as promised, here is a pic of my ring. I feel that I am the luckiest girl alive!
... and it is: Seattle Reigns. Not only is it a play on words, as we all know it rains in Seattle, but Seattle will always reign for us as its where Tom and I met! We are so excited to get the name on the boat. I need to decide what font we want and then its pretty much done. We went down to the shore yesterday. We are getting some work done on the boat getting it ready for Spring. I can hardly wait!! I told Tom that I see us on that boat nearly every weekend!!! We also went and checked on our new Marina where the boat will reside beginning this Spring. Attached is a picture of our view from our slip. Its completely unobstructed which will allow for picture perfect sunsets. :-) In New Jersey you have to be licensed to drive (that can't be the right word) a boat so we have to attend a captains class to get certified. Yes I said we--- you may address us as Captain Tom and Captain Diana after just two short 4 hour Saturday classes. The likelihood of me actually "driving" the boat is slim so I protest a bit at my enrollment in this class, but you never know when I may have to take the wheel. :-)
The weatherman keeps saying its going to snow, but it hasn't yet. Maybe today. We aren't complaining though--- while its still a bit cold, its sunny!!
Tom heads to Denver this week for work and I am very busy too. When Tom travels I end up working pretty late which I don't mind--especially with it being so busy.
oh yeah... after many requests, I will also be posting a picture of my beautiful engagement ring on the blog. :-) Stay tuned for that...
Well, its cold here. Never in my life have I wanted a full head stocking hat (the type where there are just holes for your eyes) until today. With the wind-chill making it 7 degrees here--we are pretty much hunkering down inside and watching the football games. Go Giants!
Yesterday it was cold as well, low 30's, and we ventured to Liberty State Park in Jersey City. The view of the city is THE BEST from Jersey City and I never get tired of it. You are literally right across a narrow part of the Hudson River and you feel so close to Manhattan.
In one part of the park you can stand exactly across from where the World Trade Center was. Think about the hundreds of people that were at the park that morning waiting to get to Ellis Island. They would have had a nauseatingly close look at the planes hitting the towers.
The main reason we went to Liberty State Park was to ferry over to Ellis Island and the Statue of Liberty (about a 6 min ride). You can see the statue from the park and I was interested in it much more than I thought I would be. It seems smaller though...
We bought our tickets for the ferry and waited--in the cold for what seemed like forever--before we decided to ditch this idea and vow to return when the the temp was above freezing. We couldn't even have gone in the statue anyway as it was already to capacity so that sealed the deal.
We went into Hoboken instead and had a great lunch. Hoboken and Jersey City are the "in place" to live these days for those who want to be close to the city but don't want the expense or craziness of the city. Many college grads from NY move here where rent is a bit cheaper and they still feel like they are in the city as its about a 5 min drive or they can ferry in. I LOVE the Brownstones here (and in NY) and have planted the seed with Tom that I would LOVE to live in a brownstone (which of course he already knew). Future visitors: don't get your hopes up, Tom is not interested in the city living. So--I am resigned to visit A LOT! :-) Good thing we are so close. This summer we plan to boat up here a bunch as there are plenty of slips.
Attached are some pics. Tom and I on our way into Liberty Park--out of service, historic NY train station of which we are standing on the tracks (city in the background); the 9/11 memorial in Jersey City of some battered and burnt steel from the collapse of the World Trade Center and the statue--from a distance.
Yesterday I took the afternoon off and went into the city. It was cold! but the sun felt so good and soon I was happy I had just worn my wool sweater and kept the jacket at home. This was my first visit since the holidays and it was no less busy. In fact, the Green Market (produce) at Union Square was packed! The sun brings people out!!
My goal was to get to Battery Park (by the Statue of Liberty and site of the WTC) by foot which is pretty far away from the train station, but not a real difficult walk. The problem though, is that I get sidetracked as I walk taking pics or stopping at parks or shopping. I managed to get pretty far, but when the sun started to go down I figured it'd be getting even colder (it did) so I headed back. As always it was a great day! I saw a music video being shot on Broadway in Soho, but I can't tell you the artist as the genre is one I am not super familiar with--- gangsta rap. However, I did get to witness a really nice red sports car being prepped for the camera with a model woman in the passenger seat and in the drivers seat, a thug-worthy guy that could have been 50 cent. Thats right, we'll just say I saw a 50 cent video get shot. Pass it on.
(Oh I also forgot to mention that Tom and I saw the tv chef Rachel Ray in the city just before Christmas. Its safe to say I am very disappointed that my only star sightings thus far have been her and 50).
I also checked out the campus of NYU a bit closer as I am registering for a writing class there to begin in June. It is in Greenwich Village (I attached a map so you can look at some of these areas I mention if you are unfamiliar). I am really excited for the class! There is something comforting about taking a class you want to take and not one that your degree depends on!! The campus there is not like a normal "campus". There are multiple buildings on a cluster of streets that surround Washington Square Park. Definelty a college in the middle of the city--but once I got my bearings on the buildings and their location to the subway and park, it seemed a bit more familiar.
This weekend we are venturing out for some sight seeing in the tri-state area so i will be sure to post pics then. Tom is home for a bit... but has to go to Puerto Rico for 2 days next week (no, i can't go. sigh. :-( and then denver the next week). This month he has pretty much been gone more than home. He was able to rearrange his meeting this week though so he got to come home early! That was great!
*pics are union square with a very blue sky and the map for reference.
Have a great Thursday!
Hey everyone! Happy weekend!
Attached to the right under the 'OTHER SITES WE LIKE' area is a link to a little video (hosted on YouTube) that we created highlighting our trip to Belize. There is music so be sure and have your sound on and up. You don't need a log in or anything to view it, just click title: our belize movie
The pictures are random for the most part and this is my first imovie on my mac so it may seem a bit rough (some of the resolutions of the pics are not that great, I still need to play around with formatting and stuff), but I will keep practicing. (by the way all of you pc people... this was SO easy to do and so fun. I bet you want a mac now).
I can send the movie to you on a dvd too--its much clearer than on youtube, so if you want one, let me know.
Not much else has been happening to warrant a blog entry. Tom flies out tomorrow evening for a work road-trip to Virginia, North Carolina and I think South Carolina. I am finally feeling caught up at work after being out and am planning a trip into the city this week just to wander. I can't wait---seems like I haven't been there in a while. Its supposed to be sunny most of the week (maybe chance of snow) but cold--in the 30's. Much different from the unseasonably warm weather we have been having.
We are already getting the itch to go away again somewhere. Gretchen, Merry and I are already narrowing the list down for next Christmas, but that will NOT be soon enough! :-)
hello! we made it home in one piece and were greeted by a 68 degree day today! What a nice homecoming! I felt Belize-ish when I took the dogs for a walk in my flip flops, jeans and a t-shirt! Tomorrow is supposed to be just as nice. Its always good to come home, but hard to go back to work...
Since we won't be traveling anywhere too interesting in the next few months and you find you still want to read about a far away place, check out my cousin Ryan's blog (to the right of this post in the "other sites we like" section. longwalkhome).
He and his wife Katrin are headed to Vietnam for 3 weeks and undoubtedly will have many interesting things happen to them--as they often do. Ryan's trips make me want to travel even more.
Attached are some pics from Belize. Tom and I at Caye Caulker and in front of some sort of rasta bob marley taco stand that was closed. Another is of Doug, Gretchen and Tom in front of our FAVORITE taco stand on the island. 3 taco's for .50 US. What a deal. Of course you need 6 or so to curb your hunger, but thats still only a buck!
Tom is standing in front of what I am guessing is an out of service boat on the island but still with the Jesus statue intact as the main navigator. There is a pic of me petting the nurse sharks and then Tom in the street during rush hour in San Pedro. :-)
More pics are in the Belize folder under photos and I will keep adding them.
The last two days the weather has changed for us here in Belize. Its been in the 70's, but really windy so we are a bit chilled and have not been able to dive. The skys have been gray for the most part reminding us of Seattle. We have made the most of the days though and spent yesterday with Gretchen, Doug and Patrick walking the island, visiting bakeries and ending up at the Crazy Canucks bar for pretty much the entire afternoon. It was a great day! Today we all headed into Belize City. Tom had lived here 20 yrs ago and sadly--it hasn't changed much and if anything has gone a bit more downhill since then. He didn't remember too much about the city from his time here and I think thats probably ok. To explain it in terms that are more recognizable, Ambergris Caye is to Beverly Hills as Belize City is to East LA. We were so shocked to see pretty much all of the city (and we were in the "good part") in shambles. Houses that would normally be condemned had people living in them. Windows--even with wood shutters--had iron bars around them. Every window on every house. Sewer in the curb systems and garbage all over. We were offered drugs and "good deals" on anything we may want on more than a few occasions. It was an eye opener. We had all been to some pretty remote places, but this was the worst. We didn't ever feel unsafe, but we never felt totally comfortable. Even with this description, we are glad we went. We did see a few places of interest (even the guidebooks have to reach for suggestions on things to do/see) including the local and only Hindu temple and the Belize Museum which had a great Mayan artifact exhibit. In all, it was a good trip, but still very sad. Its a perfect example of internal corruption within a government system that benefits no one but a few. Normally this is more common in a communist country--not a British Commonwealth.
Tomorrow we head out. We are glad to be going home, but its hard to leave. We have had such a great vacation.
Happy New Year! This am we started 2008 by hopping the water taxi for a 30 min ride to the nearby island of Caye Caulker. We had thought of staying here when we booked the trip, but had heard it was pretty desolate so we chose Ambergris. While we are very happy with our choice, Caulker would have been great for a few days. It is much more laid back (and quite a bit smaller) than San Pedro, but the beaches are beautiful and the town is full of things to see while wandering. I picked up a cd of local Belizian music and a beautiful tapestry that we have no idea where it will go, but I loved it so much.
The best part of today is that we managed to meet up with our friends Merry and John who we met last year in Cozumel. It was a reunion with all of us together again and we had a great lunch and caught up. We are already planning next years Christmas trip. After spending time visiting in the pool at Merry's hotel we headed back "home" and just enjoyed the rest of the day reading and relaxing (we are beginning to sound pretty predictable) before heading to new years day mass tonight (which was in Spanish and made it all the more adventurous). :-)
Tomorrow we are diving in the morning so its an early night.
So far, its a great 2008.
(slowly i am able to add some pics so check for those. when i am back in the states i will post more).
It was our relax day today on the island. We had kindof a tough night dive last night so we and our friends decided to take a break today. We spent the day walking the island and lounging by the pool. It was great! Very sunny again and each day I am here I love this vacation even more. We are having such a good time. Tomorrow we are heading to another island, Caye Caulker, to check it out. My friend Yvonne was a tour guide in Belize and she strongly recommended us visiting there. Its smaller than Ambergris, more laid back (if that is possible). We are looking forward to the adventure.
Tonight we are welcoming in 2008 by having dinner in town and witnessing the many festivities that are planned for the island.
Happy New Year!
This morning, Tom and I and our friends Doug, Gretchen and Patrick hopped onto a boat that headed through the Belize jungle to start our journey to Lamanai--- Mayan ruins on the mainland in Belize. Our journey took us by boat to a small and very rustic island called Baboo where we hopped an old school bus--which was blue (not before getting some pics with the belizian street dogs) and headed to another boat that took us to the ruins.
It was a long day, but so worth it. Each leg of the journey was beautiful. The guides we had were amazing. I learned a lot about the Maya people as well as the animals and plants that make up Belize. (Did you know that the closest language to Mayan is Japanese?)
After the ruins and a trek into the jungle to find the howler monkeys that were making so much noise, we headed back to boat, bus and boat to call it an early night.
I am having issues with loading pics. I will keep trying.
Yesterday and today we went diving. We have seen more marine life in the last 2 days than we saw on our entire trip to cozumel last year including swimming with a very friendly turtle (for like 15 minutes), getting close to stingrays and petting and holding sharks! Its been amazing! The weather is great and we are really enjoying spending time with our friends Doug and Gretchen. Its such a great thing to forget what day of the week it is. :-) Tomorrow we are taking a trip to some Mayan ruins. Can't wait!
To the right of this posting in the other sites we like area, we've posted a web page with info on diving in Belize, on Ambergris Caye where we are. So far we have been to dos cocos, mermaid, cyprus and hol chan marine park in case you want to look those up. belize has the second largest reef in the world second only to the Great Barrier Reef.
I am posting pics in the Belize folder in the photos tab (link above).
Today is a good day! Our luggage showed up around 3pm! We found out this am that it was due in today so we relaxed and just enjoyed the town. We had a nice breakfast at a local place on the beach, Estelle's and then spent some time shopping and sight seeing around the town. It was a beautiful day here--mid 80's and we both agreed that here, we are in our element.
Today when we went to check out the dive shop at the dock just outside our hotel we noticed a boat that had come ashore and looked as if it came out of a movie set or the show Lost. It was made of weathered wood with a rickety sail and had large black inner tubes tied on the outside of the entire boat. Inside was littered with random articles of clothing and some empty water bottles. We didn't think much of it as the island is a bit un-kept in some places so this looked like it fit in. I joked about "renting" this boat to a few local guys on the dock and they told us that 3 days ago it showed up with 10 people aboard who fled Cuba and spent 16 days floating their way to Belize. We didn't believe them, we thought they were joking. After getting confirmation from the dive master we realized that this story was real. We are still a bit in disbelief---it was a very grounding moment for us. Unbelievable. All passengers lived, although nearly starved and severely dehydrated. The Belize police and some doctors met the boat as it came in and took them to Mexico and then they will head to the US.
On a lighter note, tonight we went to a local bar down the beach to witness and partake in a very famous Belize event: the Chicken Drop. This is how it works:
There is a square pen outside the bar in the sand filled with randomly placed numbered tiles from 1-100. For $1 each (.50 cents US) you blindly choose a tile(s) from a jar. After all tiles are purchased, everyone gathers around the pen and a chicken (or sometimes a rooster) gets shaken and twisted and then dropped into the pen. Whatever tile the chicken "drops" (poops) in is the winner. As soon as the chicken gets into the pen everyone is yelling and screaming to try to get the chicken to move around the tiles. Tonight--we had a lazy chicken. It was "dropped" on one tile, took one step onto OUR tile (#61) and stood there for like 10 seconds then did his business! We won $100 Belize dollars! It was great! After collecting our money Tom was called back to the pen to do his duty as the winning male and had to clean up the "drop" before the 2nd round began. We got some great pics, but will have to load them when we get home so stay tuned.
After the chicken drop we met up with our friends Gretchen and Doug who had just flown in from LA and had a light dinner. We are diving tomorrow at 8 am!
We are engaged! I can't express how happy I feel! Tom surprised me during "our" Christmas on the 23rd when we opened presents. He spoiled me completely so i didn't expect anything more than what I had already opened... but he told me he had one last thing that may match the earrings he bought me. He pulled out the most beautiful diamond I have ever seen and I immediately started to cry. It was a very private, very touching moment for both of us actually and one I will never forget. Of course, I said yes!!!!! My ring is gorgeous. Tom spent several sessions with the jeweler designing and re-designing the ring. For a wedding band we are still deciding what we'll do. We don't have a date set yet and that is fine for us. We plan on having a very quiet ceremony some place tropical but for now, we want to enjoy being engaged for a while :-)
We had a great time opening all of the gifts our families had sent. Thank you everyone!
Christmas Eve for us was also fairly quiet which was great. It was a beautiful sunny day, had a nice dinner at home and then finished up packing for Belize.
Today, Merry Christmas by the way, we flew out of New York at 6 am to Belize with a layover in Miami.
Miami and American Airlines are the newest members on our black list since our bags are missing. Yes--all 3 bags, didn't show in Belize. We were one of many people in the same predicament off of our flight. Since we had to catch the final leg of the flight on tiny Maya Air to San Pedro on Ambergris Caye (pronounced 'key') we had no choice but to leave without our luggage. We remained positive and realistic--I mean, this is Belize, right? To give you an idea, most of the roads on Ambergris are still dirt (those of you who know me best know that I love it authentic and non-touristy, so that dirt road comment is totally not a complaint)! But needless to say we are a bit frustrated. Its hot here, we have no change of clothes, no toiletries, NO SWIM SUIT OR DIVE GEAR!!!!!! Worst of all--- American doesn't know where the bags are. A tracer was put on them, but as of tonight-still nothing. The $50 credit American offers to refund us for replacing all of our essentials covers at most toothpaste and shampoo here. We got Tom some shorts and both of us flip flops (luckily I wore capris on the plane) but we are not too happy right now. We have made the best of it though and tomorrow is a new day and I am sure the luggage will show up!! So tonight, after having some Belize beer and some tasty seafood, we are having a quiet evening inside of our very cute and quaint authentic Belize hotel listening to the palm trees blow, the ocean that is just outside our window and the Caribbean Holiday music that is blaring, just as it should in Central America on Christmas night, in the streets below. We will tackle this beautiful island --and our lost luggage tomorrow.
Keep your fingers crossed and your thoughts positive for our luggage... :-)
I have tons of pics to post, but am having issues somewhat with the wi-fi (yep--Belize has wi-fi and it works about 80% of the time).
Last night Tom and I headed into the city to meet some friends for dinner and a show. We met our friends Caroline and Andy at Uncle Jack's NY Steakhouse in midtown. The minute we walked in I loved it! It had a warm yet sophisticated atmosphere and the wine glasses seemed to never be empty (ugh. needless to say I am a bit more sluggish than normal this am). After dinner we walked to the latest Cirque du Soleil show at Madison Square Garden. The show was called Wintuk and it was about a boys quest for snow. (Sounds a bit lame I know, but that is the description on the program!) As with all Cirque shows, there are some amazing feats of acrobatics and demonstrations of super human flexibility---but also like all of them, it was odd.
Now we consider ourselves fairly cultured--open to a wide variety of theatre etc, but about halfway through the show Tom and I looked at each other and well, no words were needed. You just have to wonder what kind of artificial stimulation the creators of this were on when writing the show. :-)The end of the show made up for any weirdness... it dumped snow in the auditorium! We were covered and it was just a great feeling! Everyone in the audience was smiling and laughing as if we were kids playing in real snow. Very neat.
After the show we went to Stout for a couple drinks. Not much talking went on there---the music was SO loud. We felt old for even thinking that, but its true.
We had a great time with our friends though and of course---anytime we can get into the city its a good day.
Today Tom is going to brave the malls. Apparently he still has some shopping to do... brave.
I too may attempt the mall, but not for necessity---just for the thrill of it! :-)
Tomorrow we are celebrating "our" Christmas! 3 days until Belize!
to the right of this entry are web sites that we like and visit often. my cousin ryan has a link on his blog for "redkev"- a blog kept up by a guy from seattle. Someone redkev calls "Jo" shot this video and something about it just makes me happy. Maybe its because its snowing in Seattle and that rare occurrence usually brings happiness, or because I miss the capital hill area of the city--or perhaps yet, maybe because the song redkev hooked to the video is a christmas song that I actually forgot about, and love. Thanks redkev and jo! :-)
Enjoy.
Well, its official- the first family member to visit us in New Jersey is Tom's older brother Fred. He flew into NY last night for a meeting today and then is flying back to Texas. Time was short so we met him halfway. He didn't see the house, which Tom holds against him a bit in his "first family visitor" title... but I understand and we were just glad to see him! He should be up here again for work so its only a matter of time before the dogs meet Uncle Fred. Hopefully the whole family will come up this summer!
We (Tom) also decided that we should paint the kitchen on Sunday. He assured me "Honey, it will only take a couple hours". We started around noon and around 11 pm we wrapped up. Longest couple hours ever. We are happy with the color but feel it wasn't one of our better paint jobs. We need to do some touch up.
One thing is for sure: I can honestly say, without a doubt, that this was our (my) last paint job EVER. After doing the entire house in Seattle (and then moving)and then this kitchen--we are done. We have alraedy found a guy to do our bedroom.
Tom heads to Virginia tomorrow and flies home Thurs night.
We are keeping pretty busy this week and year end is always a bunch of work for Diana with last minute deals and contracts. Its beautiful out today-- 100% sun but cold. Our backyard looks like a pond thats been iced over. The dogs don't really like heading out there much. Today poor Frank walked gingerly through the ice yard to find the "perfect spot" but then sadly lost his footing and ice-skated about 7' before falling and sliding on his side another 10 into the woods. He didn't have far to fall--thats the one good thing, and he recovered fine. :-)
*pics: tom and fred at dinner, tom painting the kitchen
We trained into the city last night to see the famous "Christmas Spectacular" show at Radio City Music Hall. This show is of course famous for the Rockettes which are in nearly every number. It was what we thought it would be--- cute and something we had to do at least once---but I think we were both surprised at how much we enjoyed it! The dancers were great, the back-drops for each scene were amazing and they really focused on how New York is such a magical place to be at this time of year.
"Snow" fell in the auditorium, they had a live Nativity scene (camels. sheep, mules) and of course Santa narrated.We left feeling very much in the holiday spirit. We wandered over (more like pushed our way through--tons of people out) to Rockefeller center and saw the tree in all its glory. It was breathtaking from each angle. I am not sure if it was really the tree that looked so great--or that our mood made it and everything else in the city seem perfect. We had dinner at an Irish Pub just blocks away from Times Square and then we headed back to the train. We mentioned quite a few times how much Tom's nieces (and not just the little ones Kristen :-)) would love this show. We hope they can all come out next year!
Today we finished up some Christmas shopping (Tom got me a beautiful red pea coat and when I brought it home he liked it too :-)) and Tom finished changing out every single doorknob, hinge, etc on our doors throughout the house.
We got brave and went to Costco too. That was crazy!!!!! What were we thinking?
Only about a week before we head for Belize so we are getting ready for that and enjoying the remaining days of the season out here. We had about 4 " of snow on Thursday and its still around--very cold so no melting. We had a chance to get about 2-3 feet of snow tomorrow--but it seems instead we'll just get a bunch of freezing rain. Not nearly as exciting. :-(
Have a great weekend and we are loving the Christmas Cards everyone is sending! Thanks! Makes us feel like we are with some family at this time.
pics: tree at Rockefeller, st Patrick's(amazing to see in person), and some from the show at Radio City!
I took the day off and went into the city today to play tourist. People say that there is no place like NY at Christmas and those people are right. It is amazing. People everywhere were bundled up (it was very cold today---20's, but perfectly sunny) and it seemed like every 5th person I saw was a tourist. The pace was the same as it always is there--hectic, but today it seemed not as stressful of a hectic rush. My goal today was to wander around toward Central Park and to stop and see all the Department Store windows decorated for the holidays. I saw Macy's, Lord and Taylor's, Barney's, Bergdorfs and Saks. Each had full blocks (NY city blocks are much longer than "regular" blocks) of windows decorated with different themes. Bergdorfs had a Green theme, L & T had the "5 senses of Christmas", SAKS had multiple snowman windows, but my favorite was Macy's. Each window was focused on Santa and his journey throughout the world. Old school TV monitors were set up that broadcast the window watchers periodically and flashed if they were 'naughty or nice'. Each window at most of the stores was fully animated and so fun to watch.
After, during and before I experienced the windows, I witnessed all of the other decorations around the city. Its hard to avoid-- the decorations are everywhere! I loaded some in the photos tab if you want to take a look.
I did a little art shopping today too at Bryant Park. They have an ice skating rink with better views of the city than at Rockefeller and a large Holiday Market with many shops. We are buying some paintings and photos of NY scenes mainly. I also bought a very cool stocking hat (or as Tom would call it, a 'Toque' (Canadian is still a new language to me) :-)) and a NY skyline ornament for our tree.
It was a great day. I would have loved for Tom or one of my friends or family to be there with me... but I do enjoy wandering the city alone. I think I could go everyday and never run out of things to see.
pics: skating at Bryant Park, window (above view) of Rockefeller Center, santa decoration, window at Macy's
NY got its 1st snowfall for the year (see pic from Central Park).
Today the Christmas music we have been listening to since Thanksgiving finally got to us and we went Christmas Tree shopping. We agreed that this year we'd go with an artificial tree. Our reasons were simple: By doing so we'd save a real tree, sort of (our attempt at going green in the recycle-less NE), we'd get years of use out of it and the savings each year on what we'd spend on a real tree would add up. Plus-- the artificials look so real these days.
So we went to Home Depot and they had quite the selection. We decided on a 9.5ft pre-lit. It was beautiful!
As Tom went to pull it out and saw that the box was longer than our car he hesitated for a split second. As I offered to get a cart something shiny caught our eye... no it wasn't one of the twinkling pre-lit lights, but the hardware holding the tree together deep near the trunk. We instantly looked at each other and realized 'oohhhh yeeeeaaaahhhh, we have to put it together'. We looked a bit closer at the mechanical trunk (which seemed far more elaborate than any other artificial tree either of us had ever seen before) and decided that the building of this tree (and the predictable unpleasant unassemble after the holidays) would add a bit too much stress to such a joyous season...so we quickly headed to the outside nursery thankful for our realization and reminding each other how fun it will be to put lights on the tree ourselves.
We got the tree home and got it up and decorated! We had a great time! Christmas music in the background, the dogs sneaking drinks from the tree stand (for those of you who are familiar with the movie a Christmas Story, we are calling the dogs the Bumpus hounds)---we already know it will be a great holiday!! :-) Its cold here--cold and clear! Its not supposed to get over 35 all week. Its so great to see so much sun in the fall/winter. Something we were NOT used to in Seattle.
Just a little factoid about people out here... they go all out for the holiday decorations. We first witnessed this at Halloween and we wondered then what Christmas would be like. Today we saw a few houses that would rival Clark W Grizwald for sure. Extra large inflatable decorations (Santa's, snowmen, nativity sets with EVERY character etc) seem to be the big draw... which we don't totally understand, but hey, we are new here, so who knows----maybe next year we'll have a couple inflatables.
Kidding, totally. We will not.
:-)
