Happy new year!! Can you believe it is already 2017?! Pretty sure we just celebrated new year 2016 … what the? I hope everyone had a fabulous Christmas, Hanukkah .. whatever holiday you celebrate … and new year!
The holidays are huge in our household. I am married to Mr. Christmas, after all. We celebrate HARD, pretty much every day, beginning November 1 and continuing through January. I don’t think there has ever been an adult couple who drives around to see more Christmas lights, visits Starbucks for red cups full of holiday cheer, or watches more cheesy Lifetime and Hallmark Christmas movies than us, and I am perfectly okay with it. I wanted to share some of the highlights from the holidays with you, so instead of doing several separate posts I figured I’d share a little recap with you right here (via lots of photos, of course). Despite not being able to eat the brie and drink all of the delicious cocktails and caffeinated espresso drinks, it was a lot of fun rocking the baby bump over the holidays. I’m glad baby Daisy got to be a part of all of our festivities <3.
We kicked off the holiday season by picking out our Christmas tree the first weekend of December. To most people, this would be a 20-30 minute process. To Jimmy, it’s an hour-and-a-half process. We probably walked about two miles throughout the small pop-up tree farm, looked at and touch every single tree, and every single one of the guys working there knew us by name by the end of it. They even gave us a discount since we “worked so hard” to pick out the perfect tree. But it was absolutely perfect, and looked beautiful once it was all decorated. My favorite tree of ours to date!
To no one’s surprise, I’m sure, we went straight home to decorate the tree and make the rest of our house puke Christmas (and I gave Jimmy free reign of the outdoor lights). Do you spot the “major award” in the front window? It’s Jimmy’s most prized possession.
We celebrated the marriage of our wonderful friends, Amanda and Alex, at a beautiful Christmas wedding in Ponte Vedra, FL on December 3rd. Everything was absolutely beautiful, and they did a great job of getting everyone in the holiday spirit with their glitzy red decor and ear-to-ear smiles the entire night. I also had the privilege of doing the makeup for the bride and her party, which made it extra special!
The next weekend we headed to Savannah for a packed 2.5 days: maternity photos, my baby shower, and a night downtown Savannah to celebrate our 2nd wedding anniversary a few days early, which was full of holiday decor and sight-seeing. While having our maternity photos taken, I had our photographer snap a few Christmas-y pictures so we could use one for our Christmas card :). (P.s. More on our maternity photos come very soon!)
For our actual anniversary on the 13th, we headed out for a date night and a little activity I will never forget. The gift for your 2nd anniversary is cotton, so Jimmy took me to Build-a-Bear so we could create a custom stuffed animal for our little Daisy. We’d recorded her heartbeat on a heart-shaped recorder at my doctor appointment a few days earlier, so after picking out and stuffing her monkey (Jimmy’s favorite animal), we put the heart inside the monkey so we can always hear the sound of her heart beating inside my belly. It was the best gift I could have received. After that, we enjoyed a delicious Italian dinner at one of our favorite places to go this time of year, Maggiano’s (it always looks so festive and feels so cozy).
Trans-Siberian Orchestra comes to town every year in December and we used to always go, but we haven’t been in two years. My mom has loved TSO since I was a kid and has always wanted to see them live, so we surprised her with tickets to the show for her birthday. She and my sister drove down from Savannah that evening, and Jimmy and I joined them for a night of holiday rock music and a killer light show. My mom’s ear-to-ear smile didn’t dissipate once during the show, and I’m pretty sure she was on the edge of her seat cheering the whole time – it was the best gift we could have given her!
It’s not Christmas without our annual Tacky Christmas Sweater and Dirty Santa Gift Exchange Party! This year was our biggest turnout, everyone wore tacky sweaters, and the gift exchange was tons of fun. Nothing says Christmas like a hot chocolate bar, a crazy cat sweater, and winning your very own Bingo wheel!
We spent Christmas weekend in 70-something-degree weather with my family in Georgia, which was chaotic and so much fun, per usual. We headed up Friday when Jimmy got off work and stayed at my mom’s. Saturday morning, my mom, sister, two nieces and I went out for manicures, made a gingerbread house, then we all headed downtown for a Christmas Eve dinner. We got home in time to open our sexy Christmas PJs from mom, make cookies for Santa, and leave him a note before the girls went to bed. We got an early 7 a.m. Christmas wake-up call and all headed to the living room to see what Santa brought the girls, which was followed by four hours of opening gifts and a break for brunch. Jimmy likes it to last as long as possible, so we have to go around and open gifts one at a time so everyone can see what we get. Told you – Mr. Christmas!
After a little R&R, we headed to my dad’s for Christmas round two with my brothers, sisters-in-law, nieces, nephews, aunt and cousins, totaling 21 people in my dad’s tiny living room. It’s not loud at all :). After dinner, the nieces and nephews opened their gifts, then all the adults opened gifts from their Secret Santa. We stayed up until 2 a.m. playing Cards Against Humanity, and everyone had a slumber party at Dad’s. The next morning, I made breakfast for everyone before we all went our separate ways and headed home.
Fortunately I had almost two weeks off work (perks of working for an agency whose client is part of the union!), so I was able to finish my Christmas shopping, wrap gifts, clean the house, and pack for the weekend the week before Christmas, and then get everything back in order the week after Christmas. Some down time was definitely welcome after those past few non-stop weeks.
Don’t worry, we didn’t stop for long. Of course we had to celebrate the last weekend of the year! On Dec. 30, we enjoyed a little more Christmas at the Light Boat Parade downtown, and a much-needed night of just the two of us. It’s one of our favorite nights of the year with the most beautiful fireworks show ever! Perk – it was finally COLD outside!
New Year’s Eve was one of the best yet, and perfect for this 33-week pregnant chick. My friend, Sasha, and her boyfriend, Creighton, came over for snacks and cocktails, and I did her hair and makeup. I set up a fun little black and gold display, and we threw confetti all over the house and snapped tons of pictures. We enjoyed a delicious dinner at a local steakhouse with three other couples, and then went back to our friend Sarah’s house for game night and dessert. She had a coffee and hot chocolate bar, champagne (and non-alcoholic for me!), lots of sweet treats, and a photo station set up. We all watched the countdown to the ball drop, blasted music, and stayed over playing games until 2 a.m. I’m the best DD ever :).
Sasha and Creighton came back over on New Year’s Day, and I made a yummy brunch for everyone. We recapped the night, they drank mimosas and Bloody Mary’s, Sasha and I worked on the nursery and the boys moved around some of the furniture for me, and we met our friends for an Italian dinner at a local spot to wrap up the night. It was the perfect end to a fabulous weekend and all of our holiday celebrations.
It was seriously such an awesome two weeks, and I’m so sad that it’s all over. As much as I loved (most of ) 2016, I am super excited for this year. It’s the year of the big 3-0 AND the year we get to meet our little Daisy! Both happening within the next two months – woo! I hope you had a wonderful Christmas and new year, and are ready to rock 2017’s butt with me. Cheers to the best year yet!!
XO,
Blakeley
