12 Dates of Christmas

When Joey and I were dating and first married, I made him an advent calendar each year.  Some years it was a fun treat for each day of December.  One year it was cheap glass bulb ornaments that he could break each morning, filled with candy and love notes.  It was fun little way to show him a glimpse of how much I love him.  However, as life got busier and we moved to places without craft stores (imagine, no Michaels in Kabul), the advent calendar kinda dropped off my radar.  This year, I decided I would revive and remodel the tradition and have made 12 DATES for Christmas.  I thought it would be a fun way to cross #22 off my 30 before 30 list.  Some of the dates are really simple, some are pretty extravagant (like #1 and #2), some are double dates, some include our cute little 3rd wheel, and a few of them I'm not even going on.  I can't go into much more detail because my husband is one of my most faithful blog followers (love you, Lover!), and I don' want to spoil the upcoming surprises.  But our first two dates helped me mark a few more items off the list, so I'll gladly share about them.

The date started the night by dropping Aurelia off at Yaya and Nono's.  She sure does love them, and I sure am thankful for them!  Then we drove up to Seattle.

We ate here in the International District:

Thanks for the recommendation, Zach Cheney.  Samurai Noodle was very tasty.  We got the Tonkatsu and Tampopo.





















Then we wondered through Uwajimaya Asian grocer.  Joey and I have traveled a lot and seen a lot of things.  Uwajimaya reminded us that there is still SO MUCH MORE TO SEE!  Here is a look of overwhelmage:

After seeing a thousand different green teas and ramen bowls, we ran down town to pick up this guy:

This photo is outdated and titled:
Conquistador; I've come to conquer your lands.

Yep, date #1 converted into a double date with Team Rhoades.  Zach is one of Joey's closest friends and we love spending time with them.  We met up with Lolo at Big Time Brewery and waited approximately 60 minutes for a cheese pizza that tasted a little like movie popcorn (second dinner).  But I hear the brews were good.



















And our next stop was the main event of the first date of Christmas.  We headed to The Neptune for a Pickwick concert.  Are you familiar with Pickwick?  If you're not, you should be.  And if you're not, you probably will be soon.  Although I honestly only know about them because Joey and Zach are friends with the lead guitarist.  My husband keeps me in the know.  Check out these two videos and prepare to wait with the rest of the world for the release of their first studio album:



Pickwick - Blackout (Suzzallo Reading Room) from Tyler Kalberg on Vimeo.



Live From The Basement - Pickwick from Sound on the Sound on Vimeo.

Great stuff, right?  It was a very fun show.  And I've decided that concerts are a bit like tattoos or some other addictive habit.  I haven't been to a show in so long, now I want to go to one every weekend.  Maybe this one.  Unfortunately, 9:00 PM in Seattle means overnight babysitting and a very late night for a very pregnant lady.  Oh well, I'll just stick with my ipod for now.

Then we headed back to the Rhoades place where I got 7 hours of sleep for the first time in 15 months. . . but that deserves a post of its own.