and a Playstation 3!

In our household, it was a video gaming kind of Christmas.  It actually started on Christmas eve, when I bought a PS3 for S.  He has been wanting one for a while and was totally psyched.  I also got him the game he wanted – Modern Warfare 2.  I pretty much watched him play three hours straight that night.  I’m not sure if this will be a blessing for our relationship, or a curse…

For my Christmas present?

A Wii balance board!  What for?  For the other half of my present:

I was totally psyched for this game.  I love Jillian Michaels, and recently bought the 30-day Shred dvd which I haven’t opened yet.  I think that is going to be a part of my New Years resolution

So S and I tried it out.  It is fun… jumping logs, driving a hand car, dodging punching bags, etc.  It got me warm, no doubt.  But I only did it for 10 minutes or so.  No biggie?  So I thought.  But when I woke up on Friday morning, I was sore!  I could totally feel it in my hamstrings and inner thighs.  I couldn’t believe it!  Here I was, thinking my legs were Gladiator-strong from all of my running and stepmill.  But 10 minutes of Wii left me sore for 2 days.  You’d better believe I will be doing this workout more often!

So we are now an official video game household.  It’s funny, because growing up we were never allowed to have video games so I never really played them or saw the big deal.  I didn’t understand why all my friends wanted to play them all the time.  Occasionally I would like to play Donkey Kong or Super Mario Brothers when I went over to a friend’s house, but that was rare and I usually got antsy pretty quickly and wanted to go play outside or do something else.  Oh, look at me now!

Christmas morning, as I mentioned in my last post, S and I woke up ready to take a short road trip.  We just planned to go for one night, which might not sound like much, but we have never just gone somewhere within driving distance, gotten a hotel room for the night, and just completely relaxed.

I must say, it came at a much needed time.  We have been fighting a lot lately – work, cats, home, holidays and family stress have combined and we have let it take a toll on our relationship.  We have been living together for four months now, and it hasn’t been easy.  In addition, I am really feeling pressure from both of our families (direct and indirect) for us to get engaged.  My younger sister just got married in October, and my second youngest sister announced recently that she and her boyfriend were ring shopping and planned to get engaged soon too.  So I am the oldest in the family… and will likely be the last one to get married.  In addition, Stephen’s uncle (who is a little older than us) announced this weekend that he and his girlfriend will marry in 2010 as well.  S’s parents and my parents said almost the exact same thing when we called each of them this weekend.

Oh… we thought you were going to tell us you were engaged.

And then….

So… when do you think that will happen?

ARGHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!

Anyhow, the trip was a much needed quick escape for both of us.  I quickly toasted a cinnamon raisin bagel as we headed out the door.

We started driving south to our destination, San Luis Obispo.  I have heard it was a beautiful place, plus it was just about the right distance away (3 hrs or so) to be an enjoyable drive and not too far.

On the way down, we drove leisurely and looked at some beautiful overlooks and sights.

It was sunny and gorgeous outside.  We made a pit stop for lunch, where I had a chicken caesar salad:

Throughout the afternoon, as we drove and stopped, looked and talked, I snacked on some randoms.

We got there just for the last hour of daylight.  We checked into the hotel and looked around – it was really nice.

There was an outdoor pool that people were swimming in, even though it was really cold outside!  They were actually jumping back and forth between the pool and the hot tub, but I still think they were crazy.

It was so nice to just relax.

As the sun was setting, we went on a walk to explore the area.  The hotel was right next to Laguna Lake Park, so that was where we headed.  We walked and watched the sun set over the lake.

It was wonderful.  We walked back to the hotel, but couldn’t find a single place that was open to eat dinner.  Even the grocery stores were closed so we couldn’t pick something up.  Yeah… guess we should have thought ahead a little more since we were traveling on a holiday.  But we decided that not planning and just deciding what we felt like doing at the spur of the moment would be more fun and relaxing and a real getaway.

We finally managed to find the only restaurant open.

It was……

DENNY’S!

I’m no high maintenance girl, so I was fine with it.  I know that a lot of people are probably going to be ashamed of me but I’m ok with it.  Being raised Jewish, we never really did a big Christmas dinner or get-togethers anyways (unless I went over to a friend’s house.)  So I was happy as a clam to have this.

Sorry, no pictures.  We ate breakfast in bed, in the hotel room.  It was the perfect Christmas in California dinner!

To cap off the night, we went to go see The Blind Side.  I have been wanting to see that movie ever since it came out.  I have loved every football movie I have ever seen, and this was no exception!  It was so good.

Ok, now it is time to enjoy the rest of my night.  I am so happy.  Merry Christmas to all!