Christmas 2014

This Christmas Ryan and I decided to stay home and celebrate with just the two of us. We were expecting him originally to work through the holiday and when we found out he was off we decided to not stress with travel and stick with our original plan of staying home. As much as I missed seeing my family, it was nice to have this memory together. I worked Christmas Eve and then met Ryan at church on base for mass. It was beautiful in the church but outside it was pouring rain all day. At least it was warm, a balmy mid 70s for Christmas... very unusual for this Jersey girl!

 

After mass we went home and had a nice dinner (care of Honeybaked Ham Co to be honest!) that we just had to heat and put out. It was delicious and the Dup was begging at our sides for most of it.

After we ate we watched some TV together and I learned my husband had never seen It's A Wonderful Life. It was naturally on TV so I made him watch even though we missed part of the beginning. That is a classic that must be watched! We then exchanged one present for that night.... mainly because Ryan got me some cozy pajamas he wanted me to wear that night and for Christmas morning. I gave him the tablet he knew he was getting since he picked it out! He spent the rest of the evening adding his coursework to it and being geekily excited about the entire thing.

 

 

Christmas morning we had some left over ham and biscuits and exchanged presents. First we spoiled the Dup who was very excited (if not a little confused) about getting treats and presents. Her giant bone became her prized possession and she carried it around for three days before she realized she could eat it... then it vanished! Her stocking was full of stuff for her to destroy and only one toy survived the Christmas shredding, but she was occupied all day with them at least.

All of that kind of wore her out (overly stimulated much?) and she napped the rest of the day in a sun beam!

 

 

Ryan and I did the presents thing, he enjoyed his super large coffee pot and 24 hour vacuum sealed thermos I got him (as well as socks and exotic jerkey plus his stocking) and I cannot wait for my spa day he customized for me! I also got more pretty pajamas and a stocking with plenty of chocolate in it.

 

We spent most of the day watching A Christmas Story but then watched A Muppet Christmas Carol and White Christmas to break it up. Then my friend Donna came over, we ordered Chinese food and we opened a bottle of champagne to watch the Doctor Who Christmas Special. So it was a different Christmas for sure, but still very very enjoyable. I hope you and yours had a fantastic holiday and have a Happy New Year!

 

 

Date Night

This is one of the weekends I am working unfortunately. It hasn't been too bad for the most part except for a few angry base dress code violators... NOTE: There is a base dress code. Look it up if you're not familiar with it. Camp Lejeune's is pretty clear... if you want to wear a tank top it must have a two inch strap. No spaghetti straps, not halters, no tube tops, no rips or stains or tears or profanity. Period. You need to look classy and perhaps a little more covered than the 95 plus degree heat wants. I hate enforcing it but there is no need to yell at me because I am informing you and offering you a free clean tshirt to boot. /endrant.

 

Sorry. I got away from myself there!

 

Anyways.

 

I got a text from Ryan as soon as the library closed at 6. Normally when I get a Hey sweetie...? text he wants me to stop and pick up something on my way home or anything of that nature. Hence my very simple reply. But I was stunned at what followed.

 

 

A date??? Heck yes! He even asked what time he should pick me up. I told him 7:30. When I got home he was cleaning out the truck (!!) and in a suit. Wow! He promptly gave me a kiss then drove away saying he'd be back in a little more than an hour. I took a quick shower, did my hair and make up, painted my toes and threw on a little black dress I have been dying to have an excuse to wear for over a year now (it's from eShakti for all those who asked) and was ready just as the door bell rang.

 

I hurried out trying to avoid getting Dup Dup hair on my dress and was shocked to see Ryan standing there with flowers! Seriously!!

 

 

I put them in water and we got into the truck to head for our date. I asked him where we were going.

 

Ryan: I am taking you to the best Italian Restaurant in town.

*pause*
Me: Ryan.... are you taking me to Olive Garden dressed like this!?

 

Yes. Yes he was.

 

I had to laugh! I told him we may be a tad overdressed for Olive Garden but he shrugged it off. He said it is better to be overdressed than underdressed and I agreed, but I was a little self conscious for sure! We didn't have a long wait and when the waitress asked our special occassion we simply responded, Date Night.

 

We had a nice dinner and a drink or so and Ryan revealed he had movie tickets for us, already purchased. He said he wanted to get Jersey Boys tickets but the only later movie available was the new Transformers at 9:05. We had seen all the previous ones so that was fine by me! We enjoyed our dinner a little too much because I checked the time and it was 9:15! Oops.

I literally had to make him laugh to get him to give a real smile instead of his I'm smiling for a picture smile. Sad it came out blurry! But he looked so handsome!

We get into the movie at 9:25... and caught the last preview for the new Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie. Wow. Talk about long previews! We were nearly 20 minutes late for our movie and missed nothing.I snuggled under Ryan's suit jacket (I get cold in movies) and enjoyed the non stop action that was Transformers. The one review I saw of it said, "Within ten minutes the action starts and it is both stupidly epic and epically stupid and continues until the movie ends."

 

Truth.

 

Action action action humans are bad action action action redemption slightly action over.

 

In the form of about 2 and a half hours!

 

Ryan wanted us to walk around the fountain in the park but with my shoes it was just not happening, plus it was late and I had work today! We went home and walked around our cul-du-sac a bit before crashing in to bed around 1am.

 

It was a perfect date night (: