Things To Do For Two

This is date number six in our 12 Dates of Christmas series. Everybody has that thing that makes it “feel” like Christmas, whether it be Christmas goodies, Christmas movies, or being around friends and family. For us that thing is taking a drive around town and looking at all the houses decorated with lights for the holidays. This year we did it a little earlier than usual, but it might be worth doing twice.

SHE SAID:

Going for a drive to see Christmas lights was one of my favourite things to do when I was a kid. There was a subdivision the next community over from ours that used to have a Christmas lights competition that never let us down. We would all pile in the car and judge the houses and my dad would patiently drive as we screamed at him to slow down for certain houses.

There was one house in particular in Fall River that we always used to go to that was elaborately decorated with various cartoon characters and mountains of sparking lights. You could get out of your car and go into the “gingerbread house” (shed) to sign the guest book. Brad’s family used to take him there as well so we may very well have brushed shoulders as kids as we gazed upon the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and Mickey Mouse displays.

So far this year I have yet to be really impressed by anyone’s Christmas lights. In fact, I’m a little disappointed. I don’t think the problem is in the neighbourhoods we’ve picked or the time of night we go. I think the disappointment lies in the lights themselves. I think the switch over to LED Christmas lights is more pronounced now and there’s no ignoring the hideous blue glow anymore.

I get that LED lights burn less electricity and they’ll somehow stop the ocean waters from rising, but couldn’t the global warming geniuses have come up with something that has a bit of a warmer glow? There, I said it. Call me environmentally irresponsible, but I will never own or adorn anything with LED Christmas lights. If the dim bluish glow isn’t enough to whip you into a depression, the manner in which they bug your eyes out surely will.

That being said, there are a few homes that still hang the so called “old fashioned” lights up and even though half the paint is chipping off the lights they’re still my favourite houses to visit.

Even though the lighting fashions have changed, I still enjoy grabbing a cup of hot cocoa (the peppermint hot chocolate with whipped topping from Second Cup is the best!), putting on some Christmas tunes in the car and driving lazily around town to see the sparkling lights.

HE SAID:

A few years ago my family and I went to Florida for Christmas. We all had visions of basking in the hot sun on Christmas day while all our friends and relatives froze back home. Instead we got rain, rain, and more rain. We made the best of it though and it is now a Christmas I will never forget.

One of the best memories of that trip was from Christmas Eve. Our tradition when we’re home is to jump in the car on Christmas Eve and go look at all the homes that have been decorated. It’s sort of like the final thing that makes it “feel” like Christmas. We didn’t want to lose the tradition just because we were in Florida that year, so we jumped in the car and drove around looking at Christmas lights. We were staying at my grandmother’s place where there are a lot of seniors in the area. Let’s just say they put us Canadians to shame when it comes to lights. They go all out.

We actually tried this date twice since the first time didn’t really work out. We thought it would be fun to drive to a really nice part of town where all the super rich people live. My assumption was since they have all kinds of money, they would go all out with the festive decorations. Not so my friends, not so. Maybe in these tough economic times they thought they would be rubbing their wealth in the faces of the rest of us if they got carried away, I don’t know. If that is the reason, I think it’s a poor one since their huge mansions do a nice enough job of exhibiting their wealth. Regardless, there was hardly a light to be seen.

Our second attempt was a little closer to home and it was much nicer. It’s fun to see the new trends every year that people try out. A few years ago everybody bought those reindeer made of lights, and another year it was the icicle lights hanging from every surface on the houses. This year it seemed like a lot of people used the same company, Christmas Decor, where you buy the decorations and you pay them to do all the work. It’s easy to tell which houses used them because the roof lines were all perfectly outlined in white lights.

Although it wasn’t Christmas Eve, I still had a lot of fun looking at Christmas lights this year. I actually saw a neighborhood I had no idea existed, even though I lived five minutes away for most of my life. It’s a great way to explore the town you live in, get in the Christmas spirit, and spend time with someone you love. Truth be told, we enjoy it so much we’ll probably do it again on Christmas Eve.

This is date number five in our 12 Dates of Christmas series. One of the best things about the holidays is all the great food that seems to be everywhere you look. The smell of delicious, freshly baked cookies makes a cold winter night a little more pleasant. So we decided to do some Christmas baking and decorating.

SHE SAID:

Every year I plan on cutting down on the Christmas baking, and every year it seems I add one more baked good to my list. This year I really wanted to enter John Mayer’s Interfaith Holiday Baking Competition, and I still might, but I have yet to find the time or inspiration that John deserves. Sorry, John.

I like to bake, but I rarely take the time to do it. When Christmas rolls around, I usually make the mistake of trying to fit it all into one day. This year was no different.

Unless you have the energy level of the energizer bunny, I would not recommend attempting more than one baked good on your date. In fact, I might spread out the baking and the decorating over two days.

Baking can be pretty fun, but my favourite part in the process is the decorating. I think Brad would agree. This year during my baking supplies shopping at Michael’s I found these cute little sugar pearls that I think take your decorating from okay to semi-impressive. I also bought some new snowflake cookie cutters. It’s nice if you can have a variety of cookie cutters so that boredom doesn’t set in. That being said, sometimes it’s nice to stick to one shape and alternate designs.

If baking is not your thing but you’d still like to give decorating a try, buy some undecorated cookies from the grocery store, pre-made icing and sprinkles and you’ll be good to go.

HE SAID:

One of our favorite TV shows is Cake Boss on TLC. We both love watching Buddy create the most elaborate, beautiful, and not to mention edible creations. Though I now know what fondant and modeling chocolate are thanks to Cake Boss, watching a show does not an expert make.

Susan mercifully spared me from the actual baking portion of the evening, probably for her own sanity more than kindness towards me. Whatever the reason, I’m glad she let me sit on the sidelines. She turns into a machine when she gets baking. There’s screaming and shouting coming from the kitchen, a cloud of flour dust in the air, and a few panic attacks, but in the end she always walks away with a Costco sized amount of baked goods.

When it was time to sit down and decorate, I felt pretty confident. How hard could it be to put icing on cookies and make them look nice?

I started easy with a star shaped gingerbread cookie. I just outlined it with icing and then put a sugar pearl in the center. As soon as I tried to get a little fancy by adding another outline of icing it all went bad. I then moved on to the stocking shaped ginger bread cookies. They were nice and easy. My favorite part of the night, my crowning achievement, is my little Himmery (our cat) gingerbread cookie. I’m not sure what the cookie was supposed to be shaped like, but it looked like a good candidate for a cat to me.

Let’s face it, I’ll never be on Cake Boss. My cookie decorating skills leave much to be desired. That said, it was actually more fun than I expected. There was one minor issue though. I know I’ve mentioned this before, but I’m really not a fan of getting my hands dirty. So when I got icing all over my hands while decorating, I was not pleased. In fact, I may have panicked a little inside. Thankfully there was a glass of water near by, so I dowsed my hands and kept going.

If you’re with someone who is really easy going, and you’re pretty easy going yourself, go ahead and try the actual baking part of this date together. Otherwise, do what we did and let the more experienced (and particular) of the two of you do the baking and then decorate together. Remember to just have fun with it. When things go bad, just go with it and see what happens. We would love to hear your Christmas baking stories. What is your favorite holiday treat?

This is date number four of the 12 Dates of Christmas. Watching Christmas movies is one of our favorite holiday traditions. There’s nothing better than settling in on a cold winter night and watching a movie that reminds you of all the good times that come with Christmas. This year we decided to watch Elf. Though it wasn’t an easy decision to make, the night turned out just fine in the end.

SHE SAID:

Every year since we’ve been married we’ve had the tradition of adding a new Christmas movie (or two) to our collection. I’m sure we’ll eventually run out of good ones, but so far in our collection we have Home Alone, National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation, The Holiday and the original How the Grinch Stole Christmas movie.

This year was a bit of a battle of the sexes as I wanted to buy The Santa Clause and Brad wanted to purchase Elf. Since I weaseled my way into getting The Holiday last year, I graciously agreed to his choice.

Elf is one of those movies that I originally hated and now like more and more every time I watch it. I’m not sure where my initial hatred stemmed from, but I think it had something to do with having no prior Will Ferrell appreciation. Brad, on the other hand, has loved Elf since day one, when Zooey Deschanel first appeared to him on screen and changed his life forever.

Elf is actually a pretty funny movie and I’ll watch it any day over A Christmas Carol. That movie is a glorified Christmas horror film that will NEVER make it’s way into my collection…unless maybe if it’s the Muppet’s version.

One movie that I have been trying to get my hands on is a cartoon that aired on CBC back in the 80’s called Bluetoes: The Christmas Elf. I know you can get it on YouTube, but if anyone out there knows of where you can buy it on DVD please let me know!

Our movie date started out pretty well, but ended as many of our mid-week movie dates do – me asleep within the first half hour. I made the mistake of lying down and not eating to keep my brain awake and turned into a limp, unconscious figure. Clearly, I was not a very good date. Learn from my mistakes.

HE SAID:

One of the traditions that my family started during the last few years I lived at home was to watch a Christmas movie on Christmas Eve just before we went to bed. We didn’t just watch any Christmas movie, no no. We watched National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation. I love that movie. Sure, I don’t laugh as hard as the first time I saw it, but it still gets me every time.

Susan and I don’t have a specific day that we like to watch Christmas movies on, but instead our tradition is just to buy and watch a new Christmas movie until we run out of ones we’re interested in. I won the battle this year and got Elf. I would imagine this is a love it or hate it kind of movie. I think Will Ferrell’s silliness is perfect in this movie as he plays a human who was raised as an elf. Of course the best part of the movie is Zooey Deschanel, who lights up the screen (and my heart) with every scene she is in.

Anyway, I love watching Christmas movies. For me it’s one of the best ways to get into the Christmas spirit. I remember as a kid being incredibly excited when we would catch a Christmas special on TV.

I think some of my favorite Christmas specials are ones that I can’t find anymore, except on YouTube. Last night I came across the Sesame Street Christmas Eve special. I used to have the audio of it on cassette when I was a kid and I remember listening to it when I went to bed. I also remember enjoying Raggedy Ann & Andy Great Santa Caper, A Muppet Family Christmas, and Babar and Father Christmas.

Watching a Christmas movie is a great date idea. There’s no better way to bring two people together than through a classic movie you both enjoy. It might be a good idea to have a festive treat to eat and to make sure it’s not too late at night if you’re like us and tend to fall asleep easily.

Since our collection includes two copies of Home Alone on DVD, we thought it would be fun to give one copy away to you. Here’s how to win:

The Prize: 1 copy of Home Alone on DVD

How to Enter: Leave a comment on this post about your favorite Christmas movie. Make sure to include your email address so that we can contact you if you win.

Fine Print: Contest closes Friday, December 11th at 2pm ADT (that’s tomorrow, so be quick!) and is open to Canadian and U.S. readers. If you are chosen as a winner we will message you to find out your shipping address. You then have 72 hours to respond to our message.

Winner: We have a winner! The winner of the Home Alone DVD is Cali. I’ll be contacting you shortly. Thanks to everyone who entered.