Oh, Christmas Tree!!

Is it Valentine's Day yet? Because I may still have some time before I post about Christmas seeing as how I  am always a holiday behind when it comes to posting. No? Still just January? Ah, well, since I'm here...

We held to tradition this year: My Mom's on Christmas Eve, my Dad's on Christmas morning, and Chandler's parents' on Christmas evening. The only difference this year was that Christmas fell on a Sunday, so we had Christmas Eve service Saturday night and morning service on Christmas day. With all of this going on, Chandler, Waverly, and I opened gifts Christmas Eve morning. Follow?

I was super excited about Christmas this year because I knew Waverly would be more excited and aware of what was going on; not to mention, not sick! She didn't disappoint.

Good morning!

Piano from Daddy

One of Fenway's gifts.. breath freshener bones :)

Waverly, show Mommy your new shirt! (Minnie Mouse is on the front. ha!)

Showing off her gifts

Goofy!

Christmas Eve at Mom's...

Too much cuteness.

Another AH-Mazing Weekend.

I am incredibly uninspired to write at the moment. I just spent an hour balancing the checkbook and updating our budget during which my hubs fell asleep beside me and we I am watching LOTR 2. So, I apologize ahead of time if I ever get sidetracked and something I write does not make sense; nothing about this post should involve Mordor or "the ring". Any mention of these things is a clear indicator that I have mentally moved on.

I am in the habit of being a step behind in my efforts to record everything. I just cannot seem to catch up.

(Pause for semi-epic battle scene and Frodo and Sam's unfortunate kidnapping)

Okay, so a little background... For my birthday (25th, ya know), I only asked for money and I was instructed to save the money to spend at an unspecified time, date, and place. See, Chandler had a little plan up his sleeve that involved shopping and that was the extent of my knowledge on the matter. A month following my birthday, we celebrated our 4th wedding anniversary. We decided that we would celebrate bigger than normal because next year we would be celebrating in Africa. And by "bigger" I mean, we would actually get each other gifts, as opposed to doing nothing. Getting married a few weeks after my birthday and a few weeks before Christmas forces us to make a sacrifice financially, so we have always sacrificed our anniversary, agreeing that we would do something more for the "landmark" years: 5, 10, 20, etc. Follow? There are a lot of things going on in this paragraph and I am about to bring them all together.

(Oh man, Saromon just sent out his gigantic, freak army.. this is about to get so, so good.)

For once, I had absolutely no clue what Chandler was scheming and he, for once, was able to keep everything totally secret, except for the parts that I dictated: shopping in Cincinnati, dinner at Max & Erma's, and chocolate covered strawberries.

This year our anniversary fell on a Thursday (this information is of no significance). We dropped Waverly off at her grandparents and went to dinner at Malone's. It was during dinner that he gave me my anniversary gift: a silver ring with Waverly's birthstone set in it. He actually went to the same jeweler who made my engagement ring and had him customize it for me (David Hungerford Fine Jewelers). I was SO SURPRISED! I had mentioned earlier that I wanted something like it to stack with my engagement and wedding rings, since that's the popular thing to do now, but hadn't really expected it, I guess. No worried, though; I got Chandler a gift too.. For as long as I have known him, he has wanted a needlepoint, hobby belt so I had that in the works. I had also ordered us a couple of bracelets; the meaning is for us to know.

It was a wonderful dinner, but the best part was to come... Friday evening, after spending a few hours with our Life Group wrapping presents for our Angel Tree families, the surprise kicked into full gear. I had absolutely no clue where we were going or what we were doing (Waverly was with my mom and stepdad for the night). However, as we got closer to our destination, I realized that we were staying at the Hilton Lexington Green; the same hotel we stayed in after our wedding. It gets better: we stayed in the same room; the Governor's suite. Isn't my husband so thoughtful?? And it still gets better: he had an anniversary cake from Caramanda's, funfetti flavored!, and chocolate covered strawberries. That is true love. He knows me oh, so well.

Saturday morning, I was told to not take a shower and not worry about my make up or hair. I never go out in sweatpants, much less without make up, but I trusted him. We spent a glorious hour getting a couple's massage at The Massage Center.

After getting cleaned up and checking out of the hotel we headed up north to do some shopping! We made stops at Ikea, the outlet malls, and eventually Florence Mall...the closest mall with an H&M. It was really fun to semi-frivolously spend money and the day was so relaxing, doing what we wanted when we wanted. We had lunch at McAlister's, the BEST deli EVER, and topped off our evening with Max & Erma's in Crestview Hills. It was a pretty perfect day... weekend... birthday/anniversary celebration. My husband is pretty much the best.

We are minutes from a throw-down between good and evil. I am a sucker for a fabulous fight scene.

5 Nuns in a Car

It was a highlight of my Thanksgiving weekend: 5 nuns in a car. I had never seen one nun in real life, much less five in a car on the interstate. I stared. I couldn't help myself. It was probably more like gawking. I couldn't help it. I wish I had taken a picture.

Obviously, it wasn't THE highlight of the holiday. I mean, it was the first holiday in almost 8 years that Chandler was not employed in the retail industry. The first Black Friday in 8 years that he did not have to be at work at 4:00am.. 3:00am? Who knows. Praise the Lord. The best Thanksgiving in 8 years.

Holidays, in general, have always been hectic for me: going here to there to see mom, dad, mom's family, dad's family, step mom's family, step dad's family. It only seemed fitting that once I got married and added another immediate family and two more extended families, our holidays would be nothing short of a whirlwind and a lot of stress. Surprisingly, though, everything has gotten a bit easier. It all just fell into place. Praise the Lord, again.

So, we spent Thanksgiving lunch with my dad and Karlette's extended family, then dinner with the Snyder's. AND because it was the first Black Friday in 8 years that Chandler did not have to work, we headed down to Tennessee to spend a couple of days with my mom and her extended family. It was on this day that we saw 5 nuns in a car on the interstate. The best Black Friday ever.

Is it obvious what I was thankful for this year?

There was a little bittersweetness though. My Grammy and Daddy Paul no longer run the camp where my cousins and I basically grew up. They now live on their own acreage just a short ways from the camp near my aunt and uncle with two horses and about a million dogs.

I don't really consider myself a country-girl. Not in the least. Not at all. I'm all city-girl. But I really, really enjoyed the quietness of the country and the noise of family. Between hanging out at my Aunt Cyrisse and Uncle Jeff's house and my Grammy and DP's house, there was ALWAYS someone to hang out with. Saturday, we even took a drive into town! to do some shopping.

What made this quick trip even better was the fact that 1. Waverly had a blast and spent most of the two days playing outside. She ended both days absolutely filthy, looking like a crazed mad woman, but she loved every minute of it. And 2. She slept awesome Friday night. It is highly unusual for her to sleep at all when she's not in her bed in her room, so we were both super relieved that, after crying for half an hour, she fell asleep and stayed asleep until the wee hours, at which point, we put her in our bed and she slept through the rest of the night. Winning.

It was hard to leave. I'll even admit, I cried as we headed toward the interstate. Our time in the States is waning and it's hard to remember that we will be back, when all I can think of is we're leaving. I am trying so desperately to soak in the minutes we have with family before it becomes an impossibility to visit for four years at a time.

Enough on that. Look at these photos!