Time to Celebrate!

The Christmas season is upon us and, well, has been for 13 days now. There is just something about this time of year - twinkling lights on the Christmas tree, stories and songs of love and joy on the radio, shopping for loved ones, and of course the parties. Last week we had one each night.

Monday: Crafting for Friday's party. Turned into more of cooking a delicious strata, eating dinner at 9:30, watching love actually, and painting a Christmas tree on a T-shirt.

Tuesday: My department Christmas party. Last year's was insane - we started at Manuel's, then hit 6th Street hard until about 2 a.m. This year's was tame - happy hour at J. Black's after work followed by dinner at Polvo's.

Wednesday: Yoga party. Long ago I mentioned that I take yoga after work at my office. Our teacher is awesome and invited the class over for delicious treats after class this week.

Thursday: Christmas Pops Sing Along at the Alamo Drafthouse. My favorite Austin Christmas tradition. If you haven't ever gone you are missing out. Plus, there is renegade caroling down 6th Street. This year we circled bike cops and sang "Dick in a Box." Last year we got kicked out of the Omni for making a joyful noise.

Friday: Gaudy Christmas party. I was silly and forgot my camera. Thankfully the hosts had mandatory photos by the tree.

Saturday: We were supposed to go to Mr. H's department party, but it was cancelled. So instead we got to celebrate our 3 month anniversary with dinner at Asti and cupcakes from Quack's.

Adios Evitas!

Last night, Mr. H and I had our farewell dinner at Evita's Botanitas in far South Austin. This restaurant has been around forever, but we didn't discover it until 2 weeks ago. As I was chowing down on my delicious enchiladas mole and lamenting the close of our new favorite neighborhood joint, I asked Mr. H, "Is it better to love and lose than to never love at all?"

About enchiladas.

Yes, they are that good.

Dramatic much?

I'll let you answer that age old question yourself. They close on Dec. 23.

Love Actually Is All Around

Survey time! Thanks Jill for starting this. I watched Love Actually last night which is why the title of this post has nothing to do with the post itself.

What are your middle names?
Me: Now my maiden name, Hubs: Wilson

How long have you been together?
4 years on Jan. 21

How long did you know each other before you started dating?
3 weeks

How old are each of you?
me: 24, hubs: 25

Did you go to the same school?
only during the three months we were on study abroad, but that wasn’t really “school”

Are you from the same hometown?
Not even the same state

Who is the smartest?
equally smart in different ways. I’m the writer and creative one, he’s the math/science/engineering one.

Who majored in what?
me: public relations, minor in sociology, hubs: industrial engineering

Who is the most sensitive?
definitely me.

Where do you eat out most as a couple?
this is tough, but probably Trudy’s

Where have you traveled together as a couple?
New Zealand, Australia, Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, Alabama, DC, New York, Missouri, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Florida, Vegas, Mexico, Texas

Who has the worst temper?
neither of us really has a temper

How many children do you want?
two, but not until I’m 30 at the earliest.

Who does the cooking?
I do, but he cleans.

Who is more social?
definitely me. He calls me his social planner.

Who is the neat-freak?
He is neater than I am, but I would never describe him as a neat freak.

Who is the most stubborn?
I am. I’m a Taurus, so it’s not my fault.

Who wakes up earlier?
During the week, he wakes up 15 minutes before I do and pretty much has to pull me out of bed. On the weekends it’s rare if I sleep later than he does.

Where was your first date?
We never had one. We met and fell in love while studying abroad so we planned activities together and each paid our own way for everything. I didn’t even know his phone number until we’d been together 3 months and were the flight home from Australia.

Who has the bigger family?
definitely me.

Do you get flowers often?
Only when they are on special at Central Market.

How long did it take to get serious?
Maybe 2 months. It was fast.

Who eats more?
He probably eats twice as much as I do. And I like to think I have a healthy appetite for a 5'1 woman.

What do you do for a living?
me: marketing/public relations/event planning, hubs: industrial engineer

Who does the laundry?
mostly hubs. He runs out of socks before I run out of anything, so that must be why.

Who’s better with the computer?
He is. See answer to “Who is smarter?”

Who drives when you are together?
Always him. I hate driving.

What is "your" song?
Our first dance was to The Beatles’ “I Will,” but we also like Tom Petty’s “Wildflowers,” Cat Stevens’ “If You Want to Sing Out, Sing Out,” and oldie “Oh How Happy You Have Made Me.”

Do you ever argue?
Argue? No. Bicker? Rarely. We’re a pretty easy going couple.

Watching the Dandelions Grow

Several weeks ago, a friend was trying to put together a social sports team. Wiffleball, to be exact. Now I played wiffleball for two seasons when I first moved to Austin 2.5 years ago. Probably because I wanted to get to know my coworkers better and maybe meet a few people from other teams. Those seasons proved 3 things.

1. I hate baseball and everything related to it. Yes this is a tense subject in my house as Mr. H loves baseball and I rejoice when the World Series is FINALLY over. (I mean really, what sport plays an 162 game season anyway?)

2. I hate playing team sports. As a child, I played tennis, swam, danced, and cheered. If there is a ball larger than my palm, I don't want to be involved. (umm... that's what she said?) I even took Individual and Dual Sports for my P.E. credit in high school.

3. Wiffleball is not played with a big red bat, but rather a skinny yellow bat that might weigh a half pound soaking wet.

So then, why did I tell Mr. H that said friend was organizing another wiffleball team? Perhaps love. Perhaps a weak moment in thinking that drinking in a garage that has been converted to a basketball court, er wiffleball field, might not be so bad even if your beverage cannot be in an open cup, koozie, covered waterball or anything that resembles an alcoholic beverage drink container. So we compromised. He signs up to play, I sign up to drink, warm the bench, and be team cheerleader.

Fast forward to last night. The season opener. The season opener double header that friend and hubs conveniently forgot to tell me about. The season opener double header where only two women were present when the game began and you need three to play...and team cheerleader is asked to sub... and wear another teammate's T-shirt... that is a Youth Large...and Emily didn't wear a sports bra or tennis shoes because she didn't think she'd have to play... and Emily has ginormous boobs...and I'll only play right field because nothing ever happens there.

But ya know what? It was fun. I made an amazing catch (with a look of fear in my eyes) to get the third out of the first inning. I didn't realize I had made this incredible feat, so I threw to second to make a play, but whatevs. I did it. I got on base twice. Made it to third once. Scored no runs, but I actually hit the freaking ball with the itty bitty lightweight yellow bat. Go me.

I'll leave you with some Peter, Paul and Mary lyrics to my new Thursday night anthem:

Off in the distance, the game's dragging on,

There's strikes on the batter, some runners are on.

I don't know the inning, I've forgotten the score.

The whole team is yelling and I don't know what for.

Then suddenly everyone's looking at me

My mind has been wandering; what could it be?

They point at the sky and I look up above

And a baseball falls into my glove!

Here in right field, it's important you know.

You gotta know how to catch, you gotta know how to throw,

That's why I'm here in right field, just watching the dandelions grow!

Twins?

Does anyone else think Ryan on this season of SYTYCD looks like a real life version of Mr. Incredible?

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Blogger tips

I'm new to this bloggy world. Ok, 75 posts in 7 months probably isn't considered "new," but I haven't put a whole lotta time into figuring out this thing since I launched the blog that Mr. H still doesn't know about.

Can someone please tell me how to quickly and easily post multiple pictures in a post? My lack of pics on this blog are mostly from laziness, but I gotta believe you all know something I don't. I mean, my "thankful post" took over an hour and that wasn't because of my excellent craftsmanship of the written word. I almost added an additional line item... "I am thankful for the person who tells me how I can put 4 pictures in a post without it taking 45 minutes."

I'm withholding wedding recaps until someone tells me how to do this! Thanks ladies!

Also while we're at it-- footnotes. Those are frequently my favorite parts of posts and I'd like to pack as many witticisms in as I can.

You can call me Mrs. H

Yep, that’s right. I finally did it. I am no longer stuck between my two last names. I’m officially Mrs. H. Now you may ask, “Umm, haven’t you been married 2.5 months? What the heck has taken you so long?” TSA. That’s why. As mentioned previously, I was traveling nearly constantly for most the last 2 months. Well, consistently enough that there was no way I’d have a new license between trips (see also: rant on TX DMV for not having license printers in house like every other state I’ve lived in has) and there was no way I was going to hand a TSA agent a piece of rumpled paper as my (temporary) ID. Would it have worked? Well, technically yes… maybe. But arguing with authority isn’t a hobby I’d like to pursue.

Other little victories:

• · Thank you notes are finally done. Again, no judging.
• · E-pics are up on WLP blog. Will our wedding pics follow?
• · Christmas tree is up, now it’s time to trim it!
• · Successful maiden voyage of my new immersion blender. Broccoli cheese soup – yes please!