first - first love, first job, first house... Well this weekend I experienced my first live Christmas tree. Growing up we always had a fake tree. Every year we would trek up to the attic and drag out this huge box with all these fake limbs that you had to insert into the "trunk". Once that was done, Mom would string on the lights and then it was a free-for-all with the ornaments. Let's just say I always let my brothers do the decorating. I truly do not like tree decorating.

Whenever we asked my mom why we had a fake tree her response was that she was not responsible enough to water the darn thing. She just wanted the simple tree that took forever to put together but that did not need any watering.

So when Brett found out that I never had a real tree he made it his goal to make sure this year I got one. We went to Home Depot (not where I thought we would go but hey this was my first time) and picked a very nice tree. We got it home and put it up and the first thing I did was water the thing. I will not be my mother and let it die or cause a fire (that was her other excuse). Brett put up the lights and then I of all people got stuck putting on the ornaments. I still don't like doing it but I figured since this was my first real tree and our first Christmas actually together I wouldn't complain.

And here is the final outcome.....