the most wonderful time of the year

To me this is the most wonderful time of the year. (I like summer and all, but nothing beats this). No, I'm not sick and twisted. I don't ENJOY finals week or anything. I crazy about Christmas. Last week Advent started, so we're on our way. Saturday, I got all ready for the season. First, I decorated my church all blue and white for Advent (it looks so pretty in blue). Then I came home and helped Jamie decorate our beautiful live Christmas tree. It's all white, red, and gold and classy looking. I tried to take a nap, but I looked out the window and noticed it was snowing. We don't get snow often in Seattle, so it was special. Plus, this was amazing snow: big fat flakes! It was like living in a snow globe. So, to really get in the spirit, I watched my all time favorite Christmas movie, "Muppet Family Christmas." Kermit of course steals the show, but the best scene is when the Swedish Chef tries to cook Big Bird for a Christmas turkey (mmm, turkey wurkey... gobbla gobbla). Fabulous really. If you haven't seen it you should. I love it. Seriously, you have the classic Muppets, Sesame Street, AND Fraggles all together? Wow.

Adrian and I finished the night off with a Christmas party with the people I worked with last summer. We all had lots of fun, possibly do to an abundance of wine. The most entertaining might have been the group ping pong tournament. Total chaos when all of us decide to play at once to determine the order of present opening. If you know anything about me, you'll know I was the first one out. Eye-hand coordination just doesn't exist. (Except that I really rock at air hockey.) My boss arranged a bus shuttle for us all home, so even with all the snow everyone made it home safe.

So, it's time to back track a bit. Last Thursday was it was the six month anniversary of Adrian and I. I can't believe how fast that six months went. So what did we do to celebrate? Well to hint at the elaborateness, I'll say that Chad and Erin from work say that he's set the bar way too high for himself. Apparently, they think at six months, Dick's Burgers is appropriate. However, Adrian decided dating me for six months was worthy of a table. Woo hoo... I hate eating in the car in the dark anyway.

I had to back out of dinner on our actual anniversary, so instead we had a special breakfast and a special lunch. Gotta say, the banana fosters french toast was about the best meal a girl could ask for (carmel? whipped cream? bananas? in one dish?!? and I get to eat it for breakfast?). A few hours later (and not nearly enough calories burned) we had lunch at Agua Verde. Agua Verde was integral to Adrian and I getting together (and I thank Jessica for backing out on me for dinner that night).

Adrian had a special meal planned for our anniversary. Seriously, I don't expect much, so it's sort of crazy to think that we needed a third anniversary meal. Adrian kept our desination a secret. All I knew was that he had to borrow a suit jacket from his roommate, so I knew it was going to be fancy.

Since we had to change our reservation from Thursday, the meal was set for late on Friday evening. It worked out perfectly, because that meant we could go to the last Architecture Happy Hour of the quarter. (Had to get all we could out of that $12 glass for the quarter). The theme of the Happy Hour was "Dress Your Best Beerfest," so it was totally appropriate to go dressed up. I wore my red dress and my new pearl necklace.

So after Happy Hour, we headed to the restaurant. He took me to Canlis, which overlooks Lake Union. We pulled up and both of our doors were opened for us. As we walked in, Adrian gave them our name. From then on, every staff member that addressed us used his name. To explain how fancy it was, they put the napkins on our lap. Wow, now that's service. (Consider that at Dick's, you have to pay extra for ketchup). We had a wonderful meal; the food and wine was amazing. I had salad, duck, and chocolate lava cake. Adrian managed to be so sweet that he made me cry. Sometimes that boy knows exactly what whisper in my ear. The restaurant was probably most impressive when we were leaving. As we walked out, the staff again addressed us by name, got my coat without asking, and pulled up Adrian's car without a word. Wow. I felt really spoiled. Adrian told me before we started dating that he treats his girls really well. That was no exaggeration.

After all that fun, it was back to work for both of us. Today was the last day of class. Next week is finals. I have 3 classes left to finish out of 5. I have a big test for 40% of my grade, a big paper for ethics, and a little take-home exam that's worth 100% of my grade (yikes!). Sounds like fun huh? After I finish all of that, my goal is to write one last paper (the law paper from spring quarter) and possibly do my traffic school online. "Yes, Mom, I got a speeding ticket... No, Mom I wasn't going 90... No, they aren't "making" me take traffic school, they let me..." As entertaining as that conversation was, it couldn't beat the Thanksgiving dinner conversation with Adrian's aunt about why I couldn't talk my way out of it (the officer was a woman). We'll just leave the rest of that one there. Fun stuff... We fly to Chicago in like 10 or 11 days, so if anyone has fun suggestions of what we should do, let me know.

Merry Christmas, Happy New Year, Happy Hanukkah and all that happy stuff to everyone reading this. I hope you enjoy the holidays as much as I usually do. You can all look forward to entertaining stories about our adventures with family and friends after the New Year.