As 2009 comes to a close along with the decade, a number of “Top 10″ lists are popping up.  Most of the one’s I’ve read focus on pop culture and the media.  Since this blog is about us, I’m going create my own list… “top 10″ moments of our lives together. Here the are, in chronological order:

1) January 11, 2003 – our skiing “date” at Whitetail Resort.  After much discussion, I agreed to go with Justin and Jingles for night skiing.  Not having ever successfully skied before, I really had no appropriate attire, so everything was borrowed from his sister.  While I waited in the Parmelee’s living room, I expressed my fears about getting off the chair lift to his father, who, reassuringly replied “as long as the chair doesn’t hit you in the back of the head, you’ll be fine!”    (thanks Les!)  As it turns out, I only had one attempt at this, after which we skied down and then back up hill in order to avoid the lift completely.

2) February 14, 2003:  As detailed in an earlier post, this was a significant date turned weekend adventure for us.  Snowed into my apartment in Frostburg, this weekend changed the course of our relationship.

3) Multiple Dates between January 2004- August 2005 – hosting parties/cookouts, etc. with our friends at Syracuse.  In spite of a rocky beginning and end of our time in Syracuse, we developed several strong friendships that have, to this day, endured time and distance.  My favorite memories of Syracuse involve our almost frequent get tog-ethers with our friends, usually at our apartment.  It was during that period of time that I realized how similar Justin and I are – we love to host a party, break out the grill, guacamole, some drinks and just enjoy the company of friends.

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It’s hard to believe that it’s December and we’re all gearing up for Christmas again!   We spent the Thanksgiving holiday in Merry-land with both families.  Our return on Boston on the 29th signaled the start to a busy month ahead.  Our flight left the BWI airport at 9:50PM and in the hours before our departure, we found ourselves in a not so random Columbia, MD bar with one of our favorite people Jim Ingles, also known as Jimmy James and Jingles.  We could not have ended our visit to Maryland on a better note; boarding the plane  full of good food, plenty of beer and still ripe with the giggles leftover from hysterically laughing our way through dinner.

For those of you who don’t know, “Jingles” was the person who encouraged Justin on to introduce himself to me.  He kept a watchful eye as our relationship progressed, smoothing over bumps in the road and steering my future husband in the right direction with his  relationship wisdom.  As we laughed away the last few hours of our Thanksgiving with Jim, I was reminded again, just how much his friendship means to us.  It’s funny how life hands us these little jolts of awareness occassionally.

Speaking of jolts – - shortly after our return to Boston, we packed our bags and headed to New York with Jon and Elizabeth to see the Radio City Rockettes!  It’s probably not hard to believe that seeing this production has been a lifelong dream of mine and so I was thrilled to be finally making the trip.  We left on Friday and spent the night in Stanford, CT where we found our hotel littered with college freshman who were attending some sort of holiday dance.  The four of us grabbed front row seats at the bar and watched in amazement as one teen after another paraded around the hotel lobby in 4 inch heels, mini dresses and bizarre top hats.  The sight was something akin to a Miss America pageant gone awry… and we were the judges, full of snarkey comments.    Much to the dismay of the other bar patrons, we stopped short of holding up signs that published our opinions.

The following morning we finished the drive to NY just in time for me to attend a baby shower for one of my good friends and her husband.  Folks, I learned a very important lesson that weekend – - surprise baby showers aren’t a good idea.  For one thing, women who are 9 months pregnant shouldn’t have to do anything that they don’t want to do… like wake up early on a Saturday and head to a surprise party in their pajamas.  And secondly… they deserve to eat whatever they want.

Despite all of the above, by the time 10PM rolled around that day, we were happily seated in our second balcony seats at Radio City Music Hall with 3-D glasses in place, ready to enjoy the show.  And, I was not disappointed. From beginning to end, the Rockettes appeared, completed their various dances in unison and belted out the most Christmas-y tunes you can imagine.  The 3-D portion of the evening was just a bonus.  :)

Sunday found we found ourselves gobbling up Dim Sum with Gary and touring what we hope is our future neighborhood… Park Slope, NY (Brooklyn).  Note to readers: Starbucks and Dunkin’ Donus have NOTHING on Gorilla Coffee. I enjoyed the best cup of coffee I’ve had since visiting a coffee plantation in Costa Rica.  Seriously folks, once they are a more commercial business, coffee competitors better get nervous.

We rounded out our time in NY with a final look at THE TREE and headed home feeling as though the season had been appropriately “kicked off.”  Now… on to the rest of the month!

A few pictures from the weekend in NY.