is there more fun to be had than countdowns?

...but is there anything more fun then squeezing every last drop of anticipation out of an upcoming event by counting that thing down?  Over here at Team Studer, we're going to go with Nah, there isn't.

We love us some countdowns, we do countdowns for anything and everything in the upcoming future that us parents accidentally mention too early which then causes our sweet, curious children to ask incessantly on the half hour daily "Is it time now?"

And so, as we now have sufficiently stuffed ourselves with delicious turkey and thanksgiving merriment - it is time to move into the holiday season.  Which means our favorite jolly elf friend, Marco arrived again at our house on November 30, under the tree in a sparkly box all the way from the North Pole with a note from Santa.  best.day.ever.

We have been talking Marco up for the past few weeks actually, because Grey could barely stand himself in how much he was hoping Marco would come stay with us again.  He's mentioned quite a few times (read: approximately 7500 times) which of Marco's antics are his favorites (underwear in place of stockings -obviously; potty humor never goes unappreciated in our house).  So, with Greyson's favorites in mind and a little help from Pinterest - I've created another 24 days of Marco Mania in our house for 2014.

If you're a regular around here, you already know that we do Elf on the Shelf a little differently than the book goes - so Marco has spent his last two days here with us in the arms of my kids most of the time.  He's sort of like just another person in our family and we find him all over the house participating in our normal routines; at the dinner table, watching movies with the kids, and snuggling up at naptime.  Marco is our Christmas Countdown helper and someone that helps our kids to remember kindness, patience, and love is what the season is about.

While I was thinking about Marco and his tricks a few weeks ago, I got to thinking about how much effort goes into the whole countdown.  Every night, setting up these little scenes and making sure I have the accessories for each on hand for the right day.  I mean, it's not elaborate or anything but it is an effort and such a fun way to make it through the crazy weeks leading up to the season....and I got to thinking....Sheesh, what if we put this much effort into something special for Brandon and I every night?

And thus, our grown-up advent countdown was born.    This is not revolutionary - see this beer advent calendar, this sexy one, and this lotto ticket one.  But it is for us because we are notorious for putting our alone time dead last (like laster than last).

So - Quick, funny story -
B texted me last week "I have a surprise for you tonight" and I literally thought, "oh, I hope it's a chance to get an uninterrupted, unnecessarily long hot shower when he gets home and we go to bed early."  not.kidding:  this is my current fantasy with three kids under the age of 5.  super sexy.

Anyway, the surprise was actually our first solo dinner out at a fancy-ish restaurant in a reeeeeally long time (i'm talking like months...a year?  oh God).  So, I put on a dress and heels (!!!), ya know the whole nine yards, Gigi&Pappy watched the kids (thank you!) and just the two of us got to go to a restaurant where the floor wasn't sticky and there were no kid's menus.  it was delightfully disorienting.

Then the waiter comes over and starts telling us the specials using phrases like "pan-seared" and "resting on a bed of arugula" and I kid you not, I was smiling so wildly that I was near the point of giggling.  The 'Shouldn't laugh in church but now I can't stop' sort of stuff...all because I was honestly holding back moans of ecstasy at the sound of grown up food that I wasn't in charge of making and that no one was going to try to steal from my plate.  It was ridiculous. There must be a stay-at-home-Mom specific version of Stockholm's syndrome...no?

Okay - Back to our grown up advent calendar
It's super duper fancy and elaborate.

just kidding.
it's on post-it notes
and we had one rule: we aren't allowed to buy anything new to complete the activities.

The point is to set aside time after kid bedtime to do something together that we don't normally make time to do.  Some of the activities are short & sweet:  hand massages for each other, or slow dance to our wedding song - and some more time consuming like a game of scrabble with wine or our favorite Christmas movie and popcorn.

Tonight?  I'm taping The Voice to watch while we enjoy a beer together on the couch when he gets home from practice :)

Is your family fans of countdowns too?
Yes?  How are you counting down the season?