#159 He Endures Music He Dislikes

Weekend I’d Forget

Naturally, Weekend I'd Forget has found its way to Tuesday again.

I'm totally okay with this.

Not really, but I'll get over it.

This weekend was absolutely the best.  Before I get to my positively favorite part, I'll tell you what came in as second runner up: Pie tasting at Johnson's Farm.

Hubby and I went to their first annual pie tasting last year and we were not disappointed.  The $3 admission goes directly to Urban Promise of Camden to help provide meals to 600 individuals.  With that admission fee visitors get to taste every single pie that Johnson's Farm bakes on their premises--and trust me, it is more than just a few.

This year, we also had the treat of tasting meatballs and ziti from Roselli's Italian Market which is located just down the street from Johnson's.  Their sauce was divine, in fact, it was so delicious I literally could have slurped a cupful sans ziti or meat.

My favorite pie is still Johnson's sweet potato pie, though the apple lattice and cherry were tempting me to place them in first place.  Johnson's sweet potato pie has a lighter and more refreshing taste than the typical pumpkin pie--though I still wouldn't pass up a slice of their pumpkin if it was at my Thanksgiving dessert table.

Although the pie tasting was great fun, nothing could beat my Saturday afternoon spent in Hershey, PA listening to the rocking sensational tunes of Trans-Siberian Orchestra (TSO).  For a few years now I have been wanting to go to one of their concerts and finally Hubby made it happen, in spite of his personal preferences.

If you love Christmas and have never heard of TSO, please, do yourself a favor and immediately buy all their Christmas CDs. You will not be disappointed.

That is, unless you like frilly Christmas music that sounds like it belongs in the seventeenth century.  Don't get me wrong, I'm all about traditional Christmas music here and there, but sometimes an electric guitar screaming out Joy to the World is just the right touch to make Christmas come alive.

I was, of course, immediately inspired by their violinist who dramatically ran all over the stage playing his electric violin.  Although, I think for dramatic emphasis he allows his bow to become ridiculously broken of some of its hairs.  There is no way that the style or amount of notes he played would ever make so many hairs come loose from a bow.*

*Note: If you have no idea what I'm talking about--ignore my rant.

It was clear that the members of TSO are not merely musicians, but they are also entertainers.  They knew exactly how to involve the audience and get them hyped for each and every song they perform.

While there were five main performers (two electric guitars, one bass, one keyboardist, and the electric violin) there were also vocal soloists, backup singers, a small strings section, drummer, and another pianist.  I always wondered how one might become a part of the strings section (because, naturally life on the road at Christmastime is clearly one of the things I aspire towards---not!) and was interested to learn that they hire their strings section from the local symphony orchestra.  The group at our performance were part of the Pennsylvania Symphony Orchestra.

It was the perfect kick off to the start of the holiday season.  Don't hate me, but my Christmas tree has been up for a week now and my heart jumps a little in excitement when I drive by other homes with Christmas trees that sit beside windows shining proudly for all to see.

 

#95 He Plants Trees

This past Christmas my hubby bought me two Christmas trees.  Yes, treeS.  I ended up with four Christmas trees in my house and have concluded that it still wasn't enough.  

It's at Christmas time that I tend to find out who is as obsessed with Christmas as I am, and who just likes to have a few days off from work.  I'm usually the minority, but I've made my peace with it.     

In case you missed my Christmas post, here's what the live trees in my house looked like:

There is something special about a live tree at Christmas time.

There is something even more special about a live tree that you can plant in your backyard after Christmas is over.  We did this once before over the course of the six married Christmases we've had, but then took a little break because: a) we waited until it was too close to Christmas and potted Christmas trees were not to be found or b) we were lazy that year and just didn't do it at all.

We made up for it this year by buying two trees.

I'm absolutely in love with the long pine tree.  The other one is beautiful too, after all, it is exactly what a Christmas tree should be, but the long pine one is so rustic and romantic.

Speaking of rustic and romantic....

Hubby finally had the time to plant my trees for me.  The tree to the right in this picture is the one we planted a few years ago.  

Planting the trees was an eye opener to the sad state our backyard is in due to us simply ignoring it for the last....three years.

Reminder: Don't judge me.

While hubby planted the basic Christmas tree in the backyard, I pretended I knew what I was doing and tended to our little splotch of land beside our porch.  There were leaves, weeds, papers, cans, and all kinds of other wonders buried in that area.

Two pregnant trash bags later and the area was ready for hubby to plant the other tree.

Even with all that, I don't think the front area beat the jungle growing in our backyard.

It's pathetic.

Everyday I pray and thank God that my town doesn't issues tickets for people who have disgusting backyards.

The goal now is to try and fix the backyard up and perhaps even start a small garden.

I'm mad, I know.

To be continued?

#85 He Lets Me Keep the Decorations Up

My Christmas was wonderful.  So was my New Year's.  And I know it's already the 5th, but today is just as good as any to write about the holidays.

So there.

My Christmas always begins when my parents' neighbor brings over our Christmas countdown candle.  This year I actually burnt it every day.  Okay, I'll be honest.  I started slacking at the very end.

But that's a big improvement for me.

I put up my two fake trees back in November.  Then hubby took me to buy a real tree.

We couldn't resist this one.  It's so different.  So, Charlie Brown tree-ish.  But not.  The best part is we are going to plant it in the backyard when Christmas is all over...and in our house that might not be until Easter.

But, we needed a traditional Christmas tree too.  That's two, two real trees, ah, ah, ah.

Sorry, the Count from Sesame Street just possessed me.  I can't promise that won't happen again.

I've heard many theories that you don't truly love Christmas if you don't have a real tree.  I won't say my stance on the topic, but I'd like to just comment that those who don't have more than one tree might be in the same boat.

That's all I'm saying.

This is my fun tree.  The one where anything goes with the ornaments.

Like this one.  Hubby bought it for me this year.  My secret career aspiration, from when I was probably 10 or saw Apollo 13, whichever came first, was to be an astronaut.  Unfortunately, there are a lot of reasons why that would never work for me.  Number one being that I was never very good in science class.

Now this seems a little more appropriate for me.  I broke this ornament when I was unpacking it.  You can hardly tell, but those keys are being held on by hot glue.

Somehow, I'm lucky enough to be able to spread my Christmas out for three days.  This is all because I have a husband who thinks celebrating Christmas Eve Eve with me is fun, and not crazy.  So every Christmas Eve Eve, we wait until about 8 and open our presents to each other.

Isn't it beautiful?  I wish I had taken a picture of them all wrapped up too, because hubby tends to make them look like a piece of artwork.  But this looks just as good.  I let the living room sit like this well into the afternoon the next day.

Then I piled a similar looking situation into my car as we headed out to celebrate Christmas Eve with my side of the family.

Okay, hubby piled it all in the car.  I watched from the front door and cheered him on.

My mom recently started buying Christmas crackers for Christmas Eve.  If you've never done these before, be warned, they are strange.

And depending on the type of cracker, can be very addicting.  These crackers had whistles in them.  My SILs and I became absorbed in creating music with them once everyone else had grown tired.

My third day of Christmas, was spent with my in-laws, then my grandmother, then my in-laws again.  I don't think I could have asked for a better day.

Hubby and I decided to try a little bubbly for New Year's.  We rarely do this simply because we don't really know much about the varied world of alcohol.

This one seemed good enough as any.

Perhaps you've noticed the lone champagne flute next to the bottle.  As hubby was washing the champagne flutes from our wedding (A task that I thought to myself, "Perhaps I should do this.  Hubby is so strong like the Hulk, he sometimes doesn't know his own strength.  Something as delicate as a champagne flute may just crumble in his hands," yet I ignored my instincts and let him--translation: I was too lazy to stop him and do it myself) I heard a clang and then a, "I knew that was going to happen," come from the kitchen.

This kind of thing usually doesn't really bother me.  I'm sentimental, but I'm also realistic.  I have about a zillion other memories from my wedding that our champagne flutes being broken shouldn't really upset me.  But I guess I was feeling a little punchy, so I went into the kitchen and said sadly, "That was from our wedding!".

To which hubby topped my nonsense by saying, "You're from our wedding too.  At least you're still here,"

Boy oh boy, how I love this man.