As I watch (laugh at?) Jersey Shore and have an evening off where I’m not falling asleep, (actually I already napped for an hour) I thought I’d catch up. :)

December was crazy!

Christmas was awesome. My family celebrates on Christmas Eve because of my parents’ crazy schedules. That worked out pretty well because I ended up flying out on Christmas day to St Louis to be with Nick for Christmas and the few days after.

My sister was upset this year we didn’t do the Twelve Days of Christmas…Last year every family member awkwardly jumped in front of a video camera to sing/say/yell/scream/laugh a verse of the Twelve Days of Christmas. It was a hot mess we all complained all the way through about doing but cracked up laughing when we got to watch it. Unfortunately my stepbrother and his wife had to run to church because they were in a play or something so we didn’t have time to sing this year. Darn.

Christmas day I spent a good deal of time at airports and on planes. I wasn’t fortunate enough to get window seats and spent the two flights (there was a layover in Atlanta) trying to sleep with my head strangely pushed forward while safely cushioned in one of those round travel cushions.

I made it one piece and got to clean up and nap before heading over Nick’s Aunt Cathy’s house to meet…well, everyone. I met his grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins. Everyone. They were hilarious. We had a Chinese gift exchange (where everyone brings a gift and everyone gets one but you can steal other people’s gifts) where I won a duct-taped wrapped soccer ball that took me 10 minutes to open. I was cool enough to be the only person to get something sort of adult (The Hangover on dvd) and the youngest cousin ended up getting it…ooops. I didn’t know there was going to be a 15-year-old. Ah well.

Nick, his two twin brothers, one of their girlfriends, and I went to see Avatar Saturday, in all our 3d glasses glory. The movie was awesome…it also really reminded me of Pocahontas and Ferngully but set in Jurassic Park. Hah.

Saturday was perhaps the funniest night in St Louis. We went out to a little local bar in Ferguson called Marley’s. It was such a hilarious mid-Western bar. I don’t know what the funniest part about the bar was.
There was a winking wolf sign on the wall. The bartender didn’t know where the gingerale would be if they had it.

When I asked for white wine (I know, I know, I should have just done beer!) I was given a wine glass and a plastic individual-sized plastic bottle of Sutter Home Chardonnay. The dj played two Lady Gaga songs in a row and 4 out of 5 of Gaga’s latest singles within a 40 minute period. With "Oops I Did It Again" interspersed in between. We met up with Nick’s cousin Colleen and her boyfriend Nick there and had a blast laughing about the bar and the rednecks in it who looked beyond confused when Gaga came on and not-so-subtly ogled every girl who walked through the door. Oh Lord.

Sunday we were supposed to go to his grandparent’s house two hours away on a farm, but the snow began early and wouldn’t stop coming down. Instead we got to enjoy a totally lazy day inside eating cinnamon buns and watching movies. Can’t complain.

Since I was set to leave Tuesday, Monday became my touristy day. Nick took me to the Budweiser brewery for a tour. The tour was an hour long- we got to see the Clydesdales, their stables, the brewery, the packaging/bottling factory, and finally the hospitality room. That was probably my favorite. We got two 12 oz samples of our choice of beer. I had Shock Top for my first “sample” and got to try Michelob Ultra Golden Light for my second sample. The Mich Ultra Golden Light is only sold in St Louis and parts of Illinois so it was cool to get to try. We got to see a bunch of different kinds of beers I didn’t even know Bud made- although we didn’t get to try them all. Bud even makes a Bud with Clamato and a Bud Light with Clamato…Nick told me Clamato is clam juice and a bloody mary mix. Ew.

After the brewery we went to see the Arch. Tickets were sold out to go up to the top, and there was a crazy security line where they made you lift your pants legs and scanned you and everything just to go to the gift shop inside. So we just took some cheesy pictures outside, got some Hooters wings To-Go from the Florissant, MO Hooters, and then headed back to enjoy our last evening together for a whole month.

I was back to work the next day and since I was lucky enough to have off for Thanksgiving and Christmas Eve, I had to work New Years Eve at my restaurant. It was a really long day. I was a double and was there from 9:30am until just after 2am. Up until about 1am I still really wanted to go out afterwards and celebrate with some other work people…then the day caught up with me. I ended up coming back, having a hot shower, eating a bunch of Bagel Bites, and finishing two glasses of champagne before going to bed about 4:30am, just when my mom was getting up for work.

The fireworks in the Inner Harbor were gorgeous. This was the first New Years Nick and I haven’t been together. It honestly made me a bit sad. But I’m so happy I finally got to be with him for Christmas at least. And while I didn’t expect to be spending New Years Eve with my fellow co-workers in our awesome khaki cuffed pants, white button-up Oxford shirt, and crazy fish/lobster/crab ties, when the clock struck midnight even the bitterest employees had huge smiles on their faces as they walked around wishing everyone else a happy new year.

I had all these thoughts as I watched the fireworks about how I’m getting so much closer to such a huge adventure. It’s unbelievable.

There are only 32 days from now before my big move to Hawaii. It is slowly becoming more and more real to me. (Except when I’m outside with my two scarves wrapped around my entire face sans eyes…Hawaii isn’t quite as realistic then.)

The New Year is just a reminder to me now of all the things I need to do. I still need to send in all my forms and information for my dog for her quarantine. I need to buy her crate for the flight. I need to put my car up on Craigslist- but before that I need to get an oil change and clean that poor car out too. And most importantly, I need to spend some quality time with my family and friends before I leave.

2010 is going to be such a crazy big year. I can’t wait. :)

Many of you know I was homeschooled when I was younger. I also came from a very religious household. I never believed in Santa or the Easter Bunny or any of that stuff.
But when I was about 12 I decided to take back some of my youth and start believing in Santa....I can live without the Easter bunny. :)
Ever since then I have written a letter to Santa ever year. It's sort of a way of putting down what I want, what needs to change...and just sort of reflecting.
Since I've neglected my blog in the craziness of the holidays and of course the engagement, you all get to hear my Santa letter. So here goes...


Dear Santa,
This might be my simplest letter ever. Honestly, I've already gotten what I really wanted. I have an amazing guy and I got a gorgeous ring from him. We also got our house, the most well behaved dog ever (well, most of the time- my Shem Creek Bar & Grill beer koozie begs to differ), and plans to move to one of the most beautiful places I know of. And to make things even more perfect, I got to see my last snow this past weekend- and it was quite the blizzard. Nick was here for the weekend before flying out to St Louis to be with his family and his flight ended up getting delayed by a day. So I actually got a long, lazy, snowy weekend watching movie after movie with my fiance. It was awesome.

My family did Christmas today (my parents have crazy schedules) so I'm actually flying out in about 6 hours to St Louis to be with Nick and his family for Christmas. Honestly, I think my wish this year is just for safe travels and no flight delays please! I have never flown on Christmas day before. I don't know if it will be depressing or really cheerful. Although I'm armed with freshly updated iPod which I just loaded my new Glee soundtracks onto and I still haven't gotten a chance to listen to Lily Allen's Smile cd or Matt Nathanson's latest either. At least I'll be content listening to my music the whole way.

I digress.

As I sit here in front of my computer, with 24 hours of A Christmas Story on TV (I think I'm watching the movie for the 3.5th time tonight) with my bags open and somewhat packed on the floor in front of me, I just feel really thankful. Thankful to have such an amazing guy and now not one but two amazing families. Ahhh, maybe I could wish for good luck in meeting the whole family? There are going to be a lot to meet tomorrow!
And I also hope for everything to fall into place in February with the big move. And to be able to survive my first deployment in April....but that's still a bit away.

Oh Lord...I have to be up in like 3 hours. I should probably go to bed.

To all of my friends, family, and readers- Happy Christmas (Yes, I like the British way of saying it better!) and a Happy New Year. Everyone stay safe! Thank you for all your support.
I can't wait for this crazy new year to begin.

xoxox
that crazy Blonde

Thought I'd try acting like a grown up this year. I'm attempting to send Christmas cards.

This might not seem like a big deal but Christmas cards, if you've done them before, are actually a lot of work. Especially for someone my age who has a lot of friends who move around almost as much as I do (I'm on address numero seis in three years...granted it's a reoccurring address but still).

I spent my evening writing Christmas cards and emailing people for addresses. It'd be nice to finally get everyone in my Outlook up to date. And birthdays would be nice to have to. I always liked to pride myself in remembering birthdays...and then college happened. My memory hasn't been the same since then. :)

Last year I discovered Plaxo, which is amazing. It's a website that's free to sign up for (at least I'm pretty sure it still is) and you add friends and every time someone on there changes their address it notifies you and updates their information in Outlook for you. It also sends you Outlook notifications for their upcoming birthdays- conveniently 5 days in advance, just enough time to send a birthday card.

Speaking of birthday cards, I suck at those. I promise to get better in the future. I love correspondence, the old fashioned snail mail kind, despite my carpal tunnel. Papyrus is one of my favorite stores. I love collecting stationary. And I love sending handwritten notes to people. But birthday cards...sigh. Not actually a fan of buying a generic birthday card and just signing my name to its already prosaic, rhyming, cutesy phrase. I'd rather honestly send a letter or a cute note that's a bit more personal that wishes them happy birthday. But that would probably come off cheap.

Anyway, I can't believe it's Friday night and I'm blogging about how I just spent my evening writing Christmas cards (mid November), bugging people on Facebook for addresses, watching the Nanny, and shopping for XL dog sweaters on eBay. Yup. I'm that cool.

PS. If you are reading this, you should probably stop laughing and send me your address so I don't have to hunt you down to send you a Christmas card. Kay? Thanks.