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. :)

I want so badly for this to be a long entry but I am a mess right now...

Just got back yesterday from St Louis- can't wait to tell you all about it! Unfortunately the cord for my camera has magically gone missing in the last few weeks so in order to get pictures on here from my camera I have to insert my card into my parents computer, use my card reader for my cell phone's memory card to transfer the pics onto there, then bring that back upstairs to transfer them onto my computer. Sigh.

Anyway- tomorrow is New Years Eve! I will be working probably close to 17 hours tomorrow since I'm a double. Ouch. And I still hope to be able to go out with some people from work tomorrow night to celebrate...but we'll see.

Happy New Year to everyone! I can't wait to tell you all about my St Louis trip! In the meanwhile to find out what I'm up to in close-to-real time, follow me on Twitter. :)

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

It's been an amazing week. I've neglected blogging because frankly I've been enjoying spending time doing really stupid stuff with Nick.

He drove in Wednesday and got in about 11pm. Thursday was Thanksgiving. While pretty much everyone but me at the Rusty Scupper had to work, I got to have Nick spend the first holiday with my family. (Christmas day I'm flying to St Louis to spend Christmas with his family).

We were totally lazy Thanksgiving- aren't you supposed to be? While everyone else was toasting to sparkling cider, I brought two bottles of champagne and had a good time with Nick. I fell asleep (passed out?) on him during the Dallas game (couldn't care less) and woke up to watch Four Christmases with Nick, my sister and brother and law and my brother in law's ex son in law (got that?).

Friday morning my favorite Baltimore radio station 98Rock put on an event called Bacon and Beer/Purple and Black Friday at Hightopps in Timonium, MD to celebrate the upcoming Baltimore Ravens vs. Pittsburgh Steelers game. The event was basically a Kegs and Eggs event- it started at 6am (which is legally when you can serve alcohol in Baltimore County) and had drink specials. 98Rock broadcasted live. It was a blast. I wish Nick had been a bit more into it...he was still feeling the effects of the champagne, the 6 pack of IPA, and a Captain and birch beer (a surprisingly good combo!) from Thanksgiving night. We did get some awesome breakfast food, a load of bacon, and I had two amazing beer-mosas. (Yup, that's right- beer-mosas.)  A really fun morning.

We came back to my parents house and slept a few hours, got up and ate and fell asleep on the couch again. We basically spent all of Friday in comfy clothes and catching up on episodes of Fringe from the last month. Oh, and eating pizza. Awesome day.

Nick left this morning though. I'm pretty psyched to see him again this weekend in New York City. My sister and I try to go every once in a while when someone from her work charters a bus for a day trip to NYC. She booked it again like three months ago for this upcoming Saturday, December 5th. Nick's birthday is Wednesday so I had the idea that maybe I could just change the bus ticket into a one way to NYC for Saturday and come back Sunday night instead. I've never spent the night in New York City before. It worked out well- My sister Tina and I are going to hang out all day Saturday. Nick is going to drive in and take the subway the rest if the way in on Saturday (since Groton, CT is only 2 hours away) and meet up with me for dinner when Tina takes the bus back that night at 6:15. We're going to see Shrek on Broadway (yay! our fist Broadway show!), stay at a military hotel which was a third of the cost of every other motel there and I can go back Sunday night.

It will be a nice way to celebrate his birthday and spend some time together. I still already miss him like crazy. It's sad to see all his stuff from this weekend gone when I came home from work today. Ugh.....two months from this Friday until Hawaii. It needs to come faster- it's way too cold here.