Happy St. Patrick's Day!!!

Happy St. Patrick's Day from Yadi and Vino!!!!!
(Can't you just feel their excitement?!)

Clearly our pups don't have our enthusiastic attitude towards this day.  Probably because they're Hungarian and German, but whatevs.
I hope you all remembered to wear your green today!!!!

New Year's Eve 2015

Happy 2015!!!!!  I hope you all had a wonderful New Year's Eve.  I know I sure did!

 I know, I know, you're dying to know what I did that made it so wonderful.  Luckily for you, this blog is my online journal so I'm going to tell you!  

Are you ready?  Are you really ready?  Because I'm not sure you're going to be able to handle my NYE plans.

We did jack shit!  (Where on earth did this phrase come from??).
Okay, so that's a lie.  We didn't do nothing but we stayed in.  My 21 year old self is hanging her head in disappointment.  And I don't even care.  In my early 20's, I wouldn't have dared stay in for NYE.  My friends and I were those people who would drop $60+ to get into a club and drink the night away to not even remember ringing in the new year.  (Don't judge me, only three drinks got me pretty drunk.  I was and always will be a light-weight).

But those days are far passed me.  We didn't stay in because we had nothing better to do.  That's what I wanted to do.  We didn't even ask any of our friends what their plans were.  I just wanted to sit at home in my jammies and ring in the new year with my (lame) non-alocholic beverage, my (sick) cute husband, my pups, and this little wiggly baby in my belly.
(Disclaimer: I don't want always want to stay in on NYE.  That's just what I preferred to do this year.)

We weren't completely lame though.  We did go out to dinner (the above pictures were taken just before going out), which was delicious, but I also forgot that my already smaller than average stomach (thanks cancer) is even smaller now (thanks baby), so I only ate about 1/5 of my meal :(  And then I had to sit there and watch Nick drink his delicious alcoholic beverage and eat his meal for the next 25 minutes.  Torture.

Then it was home to bum around.  As you can see below.

That picture above on the right?  Yep, total accident but it makes me giggle.  And makes me wish my cheeks weren't so freaking fat and my face was thinner (Have I mentioned that I think my already chubby face is getting more chubby with this pregnancy.  Barf!  And it's littered with acne.  Double barf!  Thank goodness for makeup!  The wives tale that girls steal your beauty?  Big fat bullshit!  I'm having a boy and he's definitely inflicted my body with the ugly.)

We got home, changed into our jammies (poor Nick was miserably sick), sat our butts on the couch, put Frozen in the Bluray (Nick has been wanting to watch that again for some reason), and played 'War'.  As in the card game.  Nick hadn't played in so long that he forgot how to play.  How you forget such a complex game like war (note the sarcasm) is beyond me.  But after an hour, we gave up.  It was never ending, he was getting frustrated and I was getting anxious.  So then we just watched the movie and awaited 11:30pm when we turned it off to watch the festivities in New York, which sucked by the way.  But I also think we were watching the crappiest of the televised live shows so that's our fault.

Then it was countdown time!!!  No better way than to start the year than kissing my sweet husband!
(I'm pretty sure this is the moment I got sick).

 Cheers!!!  I'm sorry, Sparkling Mango-Something is not as good as normal champagne.  But I'm not ballsy enough to risk the real stuff even though so many say one glass here and there is okay.

So here's to the new year!  We sat there talking a little bit about what this year has in store for us, which ultimately is going to revolve around preparing for our sweet baby boy's arrival and then attempting to be the best parents we can be and loving all over him!!!

And then we were in bed by 12:30am.  And it was perfect!
(and we slept until 10:30am the next day and it was even more perfect!)

So HAPPY NEW YEAR!!  (you know, 6 days late)

Thanksgiving Weekend Recap

Monday...ugh!

Monday after four days off for the holiday...there aren't enough ughs in the world. 

I hope you all had a great Thanksgiving and holiday weekend!!!
I'm here to give you a Thanksgiving weekend recap.  Because I know you haven't read enough of those!

This was our first Thanksgiving away from family. Every year since I've been married and moved away from home, we've been able to go home for the holidays. This year, however, we decided to stay in Florida. After traveling home for my sister's wedding at the beginning of November and going home for Christmas (plus a baby on the way), we decided to save our money and stay put. 

I'll admit, it did suck not seeing family and it was strange, but we gathered together with a few other friends that didn't travel for Thanksgiving and we had a blast!! We ate, (they drank), we played games, we napped, we laughed. It was perfect!
We did some of my family's normal Thanksgiving traditions, like watching the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade that morning while eating breakfast.  Let me also note that my husband, who very rarely drinks, poured himself a nice large glass of strawberry MOONSHINE to go with his pancakes!  Being with child, I had milk to accompany my M&M pancakes ;)

{We decided to snap this quick photo of our last Thanksgiving as a family of two! (Well, four if we don't want to hurt the fur babies feelings)}

The rest of the weekend was busy.  Friday we woke up and just lounged around the house. Somewhere around 12pm we decided we'd go check out the Black Friday sales. We went to the NEX (Navy Exchange, which is like a giant department store on base) and spent way too much time and possibly too much money. But we got Christmas gifts and some things we've been wanting for a while (ie. a Roomba. Yay!!) 

I'm sure it would have been a great day to snag some great deals on baby gear, but being only 14 weeks along, I haven't even begun thinking about, researching, or talking to others about what the heck a baby needs and likes. Thus we didn't pick up anything for little Baby Obie. 

Later that afternoon, we went to the Northeast Florida Mizzou Alumni Chapter's Tiger Watch Party to watch our boys beat Arkansas to win the SEC East title, which sends them to the SEC Championship for the second year in a row (and only their third in the SEC after all the haters said (and still say) that we can't hang with the big boys).

Saturday we decided to hit up the furniture store. We have a two story house with a loft right as you come up the stairs. That loft is empty (and by empty I mean no furniture but a few unpacked boxes...from moving in 14 months ago). We said that once we had a baby, we'd make the loft baby central. You know, all the toys and baby gadgets and gear and whatnot. It makes sense so we don't junk up our main living area and the nursery is upstairs too. Our plan is to add a television (and small entertainment center) and a couch. So off we went to find a couch. We were going to hold off until much closer to Baby Obie's due date, but when we saw the sales this weekend, we decided to go look. And I'm glad we did.  We saw a couch we loved at Ashley Furniture, but ended up buying it yesterday at the NEX because it was literally 56% of the cost of Ashley's and no tax. So we now have a couch on the way. It'll be the new couch for our main living room and the current couch will go upstairs in the loft. 

That night we headed back over to our friends house and played Donkey.  If you haven't ever played, find your nearest friend with a pool table, YouTube videos of how to play, and go play!  You will not regret it.  You can also make it a drinking game if you so desire (you have to drink between your turns).  I thought I'd pass out from exhaustion after seeing how winded everyone else was getting, but I was able to play!  While I still feel sleepy a lot and stairs still kick my ass, playing Donkey made me realize I'm slowly getting my energy back so I think I'm going to ease back into my workouts and runs!  I'm pretty stoked about that!
After Donkey had us pretty worn out and hot, we decided to transition to Settlers of Catan, a game I just learned this weekend and love!

And now here I am, on my way to work (well about to be). Yuck. I love long weekends but hate that I really had zero time to rest and relax this entire weekend. We were gone from our house for the majority of it. When we were home, we were sleeping or cooking. I just want a day to lay on my couch and do nothing. Or decorate for Christmas. That's my Thanksgiving weekend tradition and it didn't even happen :( I wish I could say it would happen this weekend, but it won't because I'll be out of town for work. I need life to slow down!!!

How was your Thanksgiving?  
Did you get to spend it with family?
What are some of your Thanksgiving traditions?
Or do you go completely untraditional when it comes to the meal and other things?
Did you brave the crowds for Black Friday?

Fourth of July Celebration

 Hey y'all!!!!!!!  Did you have a great Independence Day?  Because that girl above sure did!!!!

We didn't do anything grand or magical.  To me, this holiday is just about being with loved ones, grilling out, and watching fireworks.  That's what makes it grand and magical.

Nicholas and I spent the majority of the holiday just the two of us.  We grilled some burgers and had ourselves a nice little barbecue dinner, complete with beer of course (only me though, because Nick is a beer hater).

 And because no Fourth of July is complete without Bomb Pops!!!  Yes, yes I am a child and no, I have no shame.

After dinner, of course we had to take some photos.  Holidays don't pass without photos in my life.  Kudos to my patient husband, once again.  (The dogs were happy I forgot to buy something American-related for them because it means they got out of photo-taking.)

 

We then headed down to Jax Beach where we attempted to navigate the streets to park at a friend's house.  I have never seen so many beach cruisers!  They filled the streets.  There were hundreds of people and I'd say a good 75% of them were on beach cruisers!  Good thing we weren't in a hurry since no one moved for us and they weren't really pedaling, more so just, well, cruising, at a snails pace.

We finally parked and hung out with friends for a while before walking across the street to the beach.

We were told the beach would be packed but were happy to see that wasn't the case.  We found a spot, pulled out our chairs, and sat there enjoying the ocean breeze and each other's company.  This was our first Fourth of July on the beach and I think it's now become my favorite way to spend The 4th.  Seriously y'all, the beach is my happy place!!!!

The fireworks show was great and apparently, the thing to do here is have your own fireworks party after the city's show.  Following the Jacksonville Beach fireworks display, half the beach began setting off their own fireworks.  It made for a great {and long} walk down the beach back to our car.
For the first time, I didn't take photos during the fireworks.  I've made a promise to myself to be more present in life, especially with my husband.  TIme is precious and now that he's almost finished with the FRS, he'll be joining a fleet squadron and deployments are inevitable.  When he leaves, I want to know that thoroughly and intentionally enjoyed every second we had together.  So no phone.  No pictures.  We just held hands and watched the fireworks.  No distractions.  No social media.  Just us.  All night long :)
It was another perfect Fourth of July in the books for Mr. and Mrs. Obie :)


I hope you all had a great holiday!  How did you celebrate?


{Yes, I know I already posted today, but a large part of why I love this blog is because it's also my online "diary" where I get to document my life.  I love looking back throughout the years to see how we celebrated and look at the photos.  And well, because this is my blog and I do what I want!}

Happy Fourth of July {the best holiday ever}

Happy Fourth of July!!!!!

This is absolute favorite holiday. I know most people rank Christmas as #1 but not I!  Christmas comes in at #2, just behind The Fourth of July.

If you know me, you know I love summer. I love the heat and sunshine. Which is a big part of why I love Independence Day.

I get to spend the entire day outside. Swimming, lounging by a pool or beach. Enjoying the sunshine. Getting a tan. Drinking adult beverages on someone's patio, grilling up burgers and hotdogs. And indulging in all those side dishes and desserts. And of course having a Bomb Pop. Just laughing and having fun with friends and family as we await the sun going down to then watch one of my favorite things ever....fireworks.
I don't know what it is about them but I could lay on a blanket, snugged up in Nick's arms, watching fireworks every single night of the year. They just never get old to me.

We don't have any grand plans for today. Just enjoying the day, the eats, the drinks, and fireworks.  I'm a little disappointed in myself that it didn't dawn on me until yesterday at 4pm (far too late) that I should have planned a Pinterest worthy party. Now that I'm planning my sister bridal shower, I'm all into DIYing cute little parties. Next year, it's happening!!!  So if you're in Jax, I'm telling you now, I'm having a party and you're all invited!!!!  (Maybe we can also use this as motivation to transform our bland backyard into something awesome like we keep talking about!)

I hope you all enjoy your holiday.  Be safe, have a designated driver, put your phones away and be present!  Just enjoy the day with your loved ones and celebrate living in the greatest country there is!!! 
Happy Fourth of July!

Weekend Recap: Easter and Relaxation

This weekend was low key and perfect (for the most part...glass half full folks!)


Friday I had the day off so that morning I visited the doctor; to establish a primary doctor here in Jax, but also to get a few symptoms checked out.  The appointment didn't go very pleasantly, but I did really love this doctor!! To cure my blues, I headed to the mall. Now, I am not usually one for retail therapy. I feel guilty speaking money so I don't get much joy from it. Anyway, I scored some awesome deals so I didn't feel as guilty. I got six maxi skirts, 5 pairs of sandals, 1 pair of heels, and 1 pair of wedges. I also got a few tops and I finally found some jeans that fit well!!!!; tight in all the right places and plenty long. Huge win!!  (The best part?  Everything was under $150!)  

I picked up my new meds, went home, took them, and felt pretty crappy so I did nothing all night. Which is what my body needs these days.



Saturday was gloomy so we ran some errands (and I got to wear one of my new skirts) and then worked around the house.

Our pendant lights above the island are always in everyone's way when we entertain. Naturally, we congregate around the island to eat the food, but that means these damn lights are blocking each other's faces. We kept saying we're going to raise them and we finally did. And by we, I clearly me Nick. I just took pictures. And prayed he knew what he was doing when cutting those wires. He's still alive so it's safe to say he did know. We now have lights that won't interfere in conversations and they're still functioning!

(My model showing the various heights and demonstrating how they block your face.  The one on the right has clearly been raised already.  This is the "halfway" finished photo)

Nick also replaced a few outlets in our house (thankfully the ones behind our night stands) with these bad boys! 

At night, I find myself wanting to charge my phone and iPad, but also use my light. Without an extension cord or a bulky multi-plug adapter, I can't do that. Now I can!!!!!! Huge thanks to my ever handy husband!!
Lastly, we replaced ALL the light bulbs. Our house has the generic incandescent light bulbs with (expensive) day time energy efficient light bulbs. The recessed lighting, the vanities, the ceiling fans, overhead lights, pendant lights. They all got new bulbs. It's crazy how the color of the lights really changes the look of the house!! I love it!!!

That evening we went out to dinner with some friends. It left me feeling gross (a side effect of my medicine is nausea until my body has adjusted) so we headed home where I pretty much went straight to bed.


Easter Sunday we woke up and looked inside our Easter baskets. We don't go all out, but apparently that's the thing now. Did you know Easter is now a second Christmas? Or maybe it's always been this way and I was just deprived as were my friends and cousins.  
Anywhooo...we looked inside our baskets...

The Easter Hubby got me wine (seems to be his tradition), the movie Saving Mr. Banks (I've been asking for it since I saw it in theaters), and lots of caramel Cadbury Eggs. And by lots, I mean 50. He knows they're my favorite, but sadly I can only get them at Easter therefore he gets my stocked up.  Now to restrain myself and only consume one a week until spring!!!
Nick received candy, pistachios, a jigsaw puzzle (because he's a nerd like that), two water guns (because we're children and I thought a water gun fight would be fun), and a new purple Under Armour shirt. He is obsessed with these shirts, and he also complains he has nothing to wear to my Relay events. Now he doesn't have to wear the same purple RL polo over and over again.


After baskets, we went out to an early lunch, did a little shopping (am the only one who seems to run out of all their toiletries and makeup at the same time, making those trips so expensive?!)
Once we got home, we attempted some family photos with the pups.  Those never really produce great photos.  They dogs look pissed or sad, we are obviously forcing them into the photos against their will, and because we're busy trying to keep the dogs still and looking at the camera, one or both of us inevitably end up looking stupid.

(I swear, we are not that couple that color coordinate.  I wanted to wear my new skirt and this was the only shirt Nick had clean lol)

After the family photos, watched Mary Poppins, dyed eggs, and then ended the evening watching Saving Mr. Banks (Nick hadn't seen Mary Poppins in probably 10 years and he hasn't seen Saving Mr. Banks at all.)

Of course I had to torture my dogs a little bit more with the bunny ears for my own entertainment.
Vino played the part well!

"Look Ma!  Iz a weal bunny wabbit!"

As always, I missed my family.

Even though my cousins and I range in age from 20 to 32 years, Grandma still makes us Easter baskets and sends us on an Easter egg hunt. It's a tradition I love and greatly miss. I will never outgrow those fun family traditions. I'm thankful for such an amazing family to miss but dammit!, it's hard!!
I wish I had been home to visit Grandpa.  I'm happy my brother sent this to me, but seeing his name on a tombstone still takes my breath away and makes me sick to my stomach.  

What's really hard is seeing this photo:

Grandma with her grandkids. I hate that I'm not in the photo. Now that Grandpa is gone, I can't help but wonder how much longer we have with her. I now realize we aren't invincible and her time with us is limited. I want to be there, making memories, and capturing photos like this to preserve those memories. I can think of Christmas photos with my grandparents just two Christmases ago. Its a photo of grandpa, grandma, and us grandkids...minus my brother because he was at his in-laws. There's another with Grandpa and his "boys", with Ben also missing. Thankfully we had another Christmas for Ben to partake in these photos, but what if that was the last?? Those are the thoughts I have. Morbid, but honest. I always hurt when my family is together, because they're the bombdiggity, but also because I don't know if it could be the last {insert holiday/family function} with Grandma.  Thankfully we have technology so I'm able to "see" and talk to them whenever I want.  It helps but it's just not the same as actually being there :(


I don't want to end on a depressing note, so I'll say that despite my homesickness, all in all, it was a good day.   I'm gearing up for a very rough two weeks so a chill day was much needed.  But it's just two weeks.  I can do it.  .....I think.

Happy Father's Day

Happy Father's Day to all you wonderful fathers out there!

I want to give a special Happy Father's Day to my own father.
He's a man who doesn't get talked about too often on my blog.  It has nothing to do with my love for him.  Nothing at all.
You all hear about my mother.  That's because she's one of my best friends.  I have that very close "mother-daughter" relationship with her.
But my father is loved just as much.  We just don't have that super close bond that you have with a mother.  I mean, there is NO bond like there is between a mother and daughter.  But we are close.
It's safe to say I'm much, much more like my mother.  I like a lot more like her than my father.  I have more of my mother's personality.
But there are some things I wish Dad had passed on to me.  Such as:
- more of that Cherokee blood.  I fall in the middle.  My sister got the most of it, while my brother got the least of it.  I wish I had more.  I wish I was a little bit tanner.  Dad, no matter what time of year, always has a nice shade of tan on him.  I'm envious.
- his pallet.  There are very rarely foods my father won't eat.  I wish I was more like that.  I'm so picky!
- his cooking.  I'm learning but my father is a great cook and baker!  Christmas is always fun because our house is over flowing with cookies and fudge!
- his useless knowledge.  My father is like Nick.  Their brains are full of the most useless trivia type knowledge.  My dad can be in the kitchen, chopping up vegetables, with Jeopardy on in the living room, and just spout out all the answers.  I'm always so impressed by his nerdiness for knowledge.  I just don't remember things unless I'm TESTED on them and have studied them over and over.
Those are only a few but those are the traits I most wish he had passed along to me =/

My Dad has always been there for me. He has a huge heart and would lay down his life for my mother or any of his children.  I will admit that Dad and I have not always gotten along (as most parents and kids don't always) and we have butted heads on a few certain topics, but what matters is at the end of the day, we can still hug and say "I love you"...and mean it.  My Dad is very opinionated and even though my opinion differs from him on some things, he doesn't judge me for it.  He doesn't love me any less for thinking differently than him.
I am thankful for BOTH my parents and how they raised us.  Growing up, my parents had their views on things, but never once did they force their views or opinions on us.  I cannot thank them enough for that.  It allowed me to grow and decide my own stance, views, opinion, etc on my own.

My father is not really into sports but he spent so many weekday evenings cooking me dinner and then driving me to and from my sports practices...soccer, softball, volleyball, and basketball.  He would attend my games, sitting in extreme heat, rain, sleet, snow, and extreme cold.  Yep, he was that obnoxious Dad yelling from the stands.  But aren't ALL dads like that???  At the time, I, along with my teammates, were embarrassed by our dads.  But looking back, it makes me smile.  It just showed how into the games he was, how much he loved and supported me.

Dad played the "protective Dad"...no dating until I was 16, and only after he had met him.  Giving that firm handshake when he came to the door.  Trying to tell me to be home at 9pm. (HA!)  Not letting me leave the house in anything "slutty".  Checking in my room if he woke up at 3am to make sure I was there.  Making sure he knew where I was going, with whom, and when I'd be home.
Dad was there during my first break-up.  He held me while I cried and (although he loved the guy the entire 3+ years we dated) talked about how he wasn't good enough for me and "I never liked him anyway."
Dad was always there to fix anything that broke.  Cars (which I have bad luck with...I touch them and they break).  He could fix any electronic, household item, furniture, etc.  It's a quality I loved about him and miss so much.  Nick didn't grow up fixing things, working on things, etc. He doesn't have an extensive tool set.  I'm sure if something happened, he could figure out a way to make it happen.  But Dad had everything you'd ever needed or anything you ever  could needed.  And he always knows instantly how to fix things.
Dad brags to anyone who will listen about anything us children do.  Anything!
Dad was there to pack the van full to the max and drive me up to Columbia.  And continue to come up every year after, move me, and put together my furniture.  (Sorry for moving every year!!!)
When I got sick, Dad (and Mom) were in the car, instantly, and on the way to be by my side.
Dad sat with me during chemo, which is a HUGE task for him because that man cannot sit still!  But 8 hours, he was there with me.
Dad watched me sit in pain and fear yet remained strong, not only for me, but for my entire family.  I rarely saw tears even though I'm sure he shed a lot.  He was our rock.
Dad comforted us all the night my hair fell out, finding the positive in such a horrible incident. ("At least we know the chemo is working now.")
Dad found so many friends of his to pray for me and they had people praying all over the world.
Dad allowed me to move back to Columbia during chemo to work and go to classes, even though it KILLED him and my mother to have me so far from home when so fragile.
Dad pretended to take an interest in wedding planning (we all knew he thought it was silly and a waste of money for so many things but he pretended to care lol).  He acted as if he cared I finally decided on a invitation design or booked a limousine =)
Dad walked me down the aisle and gave me away....something I'm sure is hard to do.
Dad loves and accepts Nick as his own son.  But more than those two, he highly approves of him...something hard for a Dad to do, I'm sure.
Dad takes such pride in his "grandpups".  I know he (and Mom) wish they were real human children but he's happy just the same.  (I promise, someday, you WILL have human grandkids.)

Most importantly, Dad makes sure, that even though I'm hundreds of miles away, that he knows I know he loves me very much and is thinking about me.  He's always up to date on our weather, and calling if it seems questionable.  He's always checking my blog for new updates.  He's always checking my Facebook for new photos.

So although my Dad doesn't get a lot of spotlight on this blog, it's not because he's unloved.  Dad is loved very, very much.

Daddy, I wish I were able to be home and celebrate with you.  But I'm sure you're busy with all day with the new tools you got from us =)  I hope you had a great day!  I love you!

Mom and Dad

St. Nick's Day 2011

Nick and I have discussed what traditions we grew up with and what ones we would like to continue within our family (which were all of them lol).

One of my favorite traditions is celebrating St. Nick's Day.  This is not something Nick celebrated but he was totally on board with starting it in our family just amongst each other and eventually for when we have children. 

For as long as I can remember, on the eve of December 6th, St. Nick visits the house.  He always fills our stockings with candy, and fruit (when we were younger).  He also leaves an ornament (when we were younger he also left a small toy but apparently we're too old for that now). 
Each year the ornament had a special meaning.  It would relate to us personally.  It could be something we loved, a hobby we enjoyed, a character we like, a milestone in our life, etc.  For example, some of mine consisted of:
- Baby's First Christmas
- a cute little scrapbooking marshmallow (yes, I'm a scrapbook nerd)
- Belle from Beauty and the Beast (my favorite Disney princess)
- a few different Cardinals ornaments
- a few different Mizzou ornaments
- Sylvester (from Looney Toons...my fav one) playing soccer (my favorite sport and the sport I played my entire life.)
- a wine glass
- a Navy ornament

So you get the idea.  I am not taking these ornaments to Florida with me because those are my childhood memories and should stay put on that tree.  (Please see next entry).

Nick and I want to build our ornament collection and start our own sentimental tree.  We have a few ornaments already but with each passing year, we'll add two new ones as St. Nick will visit us each year.

My mother was always "St. Nick" and she got an ornament for each of us kids.
Seeing as we don't have kids, Nick and I are going to play St. Nick to each other.  (Once we have kids, I will assume the St. Nick role as my mother did.  I'm still undecided if Nick and I will stop getting each other ornaments at that point.)

Prior to St. Nick's Day, Nicholas and I each separately went out and bought each other candy and an ornament.  It was kind of a difficult task because I'm used to visiting Kimmswick back home where they have any and every ornament you could think of.  I was pretty much limited to the mall here.  Plus we had a budget so I didn't want to order any online.
But I ended up finding the perfect one!
If you know Nick, then you KNOW he's obsessed with Weimaraners, especially our little monster, Yadi.  He had been looking online and in ANY store we went in to see if they had a Weim ornament.  No one did.  (It's not a very common breed.) 
But while I was at the mall, I found one!!!!!  I was so excited I almost didn't want to wait until the morning of the 6th for him to look in his stocking!

The morning of December 6th, I woke up and Nick was already at work.  I noticed he had stuffed my stocking so I took this opportunity to stuff his (I wanted to stuff it in the middle of the night but he went to bed MUCH later than me and I never woke up that night).  When he arrived home from work around 8am (rough life ;) which I'll get into in another post), we took down our stockings and emptied them out.

Nick's is far left and mine is the far right

I wish I would have had the camera but sadly I didn't think to take any pictures of this event (major =( sad face).  But he absolutely LOVED his ornament!!!!  (and his candy).  Here is a picture of it hung on our tree:

Then I opened mine.  I loved it!  My husband knows me too well.  He got me Belle from Beauty and the Beast (along with my fav candy).  I was secretly hoping he would get her! I saw it while I was at the mall and was sad I had one on our family tree back home and desperately wanted a Belle on our tree.  And now I have one!  Again, no read great pictures but here is a picture of it on the tree:

I love that we are starting this tradition and can't wait to see the different ornaments we collect over the years.  I need to start ornament shopping early next year, just in case the mall and stores around me don't have anything I like, I will have time to order something or have my family find one for me in Kimmswick.  (Hopefully every year we go home for Thanksgiving I can get one from the many, MANY Christmas shops around St. Louis.)

So there you have it....Our First Married Tradition =)  Our First St. Nick's Day together.  It was a huge success!!!!  I love this day.  It's just something small and simple but it brings me so much joy!

Happy St. Nick's Day everyone!!!