Date night

December was my date night month, and even though we had just celebrated our 25th wedding anniversary, I was still obligated to fulfill my part of the bargain and create a unique date night.

I decided it would be fun to see a Palm Reader to see what she would have to offer about our next 25 years. She said that she saw travel coming up in the near future.  Fancy that, we are celebrating our anniversary trip in Italy, and I am trying to talk Jeff in to going to Denmark with Brandon and I this summer as well, at least for a short time.  Jeff was skeptical at best until the reader said something about us that we had not shared.  It was interesting and I think I ought to win the prize for the most interesting date night.

We went from there for my annual mammogram which took all of 30 minutes. Now THERE is something one does not usually do on a date night!  It was only a few minutes of non-date activity.  It is out of the way, and it was barely noticed.

We headed from the mammogram to a very expensive, but very well worth the price restaurant that I really enjoy.  This photo was taken by our server.  You will notice in the photo not two but three glasses of wine.  Yep, you guessed it, all for me.  Jeff's Chianti was sitting just outside the frame.  They had a special; they were offering 3-3oz pours of Syrah's my new favorite kind of wine.  It was delightful!  We savored our dinner and talked for about two hours.  Our phones were not in use, save this picture of us, and then it was turned off.  It was nice to really connect.  We used the time to talk about the Palm reading, our past 25 years and our future 25 years. We also received from the restaurant a champagne toast, and dessert on the house in honor of our anniversary. 

Our anniversary gift



Here we are with "Lilly"

 Rissy, Neil, Amy, Bean, Diz and the Tiny Tiger treated us to a live show with the Rockettes for our 25th wedding anniversary which was Christmas.  We had tickets for the following day! 


The show was nothing short of spectacular! Jeff and I were treated to ideal seats. Believe it or not we had the entire row virtually to ourselves; what more could you ask?!? But more than that we were touched by the generosity of our family given the financial challenges they have faced recently. How could we be so deserving? We are honored not only by the kid words, but the thoughtfulness of the gift. They knew that I have always liked watching the Rockettes on television every year during the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, and even stop in the middle of meal preparations to watch them. To think that I would get to see them in person was more that I would have given myself. I saw the signs up all over town as there were in town for three days only. I just would not have treated us to a show that was so costly. How very nice that they would think enough of us to treat us.


Jeff and I dressed up and went to the show Sunday morning.  The air was abuzz with excitement as were we:-)  The man who took our tickets asked if I had planned on dressing like the Rockette's.  I replied that I had in fact done so.  He then asked if I would be dancing.  I held my finger to my mouth to indicate that he was not to breath a word, but that I was the secret guest dancer.  Ahh such fun.  The ticket taker did say that they were dressed quite like me for the majority of the show.  This was not our experience as the costume changes were frequent, leaving us wondering how they can even have time for some of their quick changes.  All I can say was that I marvelled at the precision of not only the dancers but the backstage hands, the dressers, the property master/mistresses...phenomenal!

Jeff and I spent time oohing and ahhing, time just for us, and were whisked away to the Christmas story as told only as the Rockettes can do.  We loved the show so much, we even bought a video of the show to savor our memories for years to come and to hopefully share SOME of the experience we enjoyed.  Below is just a picture to give you some idea of the elaborate set design that was ours to behold.  In this fuzzy picture you will see the moon, some lighted trees etc., but what you can't see is that the LED screen moved in a way that suggested to your senses that the reindeer and the sleigh were raising up from the ground (which you see here) and flying into the night, through the clouds.  Just fantastic!

Christmas Fireplace Scene

I had peaceful moment to myself while preparing the house for Christmas and thought I would share it with anyone who reads.  While setting up my fireplace mantel, I was listening to peaceful Christmas melodies, humming "Have yourself a Merry Little Christmas" and I was lost in the illusion of how a town may have looked so many years ago.  I had great fun setting the scene, and putting myself in the scenery.  Here is a small portion of the scene which I created.  I hope you like it.

A moment captured

Jeff had just returned from Ohio when this picture was snapped of Neil and Tiny Tiger.  Neil was talking with Jeff outside the car.  Rissy was chatting with me.  Tiny Tiger was crawling around in the car giving kisses to Grandpa, whom he'd not seen in some time.  Here Neil asked him if he could have a kiss, and I caught the moment right after on camera.

I love when memorable times are unplanned but just happen.  Here we dropped Bean off at home and lo and behold Neil, Rissy and the Mighty Mite came out to chat.  It is just a moment I will treasure as it was special in its spontaneity.

Quick and funny

So while we were at Zoolights, I had my hand on the railing to steady myself as we descended the stairs.  We then got popcorn minutes later.  I wasn't thinking about my usual hygiene and popped the popcorn in my mouth...making me sick about 36 hours later...sharing with Bean:-(

Bean got really sick, while is just attacked my throat.  He ran a high fever.  I kept him over as I was already sick, Jeff was not home, and we did not want to further share it with his little brothers, namely Diz as anything he gets goes straight to his lungs and he has difficulty breathing.

So, Friday comes along and Bean is getting sicker and sicker.  He ran a temp all of Thursday, but Friday he was begging me to let him in the bath where he could warm up.  I of course said "no" and told him it was the fever talking.  I covered him and cuddled him until he warmed up and the Tylenol could take effect.  He out of the blue said "I am glad I am a logical person; because logically I know that I cannot be seeing sticks and vines on my Grandmother's walls inside, but I see them!"  He was having visual hallucinations when his temp hit just over 104°.  Poor kid, but I had to laugh at the logic of it all.  Once the Tylenol hit he was crusing and got better as quickly as he got sick.

Christmas activities

A few things I wish to mention as a few of my favorites.

I too Bean and Diz to the Zoo for Zoolights.  Dizzy had been before, as had Bean, but not together in 4 years.  Dizzy as you may recall is only 5.  Jeff was out of town, but the weather was as nice as it was likely to be this entire Christmas Season, so I decided to Carpe Diem and go.  I collected Dizzy right after school and we headed down to the Zoo.  The weather was in the 40's with little rain.  Dizzy was over the moon with excitement and all the lights!  He was well behaved, stayed very close to me, took pictures of the lights, and had a blast.  I had a blast with them. 

I got to watch Bean in the older brother role.  It was nice to see him suggest things that I had suggested to him when he was little like "Diz, would you like to go through the special door?" as we entered the zoo store, to get the zoo 3D special light viewing glasses.  They both chose a pair with aliens on them.  As it turned out these special glasses gave the illusion that there were alien heads anywhere there were lights.  Strange.  We opted to keep those glasses for future reference.  You never know when you might see a real alien and need to compare notes.  

Bean also made sure to hold Dizzy's hand through crowded areas even though I had a firm grip.  He pointed out highlights.  It was just really nice.  So this picture taken with my phone isn't good, BUT you can see the megawatt smiles through the haze.



Zoolights smiles 2010

 We finished up there evening with a trip to Sweet Tomatoes where we could find all sorts of fresh food from a HUGE salad bar.  Even Dizzy found a few things on which to nosh.