Giant Christmas 2015 Recap: A St Louis Visit

Yeah, yeah, I'm a little late on this post.  But better late than never, right?  And as I said many times before (broken record much?), this blog is more so for me than anyone else.  I mean, don't get me wrong, I'm an over-sharer by nature so I obviously blog for others AND myself.  But these recap posts?  I know 85% of my followers could give a rat's crap about them and click that "mark as read" button.  I do them for myself.  I love looking back and seeing how I spent each holiday.  And seeing as this was the last one as a family of four (yes, I consider the dogs a part of our family), I wanted to make sure I wrote a post about it.

So here we go!  Christmas 2014 Recap:

Like every Christmas, we had plans to head back to St. Louis and spend the holiday with our families.  Since we're overpackers, Nick and I don't bring our gifts to each other with us.  We normally open them upon our return to Florida.  This year, Nick and I decided to open gifts before we headed home.  Really, Nick decided this because he knew he was getting a new NorthFace fleece jacket and he wanted to take it with him.

So Friday when I got home from work, we had our own Very Merry Obie Christmas and opened our gifts.

I am not really a coffee drinker.  Don't get me wrong, I love coffee but I try not to consume too much caffeine and don't want to be addicted like I was in college.  But I'm told I will rely on coffee once this little boy makes his debut, so I decided I was going to hop on the Keurig bandwagon and asked for one.  (I didn't want the new 2.0.  Read up on it and decided I wanted this one).
And a ROOMBA!!!  Can I tell you how much I love this thing?  Our dogs don't really shed, but what little they do, it picks it right up.  My husband is a little excessive though and has the thing scheduled to run everyday.  I think it's a bit much so I need to read how to change the schedule to make 2 or 3 times a week.  But for all who asked to tell me how I like it:  LOVE it!!!  It picked up all the Christmas poop; you know, the glitter, garland shedding, tinsel, etc that falls off your decorations.  Every single bit of it.  It gets up all my hair from every area of the bathroom, picks up the dogs hair, crumbs in the kitchen, and your normal dirt.  It has zero issues going from our tile to our rugs and back onto the tile.  Best purchase every!  It's definitely going to make life as a mama with a newborn much easier!

Your eyes are not deceiving you.  Nick is holding a box of Converse shoes.  I am Converse obsessed (if the three new pairs didn't give it away) and I was soooo happy when Nick finally agreed to get a pair.  He's holding a black pair but he also got a navy blue pair.  And he looks so adorable in them :)  As for mine, love them.  Now, I'm only one the hunt for two more pairs and I'll be set (for a while).

This was my favorite gift I got Nick.  And it's probably the only gift that he had no idea he was getting.  He's so bad about guessing his gifts (or he picks them out when we're together)

It's a challenge coin holder, in the shape of MH-60 Seahawk, which is the helicopter he flies.  (What are challenge coins?  They're coins, usually about the size of an old school silver dollar, and have various things on them.  Nick has one for each command he's been at, each squadron, different ships, he's been given some by superiors, he has one for every rank he's held, etc.)  Nick has so many of them from enlistment, through the Academy and the various trainings he encountered there, plus all of the ones he's received since commissioning and being in the aviation community.  They're just tucked away in bags and boxes, hidden away.  I wanted a way for him to display them and when I saw this, I knew it was perfect!  And he loved it!


Then it was in the car and on our way to St. Louis.  The drive wasn't too bad.  We only stopped once for a two hour nap around midnight  (and a few more just for pee breaks and gas) and after almost 17 hours of driving, we arrived at my parents house at 9:30am. These pups were happy to get out of the car and run off some energy, that's for sure!!!

The majority of the trip was spent resting, per doctor's orders.  Which was nice because trips home are usually so stressful with running all over, trying to see everyone and fit everything in.  But this time, we didn't have much of that, aside from the holidays.  I was able to spend a lot of time with my family, in my jammies, with no bra.  It was glorious!  And my family was happy to see this ever growing bump :)

And lots of cuddling was had.  With humans and dogs.

Oh but what's a trip home without a trip to the vet?  Of course, it was the Weim.  But more on that later.  It was nothing major, so don't worry.  (Because I know you totally were).

(Can you tell how excited these two are to be at the vet???)

So what else happened while at home?

My sister bought her husband a 10 pound apple pie, the "Mile High Apple Pie" from the Blue Owl in Kimmswick, Missouri (it was featured on Oprah's Favorite Things).  He's an apple-loving guy so he definitely loved this!
This was also officially our cheapest trip home with gas being so cheap!!!  I was amazing!
And of course, we couldn't forget Jack in the Box.  It's one of our favorites and we don't have it in the south so we make sure to eat it a few times while we're home.  (We also had Imo's pizza a few times but I was too busy stuffing my face with that amazing pizza to take a picture of it.  #bloggerfail)

What else?

My brother had to sleep on the couch (With only two spare rooms, the one who stays the shortest gets the shaft, so that was my brother and his fiance Randy.)  Kyle and I decided to make Ben into a burrito so he'd be nice and warm while he slept on the couch.
I bought my first pair of maternity pants.  I was dreading having to buy them but you guys!  Maternity pants are the most comfortable things ever!!!!!!!!!!  Now if only I could find some maternity jeans to fit me because the belly band does NOT hold my pants up.
We went to a family friend holiday party and not only did I feel large, but I looked large.  Not just pregnant large but I looked like I put on weight all over, especially that face.  Barf!


Us humans weren't the only ones to have fun.  The pups love coming to their grandparents house because they're allowed on the furniture.  You've never seen Yadi so mellow as when she is allowed on the couch.  This dog just slept and relaxed the entire week (and if you know Yadi, you know that's rare).

Then it was time for all the Christmas festivities.  Christmas Eve was spent with Nick's family and it was so great to spend time with them, especially our little niece!  She's growing up so fast is the most adorable little girl!!!

Christmas Day was spent with my mother's side of the family at my Grandma's house.  As always, it was a great time because this family, boy are they loud and fun and loving!!!

Grandma's tree, complete with her village has so many memories.  I miss Grandpa's train, but I understand why Grandma doesn't get it out anymore.  Probably for the best.  I don't think I could handle it being under the tree.

Speaking of Grandpa, Grandma handed each of us grandkids a bag.  I pulled out this box and just lost it. Inside the box from "Grandpa Santa", we each received some of his old silver dollars.  I don't know what I'm going to do with them just yet, but I want to find a unique way to display them.  I definitely don't want them tucked away in a box in a closet somewhere.  

And as usual, Teeny and I did our "acrobatics".  And then more present opening, because duh, it's Christmas.

That's my entire family!  Our large, crazy bunch!!!

Baby Obie also had a great Christmas!!!  I picked up this outfit below for less than $10 and I truly hope he fits into it next Christmas season!  Or in the fall when we take our Christmas card photos!  

That adorable outfit was a gift from family.

And I found this Mizzou football, turned Truman!  Baby's first Truman the Tiger!!! I saw it for $25 at Rally House and passed it by.  Then I saw it at TJ Maxx for $7.99.  Definitely wasn't passing that deal by!!

My family also celebrated Christmas morning and as always, we all wore our Santa hats (below Mom had taken hers off already since I snapped this after the present opening)

My awesome husband got me these giant Mizzou tiger paw slippers and I looooove them!!!

And somewhere in the mess we had pups!

Christmas was great!  Not for the gifts, but for the love and laughs with my family.  Words cannot express how much I love them all.  Being so away from the sucks!

Sadly, it was time to make the drive back to Florida just a few days after Christmas.  Drives home suck.  Badly.  I absolutely hate leaving home and wish I could say we're moving back sometime soon.  But nope, not for a very long time :(  At least it makes me appreciate my family and my limited time with them every more!!!!!!!!  And now here's to starting the next countdown until I see them again!!!

Are any of you this behind on Christmas updates?
Do any of you travel long distances each Christmas to spend it with the holidays?
If you live far from "home", do you find trips home just as stressful as fun??

Roadtrip to Obie Christmas

With the car packed to the max, (we have to buy a turtle shell for the top of our SUV next Christmas.  Our overpacking ways mixed with all the gifts we receive combined with the things we stock up on (my favorite Missouri wine, Nick's favorite Missouri chips, clothes and decor from our favorite local stores, etc) we were ready to head back to Florida.  Well, physically ready.  I'm never emotionally ready.  I hate saying goodbye to my family.  It's so hard.  Especially when my mother is crying, my Grandma is bawling, and we don't know when we'll see everyone again.  I need to get my next visit (or their next visit) on the calendar so I have something to look forward to!

Anyway, we had the car packed, and obviously Sierra wanted to come home with us too.  I'm sure she'd quickly want to go back to Missouri when she learned we don't let her on the couch or beds, nor do we give her human food or a treat every time she potties or enters a house (she's a spoiled only child.)  

The trip back kind of stunk.  I feel awful because Nick always does more driving than me.  I loathe driving.  After about 3 to 4 hours, I get antsy.  My butt begins to hurt.  My antsy-ness then turns into anxiety and I have to quit.  Which leaves poor Nick to do the majority of the driving.  In our 15 hour drive, I probably drive a total of 6 hours.  I'm an awful wife and roadtripper.  

Anyway, the drive sucked, for reasons other than it's a 15 hour drive.

For starters, we hit traffic.  At 10pm.  Seriously?  hashtag WTF.

Then it was raining for about 10 hours of our trip.  And about 8 of those it was a hard downpour.  

Sunflower seeds.  It's Nick's only saving grace for staying awake.  But they have to be barbecue flavored ones.  And they have to be the jumbo seeds.  Otherwise, they won't do the job for him.  Picky much??  That bottle of sunflower seed shells smells horrible.  But I guess it's better than alternatives such as dipping (disgusting) or downing energy drinks.  I just make sure he brushes his teeth before we makeout (you know, because there's lots of that going on while driving.)
The girls did well, as usual.  They slept the entire 15 hours, only standing up when we stopped for gas.  I love that we don't have to drug them for them to sleep on roadtrips or that they are content to stay in the car the entire trip.

Have you ever stopped at a rest area?  I've noticed that:

 // everyone there looks like a character out of Walking Dead.  Ya know, minus the whole eating people's faces off.

// old people love small dogs

// people absolutely love our dogs.  They point at them, smile at them, wave to them, and always want to pet them

// fashion rules and looking presentable are concepts that don't exist (guilty)

// the bathrooms are always about 40 degrees

Other things I learned on this trip:

// I now suddenly get car sick.  Isn't that just wonderful?  I didn't throw up but there were plenty of times I thought I was going to.  Thankfully, if I'm behind the wheel I'm okay.

// I'm over my love of fast food.  I used to love it.  Crave it all the time.  Now, it's the worst part of roadtrips.  There are really no healthy options.  I eat like crap and definitely feel like crap.

// Leggings and slipper booties are the best traveling attire ever.

Once home, we crashed in bed for about three hours.  When I woke up, I walked out of the bedroom to see this:

See all of that?  The crap on the floor, the crap on the couch, on the table (minus the computer monitor), and there's even more on the kitchen island.  Allllll of that was in our SUV.  And only in the second row seating (we had to make sure the dogs had the back all comfy because we're crazy dog people and would never inconvenience them).  I have NO idea how Nick does it, but he's an expert packer.  

Okay, so not only is he fantastic because he fit this all and saved us from mailing ourselves packages, but he also brought all of this in the house while I was sleeping!  I didn't have to do any work.  Best husband ever!  

Anyway, we showered and made ourselves look like real human beings (sort of) and then we had our own little Obie Christmas.  We didn't take all of our gifts to one another back to St. Louis on the account of saving space.   So we opened them all the night we got back.

Picture time!!!

I've been wanting a Clarasonic for a very long time and I finally got one!!!!!

Of course I couldn't pass up a VW shirt when I saw it.  (Nick is obsessed with Volkswagen) 

Nick wrapped my empty Rebel box since it was an early Christmas gift.

And Vino was loving just walking around holding the wadded up wrapping paper. (She never eats anything, just loves to hold things in her mouth. {that's what she said}.)

The girls always have to be in the middle of everything. 

Nick got me a gym bag because I'm desperately been needing one.  And of course he fed into my Under Armour obsession (he turned me to the dark side a few months ago).  He also got me a new laptop bag!  I have been using the ugly standard, bulky one my work gave me.  This one is cuter because it's purple (a common color for my job), it can hold my laptop, AND it can hold my paperwork, planner, and notebooks.  My old case could only hold my laptop, despite how large it was, which meant I was going to work with my oversized purse, my laptop case, an additional bag for my stuff, and a lunch bag!  That's just too much!

 Nick has been wanting a bottle of Jack's Single Barrel so I got him the gift set. And he loved it! 

Again, I saw another shirt that screamed Nick.  He's one of those Harry Potter nerds (and I don't mean that in a negative way!)  I also found this cute little helicopter.  I thought it'd be a nice addition to a shelf somewhere in the house :)

SPERRY'S!!!  I've never owned a pair but just recently I've really been wanting one.  And although he hates my leopard obsession, he fed into it by buying me the leopard Sperry's!!!  I love them!   

As always, the girls had fun ripping up all the paper.
And yes, we still didn't clean the mess from our trip.  To be honest, it stayed there for a good 48 hours!  No shame either.  

After the gifts were opened and we cleaned up the wrapping paper, Nick poured himself a drink.  Definitely a good gift!

And when we were finished, we cuddled in bed watching tv so that we didn't have to look at our unpacked bags and Christmas gifts and feel badly about being bums.  But in our defense, we had drove for 15 hours and only slept for 3 hours.  We were lacking all motivation.

And that completes the Christmas posts!!!  Woo, feels good! Now to focus on the new year!

(To answer the questions:  Obie is a nickname from our last name.  All of Nick's friends call me Mrs. Obie and that's what most of his friends refer to him as.)

Christmas Celebrations

Christmas this year was just like every other year...better than the last and far from a disappoint.  It was as perfect as it could be.  Of course, pure perfection would have been having my Grandpa there (although, spiritually, he was there with us, I'm sure) and having my siblings there.  Unfortunately, Leah had to work so her and Kyle were unable to join us.  Randy was also working which meant he stayed back in KC with his family, but Ben made the trip in to spend with us.

The first of our celebrations was with my family, on Christmas Eve.  We started the afternoon with a trip to visit Grandpa to wish him a Merry Christmas.  Then we headed down the street to visit my other grandparents.

As is customary every year, just after arriving, we get our family photos taken and various group photos. And of course, I can't act normal for a long period of time.  Nor can my husband ever cooperate.

Then comes drinking (Manhattans in Grandpa's honor), laughs, and plenty of shenanigans. 

(Ben and Nick both had on fancy matching socks to compliment their outfits.)

Then it's time to gather around the table where we stand, hold hands, and pray.  As of lately, our family prayer consists of many tears and choking on words as we feel the emptiness in the circle.  With our hands held a little tighter than they have been the past 29 years of my life, our hearts might be missing a piece of them with Grandpa's passing, but the love between the 16 of us has only strengthened and it helps to ease the pain of loss.  

The tears quickly fade into laughs and we dig in to the spread of food before us and pour more drinks.  (I was too busy stuffing my face to get a picture of the food.  Not sorry).

After dinner, we all gather in the living room.  We sit around the Christmas tree; the tree that is now train-less.  It pains me to experience my first Christmas without Grandpa's excitement when he gets down on his hands and knees, puts his hand on the buttons of the train engine, looks at me and says "You ready, Mellie?!"  To which I always respond, probably a little too excited for a late-twenty year old, as he turns it on.  The train begins making it's noises, he turns to me with a childlike grin, and waits for me to say, in unison with the conductor "CENTRAL STATION!"  It was mine and Grandpa's thing.  And I will fully admit that I never realized just how special it was to me until this year.  When the tree no longer contained that train.  When Grandpa wasn't there to partake in our little ritual.  

Thankfully the tears welling up in my eyes are kept at bay when the obnoxiousness of my loud family takes over.  The jokes, the laughs, the flying presents, the spilled drinks.  It's hard to let sadness take over when you're surrounded by 15 of the most amazing people you've ever loved and been loved by.  

The present opening begins, usually in organized chaos.

This is the only photo I have from present opening.  Major fail.  Grandma ran out of gift boxes so we got these.  And inside them was cash.  Thanks, Grandma.  I'd have been highly disappointed if you gave me pie crust (I don't like pie).

Normally at this point in the night, we play games, something Grandpa and Grandma always loved doing at every family function.  But Grandma wanted to take a nap since she had decided to go to midnight service at her church.  We took this as the perfect opportunity to play Cards Against Humanity.  If you haven't played the game, you aren't living.  Seriously, go buy it.  It's just like Apples to Apples but so much more vulgar and inappropriate.  Which is perfect for my family (if you don't like using words such as boner, dick, vagina, etc, then I wouldn't play this game).  My family had never played this game and needless to say, they loved it!  (Just to clarify, there were no doubts they would).  

A ways into the game, Grandma comes strolling in, wanting to know what we're playing.  She sat down next to my Aunt J, and we were just hoping she wouldn't be able to hear well, or that most of them would go way over her head.  

We could not have been more wrong.  Grandma wasn't only not offended, she joined in.  If it wasn't official before, it's official now.  I have the coolest Grandma in the world!  Case and point:  Grandma enters and sits next to my Aunt J.  Aunt J begins reading her cards.  She gets to one that is clearly inappropriate and begins laughing, not wanting to read it due to her mother (Grandma) sitting next to her.  Grandma then leans over, looks at the card in Aunt J's hand and says "Female orgasm", in a very matter of fact voice.  We.All.Died.  

Then later, Uncle G purposefully passes a card off for the round just so he (and all of us) can hear Grandma say "boner".  And she did.  Grandma was also educated on what a queef is and had no reaction upon learning of it's meaning.
Coolest Grandma ever!

Unfortunately the game had to come to an end as my immediate family had to leave to get to Midnight Mass on time.  To which I have to say, how the heck did I do this before?  Maybe it's because I'm almost 30, but staying up that late after a full day was pure torture.  I could not do it.
As soon as we got home, I crashed. Hard.

Now to celebration number two!
We spent the night with my parents so when we woke up the next morning, we all opened presents together, but not before getting Leah and Kyle on Skype.  It was a little hard to see them on the tiny MacBook but we managed to watch them open their gifts from us as well as them watching us open their gifts to us.

(this Christmas Eve, before Santa came)

So gifts were opened and I was shocked by some of the things I received!  Nick always goes above and beyond what we say to spend.  Next year, I'm spoiling the shit out of him.  

 1.  I finally have a diploma frame!!!  I've been wanting one for a long time but these babies aren't cheap. ||  2.  Mom and Ben opening gifts. ||  3.  My gift from Randy (to buy lots of fun things for my home).  ||  4.  Nick makes some pretty bombass chicken tenders and fries but our current itty bitty deep fryer means he can only make one or the other.  And those two things totally go together.  Now, he can cook them both (this deep fryer comes with one large basket or two small ones).  ||  5.  Ben being Ben.  ||  6.  Nicholas bought me a sewing machine!!!!!  I've been wanting one for sooooo long and now I finally one!  I totally did not expect him to get this for me because he always seems so disinterested when I bring up sewing projects. I'm shocked he even knew what to buy!  ||  7.  Dad and Sierra (with my creeper dogs in the background).  ||  8.  Nick is obsessed with puzzles.  He loved the top puzzle we all did at the lake many years ago.  Then two days ago, he was telling my Grandma about this exact puzzle and began looking for it online.  I was going to be so mad if he ended up buying it but thankfully he couldn't find it.  And thus he absolutely loved this gift from me.  ||  9.  Family photo.  We started a new tradition this year of buying matching jammie shirts to sleep in and open gifts in.  Sadly, I didn't remember to take a better photo other than this one.

And how awesome is this?!  We stopped by the gas station and they had these on the counter.  Beautiful carvings in various types of marble.  It wasn't even a question of whether we wanted to spend some of our Christmas cash on it.  We decided on the marble we wanted and brought this baby home!  I love it because it's a very unique piece and obviously reminds us of home :)

I didn't post all the photos because, well let's be honest.  Sleepy eyes mixed with no makeup and bedhead just aren't cute.  But there were obviously many more gifts given.  {And although it looks like Nick got me two badass gifts of a diploma frame and sewing machine and I only got him puzzles & a deep fryer, rest assured he got some good gifts and I'm not an awful gift giver.  This morning he also got an Apple TV and video games.  Oh, and that Xbox One he bought a month ago.}

Of course the pups got gifts too.  And for the first time, they actually opened their own gifts.  And like always, Yadi only wanted what Vino had.

The girls also got pretty new collars.  Yadi has been in dire need of a new one.

Yeah, isn't that gross??
Vino has had a simple black one since we got her.  I've been wanting to get her a new one but it's been a struggle.  Nick is really an anything girly hater.  He loathes the color red.  He doesn't want pink on his dogs.  He hates paisley.  He hates flowers.  He hates swirls and polka dots.  If he had it his way, she'd have a blue and green striped color.  Um, no thanks.  Vino is too dainty and sweet to have a boy collar.  We finally agreed on these colors and chevron was pretty much the only non-girly pattern we could find these colors in.  So it was the winner.  But I'm happy with it.  It looks good on her (although it is weird to see such a wide collar on her.  I'm used to her thin, puppy collar.)  

But the best gift of all for the pups?  The wrapping paper.  The girls just went to town ripping it apart.  But we didn't mind.  It kept them out of our hair while we opened gifts.  

We had Christmas celebration number 3 with Nick's family but I completely forgot to take photos of this day :(  I know, major major fail.  I did, however, take a picture of one of my awesome gifts:

A basket full of a bunch of local Missouri wines!!!  They know me well ;)

We enjoyed dinner and gifts and laughs. Then the next night we went to more of his family's house for Christmas fun. Sadly, I didn't bring my camera and my phone was dead so no pictures. 

We had a white elephant gift exchange and I ended up with this super soft and comfy Mizzou blanket and fuzzy socks!! Major win!!

And that completes our Christmas' in St. Louis.  If you made it this far, congratulations, you deserve one of my bottles of wine.  Unfortunately for you, I'm selfish and won't share.  But if you come visit, I just might let you have a sip.