Christmas Day

Our Christmas day was a fun one.  Our first married Christmas plus having both our families with their own traditions under one household made for some interesting, but fun, moments. It was a wonderful day.

I'm not a fan of the people who will sit and boast about all of the things they get, but I just want to be one of the boastful people, just for a few moments.  We were so blessed this Christmas.  I still can't wrap my head around all of the wonderful things were received.  I surprised Nic by finishing our honeymoon scrapbook, and he somehow managed to surprise me with the Canon SL1 that we were planning on saving up for over the next few months.  My parents surprised us with three amazing canvases and we finally got a picnic basket with spots for wine bottles from Nic's family. Add an old fashioned popcorn maker and some gardening tools into the mix and I just can't believe it. Oh, and we got a new bedroom set.

Ok, I'm done. It was just SO perfect. Spending time together was everything I could have asked for and I can't begin to say how blessed we are for our families and just one another.

Enjoy some pictures from my amazing new camera! I still can't believe he got it.

 

 

We Cut Down Our Christmas Tree

I've always said how I wanted to cut down my own Christmas tree one day, it's even on my bucket list.  I thought we would do it last year in Maryland, but finals and the fact that we were going home for Christmas didn't make it worth it. We still decorated and got our "first tree" together but it didn't knock off that box on my bucket list.  After googling a bit I found out you could cut down your own trees here in San Diego. Who would have thought you could cut your Christmas tree down in SoCal. We were mulling it over and the our friends texted us about the place and we all bit the bullet and went.

We weren't in the middle of the woods with snow all around and winter hats on, but, we still were able to cut down our first married tree together! For some reason Nic thought he'd be using an ax to cut it down so he was a little disappointed, but it was absolutely perfect. It's a weird type of tree, not a douglas fir but it smells delightful and is filling our home with such Christmas cheer. And it really wasn't that much more expensive than getting a regular tree. The experience was worth the price difference.

Here's to crossing something off our my bucket list together as we experience our true first Christmas together.

PS: If you're looking to cut your own tree down in the San Diego area we highly recommend going to the Family Tree Farm.  I regret not buying one of their cut wreaths, but I wouldn't recommend the mistletoe. We only left our in the bag for a day and when we took it out it was falling apart. They also have other types of trees you could buy that are pre-cut, but, I'd definitely buy those at Wal-Mart if you're not wanting to cut one down yourself -- those were priced crazy!

Our Christmas Break

This Christmas was a hectic but really fun. Nic and I spent out first Christmas Eve/Christmas Day together and it was fabulous!  We went to Christmas Eve mass with his family in St.Pete and then came home and had Christmas Eve dinner with my family followed by a midnight mass. It was so nice to wake up next to each other and open presents together. Nic's family doesn't do the silly underwear and sock type presents so it was amusing to see 

We've never really talked about our individual families Christmas traditions before so it was fun to learn how differently we celebrated it throughout our childhoods. For example, all of our presents as kids were from Santa, while all of Nic's were from his parents and only one came from Santa. Interesting. . I can't wait until we have kids so we can smooth everything together. 

We made homemade peppermint vodka as gifts and it was awful. Darn you Pinterest. But hey, at least the thoughts were there. We also actually went out for New Years Eve, weird, but fun!

Christmas-time in the Apartment

While this doesn't exactly count as our "first" Christmas together because we're drove home on the twentieth. .  it's the first time that one of us has our own place to decorate.  Being college students, wedding planning, and without really good paying jobs. . we had a little wiggle room when it came to decorating funds. I did however manage to "borrow" a few awesome vintage pieces from my grandmothers house during the summer and they blend in quite perfectly if I do say so myself!

We also we out and bought our first Christmas tree! I had finals until the 19th which means we spent most of December in our little abode and there was therefore no reason not to have a tree. Getting it into Nic's mustang was a little bit of an ordeal but we (he) managed to fit it in. I even muttered my mom's favorite words of "how hard can it be?" and made my very own wreath from the branches that were trimmed off of our little guy. It's a bit quirky but I did it all by myself and I am darn proud! 

I'm really proud of how home-y the apartment feels. I'll admit that I was a little weary of this holiday season because of how off last years was but it's looking like it's going to be just magical.

I hope your decorating is going well and you're in the Christmas spirit! 

Ciao love bugs. xoxo

Army Navy

Finally, a blog post about America's game! I've been planning this post for a while now, I just needed the pictures to go with it and I finally have them!

Army/Navy was held in Philadelphia this year and Nic's family invited me to come with them. The Hajner's flew in Friday morning and came over to our little abode for dinner Friday night. I wish I would have thought of taking pictures because we rarely have people over for a nice sit down dinner. Our apartment really felt like a home -- Christmas decorations and all!

Leaving at six thirty Saturday morning we barely got Nic there on time before heading over to Vicki and Ian's families fabulous tailgate. I experienced my first Bloody Mary (holy spicy) and will officially stick to mimosas from now on. Ay.

It was wonderful to see my friends and spend some quality time with the future in laws ::pause for dramatic effect, yes, in-laws:: In what I feel like is typical Navy football, it came down to the last quarter of the game and a fumble from Army left us winning for the eleventh year. A perfect end to a super fun football season!

Sunday was a dreary day but we ventured into Philly so they could all get a cheesesteak. I will say my hot cocoa breakfast was just delicious. ;) Oh the life of a gluten free individual. Some men were selling trees on a street corner and they did what I only thought happened on tv shows for dramatic effect and made a fire in a trash can. Of course we needed a picture, and I just wanted to get toasty by the fire!

I'm glad Navy continued their winning streak I'm more thankful for such a fabulous weekend. Good luck to everyone dealing with finals this week. Towson doesn't believe in reading days -- lame.

Ciao. xoxoxo

Christmas Break

Christmas break itself was. . . interesting. The only way to adequately describe this Christmas is as odd. . .very odd. . . and different. Unlike other breaks I wasn’t living over Nic’s house. I only went to his dad’s house twice, one of the times he wasn’t even in town. But also unlike other breaks Nic got to spend a substantial amount of time at my house and with my family which everyone loved. I do understand why, but my family has truly gotten shafted in the “spending time with Nic” department so it was nice to have it be a little more even for once.

Usually our house is decked out with Christmas decorations. We have the “fun” tree up in the loft, the “serious” tree in the living room downstairs and our “old fashioned tree” on the patio. Well, the “serious” tree turned into the “church” tree this year as it only had lights on it, the patio tree remained normal and the upstairs tree got decorated only two days before Christmas Eve by Nicholas, my nephew Kaiden and I. If there is one thing that can make me smile it is how adorable Kaiden is. And just how much he loves his “unc”. It can melt your heart. We've always given each other ornaments on Christmas. I got this fabulous one of our "family" painted from a vendor on Etsy. I'm obsessed with how perfect it came out. Click here to go to her "store". It's totally worth it. Nic's ornament really hit the entire mood of the break on the head.

 

Really different about this Christmas was the fact that mom, dad and I were still wrapping presents Christmas morning to the point where I actually got to put some presents under the tree. (Santa usually puts them all there while we are asleep) It was extremely weird. Unlike normal Santa also forgot to label some presents so everything had a “open the corner and show to mom so she can make sure it’s yours” disclosure leading to a very interesting and hilarious present opening.

A very pleasant thing did occur this Christmas. Nic surprised me on Christmas Eve and drove from his grandparent’s house in St.Petersburg – two hours away – to Orlando at 1 o’clock in the morning Christmas Day. For the first time ever we were able to wake up in each other’s arms on Christmas morning. After that there were few things Santa could have given me that would have made me any happier as that’s all I have been wanting for such a long time. While he had to leave at 8:30 to make it back before everyone woke up I can’t complain. Soon it will be our time and soon we’ll be able to actually have a Christmas together without other people being selfish and throwing fits and trying to push consequences on things that should never be viewed as something “bad”.

While it was weird and different Christmas was also about exactly what it should be about. I have never needed my family as much as I did this Christmas and they were there. And Nic made sure he was there too. Sometimes people do terrible malicious and hurtful things and there really is no excuse that you can provide them. Instead you just have to realize you have the support of so many loving people around you who will do anything to make sure you’re okay and you’re allowed to cry, or smile, or drink an entire bottle (or five) of wine. You just have to remember it’ll all be okay, and karma is such a bitch.

The week after Christmas was spent getting cat scans, a colonoscopy and just feeling terribly sick. Nic was able to go to an appointment with me and be there for the colonoscopy. It was nice having him and my mom there to make me laugh when I went in and laugh at me under my anesthesia when I got wheeled back out. Having him to cuddle with while I was feeling so run down definitely helped out a bit as well. All of my medical appointments and procedures over break made me realize a couple things: my veins roll and collapse, some nurses just suck, I would only wish the colonoscopy prep on three people in the entire world, I’m a medical anomaly, some people are just selfish, and the contrast for cat scans is absolutely atrocious and will make you sick.

Nicy keeping me amused and calm

We’ve spent the last six New Years at my house playing cards, watching tv and just hanging out with my family. We have wanted to do something different the last two years but just haven’t gotten around to really planning anything and the fact that neither of us are twenty-one makes it extremely hard but we came upon a lovely solution; a date night at The Melting Pot. I tried out a red dress, Nic got all dressed up and we had a much needed romantic date night and we were still back in time to play a game of scrabble and watch the ball drop with my family.

Full of trials and tribulations, yes, but it was still a very lovely break. And while our drive down was one great vacation as soon as we both realized how hard it was going to be to be back in Orlando with the hatred and “competition for time” we began to bicker. On the other hand the drive back to Annapolis was perfect. We didn’t bicker once, played car games and just laughed and laughed. Nic got to visit, and be disappointed in, South of The Border for the first time.  While he had to be back on Friday I stayed until Sunday night and we were able to have some fun Annapolis time which of course included The Wild Orchid for brunch. Which was weird because they carded. . . awkward. And I wasn't able to get my Spinach and Crab souffle! :( But I did get a crab omelet, which was still darn yummy.

Brunch at The Wild Orchid