Afterward we went to ICE! Even though it was over 80 degrees the day before, it finally felt like Fall and Thanksgiving. We also spent last year there too, and the theme was How the Grinch Stole Christmas. This year it was A Charlie Brown Christmas, which I love. I cried when I heard Charles Shultz died. It was fun to see the story carved in 2 million pounds of ice!

After Ice! we walked around the hotel and looked at all the beautiful decorations and trees, and all of the fun holiday themed activities there are to do. It definitely gets you into the holiday spirit.

I hope everyone had a wonderful, fun and eventful holiday with your families. I am pretty sure I am officially ready for Christmas! How about you?!

I took him to Benihana for dinner. It was the first time for both of us. We ended up being about 5 minutes late, and got our own personal table with a private chef/show!

We had chicken and shrimp, and it came with veggies, rice, soup and salad. I think the shrimp was probably my favorite part. Dave also got a special desert and the entire wait staff came out and sang Happy Birthday to him in both English and Japanese.

They also came and took a photo of us and presented it to us in a frame after the meal which I thought was pretty cool. I am looking forward to going back again soon to try something different.

The restaurant is in a trendy little shopping center and right outside is a really pretty fountain where there is a light show every few minutes. We walked around and took a few pictures. Here is Dave summoning the water with his powers.

Afterward we went to a movie and by the time we got home, all the kids were probably already in bed (or bouncing off the walls from sugar overload). Brownie dressed up in his costume, and we headed to bed. Luckily I had the next day off to recover from our busy weekend. I hope everyone had a great holiday!

We also threw quarters into the same place in the river that we do every year (you can see them glimmer in the photo below), in addition to took a photo in front of the lamp post as is tradition. We were sad to see that that they are renovating the River Walk Cafe, and next year it will be Tex-Mex restaurant instead of a buffet-style eatery.

We had a nice evening and are already looking forward to planning our holiday celebrations at the hotel. You can read about previous anniversaries I’ve posted about on this blog: 5th | 4th 3rd

It’s fairly apparent that the holidays are here. I admit I’ve been lazy about posting. We’ve been keeping busy with preparations and shopping. This year was the earliest year I’ve ever been out for Black Friday bargains. I drug my butt out of bed at 1:30 AM to stand in line in the cold at Old Navy in hopes of getting a free video game. Dave even experienced it with me for the first (and he says his last) time. We ending up abandoning the line and I shopped their same deals online later instead. We grabbed an early morning breakfast at IHOP, and made it in time to stand in line at Target and Best Buy as they opened to long lines and pandemonium. I even rolled into work at 7:00 AM after a full morning of hunting for deals. I. am. hard. core.

The day before we spent the afternoon at one of our favorite places, the Gaylord Texan, had brunch, and made our annual visit to the ICE! exhibit. This year the theme was How the Grinch Stole Christmas. We had this planned since before our anniversary trip in September, so I was really looking forward to it. It’s amazing to hear that it took the artists only a month to carve all of the creations featured. There is even a slide made entirely of ice. Of course Dave and I both had to take a turn! Here are a few photos, and the rest can be found on my Flickr stream.

I hope everyone is having a great December so far. I am looking forward to my full 8 days off from work coming up. I wasn’t expecting it, so that makes it extra special and exciting. I don’t have a lot of plans for posts coming up, but we’ll see what happens. Comments motivate me.

Later we drove down to San Antonio and had dinner with family. We made the trip to attend Carin’s baby shower on Sunday. She and Jeremy are expecting their little boy in October. David has affectionately named him “Lancelot” though Carin assures us that that will not be the name they select. She had a very nice shower hosted by her friend. Erin. She got a lot of really cute and fun gifts, including things for the nursery and a ton of adorable clothes.

Here is a photo of her cutting the yummy cake. The invitation was screened on top. I am now officially a fan of chocolate and cream chesse! Too bad we don’t have very many HEBs in our part of Texas. I haven’t had a cake that good in a long time, but we’ve been dieting so pretty much everything tastes fantastic.

We left later that night in order to make it home to rescue Brownie. Originally we were going to take him with us and stay through today, but we figured it might be a little easier on both us, and him too, if he was safe and at home. We put out three puppy pads and he actually only used one and made no other messes. We are proud doggie parents.

It was a fun (and fast) weekend. We got to see friends and family, plus I got to eat at two of my favorite TexMex restaurants. It doesn’t get much better! Oh, and I was only asked when we’re going to be next on the baby train less than a dozen times. I expected it to be much worse.

Hello Kitty, one of my favorite icons of childhood turns 34 today. It’s hard to believe she’s only 4 years older than I am. Is anyone else a big fan of Sanrio? Who is your favorite character? Are you geeky enough to know when they were born?

Happy Birthday, Hello Kitty… and you too, Elisabeth! ]]> http://laviedelaurie.com/2008/11/01/celebrating-34-years-of-cute/feed/ 2 http://laviedelaurie.com/2008/10/31/happy-birthday-dave/ http://laviedelaurie.com/2008/10/31/happy-birthday-dave/#comments Fri, 31 Oct 2008 07:20:45 +0000 Laurie http://laviedelaurie.com/2008/10/31/happy-birthday-dave/ Today is Dave’s 32nd Birthday! I know he doesn’t read my blog on a daily basis, but I wanted him to know how much I love and appreciate him. He is a wonderful and sweet husband who really takes care of me and makes me feel loved and special.

Tonight we are going to celebrate at Dave & Busters and tomorrow at PF Chang’s. We hope to get home in time to see some trick-or-treaters too, but we’ll see if that happens or not.

Today is our 4th Anniversary! It’s hard to believe it has been four years since D promised me the first cheese stick and sip of Cherry Coke. We celebrated tonight by going to a nice dinner at Texas Land and Cattle, followed by shopping for a piece of art for our living room wall. On Saturday we will be going to the Gaylord for our annual Murder Mystery Dinner Show experience.

Our niece Emma Grace turns 5 today! It seems like just yesterday she was a cute little baby, and now she’s such a pretty little girl. Uncle D and I hope you are having a very Happy Birthday!

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