The After Christmas- Christmas

Well, I would first like to say thank you for all the kind words from Monday's post. It felt good to get it off my chest and every comment meant the world to me. To us. I still haven't told family and many friends, so your words of encouragement are all we have, so again, thank you.

This will be the only Christmas we have in this house. I'm surprised I even realized that, but it made me happy that we made the most of it. I put up more decorations than I ever have, we had our first real tree, and we had our own belated Christmas morning, which was filled with just as much excitement. After all, Christmas is a feeling, not a day.

We had already exchanged gifts, but we both saved a few good ones for this occasion.  A little back story is that when the guys make it through Flight school they give their spouses their own 'set of wings' to thank them for putting up with them all the help and support. I don't particularly like chain necklaces, so he got me wings that are more my style from Nomades. It's a little early to get my wings, but I'll take it ;)

PS. This is not an ad. I just really love the company! MilSpouses definitely need to check them out. They have all kinds of military charms and are just like Pandora! I even switched some of my Pandora charms to this bracelet because I like it better.

When Will saw that I put multi-colored lights on the tree he thought I was crazy. He knows I'm not a multi-colored girl, but something came over me. For our first real tree I wanted to go super nostalgic, and although I'll probably never use multi-colored again, it was fun while it lasted. Technically it lasted until today because I'm still getting decorations down, but don't judge me. I'd leave them up all year if I could. One day...I will be that old women with a Christmas house year around. Then you have permission to judge me.

Our Christmas Angel

When I started this post, I planned on just recapping some of our Pensacola Christmas, but once I had the pictures uploaded I realized there seemed to be one star in all the photos. Not surprisingly, my favorite little princess {my niece for anyone new around here} stole the show, and as usual, stole my blog for the day. It's not her fault she's so darn cute.

The whole trip home was spent with all of our wonderful family, but Christmas evening we started a new tradition. Now that my brother has started his own family, they wanted to host dinner and considering how good he and his wife can cook- NO one was complaining! They made a FIFTEEN pound Ribeye cooked to perfection and Paula's Red Velvet Cake was out of this world. I would kill for more of that cake...

Maddie doesn't really get the whole unwrapping process yet, but somehow having a kid around makes Christmas that much more special. I already love every single thing about Christmas, and we truly embrace the years that we aren't stationed thousands of miles away. Next year we could be as far as Korea, so every memory is absolutely priceless. We are blessed to have such wonderful families, and we hope to never undervalue how precious the time together is.

I'm Still Alive

Hello my dears! Hope everyone is having the best holidays EVER and getting some much deserved relaxation. We haven't had any relaxation yet, nevertheless we are having a great time so far. It's funny, most people say they get annoyed with their spouses after too much time together, but we have spent every moment together, and I swear it makes me love him more. He really is my {sexiest} bestest friend.

I didn't plan on taking a blogging break last week, but it was pretty nice to just be in the moment and enjoy the family time and excitement. If you follow via Insta, then you know that we basically bought a house this week {more on that later} and the rest was filled with holiday parties and playing with our Christmas toys. Oh, and every yummy holiday food one could hope for, plus Red Robin because we love RR and don't have one near us.

Tonight, my in-laws showed up to hang with us for a day or two, so that will be awesome as always, and we will try to make the most of the week we have left. I see naps on the couch, cuddling while watching movies, lots of pillow talk, and hopefully time at the gym to work off the holiday poundage. We ate pretty good, but considering mom sent cakes and sweets home with us...who knows how we will feel when that's all gone.

In case we don't chat before the New Year, I hope you all have a wonderful and SAFE NYE celebration! Don't drink and drive, don't ride with someone who drinks and drives, and beware of other vehicles on the road. You know nights like NYE are amateur nights, so please take care of yourselves and your family. I care about every one of you!

Now That...Was A Holiday Party!

So hi...I think I'm finally over my hangover. Damn Apple Pie Moonshine, and the usual "I'm to old for this ish." However, it was worth every bit of it! We started the shenanigans Friday night taking Dani to Frogz, and enjoyed a nice family dinner. Trying to keep it 'low key'.

Although I had been prepping and cooking for three days, after everyone went to bed, I was still sewing our skirts for the party and slaving away in the kitchen. I think that's pretty typical when it comes to Holiday feasts, but I still thought I was crazy to be standing in the kitchen in my stockings until midnight. The good news, is that it was aaaall worth it. Turkey stock from scratch, brining a turkey for two days, homemade gravy, cranberry salsa, meatballs, and cowboy caviar were my additions to the meal, and I am happy to pat myself on the back. The turkey was moist and no one got food poisoning, so I call it a win.

I know, I know, it doesn't look all bloggerific. I would have 'staged' it better, but we were at Joel's house. It was an act of Congress to get all the food and necessities there, so how it looked was the last thing on my mind. As a matter of fact, we were still sewing my skirt while I was cooking gravy in the middle of the party. Multi-tasking at it's finest.

The only thing better than the food were the party games. We played Gift Wrap With Mittens On, Stack The Nuts, and a Marshmallow Stocking Toss, which quickly led to a marshmallow fight. I think there was also a ping pong ball fight, but I have no clue what inspired that.

And since you should always share costumes with the world, we moved our soiree to the local bar. Here is the only picture I thought to take of our matching outfits. 

Mine = 'First Things First, I'm The Realest', Will = 'Santa's Favorite Ho', and Dani = 'Don't Be A Cotton Headed Ninny Muggin'". The best part is that Will picked out his green striped pants and he can't wait to wear them  golfing. I just like the way they accent his bootay ;)

Cheers to a successful Holiday party, a hangover that wasn't as bad as I anticipated, and the fact that it's all over. I made Will promise that he wouldn't let me take on anything like this for awhile, but I don't think he believes I meant it. I wonder why?

Holiday Bucket List

+ Put up a REAL tree. We don't need it to be all Rockefeller Center up in here, but we've never had a real, honest to goodness tree. 

+ Decorate the exterior with lights, which would be another first for us. It may happen this weekend, but it's pretty frigid these days. I'll just have to ply Will with lots of spirits.

+ Make it through our Annual FRCSC Hollyday Bazaar. I mean, it's going to be Ah-Mazing, but considering I'm in charge of publicity, I'll be happy when it's over and I know I didn't fail. Hope, hope I didn't fail. I'm doing the best I can, but a month is not enough time to promote one of the biggest Bazaars in this area.

+ Visit the local Holiday Spectacular Park.

+ Christmas movies until my eyeballs fall out. My faves:
Miracle On 34th Street
Love Actually
One Magic Christmas
The family Stone
It's a Wonderful Life
...And every other sappy, lovey dovey, holiday movie there is.

Most Importantly...We want to soak in every joyous moment with friends and family. Our time here is going to be over before we know it, and we most definitely won't be here for the holidays next year, so it's time to party like it's our last holiday season ever.