Celebrating.

When a day consists of celebrating, spending time with family, wrapping presents, Christmas movies, baking cookies, fried lasagna, a glass of wine, and oreo cheesecake ice cream... it's pretty much the best day ever.

Yesterday my parents celebrated their 36th wedding anniversery. 

THIRTY. SIX. YEARS. 

I'm saying. 

So we did what anyone else would do. We headed out for some classy Italian food.

Love.

There was wine...

Delicious fried things... 

Oh that? Fried lasagna bites with alfredo sauce, marinara, and Parmesan cheese. No biggie.

P.S. I kind of really love calamari and definitely ate it with that spoon.

Relax. I ordered a salad too.

My parents have an anniversary tradition of going out for ice cream after dinner every year too so even though it was forty degrees and the wine went straight to my head and made me ate three or four two breadsticks... we headed out for some more sugar.  

Thirty-six years of marriage. Plus we were celebrating something else too... but I'll tell you about that tomorrow. 

The point is: sometimes you just deserve a scoop of Oreo cheesecake ice cream and a scoop of this.

In case you can't read that, it says: "Go dashing through the snow with butter caramel ice cream, chocolate chip blondie brownie pieces and milk chocolate mousse ice cream swirled with a fudge crackle ribbon."

I know. I can't even wrap my mind around what that is, but I ate it and I think it changed my life.

I was really excited to be able to pay for most of the meal using Serve, a new digital payment platform from American Express. Usually splitting bills or paying a friend back for ordering all those John Mayer concert tickets on their credit card is complicated. It requires a lot of math or a trip to the bank or nearest grocery store, where you're forced to decide between buying Twix or Kit Kats in order to get cash back. Then you have to break that $20 to get exact change, probably by buying more chocolate... and then your pants don't fit.

Serve makes it easy. Once you set up an account and verify it, get this: you can email money to your friends from your phone or computer. No stress. No splitting up the bill. No pile of credit cards. No math. When we got home from dinner, I simply typed in my dad's email address, sent him the money, and within in a few seconds, it was deposited into his account. From there he had the option to leave it in his account or withdraw it to his banking account (takes 2-3 days)/request it as a check (takes 5-7 days).

Simple. Super easy.

And P.S. It's all free.  

Happy anniversery, Mom & Dad! Thanks for getting married and being the best parents ever. 

... even if you cut me off after one glass of wine.

As part of the Foodbuzz Tastemaker Program, I received a $250 stipend to try Serve from American Express. Sign up for Serve and receive $10 credit towards your first use. Comment below within the next 7 days for your chance to win an extra $100 credit to your account! Official sweepstakes rules and regulations may be found here.