Friday, December 31, 2010

What We Did in 2010

This year has been exciting and full of adventure around every corner. Here's to hoping 2011 will bring just as much joy!

January

Dustin and I rang in the New Year in Atlanta
My coworkers in Florida threw me a wonderful bridal shower

February

Dustin and I tied the knot on St. Pete Beach on 2-14-2010
We had a fabulous honeymoon in Jamaica

 

March

I wrote thank-you notes and relaxed in the post-wedding calm after the storm

April

I visited Dustin for spring break in North Carolina
We spent Easter with our friends, Johnny and Rosie


May

Attended two graduations - my brother, David, from University of Florida, and my brother, Brian's high school graduation

June

Finished my first year teaching!
Packed up and moved to North Carolina

July

Celebrated my 24th birthday pizza and a pool party with friends
Hosted a Poker Party for Dustin's 25th birthday!


August
Went to the Kramers' wedding in Gulf Breeze, Florida
Began my job as a kindergarten teacher here in Jacksonville, NC

September

Saw Brad Paisley in concert!

October

Had a Halloween Party at our apartment - we dressed up as a Viking Princess and Gladiator


November

Went to my first Marine Corps Birthday Ball
We hosted our first holiday as the Colwells: Thanksgiving with my side of the family!


December

Atlanta Falcons game with the Krauses
Christmas gatherings with both sides of the family in Atlanta


Friday, December 10, 2010

Holiday Traditions

This will mark Dustin's and my FIFTH Christmas together, but our first as a married couple! Over the years, between his family and mine, we have gathered several holiday traditions. Thought I would share with the blog world some of our favorite Christmas traditions (old and new)...and see what other holiday traditions you have with your families!

1. Giving trays of Christmas cookies to friends and family - Since my mom and I love to bake, no Christmas season would be complete without an insane amount of Christmas cookies. To keep myself from growing out of my clothes over the holiday season, I have to make sure I give away a lot of the cookies - but they make the perfect gift for coworkers, faraway family members, and friends. Here was my cookie assortment from a couple years ago.



2. Midnight Mass on Christmas Eve - Every year that Dustin and I have spent Christmas Eve in Georgia, we have gone to midnight mass with my family at our home parish, Saint Monica's Catholic Church. I love the anticipation of everyone waiting for church to start, the fancy, glitzy outfits, and the fact that there are usually few, if any kids (I believe that can NOT make me a terrible person, they are my job!) I don't know that we could continue this tradition once we have little ones waiting for Santa someday though.

3. Snowman Ornament to add to our collection - Every year Dustin gets me an ornament for Christmas, and they have just always happened to follow the same snowman theme that my Christmas tree does

4. Photo by the Christmas tree - We haven't done this one faithfully yet - I only have two photos that I can find by a Christmas tree, but this is definitely a family tradition I want to keep throughout our marriage. Wouldn't it make a cute cocktail book someday?

5. New pajamas to wear Christmas Eve - I have heard of other people doing this for Christmas eve, so I told Dustin we should join in the fun! My family always takes photos of each other opening presents on Christmas morning, so it would be great to have a new set of pajamas to celebrate the occasion.



6. Giving a gift for how many years we have been together (a la 12 days of Christmas, kind of) - I read about someone doing this somewhere on the Internet, and thought it could be cheesy, dorky cute. Like get a gift that there is one of this year, then next year two (like 2 tickets to a concert, or 2 wine goblets), etc. That could get kind of hard and random as the numbers get larger though!

7. Write a letter to yourself for next Christmas - Obviously, since I blog, it must mean I like to write. I am going to force Dustin to sit down and we are going to each write a letter to ourselves the following year. I think these would be neat to package up and re-read every year once we have a family to share them with! And it could be tradition that little kids could get really into as well.

8. Watch It's A Wonderful Life - This is by far my favorite Christmas movie, and the season would not be complete if I missed watching this classic film. If you haven't seen it, be sure to watch it this holiday season - such a great message about the impact of one kind, generous person!

What Christmas traditions do you have that you love the most?

Sunday, December 5, 2010

It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas

I have spent the last six Decembers getting ready for Christmas in Florida. Needless to say, the weather there is usually pretty mild, and many a year the week before Christmas still brought highs in the 70s. So the last couple days have been a bit of an adjustment for me. I had to pull out my winter coat, scrape ice off my car's windshield, and even drove through sleet/ice rain last night to my work holiday party. Even though the cold weather has kind of snuck up on me, I like the idea of it actually feeling like winter! This Saturday Dustin had duty, so I decided to make use of the time by myself and listen to Christmas music while decorating our house for our first Christmas as newlyweds!

I decided that I love Pandora's Christmas station (as long as you don't listen to it for more than a couple hours at a time) and that my new red twist to my snowman themed tree turned out really cute! I have had a light blue snowman theme going on the last four years or so, but our new furniture is red and beige, so I tweaked, and only ended up spending $15 to add red garland and glittery ornaments to our tree (thanks to Old Time Pottery's awesome Christmas decorations).



I was worried our new cat Colby might try to attack the tree or climb up it, since he has all his claws, but he seems barely interested in it at all!




Since Christmas is only 20 days away, I began my Christmas cookie baking today. After three hours of rolling -pin-rolling and cookie-cutter-pressing, I have 132 cute little cookies ready to be iced over the next few days. I will post some pictures of the final products at the end of this week - can't wait!

Also, I finally ordered our FREE Christmas cards thanks to Shutterfly. I opted to have them stamp and mail them for us, so they are heading straight to their destinations as we speak!

Cranberry Swirl Christmas 5x7 folded card
Shop Shutterfly for elegant custom Christmas photo cards.
View the entire collection of cards.

Wednesday, December 1, 2010

Wonderful Weekend with my Family

I have been absent in the blogging world as I prepared for and enjoyed the long weekend visit from my parents and brothers. We had just about the BEST time ever! I have already started the countdown to our trip back to Atlanta for Christmas to spend more time with the family - only 23 days until we leave!

My parents spent the weekend staying in our guest bedroom on the daybed, while my brothers crashed on a pair of queen-sized air mattresses in the family room. Our apartment was definitely crammed this weekend, but we could not have been more happy to be short on space! The family didn't arrive until late Wednesday night, and Thursday was spent cooking, tossing around the football, cracking pecans, feasting on food, and taking a trip to Mike's Farm. We visited Mike's Farm in Back Swamp, North Carolina back in October, but it was so crowded we had to skip the hayride. The farm was not crowded AT ALL on Thanksgiving, and the weather was terrific! We arrived there at about 7:30 and enjoyed the Christmas music, fake snow, and great light show on the Christmas hayride!

Mom and Brian ready for the hayride




The whole family on the farm
The Colwells

Boys being silly


On Friday, Dustin woke up early to cook us all omelets for breakfast! We avoided Black Friday crowds, and instead spent the day watching football, eating Turkey reheats, and taking my poor kitty Bailey to the vet. He had some hair loss on his ear, so they gave him some medicine and one of those Elizabethan collars to wear so he can't mess with his ear, so Bailey was a pretty unhappy kitty all weekend.





Saturday my mom and I drove down to Wilmington for a girls' day of Christmas decoration shopping and lunch. We came back in time to order a yummy Beast-sized pepperoni pizza from Credo's and watch the Gators lose the game, which was disappointing. I also experimented with some recipes with my mom and made some snowman and reindeer Oreo Truffles to start off the Christmas baking season right!


On Sunday my mom and Brian left early for the long drive back to Atlanta, while the rest of us watched the Falcons game in Raleigh before dropping my dad and David off at the airport to fly out to Texas and Illinois for work.



The weekend sure flew by, and I am hoping this work week will do the same, so I can decorate and relax some this upcoming weekend!
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