Weekend Rewind

The first weekend of December is always magical.  And busy.

Blake and I met up for a quick Potbelly dinner on Friday after work, then I headed over to the Nutcracker at the Warner with Destiny and the gals.  I've always wanted to go to a show at the Warner.  And although I worked next to it for over a year, it's taken me over three years to finally go to a show there.  It was worth the wait, though.

The Nutcracker was amazing.  I hadn't been to see the Nutcracker since the BYU production 8 years ago when my Dad referred to the Sugar Plum Fairies as the Sugar Plump Fairies.  He had a point.  Tee hee.

This one was different, too.  Everything was Washington DC-centered.  The Nutcracker was George Washington.  The Rat King was King George.  The rats were red coats, and the toy soldiers were patriots.  The Sugar Plum Fairies were instead Cherry Blossom Fairies.  I loved it.  I'm thinking of turning it into a yearly tradition.

Because the show got out fairly early, Blake and I rounded out the evening by watching Murder by Numbers.  Not exactly a Christmas movie (about as far from it as you can get, I guess), but definitely exciting.

Saturday we rewarded ourselves after getting the car emissions test done (whoops, we'd kinda forgotten about the notice we received until we received a final notice saying they were going to de-register our car unless we got it done that weekend...being an adult is hard!) by going to our local crotchety Christmas tree salesman and picking out the world's most perfect Christmas tree.  I'm telling you, it was like we turned a corner and there was a beacon of light shining down on this one.  It must have been genetically engineered to be the perfect shape and size for a Christmas tree. 

We spent the rest of the afternoon decorating the tree and putting up other Christmas decorations around the house.  Pictures forthcoming.  We also made good use of our Josh Groban and James Taylor Christmas CD's and the other compilations we've collected over the years.  And when the Charlie Brown song came on, I entertained Blake by doing the Peanuts run around the house.  You know, when they barely move their arms and their feet move so fast with so many tiny steps?  Yep, that one.  Merry Christmas, Blake, there's more where that came from.

Oh!  One of Saturday's most exciting moments came when we found out that our neighborhood Bear Dogs are actually called Chow Chows.  And that these particular Bear Dogs are actually famous.  These two dogs are our favorite in the neighborhood and we run to the front window shouting "bear dogs, bear dogs!" whenever they walk by.  So, I stopped their owner on the street and asked him about the breed etc.  What I got was a half-hour long conversation about the merits of these two particular Chow Chows and how they were famous and had a following on Youtube.  This, of course, prompted us to take a break from decorating and spend half an hour on Youtube watching pointless videos of really cute animals.

If you'd like to take a mental vacation and whittle your time away watching really cute animals on Youtube, I suggest you start by familiarizing yourself with our neighborhood bear dog- Dao, the Chow Chow: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0HCn20BN4qU.

Oh! Oh!  And lastly, to round out the weekend, we bought the most fantastic dining room chairs.  Does it make me old that dining room chairs excite me so much?  Yes, yes it does.  But you'd be excited too. 

It's hard to top a weekend like that.  But this upcoming one in NYC may give it a run for its money.