A Return of the Weekend of US

With Mr. Spice getting his MBA full time and working over 50 hours a week, our, scratch that, his weekends are no longer weekends, but more of the same- eat, sleep, work, study.

It's been that way since August really, and besides the couple Sunday morning coffee shop visits and early bird dinners (so he can get back and study), we've had no real time just for us.

This came and bite us in the ass in a few ways. One, with both got sick; Mr. Spice even came down with the flu. And two, well, we did what most couples do with little time and no energy- we got in a fight. A fight that took over seven hours in the car (I vow to never drive to LA again) and a late night pillow session to figure out the problem.

Maybe obvious to everyone else, but we needed more quality US time. The time where you actually sit and talk during dinner rather than watching TV, the kind where you do something enjoyable and fun with the peeps around you.

So in between two study groups for Mr. Spice and him working Saturday, we finally got in some much deserved weekend 'US' time in.

We kicked it off with my favorite Friday night: Wine and Cheese. No TV. Just Us.

Left over wine from our wedding with our new olive dish and some halfheartedly hung holiday lights:


I wish I had gotten a better pic of the before, but here's the after:


And of course, we couldn't complete the meal without something sweet:

Peppermint Bark, a holiday favorite in our house.

Sat included some amazing Japanese noodles and watching the fantastic movie- the Fantastic Mr. Fox.

Sunday morning we woke up bright and early (well, 1oish) to go hang with our 3-year-old niece.

We bundled her up and went searching for an appropriate Chrismukkah Tree. Even though this was only Mr. Spice's second year tree shopping, he now views himself as a resident expert. So while he was searching for an appropriate tree, Gracie and I were having our own fun with Grace-sized-trees.


Finally, he called us over to pick between a red or yellow tagged tree, and despite the fact that Grace's favorite color is yellow- we picked the tree with the red tag:

Doesn't Mr. Spice look like the best Uncle in this pic??

And after paying for and getting the tree in the car (which was quite the task):


We went and warmed ourselves up with some Hot Coco:


And that's how we took a little bit of time this weekend to return to being us!!

Do you ever need to stop and reboot?