Santa, this Bud's for You!

Christmas Eve is my favorite day of the year!  Christmas Eve traditions have always been a bit "unique" at the Dawson household.

For starters, I never believed in Santa, but that was not due to a lack of trying on my mom's part.  I remember being a little girl and learning about safety in school.  I asked my dad how Santa got into our house without a chimney.  He told me he left the front door unlocked and Santa snuck in in the middle of the night.  And cue the spastic child meltdown.  I mean how irresponsible can my parents be?  They just left the door unlocked and then if they heard a man downstairs, they would just assume it was Santa.  What if it was a murderer?  What if it was someone that was going to break in and steal my Strawberry Shortcake stuff???  So my dad told me the truth about Santa, but also threw in the tidbit that if I ratted my dad out and told my mom that I no longer believed, then I would stop getting presents.  Deal!

With this juicy little secret in my little girl brain, my family developed all kinds of new traditions.  For example, Santa didn't get cookies and milk at our house.  Santa was way too tired of the sweets by the time he showed up, and he really wanted Dorritos and a cold Budweiser.  Sure Santa, whatever floats your boat.

After dinner, Mikey and I each got to open two presents: a pair of pajamas and a new ornament.  The ornaments were little teddy bears dressed up in outfits that represented our past year.  My mom would spend hours on these little guys and we loved getting them.  Now that we are grown, we no longer get pj's and teddy bears, but last year my mom gave me all of mine, and they now cover our tree.  This is a tradition I hope to continue with our own children someday.

We will have dinner tonight at my parents' home. Blair's parents always do a big giant dinner on the 25th and 26th, so fortunately, both of us are able to maintain our family traditions.  I suspect Santa may have been a bit more traditional at the Hoyt household :)

We wish you and yours a wonderful, wacky, Merry Christmas!

Bear representing my high school graduation. 

Sweet Omie at her holiday party yesterday. We wish she could join us again this year.

Paris!

Ever write a piece, then go back and read it the next day and think “Yikes!  Was I drunk when I wrote that?”   Well, that’s how I felt today when I looked back at my Paris recap post; and no, I was not drunk. I got drunk after I wrote it….kidding.  

And now, (drum roll please) I give you the new and improved Paris update:

We arrived in Paris a little worse for the wear thanks to the two lovely children next to us and their parents, who fed them a smorgasbord of Starbucks jumbo cookies and brownies promptly after boarding the plane.  Based on their behavior for the duration of the flight, I assume they finished their vente, double shot fraps with extra whip prior to arriving at their seats.  Who knew the giant Airbus plane could feel so small?

Fortunately, we arrived at our hotel safe and sound. The staff at the Hotel Scribe was wonderful!  The front desk clerked paged the head of housekeeping and had our room ready for a much-needed nap by 10 am.  A little recharging of the batteries, and we were back in action!

Given his hectic schedule lately, I assumed Blair would want a relaxing vacation full of café lingering and people watching.  Dead wrong.  He wanted to see and do everything, so that is exactly what we did.

We went to the Louvre museum to see the Mona Lisa.  I still think it’s a painting of an ugly woman with a smirk, but what do I know? We hiked to the top of the Arc de Triomphe. We toured Saint-Chapelle, the Notre Dame cathedral, the Eiffel Tower, and the Champs Elysees. We gawked at Versailles, and climbed to the top of the bell tower of Scare Core. We ate at fantastic restaurants and drank copious amounts of wine.  

We had tons of adventures, but by far the best part of the trip was our D-day Tour (LinkParis.com).

I did not expect that the beaches would remain seemingly untouched. There are still bunkers built into the hills; some still have guns inside.  There are huge craters in the earth where the bombs struck, and it is eerily quiet.  Our tour guide was fantastic and I felt like I was hanging on her every word.  Not only was she very knowledgeable, but she spoke with deep appreciation for the American soldiers.   We were both deeply moved by the tour and have already said we hope to take it again someday.

It was a trip that far exceeded my expectations.  I know that our time as “just us” is limited. We will not always be young or childless (hopefully), so I am glad we took the opportunity to go when we had it.  We took hundreds of photos, but here are a few highlights. 

Thanks to everyone who wished us a good trip and for all that asked for updates upon our return! 

Prom Night

My holiday party was held on Friday at our office, which they transformed into a high school gym to match the "Prom" theme: complete with a pep squad from a local high school, photo booth, and a prom king and queen :)

Blair's holiday party was slightly more sophisticated, and was held at a beautiful hotel in D.C. After the party, Blair and I sprinted all over town to find the VT football game (me cussing and dodging grates in 5" stilettos).  After it was quite clear the loss would be horrible, and B's night would be ruined if we continued to watch, we joined up with the rest of his coworkers at a local cigar bar.  It was a great place to end the night- even if I do feel like I have TB from all of the smoke.  

This morning we joined up with a bunch of our friends for brunch in Arlington.  Ah, sweet Arlington.  We are so homesick for you.  I made Blair stop to pick up a brochure for a home that was for sale- a great deal at $1.4MM...

And so now we are back on our couch in our realistically priced home in the 'burbs.  You can find us here until we drag our lifeless bodies to bed.  Wait, scratch that.  Blair just found an online sale on golf stuff.  I gotta go hide the credit cards.