Useful Souveniers

I'm sure I spelled souveniers wrong. If I wasn't so tired I'd open another window and check, but right now I'm just blogging. It's my blog so I can mis-spell if I want to. Probably shouldn't have hyphenated that. haha.

SO.... I am leaving for VEGAS in less than 48 hours!! YIPPEEE!!! Matt and I are headed out there to celebrate our TENTH ANNIVERSARY! Ten years. Count 'em. TEN! We actually went to Vegas for our honeymoon, and our 1 and 3 year anniversaries! Haven't been back for seven years, and off we go.

Before I get into the title of this post... I have to say that I have an old friend/classmate that lives in Vegas. His life seems a whole 'nother world to me. We'd talked about him meeting up with us on this trip. I said "well...i'm just not sure where/when we'd meet up. We don't really drink so I don't know that we'd meet for drinks. We don't go to clubs so we're not going to suggest we go clubbing on Friday night. And you eat at much fancier places than we can afford!" His first response was "well, why are you coming to Vegas then?"...lol.... I said "to escape!". Plus we like to gamble a bit, see the sites, go to a show, etc. You can have fun in Vegas without alcohol... I've done it three times! But anyways- I think we decided to meet for lunch...

Moving on.....!

Ten years ago, on our honeymoon, I wanted to find a souvenier that would be useful in our new home. I'm big into useful souveniers. While we have our share of kitschy knick-knacks and such, it's the useful things I've schlepped home over the years that I like the most. This being said, I do think whole-heartedly that t-shirts and sweatshirts are useful. Those of you who know me, know that I practically LIVE IN my Disney Cruise Line sweatshirt through the winter months. BUT...10 years ago in Vegas I was not in the market for a sweatshirt. I wanted something for our home.

If it hadn't been a crazy evening, and if I wasn't tired, and the house wasn't all dark for the night already, I'd insert a picture here. Of my Las Vegas trivet! I bought a trivet/spoon rest thingy on our honeymoon. It sits on the stove to this day. It's one of those painted square ceramic tiles with the cork on the back, and that souvenier has survived the test of time!! It's been covered in baked beans, hardened peanut brittle that drips off the candy thermometer during Christmas, spaghetti sauce...you name it. If I've cooked it, it's probably been on this trivet. Now, I have a standing spoon-rest with a little bowl on the bottom of it (Pampered Chef), so that catches a lot of the stuff dripping off whatever spoon I'm stirring with now, but the trivet still gets its fair share of mess since the spoon rest sits on top of it.

So I'm thinking about what I might bring back this time that would be a useful souvenier. Now I have kids to bring something home for. And we need to buy my in-laws something for taking care of those kids while we're gone (did I mention this is the FIRST get-a-way Matt and I have had alone since we had Brooke over 5 years ago?!!?). AND we're only doing carry-ons so it has to be something fairly small.

Some old family friends of mine, that I used to babysit for, always bought a magnet from every place they travelled to. The entire side of their fridge was covered. I always thought that was a pretty neat thing to get, but thus far have not started that particular tradition.

I'm not sure what I'll get, but when I see it I'll know it. Maybe I'll get salt and pepper shakers! :) Well, that would be dumb because I use those grinders with whole peppercorns and sea salt. But you get the idea. Something I can use. Something that will remind me of our 10 year anniversary trip!

In the meantime, what's your favorite souvenier to pick up when you're travelling? Or your favorite souvenier of all time? And if you think about it over the weekend, say a little prayer that we have safe travels, that the girls do good for the grandparents, and that we all have a great weekend!