12 Dates of Christmas Part II

5. Fancy hot chocolate and a movie. We happened to have some real cream in the fridge, and Michael put a bunch of it in his hot chocolate. The idea of that much cream grossed me out, but I tried a sip of his and I had to admit that it was delicious.

6. Is counting the ward Christmas party too much of a stretch? It definitely was a fun activity that we did together, soo...yeah, I'm counting it.

7. The best way to celebrate the end of finals is with a lazy at-home date. We shared an eggnog milkshake (with two straws for maximum romance) and played Scrabble. And we found that two people trying to drink from the same milkshake is surprisingly difficult (there was a lot of forehead-bumping involved). How do people in movies manage to make the two-straws thing so cute and romantic??

Michael wanted to take a picture of the turn when the average point value of his letters was less than 1 (not surprisingly with a few turns like that for him, I was the winner).

8. Christmas pancakes in bed. FYI, red and green sprinkles are all it takes to Christmas-ify ANYTHING. I made some with chocolate chips and some with cranberries, and the cranberry ones were pretty awesome and holiday-y.

9. Wrapping presents together. Don't worry, we had wrapped the ones to each other already.

10. On the drive down to Arkansas to see Michael's family, we stayed at a bed-and-breakfast on a farm in Kentucky to celebrate our anniversary. I will probably put up a picture post for it later, but we got to see a bunch of animals, milk goats, play with the farm dogs, eat a delicious country home dinner, and relax in our little suite with a view of the countryside. It was a pretty awesome anniversary present to ourselves.

11. Long walk and frozen custard in Michael's hometown. Since we had already celebrated our anniversary a few days early on the farm, Michael asked what we should do on the actual date of our anniversary. I said I just wanted to go on a long walk holding hands and get a special treat. It fit the bill nicely!

12. Out to lunch with a bunch of Michael's family at a local restaurant. Just barely got our 12 dates in in time for Christmas!

Christmas Decorations

Most of our Christmas decorations were homemade this year, so I thought it'd be fun to do a quick post about some of the stuff I made.

Most of our decor was on one side of the living room. I guess the nice thing about small apartments is that there really isn't tons of decorating to be done.

From Joanna and Michael

This is what I was most proud of. I printed out silhouettes of reindeer and Santa, traced them on cardstock, cut them out with an X-Acto knife, and strung them up. A fun alternative to plain Christmas lights or pine garland!

We festive-ified a little chalkboard with a sprig of pinecones and holly and turned it into an advent calendar. We also had a menorah for Hanukkah--I never bothered getting one when I was in college, but I figured that now that I have my own apartment and stuff, I should go ahead and get my own.

And our little Christmas tree! Michael's grandma sent this to him when he was on his mission. I made the star topper out of cardboard and gold spray paint, and I think it turned out pretty great! Craftzzz! Also, yes, Michael has a collection of pepper ornaments that were our main tree decorations this year. I thought it was hilarious to have a Tex-Mex Christmas tree.

Merry Christmas!

12 Dates of Christmas

Michael and I are doing a "12 Dates of Christmas" challenge by going on 12 dates between December 1st and Christmas. We're not being super strict about our definition of "date," but it does have to be something out-of-the-ordinary and fun that we do together (so driving to school together is out, but silly things like going to McDonald's and sharing a milkshake with two straws is in, as well as more typical dinner or event dates).

1. Taking Christmas card pictures
We really wanted some new photos of us as a couple, so Michael grabbed his nice camera, tripod, and flashes, and we headed off to nearby Homestead Park to take some pictures. Most of them turned out really well! Here's the one we're using on our Christmas cards:

2. Holiday Pops concert with the Columbus Sympony
Super, super fun. They had a full choir with them, and that was a blast too. It was held in the Ohio Theater downtown, which is one of those old-timey, super fancy and ornate, everything's-covered-in-gold-leaf theaters. The first half was more traditional orchestral (or choral + orchestral) Christmas music, like "For Unto Us a Child is Born" from Handel's Messiah, and the second half was mostly pops, like "Sleigh Ride." And since it was a pops concert, they had lots of cute things, like swing dancers coming out for "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer," a reading of "Twas the Night Before Christmas" accompanied by the orchestra with adorable and talented little-kid dancers from the BalletMet interpreting the poem, and an appearance by Santa Claus at the end. Super cute, and a really nice mix of beautiful music, entertainment, and beloved kitsch.

The best part was when they had a brass choir come out to the front of the stage for a song or two, and when they were done, they had to cook up some scheme to get someone to come out and mop up everything that got emptied from their spit valves during those songs (since there were about to be dancers on the same part of the stage). So they did this cutesy little sketch with a cleaning lady in a Christmas outfit with a Christmas-light-bedecked mop come out and be sassy to the conductor ("Ma'am, what are you doing out here? We're in the middle of a concert!" "I know, sonny, all of you musicians are in my way! Just tryin' to do my job! By the way, let me dust some imaginary dirt off your tux with my oversized feather duster and really ham it up for the audience!"). I just thought it was so funny that they came up with this little skit between songs to get someone to come mop up all the brass players' drool in the middle of the concert--it really did fit with the overall feel of the fun pops concert, but I just wonder how many people in the audience actually realized that the mopping skit had a real purpose? I, as a trombone player and producer of copious drool when playing said trombone, saw right through it!

3. Watching the First Presidency Christmas Devotional together. D'aaww. I think the decorations they have in the Conference Center for Christmas are so much better than what they have during General Conference.

4. Dinner at Pizzeria Uno. Man, that place is one of my new favorite chain restaurants. So many vegetarian choices! Plus, they email out awesome coupons all the time. Last night we had a buy-one-entree-get-one-free coupon, plus we came on a promotional "Insiders Club" day, so we got free appetizers, free punch, and a free goody bag with cookies, apples, and a gift card in it. What a deal! And, you know, the food was pretty dang good, too. Deep dish pizzas are wonderful.

I'll keep the blog updated with our next eight dates. We know that at least one of them will be our anniversary celebration (we're driving down to Arkansas for Christmas, and we're staying in a nice bed-and-breakfast on a farm halfway there for our anniversary), but that leaves 7 more to figure out between now and Christmas...

Halloween

I'll have it known that this post is going up less than one month after the event in question. Progress!

The ward missionary committee was in charge of the Halloween party this year (again, why did we get rid of activities committees? In wards that are spread thin, it just means no more activities ever, and in wards that aren't, it just means too many visiting teaching supervisors and super random committees being assigned to plan parties. Sigh.). I was in charge of planning games to entertain the kids.

I made a witch hat ring toss (with glow necklaces and bracelets to toss):

Mummy bowling:

Pin the wart on the witch:

The blindfolds and warts:

and a fishpond. The fish had paperclips on them, and the fishing pole had a little magnet on the end.

Also, I thought of cute little rhymes for the directions ("Grab a wart and a blindfold, and a friend to challenge if you dare. Don't just put that wart anywhere!") and matching prizes (Lifesaver rings for the ring toss, Tootsie Rolls for rolling the ball for mummy bowling...it was cute!). It was kind of frustrating to make, because I was full of awesome ideas but not full of free time. Seriously, why can't we have an activities committee and let all the people with tons of free time be on it??

Anyway. Our part turned out cute and the kids apparently really liked it since most of it was torn to shreds by the end of the party (that sounds cranky but that's not how I meant it; I really was glad that kids obviously enjoyed playing with the stuff).

We also managed to stay under budget by having a Halloween treat contest for the snacks. There was quite the spread--we filled up four long tables for our little ward with like 80 people in it. Pretty awesome. I made white chocolate pumpkin pie bites:

Not so pretty, but really, really tasty. They really tasted just like pumpkin pie. Michael and I both ate a lot of them.

As for our costumes, I just Googled "last-minute costumes" and this is what I came up with:

We're on "The Price Is Right!" Spending 15 minutes and $0 on our costumes was the right "price" for me.

Pumpkin Show!

A few weekends ago, we went to the Circleville Pumpkin Show. It's a big annual event in a little town about 45 minutes south of Columbus. It was actually surprisingly crowded (the lone Circleville highway exit was completely overwhelmed, with a huge, backed-up line). Still, though, I thought it was really cute and fun.

The world's biggest pumpkin pie! Compare it with the little girl through the window to get an idea of how big it was. Also, now that I'm posting the picture, I'm just now noticing all the little fingerprints in the near edge...charming.

Pumpkin doughnut (easily the most delicious thing we ate that day, in my opinion)

Pumpkin fudge

Pumpkin ice cream (Michael says it's not his fault he wasn't smiling since I didn't tell him when I was actually taking the picture)

They churned said ice cream using a really noisy tractor motor. You can see the wooden buckets where it got churned on the right.

Pumpkin waffles

Pumpkin burger

Pumpkin dumpling (with some more pumpkin ice cream). Yeah, I know we seem like huge gluttons after all these food pictures. It was awesome, though.

The giant pumpkins! I think it's so funny when they get all slumpy. They look like giant water balloons.

The prettiest pumpkin. It's a third smaller than the biggest ones, but it is very orange and lovely. Look how bloopy the one next to it is! I know it's weird that I find amusement in the bloopiness of giant pumpkins.

An artiste, carving a scene into a giant pumpkin

Endless pumpkins and gourds...

If you grow pumpkins inside a metal mold, they'll take on that shape and get super freaky looking.

The tables of all the pumpkins and gourds went on forever.

I think these were supposed to be the most beautiful pumpkins? A bunch of them had ribbons and the one on top has a crown.

Anyway, it was really fun and I look forward to doing it again next year (although preferably on a weekday when things would be a bit less crowded).

A Waterfall in the City?

I had heard rumors of there being a waterfall somewhere in Columbus, so I did a little digging and found out it was only about 10 minutes from our house. It's not the biggest waterfall ever, but the little Hayden Run actually carved a pretty impressive gorge on its way to the Scioto River. There was a little parking lot, and then you follow the trail down a set of stairs and over a new-looking boardwalk through the gorge, until you end up at the pool at the base of the waterfall. Together with a picnic, it was a really fast and easy weeknight date.

Here's the link for any of my Columbus friends. As you can see from that website, if you go in the spring, the waterfall actually spans across the whole cliff at the top. Maybe a repeat trip is in order?

Various Accomplisments and Projects this summer

1. Built and upholstered a bench
2. sewed a fancy-pants table runner
3. ran a 5K and beat Michael
4. planned a ward service project at the Ronald McDonald House
5. wrote a CME article with Mom
6. took a summer class
7. resealed the kitchen table
8. went to Rochester with Michael's family
9. went to Capon Springs with my family
10. welcomed baby Jacob the RM home
11. went to a Chicago concert 
12. turned 23 

I wrote this list last month and forgot to ever actually publish it. Pretty much all of these things could easily be a blog post in their own right, but I am just not that responsible of a blogger. I am planning on eventually posting about the bench, just because I actually took in-progress pictures of it, and because it is awesome.