Fo Fo Fondue...Happy Holidays!

Last night we went over to our good friends house for their annual holiday fondue party. Just like last year they had two cheese pots for the appetizers, two pots for the meat and then a chocolate fountain for all the yummy desserts. I offered to be the designated driver since our friends live so far away that they are practically in Mexico. That allowed Andy, Mike and AJ to have fun without worrying how they were going to get home. Hey, I took one for the team.

Andy and I of course got our friends little girls presents for Christmas because isn't Christmas more about the kids anyway? So, I have this knack for getting good presents for kids rather it's birthday or Christmas...see this post for an example. This holiday was no exception...besides one minor glitch. While in Kohl's I came across Dr. Seuss books and matching stuffed animals. I thought this was super cute and would be a great Christmas gift for a 1 year old and 18 month old, especially since one of the books was The Grinch that Stole Christmas and had a matching Grinch stuffed animal. It was oh so cute. I wish I had pictures to show you, but I am not very good at being on top of taking pictures. Not only were they so cute, but the money received from the sale went to a Children's foundation...but I just can't remember which one. So, each girls got the grinch book and matching grinch stuffed animal along with the Wocket book and a stuffed animal character from that book. Stella, being one years old, wasn't as interested in the present as she was interested in the wrapping paper. Ella also wasn't as interested in the books with matching dolls because she was more interested in Stella's birthday present. So, it was also Stella's birthday and Andy and I decided she had to get one gift for Christmas and a separate gift for her birthday wrapped in birthday paper to make sure they are separate gifts and not combined. I know she doesn't understand at one years old, but it was important to us to make sure she had two separate gifts. Andy and I both think it would suck to have a birthday so close to Christmas. So, for Stella's birthday gift we got her a Tickle Me Elmo doll that rolled around as it laughed. It was super cute that Ella was more interested in Stella's Elmo than her own gift. Then once her daddy got Elmo out of the box Elmo started rolling around, which caused everyone to laugh and Ella to cry. She was crying so hard that she had giant tears rolling down her face. While this was going on Stella continued to play with the wrapping paper. Oh, how fun it is to be one years old again...to find wrapping paper more fun than the actual gift itself! So, unfortunately this time my gift made a little girl scream and cry because she was afraid of it...oops!! It was just a minor glitch in my gift giving.

Well, Saturday was a lot of fun with friends and fondue. It was even more fun to see the little girls play together like they were born to be BFF's...ok, maybe their mothers secretly got pregnant around the same time so their kids could be BFF's. Mmmmm! Anyway, it was a great weekend and happy holidays everyone!

Passport...Check

Well, I can now say I got another wedding thing checked off my to-do list. I got a passport this past Saturday so I can travel to Mexico for the wedding. I made my appointment for 10am this past Saturday at the post office thinking people won't be getting passports right before Christmas so the line at the post office should be non-existent or fairly short. I don't know why I thought like that because not everybody goes to the post office for passports only. I mean two weeks before Christmas they are shipping many packages, picking up packages, etc. etc. etc. I talked Andy into going to the post office with me just in case there was a line he could help keep me company. He initially said this past weekend probably was not a good weekend to get a passport due to the hoards of people who do not use FedEx to ship packages. I thought he was crazy...until we arrived at the post office and saw the very long line. Ok, so maybe Andy was right...this time! Even though I made a 10am appointment the guy on the phone instructed me to stand in line if there was one. Now what is the point of making an appointment...mmmmm? So, we stood in line for about 15 minutes when a lady asked if there was somebody in line for a 10am passport...oh, oh, me, me! I eagerly got out of line and headed straight to the counter. Within seconds I was in a back room to get my horrible passport photo taken. I didn't care how bad it was I was just happy that it only took 5 shots to get my eyes at least partially open. So, I look a little stoned in my passport photo with half open eyes I was just happy to have it done and over with. Now I don't have to worry about that for the wedding. Passport is taken care of and should be arriving in 4 weeks.

Ladies Weekend...Sort Of

Last week I saw an interview with Jennifer Lopez where she said her and her husband have "ladies night" once a month. Basically, it's where they spend one night a month doing whatever it is she wants to do no matter how "girlie" it may be and he cannot complain. Of course I thought this was a great idea. When I mentioned it to Andy he just mumbled with excitement...not really.

For Friday night (aka ladies night) I suggested that I wanted Chinese takeout and a bottle of red wine while we watched Sex & The City 2 together. Andy thought this was too girlie for ladies night, so I happened to mention how many manly football games I have sat through with him and then he managed to suck it up and spend ladies night with me. We had such a great time together that I would like to implement ladies night every month.

So Saturday night I thought it would be fun to spend the night at Kierland Commons for a little shopping, sushi and Christmas lights. I got Andy to agree by not really mentioning much about the shopping part and played up dinner out more. Yeah, once we were there we were able to walk around and enjoy the Christmas lights since Kierland does such a great job of decorating. It was so pretty. It was also about 66 degrees on Saturday night as we walked around thinking of our family and friends in WI experiencing a blizzard and temperatures in the teens. After dinner we (ok, I) did some shopping at one of my favorite stores. Andy was not thrilled as I spent about an hour in the store. As we left he mentioned that "ladies night" turned into "ladies weekend," but I see nothing wrong with that.

Laid Back Weekend

So, this past weekend Andy's brother, Ryan, and his girlfriend, Lisa, were in town. You might think that sounds like we might have had a wild and crazy time, but that is not the case. You see Andy and I are OLD and we don't party like rock starts anymore. Friday night we went out for dinner and a couple drinks and we were home by 10pm. This was just in time for me to put an ice pack on my sore back and fall asleep. Then Saturday evening was supposed to be our big night out...just crazy partying. I was looking forward to it since we really don't do that anymore. We stayed north (basically stayed around our age group) and hit up the Sandbar. This place was dude central. It was the perfect place for a single female to go and pick up a Scottsdale 30K millionaire douche-bag. This was quite entertaining to watch everyone around us. We started approaching 10pm (aka our normal bed time) and Andy was commenting on how he was annoyed with how packed the bar was and wanted to go somewhere with less people. We then started to reminisce on the days where we went to bars because they were so packed and we never would have wanted to leave. Kind of funny how times have changed, huh? The loud music and the interesting crowd was at least keeping me awake, but Andy wanted to leave, so we headed to Dave & Buster's. There was nobody there so we could just chill and talk to each other. So different from the days when Andy and I first met each other. We are totally ok with our lifestyle change as my idea of a great night is a bottle of wine with Andy and watching a movie from Netflix. I am not interested in the party scene anymore. Sure it's fun to get out and remind myself why I don't go clubbing anymore or drink my face off.

Anyway, it was a low key weekend with Ryan and Lisa. It was also very nice to have them in town and just chill. Plus our house got squeeky clean because of our guests.