Blake and I have spent quite a few other Christmases together as a dating couple, but this year was our first time to have our first official married Christmas together! It was a really special holiday season celebrating the birth of Christ. One of my favorite traditions that we experienced this year was Advent at church. It was such a great time reflecting on anticipation and hope of God sending His son to earth in the form of a man. It truly prepared my heart for the season and what it is truly about.
We have had a tradition during the last couple of years to have a "Holidate" together. This year, my sweet husband, took me to see the Nutcracker after a nice dinner at La Condessa, a restaurant we have been wanting to try. Blake had never been to the Nutcracker before. My favorite post ballet comment was, "Those guys have an easy job; how hard is it to life a 90 pound girl? The hardest thing those guys have to do is wear those tights!" He's a funny one. I enjoyed the show and it certainly got me in the spirit of the holidays. La Condessa was delish! If you go - I highly recommend their ceviche.
We also enjoyed a few holiday parties, including a progressive dinner block party, a white elephant gift exchange with our Gospel Community Group and each had a company party to enjoy. No wonder December flew by! We also had fun decorating our home together. It was fun to combine some of the decorations that we have each been passed down from our families. One of our generous neighbors loaned us their Christmas tree and with some help from my mom we pulled together some decorations for a woodland inspired tree. I'm still enjoying how it turned out and how festive it looks around here. B also did a wonderful job decorating the outside of the house with luminarias and big bulb white lights. Watching Elf while we decorated makes any task more fun!
We headed home to our parents' a few days before Christmas with wrapped presents and several batches of cookies in tow. It was a relaxing few days spent taking walks, prepping for the holiday meals, heading to the movies, playing with cousins and wrapping a few more gifts. Our families bless us in such a big way since they make it so easy on us to get from one house to another during the holidays without missing out on too much.
For Christmas eve we had dinner with my aunt and uncle and Tommy joined our family too. We had fabulous BBQ Shrimp. I hope this becomes our new tradition! Afterwards, the Parrish, Moseley and Erwin families came over for desserts, coffee and Brandy Alexanders. YUM! It was so nice to have everyone together. We made it all the way to 11pm (after a few cups of coffee) for church at KUMC, then headed to bed with Sugar Plums dancing in our heads!
Christmas morning might have been one of my favorite memories of our trip home. Dad woke us up with the traditional Winter Wonderland medley. He handed us each a spoon and we danced around the house. Blake was a bit overwhelmed, but he caught on fast :). We dug into our stockings and had traditional breakfast casserole and Blake's family's Cream Cheese Bread as we unwrapped gifts.
We quickly cleaned up and then headed to the Parrish's. We were excited to not miss Paul and Whit before they had to leave and we all opened our gifts together. It was so sweet of them to wait so I could enjoy watching them open their gifts (that's my favorite part!). Another treat was the fact that the Brown family joined us for Christmas Dinner. I've never had the chance to celebrate with a friend before and it was so great to catch up! We had an incredible meal and spent a relaxing afternoon sitting around the table chatting.
Next we headed to Don and Jill's house for my family's dinner. The kids were going crazy over their new toys and loving playing with their cousins. Too cute. I missed my cousins and it was great to have a chance to chat and hear what's been going on with them. The Parrishes came over (grandparents too!) afterwards to taste test our cookies and watch some football while some of the boys sat by the fire.
We were exhausted by the time 9pm rolled around and headed home to relax and go to bed. It was such a nice day overall. I will cherish our very first Christmas together!
Maybe these relaxing shades of grey with a little bit more of a modern twist (mixed with my must-have anthro style, minus too many girly touches). I'm trying my best not to make it overly feminine for my new hubby! I have a tendency to love things to be fresh, flirty and floral - that just screams masculine, right? Ohh the fun this will be!
