on the fifth date of christmas...

...my true love gave to me, a photo shoot in the park!

I love Christmas cards!  Actually, let me rephrase that.  Thanks to Pinterest, I have an unhealthy obsession with creating an awesome Christmas card.  Which is all well & good, minus the fact that I am not a professional photographer, and it's not in our budget to spend money on one.  That's where Christmas date #5 comes in to play!

I figured that we could have some fun trying to use our point & shoot skills to see if we could get a Christmas card worthy picture.  We got dressed and walked Popeye down to the park by our house, but unfortunately my timing was terrible and it was getting dark just as we got there.  We still had fun playing around, chasing the pup, and trying to get some photos.  There were a few good ones, but most ended up looking a little crazy, like this...

or this...

(Popeye apparently wanted to get in on the action too!)  It's the thought that counts though.  Right?  Maybe after seeing these pictures someone will offer me a photography lesson! Hopefully we'll have a cute Christmas card to show you soon!

on the fourth date of christmas...

...my true love gave to me, a second stab at the Christmas tree!

After some time away to let our wounds (and our pride) heal after our first attempt at decorating the tree, we  decided we were feeling brave enough to try again. There was no big fanfare this time, but I am proud to announce that Christmas Date #4 was a success!

We somehow managed to get all the lights and ornaments up without mishap this time around, and if I do say so myself, it looks lovely!  We just won't mention the fact that it's not quite straight.  Or that the tree topper refuses to stay on correctly.

Check out those proud faces!

on the third date of christmas...

...my true love gave to me, a walk in a winter wonderland!

This date was actually a last minute decision.  The boy & I had both been working most of the morning, and as I was headed home I saw a sign reminding everyone that Lights in the Heights was that night.  I had forgotten, but I knew we had to make this Christmas Date #3:

It's essentially a big neighborhood block party where a few streets are closed off, the residents all decorate their houses, there's live music playing, and you can just feel the Christmas cheer everywhere!  We hadn't been since we first moved to Houston (and went with the wrong people, but that's a story for another day) and had been talking about going for a while, so when I got home I sweet talked the boy into going with me before the party we were attending that night.

We had a great time walking around and seeing all the creative light displays, reminiscing about the last time we went (this time was MUCH better!), and picking out the house we'll buy if we strike it rich.  There's not much that I love more than walking around holding the boy's hand.  Although this giant dinosaur may be a close second...

on the second date of christmas...

...my true love gave to me, a decorated  crashing Christmas tree!

Yesterday I was so excited that December 7th was here, and that we could finally have Christmas Date #2:

You know, the tree that has been sitting in our house just calling our name for almost a week now.   Does it seem a little weird to leave the tree naked for so long?  Probably.  But in our house it's all about tradition.  Two years ago on December 7th Brian came over to my little apartment to "decorate the tree".  And never left.  So it became our official tree decorating day, and the day we look forward to all year.  (Even more so for next year, because we'll be getting married!)

Brian kicked off the night's festivities (yes, there are festivities.  I told you it's a big night in our house.) by surprising me with a sweet book (books are so much more fun than cards) with an even sweeter note written inside.

No Christmas tree decorating date would be complete without a giant boot full of coffee porter.

(And no, we didn't intend to drink all that beer in one night.  Brian had picked up 2 six-packs to surprise me not knowing I had picked up one to surprise him.)

We hesitantly got to work on the lights.  Let me backtrack for a second here and mention that last year as we were putting the very last string of lights on the tree the lights went out.  On the whole tree.  We wiggled and jiggled the strands, plugged and unplugged, but to no avail.  We had to go buy new lights, then unwrap and relight the whole tree.  Not fun at the time, but comical now.  Thankfully, this year we made it through the lighting of the tree with no major incidents.

While we took a break to make dinner I snuck Brian's book into the tree, along with a little ornament.

After dinner, as we were singing along to our favorite Christmas jams and finding just the right spot for the ornaments on the tree, I heard an "uh oh" from Brian and looked over just in time to see the entire tree pitching forward.  It was one of those moments that seemed to go in slow-motion.  The tree coming toward me, Brian trying to hold it up, me trying to grab it.  A slow-mo moment we were lucky enough to relive 6 times last night.  After the first fall, we tried lifting the tree back up & just straightening it in the stand.  It fell.  We tried taking the stand off, adjusting it, and lifting the tree back up.  It fell.  There were tears.  There were not so nice words aimed at the tree.  There was talk of throwing the tree out the window.  Finally, as we were about to admit defeat & just to to bed, on the 7th attempt the tree somehow (miraculously) managed to stay in an upright position.  The celebration ensued!

(No tree decorating date is complete without jager bombs either.  And yes, I fully realize we're not in college anymore. It was going to the store to get Red Bull for shots that led to our first kiss though, so the tradition stays!)  And then we went to bed.  Exhausted, sticky from the sap, and covered in scratches.  The decorating part of our date wasn't exactly a success, but it wouldn't be a proper tree decorating date without at least one mishap.  What was a success though was making a memory that will be the source of laughter for years to come.

on the first date of christmas...

...my true love gave to me, a giant Christmas tree!

After pinning a ridiculous number of Christmas ideas over the past few weeks on Pinterest I decided it was time to actually sift through them and pick a few things to make happen this Christmas season. One of my favorites was this post over at Dream Home DIY about the 12 Dates of Christmas.  Last year I did a variation of the 12 Days of Christmas & gave the boy little presents every day, so this seemed like a fun way to step it up (and of course spend some quality time together).  Since we were already planning on heading out to the tree farm this past Sunday for our 2nd annual tree hunt it seemed like perfect timing for Christmas Date #1:

Brian & I packed up the car with our blanket and some straps to tie the tree down (we were prepared this time) and headed out to our favorite little Christmas tree farm, Tinsel Time.  We ended up at this place last year and loved the fact that it's family owned by the sweetest couple.  If you're in the Houston area it's well worth the drive out to New Caney!

It was a gorgeous day out (unlike the rainy mess we encountered last year), so we enjoyed taking our time and looking for the perfect tree.  I fell in love with a giant one that Brian had to talk me out of completely veto by reminding me how we could barely get our tree into the house last year.  After some debate, we finally settled on this handsome guy and got right to the business of chopping him down.

If you've never cut down a tree before let me tell you, it's hard work!  As you can see, we were pretty proud of our job.

We hopped on a sleigh ride to take our tree back up to the front of the farm, and they put it in the netter.  And then it got stuck.  Very stuck.  A grown man sitting on the table while three other people tried to pull the tree through stuck.  It didn't budge, so the owner engaged in what he called some "redneck engineering" and hooked the tree up to his four-wheeler.  I've got to hand it to him. I wasn't convinced it was going to work, but on the second try the tree came sliding right out.  Well, color me impressed sir.  Many thank yous for their extra effort later, we tied the tree up and hit the road.

Not even 30 minutes down the road, the tree started bumping and jumping all over the top of the car.  I'm pretty sure a 10 foot tree flying off our car and bouncing onto the highway wouldn't have been a good thing, so we pulled over to secure it better.  Safely home, we hauled the big guy up the stairs.  Thankfully we remembered the lessons learned from last year and there were no broken picture frames or giant scratches on the bathroom wall.  I think it's safe to say that Christmas Date #1 was a success!

Our tree is now safely up and in our living room, anxiously awaiting Christmas Date #2 (my most favorite of them all), decorating the tree!  Counting down to Friday!