Christmas Par-Tays

It's no secret that we tend to love parties.  Granted, everyone has times when they'd rather sit at home watching a movie or reading a good book either alone or with family.  But we're people people.

It just so happened that the two Christmas parties we had on the calendar this year (church and work) were on the same night.  This posed several difficulties, the most difficult of which involved getting the kids home from the church and into bed without us being there so we could get to the work party.  But everything went smoothly.  The kids were actually thrilled to be riding home in the babysitter's car...  New is always more exciting.  I have a love/hate relationship with ward parties that involve an actual sit down meal with kids.  Mostly because I'd rather worry JUST about my family OR not worry about the kids and have the freedom to roam and visit.  But it seems I'm always just alert enough about my kids that I miss most the opportunities to visit and never seem to have anyone to sit by.  Oh, well.  We had a good time anyway.

They did have Santa visit and took FAMILY pictures - which I thought was a brilliant idea.  This one turned out very well.  It helped me feel more secure that I was all dressed up for the work party later in the evening.  And when you see the later pictures in the post, you will also be grateful that Michael agreed to wear the "work party sweater" only to the work party.  I'd forgotten there would be pictures and I'm VERY grateful that this was the case.

Anyhoo, the kids were sent home with the babysitter and we were off for a date night at the work party.  It was a cold night.  Michael is the only LDS person in his office.  He's a bit of a novelty for most of these guys.  We had to ask if they would have soda pop there for us.  Fortunately Michael's boss is very aware and had already purchased Dr. Pepper and water to get us through.  :)  Parties are very different outside of church.  This was the first party I've been too that served mainly alcohol.  People just stand around, drink a little, talk a lot about nothing in particular, drink some more, etc. until there's either no more to drink or somebody does something stupid enough to close the party down.  But I digress.
The day before an email was supposedly circulated that told everyone to dress as a character from "National Lapoon's Christmas Vacation" with Chevy Chase.  Neither of us had ever seen it.  But Mikey was determined to do his best.  This was what he came up with:

Yes.  That's my sweater.  And yes, he did the comb over with his hair.  Did you catch the wave with his bangs?

I told him that it was an early '90's movie.  He had to peg his pants.  And he looked at me like I was from Mars.  !!!!!  Seriously?  Did you never peg your pants?  Apparently not.  I guess being in the ranch lands of Texas makes you exempt from those sorts of fleeting fashions.  I think I pegged my pants from 4th grade until the middle of 8th grade.  I know.  I have a hard time letting go of some things.  :)  So I pegged his pants for him.

Out of the 40 or so people there he was one of four to dress up.  But it was a good conversation piece.  They all thought he looked the part!  Honestly, when he first came down with this gettup on I rolled my eyes and hung my head in shame every time I looked at him.  Then I got over it and myself and just laughed.  It never bothered him that I was bothered.  How lucky can I get?  I got a man that's secure enough with himself that clothing items/combos that make you stick out don't bother him!  This is exactly the kind of thing I was looking for in a husband (not the clothing part - the secure with himself part) and I got it.  By the end of the night I was seriously exhausted from all the noise and the talking, but so proud of him.  We hung out with one of the other AE's (Account Executive - that's Michael's title too) and his wife.  They are newly married even if they aren't terribly young.  But we've hit it off with them because their standards are very similar to our own.  We all drank water all night and when it was gone would jokingly ask, "Another round?"  It's nice to have someone there who appreciates you for your standards because they are trying to live that way too and finds that you have a lot in common.  The friendship is mutual.  And I'm very glad.

We were just pulling out to go home when I noticed a deer next to a tree that wasn't lit up and I wondered why.  Then it moved and I started!  There were 5-7 deer in this upscale neighborhood just grazing at the grass.  We tried to get a video, but it was too dark to make anything out.  I've lived in the west -Arizona, Idaho, Utah - my whole life and I don't think I've ever seen anything like that in the middle of a ritzy neighborhood. We just laughed about it for the next 5 minutes.