3 Holidays.

Alright, so I feel like I have been writing too many serious words lately - not enough pictures and fun stuff. So let me share some of our holidays with you.

Christmas. 
This year was a Curtis Christmas. We've been pretty good about alternating. And I'm now to the point where I don't cry when I hear "There's no place like home for the holidays."


Normally the drive to Connecticut takes about 7-8 hours from Ohio, depending on traffic, construction and how often we break the speed limit. But this time was different. It took about 14. Yes, hours. I'll just say two words: snow storm. So a few naps, a box of Gobstoppers and a Red Bull later, we arrived at about 5:15am. Luckily, things could only get better.

I had a glorious vacation from work. My longest one all year. 12 consecutive days off. (Plus our plant shut down, so there wasn't much work building up for my return either). No emails. No phone calls. Pure bliss. So we made the most of it. (And by that, I mean laid around in our pajamas all day, eating, taking naps, and having as few commitments as possible.)

Christmas morning was fun since all the kids were home!

In our matching footie PJ's...

A few special gifts were: a huge bag of Olive Garden mints. Husband was so thoughtful. He remembered me saying that those mints were my favorite and I wished I could buy them in the store. He went to Olive Garden and got a whole bunch of them for me! He also got my favorite watch fixed. I dropped it over a year ago and it stopped ticking. So he took it to a jeweler who put a new battery in and attached the second hand again. Such perfect gifts. (Others included my own compound bow and arrows! Sperry's & a scarf he picked out at the Eastern Market in D.C.) I was kind of a lame wife this year... shoes, hoodie, gun bag and a machete. However he does have a coupon to buy a new gun (currently debating between a handgun or an AR-15) From Secret Santa I got A&W Rootbeer and the coolest chalkboard piggy bank for our Europe Fund! We also got a Whirley Pop (dream come true) and popcorn seasonings which I've been devouring on a regular basis. It was a very Merry Christmas, indeed. 

Other holiday activities included:

Making Gingerbread Houses...

Celebrating baby Noah's 15th birthday...(which is weird because I still remember him like this!)

Playing hours of Mario Kart and Rockband...

Husband serenading me with Silent Night (this is monumental because he NEVER plays the piano... which is sad because he's actually really talented!!)

Snuggles with Krufi (I got desperate and missed my 4-pound lap dog, Ebony... so I let him lay on us):

Cheering on baby Noah in his swim meet!! 

Learning how to bake German Pretzel Rolls!

And many hours of Husband sitting in a homemade tree stand, hunting; which resulted in this... (I'll spare you the death story)

Oh and since Husband finally got a deer, he fulfilled his promise: He shaved. But before going back to the completely clean shaven look, he did this...

The Monkey Tail.

(If you can't tell, the left side of his face has no hair and the tail starts by his right ear, winds down and then curls up around his mouth to form a lovely monkey tail) haha I love this boy.

The morning we left, Husband begged me to ride the snow mobile with him. It was cold. I was ready to go. But I'm a loving wife, so I said yes.

And it was fun. For about... 5 seconds. Until we almost tipped, I got hit in the eye with snowy tree branches, and then this happened:

Yep. We almost flew off this brick wall, sideways, and died. And my leg was trapped underneath the snowmobile which resulted in this (and my vow to never snowmobile with Husband again):

I'll just drive next time!


New Years. 
Was almost another "lay around and do nothing" holiday... but I decided that since we are young and childless... we should do what young and childless people do... PARTY.

So we got dressed up and headed into Columbus in search of a good time. And we found the perfect place: The Park Street Cantina! No cover charge & lots of dancing! Just what I needed :) So we danced our way into 2013, while some drunk guys hit on me / checked me out. And it was nice. A married girl needs that every so often... it feels good to know that someone (other than my obligated husband) still finds me attractive.

Birthday. 
24 years I've been alive.  For some reason, I like being 24 better than being 23. Maybe it's because of the even numbers or something. But I have a feeling it's going to be a good year. Last Thursday I got to celebrate with my parents at my new favorite restaurant, The Bonefish Grill. Holy YUM. Then I got to celebrate again with my sister at Raising Canes, Coldstone and TJMaxx. I love my family and living (sort of) close to them.

I had to work on my actual birthday. But we celebrated with a lunch date to Rooster's, a local sports bar & grill. I got my favorite thing: carolina gold boneless buffalo wings. After work, Christopher had a surprise for me so I had to wait in the bedroom until he was done "elfing" (as we call it). Turns out... he baked me pretzel rolls! My favorite :) He was so sweet. He even decorated the kitchen with streamers, balloons and a sign. I saved presents and cards until very last, right before bedtime. And with that... my day of birth was over.

But lucky for me, I still have my free Arby's milkshake, free Sonic limeade, free DQ Blizzard and a $10 Victoria Secret B-Day Giftcard to use. Oh! And I bought myself some presents online which will be coming soon :)

Phew. That was a lot of excitement for one blog post. Let's just hope post-holiday depression doesn't set in any time soon.