how i spent my christmas vacation
by almightymabel
this was probably the best christmas i've had in years!
the inlaws came in, and they are a trip in themselves (in a good way). they're not christian, so they don't celebrate christmas other than as an excuse to hang out with family. they send money instead of gifts, and when they spend the time with us they'll buy us alot of things we need (new tires, groceries, the stuff we did this trip, etc). it was also nice to get to see them without my sister in law or her baby. don't get me wrong, i love my sister and my neice very much, but they are kind of an attention drain, and we haven't had good quality time with my mother in law in a few years.
anyway, they were in for three days, and we had a blast. we ate seafood on the coast, checked out the maritime museum, showed them around the gaslamp and downtown, went to the zoo (always a fun time), ate at little italy, walked along mission beach, chilled out at sunset cliffs, and hubby and i both got to cook for them for the first time on christmas. he made his minestrone soup for lunch and i made my pollo borracho for dinner (they were both fuckin delicious, by the way). alot of the stuff we did was kinda tourist-y, but then they are tourists, and it was still really fun.
they stayed at the sofia hotel downtown. swanky place. the staff said there was a celebrity staying there. i saw her, i think she was in high school musical (never saw it, but they had an article about her being in sd in the paper). she looks like a horse. it was very weird.
we are all big movie people, so we went to see a movie every day. we tried to get the body count up as much as we could, and i think we did pretty well. we saw sweeney todd the first night, i am legend the second, and avp the third night. lots of bodies, especially if you count the 5.3 billion from i am legend.
this trip also did wonders for our relationship. we really needed a few days of no work, no responsibilities, no money worries, just fun quality time. we got along better than we have in months, and went back to the lovey-dovey stage of a new relationship. plus my mom sent us a red leather strap with big jingle bells to hang on our doorknob. but we didn't hang it on the doorknob...
we don't get christmas presents anymore, we just get money. everyone finally got tired of asking and getting the same answer every year. except for mama, who sends money AND gifts! she's the world's greatest gift buyer, she has a sixth sense for it. she'll get you something you secretly wanted and never told anyone, or something you didn't even realize you needed until you opened it. then you think, "duh, of course!" so we got a great stash this year. plus she always includes her "granddogs" (they got the two largest bones on the face of the planet) and this year even sent a little something for sid (a fake cactus for his tank, to make him feel "more at home" while he's in california
). that made me happy because she's never liked snakes.
well this was the first year that we didn't have to use christmas money to play catch-up with our finances. for almost 5 years we've been talking about saving $1000 for an emergency fund, and also to start our savings for when we get out of the military. with all the money we received this year, we did it! even with hubby spending $150 for a ds. he's wanted one since i lost his last year, along with all the accessories, games, and case. i'm just so happy that we can start to get ahead, instead of just getting by. now we can put into it whatever we can, or even if we just have to leave it for four years, at least we'll get something from the interest.
we really needed this. i'm a happy monkey.
the end
by almightymabel
this was probably the best christmas i've had in years!
the inlaws came in, and they are a trip in themselves (in a good way). they're not christian, so they don't celebrate christmas other than as an excuse to hang out with family. they send money instead of gifts, and when they spend the time with us they'll buy us alot of things we need (new tires, groceries, the stuff we did this trip, etc). it was also nice to get to see them without my sister in law or her baby. don't get me wrong, i love my sister and my neice very much, but they are kind of an attention drain, and we haven't had good quality time with my mother in law in a few years.
anyway, they were in for three days, and we had a blast. we ate seafood on the coast, checked out the maritime museum, showed them around the gaslamp and downtown, went to the zoo (always a fun time), ate at little italy, walked along mission beach, chilled out at sunset cliffs, and hubby and i both got to cook for them for the first time on christmas. he made his minestrone soup for lunch and i made my pollo borracho for dinner (they were both fuckin delicious, by the way). alot of the stuff we did was kinda tourist-y, but then they are tourists, and it was still really fun.
they stayed at the sofia hotel downtown. swanky place. the staff said there was a celebrity staying there. i saw her, i think she was in high school musical (never saw it, but they had an article about her being in sd in the paper). she looks like a horse. it was very weird.
we are all big movie people, so we went to see a movie every day. we tried to get the body count up as much as we could, and i think we did pretty well. we saw sweeney todd the first night, i am legend the second, and avp the third night. lots of bodies, especially if you count the 5.3 billion from i am legend.
this trip also did wonders for our relationship. we really needed a few days of no work, no responsibilities, no money worries, just fun quality time. we got along better than we have in months, and went back to the lovey-dovey stage of a new relationship. plus my mom sent us a red leather strap with big jingle bells to hang on our doorknob. but we didn't hang it on the doorknob...
we don't get christmas presents anymore, we just get money. everyone finally got tired of asking and getting the same answer every year. except for mama, who sends money AND gifts! she's the world's greatest gift buyer, she has a sixth sense for it. she'll get you something you secretly wanted and never told anyone, or something you didn't even realize you needed until you opened it. then you think, "duh, of course!" so we got a great stash this year. plus she always includes her "granddogs" (they got the two largest bones on the face of the planet) and this year even sent a little something for sid (a fake cactus for his tank, to make him feel "more at home" while he's in california
). that made me happy because she's never liked snakes.
well this was the first year that we didn't have to use christmas money to play catch-up with our finances. for almost 5 years we've been talking about saving $1000 for an emergency fund, and also to start our savings for when we get out of the military. with all the money we received this year, we did it! even with hubby spending $150 for a ds. he's wanted one since i lost his last year, along with all the accessories, games, and case. i'm just so happy that we can start to get ahead, instead of just getting by. now we can put into it whatever we can, or even if we just have to leave it for four years, at least we'll get something from the interest.
we really needed this. i'm a happy monkey.
the end
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but really--do you guys ever have time to go out on weeknights?