Posted on Dec 30, 2008 under Family, Holidays |
Over time I think every married couple develops a “thing.” What I mean by that is something that is special and cute to only the two of you, like an inside joke. I can remember from an early age that my parents’ thing was the banana stickers. Just to be funny one of them would always sneak into the kitchen and steal the Chiquita sticker off a bunch of bananas and hide it somewhere on the other person’s clothes. It might take my mom or dad a minute, a day, a week, or even months to find it. But when they discovered that sticker all would have a good laugh. It was a simple little reminder of “I love you.”
Well for Kevin and I, our thing has become socks. Yep that’s right it is sock love. For pretty much any special occasion now Kevin always gets me socks. Why you ask? It all started back on Valentine’s Day of 2004…
We had been dating almost a year and were celebrating our very first Valentine’s day together. You should know that Kevin is really not into this holiday. Don’t get me wrong, he is incredibly romantic, but it’s just he would rather do something as a romantic surprise on a random Tuesday than be expected to bring home flowers every February 14th. And I don’t blame him it is mostly another day for the greeting card companies. Anyways, we had made a mutual agreement not to really do much in the way of presents for each other. We were just planning to spend a nice weekend together. So late that Saturday night, at an incredibly random moment, Kevin whips out his gift for me. A pair of thick purple socks, slipper socks to be exact. No wrapping paper or bag, he just handed them to me and said “happy Valentine’s Day.” What is a girl to do in this moment? I think I was pretty much speechless and all I could do was laugh. A few seconds later both of us were laughing pretty hard.
Well I look back on that moment with fond memories. I’m sure I gave him a hard time about the socks back then, but now I love the gift because it is “our thing.” What do you think Kevin got me for a wedding present? That’s right, a pair of long green knee-highs (which keep me quite warm in the winter.) Anyone who sees our wedding photos will immediately go “huh? why is she holding socks in her wedding dress?” but I knew exactly what they meant.
And so here is the latest addition to my sock collection: my Christmas presents.
I happened to open the pair on the right first, and was impressed that Kevin has been learning new fashion terms and got me the Argyle socks. Second I opened the pair of music socks. I already started laughing when I saw the treble clef…then when I pulled them all the way out of the bag and saw the keyboard cuffs I was laughing uncontrollably. I told him “wow I guess I’m really a music teacher now!” You could almost say I was laughing my socks off (okay okay that was a little cheesy 
)
Well I think I’ve officially won the award for using the word “socks” the most times in a single blog post.
Ah love…
Posted on Dec 29, 2008 under Family, Holidays |
Kevin and I got back yesterday from a lovely Christmas in Tennessee. We were fortunate to stay a whole week and see our families and spend quality time together. I’ll admit a lot of our time was spent watching the two dogs Maggie and cousin Louie playing together constantly. It was quite entertaining! We all smiled and breathed a huge sigh of relief when they finally fell asleep
Here as you can see, Louie is perfectly posing for the camera and Maggie is letting it all hang out.
Don’t let their cuteness fool you, they are about to chew on each other’s ears.
A rare, peaceful moment when both dogs were curled up around Kevin’s feet while opening presents.
It was also great getting to see Caleb since he has been gone for so long.
What a good lookin’ family!
There was a little more to our trip than just Christmas. I surprised Kevin with an early anniversary trip and we spent one night in Asheville, NC at the Biltmore Village Inn, a cozy bed and breakfast. This was our first experience at a B&B, instead of a regular hotel, and I think we were both pleasantly surprised. I had found this place on tripadvisor.com which I would highly recommend to anyone taking a vacation. That was also how we found our honeymoon place a couple years back in Mexico and they did not let us down! Anyways, here are just a couple shots of the place.
I know we look really small, but the guy taking this picture considered it a ‘close up’ shot.
Picture of the outside, a very pretty place.
All in all we had a great, relaxing week and we are happy to be back home to savor every last minute of vacation.
Happy holidays!
Posted on Dec 20, 2008 under Family |
Well December has been another wild month at school, but I am finally done and don’t have to go back to work until January 5th! Also, Kevin is taking the next two weeks off so we are getting to enjoy a very long vacation together. It is only Saturday morning and I already feel like I’m in heaven. We made some Christmas cookies last night and wore our Santa hats listening to music while snuggling with the dog. Then we had a nice leisurely breakfast this morning and Maggie is curled up on our feet in the office as I speak. School has been going well lately, don’t get me wrong, but I also feel like such a huge weight has been lifted off my shoulders now that I’m at home resting. Every day I love my little family more and more =)
I must admit something though. I don’t know if anyone thinks about this, but do you ever get to feeling guilty because you feel like you have it too good or too easy in life? Lately through conversations and catching up on people’s blogs I have come to realize that so many our friends or co-workers are going through really hard stuff. Mostly they have to do with failed pregnancies and family illness, etc. I feel such sympathy for them but I also know that I can’t really relate to what they are going through. I suppose it’s because Kevin and I have not started a family yet and most of our relatives are in fairly good health (knock on wood). We are blessed with a great marriage, a nice home, and good jobs. So far we have not had to endure any major catastrophe. But should I be feeling guilty about this? Sometimes I think hmmm when is it going to be our turn and what will we have to go through?
For now I am choosing to not worry about it and enjoy the time that I do have with my loved ones. Right now I feel so incredibly blessed and I hope I can cling to that in the future.
Posted on Dec 03, 2008 under Family |
Alrighty Kevin got the photo thing working for me, so now I can share with you all.
This is from our last quarterly get-together with the Georgia couples. I think it’s pretty rare to have all 8 (9 including baby Jake) of us in the picture!
Kevin slicing the yummy Thanksgiving roast. We went non-traditional this year and made a cranberry pork roast.
Family portrait #1
Family portrait #2 inlcuding the dog
More fun times
I also had a shot of all the men in the family sleeping in the living room along with Maggie before Thanksgiving dinner. It would have been really funny but it came out sort of blurry. Oh well
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By the way, I seem to be coming down with something yucky that is making my chest hurt and I cough all day long. The librarian at school told me to try putting vapo-rub on my feet and then covering them with socks. I hate to say I don’t think it worked too well. Any other suggestions?