O Christmas Tree

I was totally inspired by Smiling Mama's Christmas tree story so I wanted to share one of my own.

Six years ago, hubby and I packed all of our things and left Syracuse, NY. I arbitrarily chose the DC Metro area. We were both working in the theatre (he was acting and I did costumes). Both of us applied for apprenticeships/internships at DC area theatres.

Hubby was accepted as an acting apprentice at Round House Theatre. Now, as you know, apprentices and interns are not paid very well, if at all. Luckily he did receive a stipend, but probably would have made more money if he got a job flipping burgers. I was able to find employment at a soul-sucking insurance office.

Needless to say, we were quite broke. Cost of living here is much higher than Syracuse. But it was ok, right? Because it didn't snow 8 months out of the year. And the cultural melting pot didn't consist just of Polish, Italians, and some other European culture. (No kidding, someone told me that Syracuse as a melting pot due to those cultures. I'm knocking Europeans, but it's only one continent.) Oh, and since we were newlyweds, so we had love. Cute right? We couldn't afford much, but we didn't mind.

Our first Christmas, I barely remember. I remember freezing our asses off because our apartment had horrible heating. We had to turn the thermostat up to 80 degrees to get our apartment up to 70 degrees. Not to mention it was a high heating bill.

I wanted a live Christmas tree just like we had done in Syracuse every year. We visited this big red barn there and bought our Charlie Brown Christmas tree. The barn had the nice fancy, pretty trees, but we went down the reject aisle to pick our tree. It was fun tradition, and we usually found a decent tree for $5 or so.

I was shocked that live Christmas trees in our area were so expensive. I couldn't justify buying a tree for $30+ only to throw it out in 3 weeks. So we went treeless.

Until on Christmas Eve (we didn't fly home to visit our families). On the drive home from the movies that night, I noticed the Christmas tree lot near us had been vacated. Whoever ran it, had moved out BUT they left some sad unwanted Christmas trees.

Hubby reluctantly kept watch while I picked out one of the unwanted trees. He was terrified of getting caught, but I guess he loved me enough to risk getting arrested. To my credit, it was late, around midnight or so. He even helped me load up stuff the tree into our car.

He dragged into our apartment, pulled out our Christmas ornaments, and we decorated the tree together. Now we had a Christmas tree.

Gotta love my hubby. He puts up with my crazy impulsive ideas.

How I spent my Saturday (img heavy)

With lots of great friends, great food, beer, and a beautiful day! It was our Louisiana Alumni Annual Crawfish Boil! You know it's a good crawfish boil when they run out of corn, sausage, jambalaya, AND beer! The beer line was unbelieveable long--but can't have spicy crawfish without some beer.

We also brought home about 20 pounds of leftover crawfish. I peeled half of it last night while we watched some action movies. They were so spicy, my fingers were swollen and burning last night. It'll be worth it when I make some yummy food out of those tails.

Without further ado, the rest of the pics!

The best of both words! One of my friends I've know since college.

Adam, who was twittering the crawfish boil and taking pictures of himself.

Look at that monster crawfish! Run for your life!

Don't mess with the hubster. He's tough! He's going to take down that monster crawfish. We're all safe.

And the aftermath. It was delicious!

Day 21: Flames of Creativity

photo via enggul

Incredible creative life force flows through my entire being. (today's affirmation)

I have always believed that everyone is creative. It might not manifest itself into what is conventionally creative. If you think outside the box, you're creative. Without creativity we'd be pretty unhappy people don't you think?

My husband for example doesn't think he's creative. His creativity isn't the same as mine. Did you know he used to be an actor? His energy on stage is amazing! He knows how to entertain a crowd. And he makes up his own songs! Sometimes they don't make any sense, but he's enjoying himself.

Just because what you create isn't physically tangible, doesn't mean it's not valuable. The best thing about his creativity is that he's passed it on to our daughter. She has fun making up songs and singing them over and over. She doesn't worry whether it's "good." She just has fun. I'm not going to discourage her because she might make up a song with nonsense words or the same line over and over. Heck no!

The funny thing about my creativity was I never thought I was creative. My sister's artistic talent was "discovered" when she was in 2nd grade. She was able to take special art classes. She receive lots of special attention. Teachers told my parents what talent/potential she had. From then on, she was the artistic. I was the smart one. Not to say that my sister isn't smart (she's very smart). But that was my label.

I didn't realize how much I enjoyed creating art until senior year in college. (Story for another post.) Have you been given a label that's stopped from trying something new? What's stopping you now?

It was sooo cold today at the parade. Poor Sophia couldn't move. We stuck it out for an our and then went to lunch. Did I tell you she eats sushi now? Okay, she really just eats the fish and the nori. But it's a good start. Especially when she says, "I love sushi. It's my favorite!"

Day 17: a Spy Giveaway & I Shoulds

EDIT: The tickets to the Spy Museum are good until Nov 19, 2009--a whole year!

Does your to-do list look like this?

• I should do the dishes
• I should clean off my desk
• I should call my leads
• I should spend more quality time with my kid
• I should, I should, I should. . .

That's what the to-do list inside my head sounds like. When I write it out the I should's aren't there, but I think them in my head. I'm sure you do this too. Why do we do this to ourselves? According to Denise Linn, should implies guilt. I definitely feel guilty when I say these things. Even guiltier when I don't do them. Does all the guilt motivate me to do these things?Absolutely not! So I just need to change my way of thinking, right? Instead of saying "I should do the dishes," I can say "I could do the dishes, but I am going to relax and watch some tv."

One of the things I keep saying I should do is do a giveaway to celebrate my 100th blog post (several days ago). So here we go.

If you live in the DC area or plan on coming to visit the area before Christmas, I'm giving away 2 tickets to the International Spy Museum. (Full disclosure: hubby works at the Spy Museum, but neither of us are being compensated for this giveaway. They don't even know I'm doing it!)

Here's the caveat: these tickets are only good until Dec 24th. I will email the winner with exact details. I'll draw a random name on November 27th (Thanksgiving) around midnight. The winner will have 48 hours to respond with their mailing address. You can earn up to 4 entries:

• leave a comment on this post with an email address
• subscribe to my blog (using the Subscribe to Posts button on the right) or your blog reader, then leave a separate comment saying you did
• mention this giveaway on your blog and link back with another comment
• subscribe to my Passion Parties newsletter (orange block on right) (leave a comment too please); if you subscribe just say that.
  

Sorry about having to leave all the separate comments. It's the easiest way for me to keep track.

Historians believed that Mata Hari's career as a burlesque dancer allowed her spy? Was she? There's a great exhibit about her at the Spy Museum.

Day 13: Gratitude

Normally we only think about gratitude during Thanksgiving. I probably don't tell him enough, but I'm grateful for all that my husband does. Growing up in an Asian family meant that the woman does all the household chores, cooking, and most of the child rearing. I knew that whoever I married would be helping out with the housework.

Granted, he doesn't 50% all of the housework because a. he doesn't really think about it all the time and b. he just doesn't have the time. What I love that he does is on his days off, he gives Sophia 100%. I get to relax. Normally I just work or clean. He takes her to the Parent Resource Center on Friday mornings (kinda like a school environment). He wakes up early (rather, she wakes him up) to feed and dress Sophia. He lets me sleep in.

He's a great listener too. He doesn't really cook, but he gives great back rubs. And supports me in all of my endeavors. If I'm taking on too much and get exhausted or overwhelmed, he never tells me, "I told you so." Our relationship is by no means perfect (whose is?). Today and everyday I am grateful for my wonderful husband.