Christmas Extravaganza!

So we did the Christmas Extravaganza again this year, except this year we had to leave one night early. We packed up really quickly and left on Friday night when we were planning to leave Saturday. The threat of the Blizzard of 09 was real, so we wanted to hit the road. We only made it to Fredericksburg (about 60 miles away) before we had to pull off and spend the night. The next day was a lot of driving, but we finally made it to Myrtle Beach, SC to see my extended family. We stayed there until Monday and then went to Gastonia, NC to spend some time with my family and my Aunt Dannie and Rick. On Wednesday morning we left to go to Tennessee and see all of Justin's family. Justin's 10 year high school renunion was Wednesday night and we had so much fun at that! We spent Christmas morning at his mom's house and then at his grandmother's house and then Christmas night into the next day at his Dad's house. We had a wonderful trip! We drove in that little car of ours so much that when we got back we decided we needed a new one! We got a 2007 Camry and we love it! :)

The girls at Grandmother's on Christmas Day. Tara, Kimberly, Ashley and Me.

Justin and I on Christmas Morning

Justin's 10 year reunion gang!

Justin and I at formal Christmas Dinner at Uncle Stewart's

My family at Formal Christmas Dinner! :)

Justin's 29th Birthday!

Last night, we had a birthday party for Justin! It was great! Lots of our friends came and I made some yummy goodies and, of course, his favorite cake in the shape of a Power T! Here are some pictures from the festivities!

Pictures of our "Decked Halls"

As promised, here are some pictures of our house all decorated for Christmas!!

1. Christmas Kitchen Towels!

The stockings were hung on the Ikea shelf with care...

Tree and Stockings and Garland! :)

Some cute decorations for the Kitchen counter! Cute Red Chargers have been added since!

Great Weekend!

Well, we had another fabulous weekend! We went to dinner with our friends Phil and Colleen on Friday night. We went to Ben's Next Door, which is owned by the same people who own the famous DC establishment, Ben's Chili Bowl. It was wonderful! We got some good southern favorites: fried chicken and shrimp and grits! Saturday we slept in and woke up to snow falling! It snowed just about all day Saturday. We went over to Phil and Stacy's to watch the SEC Championship game. We had a great time and ate some yummy chili. Saturday night we watched more football and just went to bed early! Sunday I went to church by myself because Justin had a big group project meeting. I helped with a welcome home pot luck for a family who'd been living in the Dominican Republic as missionaries for a year! It was great and we had a HUGE turnout! I got some errands done on Sunday afternoon and Justin and I capped off the weekend with watching "The Holiday." It's one of my favorite Christmas movies!!! Pictures of the house all decked out for Christmas will be posted this week, hopefully tomorrow! Tonight, Justin has school and Courtney is coming over so we can watch Christmas Vacation and The Victorias Secret Fashion Show that I recorded! :)

Decorating our First Christmas Tree Together! :)

Two nights ago, Justin and I decorated our first Christmas tree as a married couple! We had so much fun! We used all the ornaments we already had and added a few new special ones! We have one of the church we got married in that my Aunt Dannie gave us, one from Philadelphia (where we got engaged), and we hung our cake toppers up (Ramses and Smokey!) Here are some photos of us decorating!! First, our cake toppers from our wedding cake! Then, me putting the star on the tree and Justin putting the lights on the tree! It was so much fun!

Our first Thanksgiving!!

Le Left: Catie and I on the metro, Right: Our cute placecards that I made! Left below: Waters kids at the White House on Thanksgiving! Right below: Ashley and I with the feast we prepared! She's wearing my naked girl apron! :)

Our first Thanksgiving as husband and wife was absolutely FANTASTIC!!!! It was also my first Thanksgiving to host! I might have gone a little overboard with the planning, but I wanted to make sure everything turned out JUST right! Justin's Dad, Stepmom, Heath and Ashley, and Catie came to visit us! We had SO MUCH FUN! It was such a great weekend and we had a lot of fun family time. They got here really late Wednesday night and Heath and Ashley borught me a gift! It was the FOUR pack of the Vacation movies! I was thrilled!! Thursday morning we woke up and had waffles and bacon and country ham. Then we got started on the feast! Alice helped me get the Turkey ready and on the rotisserie and then we got to work! Justin, Mark, Alice, Heath and Catie all went to visit the monuments while Ashley and I finished the cooking. Everything was delicious!!! We had SO much food! After the feast, we all walked down to the White House and took some pictures and did some sightseeing. We came back home and settled on the couch to watch Christmas Vacation, mine and Heath's favorite! Then we played Dominoes til late and had a blast! Friday we did some shopping and more sightseeing and went to the National Harbor to see the big Christmas tree and some fireworks! We were going to Ice Skate but it was FREEZING! Saturday we did some more sightseeing complete with a Capital tour for Mark, Alice and Catie and then went to the Wizards-Bobcats game on Saturday night. They had to leave early Sunday morning and we were sad to see them go. I really love having family around. It was SO much fun! Can't wait til Christmas! :) There are a few pictures from our weekend!

Book Club Tonight, a broken camera and finally looking forward to a weekend at home!

So I'll start with a positive. I have Book Club tonight! YAY! I look forward to this each time we have it. We have a fabulous group of girls and we always have a BLAST at each book club meeting. It's truly a highlight of my month, each and every month. Ok, now the negative. Yesterday in my haste to get to work, since I was already late, I threw my soda into my purse thinking it was fine and sealed and all....WRONG! It exploded in my purse and the biggest victim was our camera. :( It has since turned on, but looks like night vision when you try to take pictures and only takes pictures that are a bunch of lines. SAD DAY! So, if it doesn't get better with time, the blog might be without pictures for a little while. We haven't decided about our route for getting a new one yet. I didn't absolutely love the one we had. I've seen other friends' cameras take MUCH better pictures, so maybe its our chance to get a better camera. After all, we are starting out on making a lifetime of memories together and I want to make sure they are captured! If you have any camera recommendations, let me know! Finally, we are actually staying at home this weekend!!!! I am thrilled! I'm taking Friday off and plan to sleep in and get a head start on getting ready for Thanksgiving. I'm just so glad to be spending a weekend home with my husband! We have a lot of house projects to work on, but being in our house together is going to be wonderful!