Christmas Day Festivities

Christmas Day has always been a day that I have been able to get up early with no problem! This year was no exception! I woke up at 4, 6:30, and 7:30 and decided that at 7:30 I could try to get Sam up! Sam was not like me and wanted to sleep until our alarm went off at 8, so I somewhat slept, somewhat just waited until the alarm went off. I shot up out of the bed, got both of us coffee, Sam turned on some Christmas music and our Christmas Day together began. A tradition that Sam and I are going to have on Christmas Day is to pray together as a family before we open presents. (We discussed traditions we would like to have Christmas Eve.) We will have other traditions with kids, but since that is nowhere even near thought, we started our family tradition. We opened our gifts from each other. We both got some great stuff. Sam got me some awesome shoes, a purse, some clothes, board games I asked for, and some movies. I got Sam a steamer, shoes, clothes, movies, and some other stuff. He loved the steamer. I was worried that it would be like getting a vacuum or sewing machine, but he really like it. It was immediately put together. We got ourselves ready and headed out to my parents house to have Christmas Day brunch as a family. We got some great stuff. I got a DS and Sam got Guitar Hero with two guitars so we can play together. We got some clothes too!! After spending some time there, we headed to the hospital to see Sam's grandmother. She fell and broke her hip, so she's been in rehab for over a month. We all gathered in her room and had some family time. Of course, the main entertainment came from Calyn! She is just the cutest kid!

We finished up our Christmas night traveling to my grandparents house for the traditional Christmas Day night celebration! Exhausted Sam and I headed back to the house around 9:30. After a Mountain Dew, the two of us stayed up until 1:30 A.M. playing guitar hero! We are an awesome band in case you were wondering!!! We had a great first Christmas...and made it to every function with our sanity!! Impressive I know!:)

Christmas Eve

To start off our Christmas together, Sam and I went to Gina and Chris' house. (Sam's sister and brother in law for those of you who aren't quite sure who I am talking about!) We had a wonderful Mexican feast. We made our chicken enchilada's and homemade guacamole..thanks Amanda and Steve!! After dinner, we shared some of our memories of Mr. Sam and celebrated his life!! Calyn woke up and soon began the opening of present by a soon to be 1 year old! It was hilarious! We did presents in the wrong order. We gave her the toys first and then when it came to the clothes she was not interested. She got some pretty awesome toys! Nana seemed to have had a blast getting presents for her adorable granddaughter! We got her an Elmo cell phone and an outfit. She loved the cell phone which made me feel awesome! Just to explain the funniness of the event...Calyn would only pull one little piece at a time of the paper and then hand it to the nearest person. She would not continue until that one piece of paper was out of her hand. Crawling around and tape did not go well with her either. She would be on the trail to a different toy and get stopped in her tracks by a piece of tape stuck to her hand! It was so cute! Mrs. Terri, Sarah, and Jake went to a midnight mass in Nashville which by the way was 3 hours long!! I was amazed! Christmas Eve was fabulous and we had a wonderful time with Sam's family!

First Christmas Ornament

but still no tree topper! That's alright though! Our tree is still awesome whether it's got a topper or not! :) While we were in Gatlinburg, Sam and I looked for an ornament that would be the "Our First Christmas" one. We went to the Christmas Village. Wow! That place has all kinds of ornaments or decor that can fit anyone's personality! It was actually slightly overwhelming! There was also a little boy that had a stupid little chicken that made the most annoying noise and around every corner..there he was! That's beside the point though. We looked everywhere for an ornament in that place. Finally, after a second try in the personalizing department we found the ornaments for the "first's". There were several to choose from, but we decided to get one with two snow people in the back of a car. We got it personalized especially for us..well at first it was for Sam and Molly, but it was changed to Holly quickly! :) We now have our first Christmas ornament and we love it! It looks fabulous on our tree!

Gatlinburg Getaway

It seems like every since Sam and I got married we have been going non-stop. Two weeks after we got married I started school, so the chance to getaway was really hard to come by. We decided that we would go to Gatlinburg after I got out of school with John and Lindsey to get a much needed rest from life. I finished up school on Wednesday and Sam took a half day on Thursday and the four of us headed out of town! We had a blast after a little bit of a tough time with our cabin rental company. I'll just say that we will not go back to Sterling Springs Resort nor do we recommend anyone else going. We were placed in 5 different cabins, 4 of which happened within the last 2 weeks. I mean, good grief, we made reservations 2 months early for a reason, but that didn't seem to matter! Anyways, we finally got a cabin that somewhat was what we reserved originally. We ordered pizza, relaxed in a hot tub, and started a Christmas movie our first night there. We spent Friday shopping in Pigeon Forge, which was fun! We might not have gotten anything, but we had fun looking! That's what happens when it's this close to Christmas I guess! We went to Dixie Stampede that night! Our waiter made the experience so much better! He was hilarious! A night at Dixie Stampede is always memorable! You've got to love places that do not supply utensils! And I will add that the South won, even though some competitions were definitely rigged!! In the end, the South Pole was the champion! After dinner we went and looked at lights in Gatlinburg, which was beautiful! Saturday was got up and went to have breakfast at the Pancake Pantry which was delicious! I had chocolate chip pancakes which were fabulous, but fast filling! We walked Gatlinburg and went to the spot where the magic happened for Lindsey and John had a little photo opt and then headed back to the cabin. We spent the rest of the night in watching Christmas movies and hanging out in the hot tub with a lot of pool and air hockey! We headed out Sunday morning and had lunch with my family for my dad's birthday! It was a much needed, very relaxing weekend! Now on to Christmas and then a ski trip in Wyoming thanks to my wonderful, thoughtful Dad! (and Carrier for supplying the trip!)

Babysitting Fun

Amanda and Steve were going to Amanda's work Christmas party in Nashville, so Sam and I kept Emily for them to go. We had a blast! Lindsey and I picked Emily up from her preschool before we went to work. She played the entire time with a little girl named Leslie. Come to find out, they went to preschool together before Leslie started going to the Christian school. Leslie left when she 2 years ago and they started playing like no time had passed! It was too cute! They had to give each other a hug before they left each other! Too too cute! Anyways we picked up Sam from the apartment and started out for our night of fun! We went to each at Chick-Fil-A, which took awhile, but was delicious as always! After we ate, rather fast, we headed down the mall to the movie theater where we took Emily to watch Matagascar 2! We all loved it! She got up at the end of the movie and started dances in the aisle to " I like to move it, move it! I like to move it, move it!" Not a surprise at all, but still funny! When we were walking out, she said, "That was the best movie ever!" which made us feel really good that she liked it! It was a different experience because she really likes to ask questions about movies, which I'm not use to answering! We headed back to the apartment and put in some Christmas classics. We watched "How the Grinch Stole Christmas" and "A Year Without Santa Claus". Again some questions, but not as bad as at the theater! :) Emily decided to play hair with the brush she brought with her. She started out working on my hair, but I had way too much static so she went to Sam's hair instead! He loved it! It was like a head massage! (that's his wording) So of course I had to get a picture of the two of them playing beauty shop. She pretended to wash and style his hair! It was really cute! Soon after Amanda called and said she was on her way home, so we left to drop Emioy back off to her! It was a really fun night for all of us!

A Year Has Passed...

A year ago tomorrow will not only mark one year since our engagement, but is also our 5 year dating anniversary! Sam informed me just now that we no longer count this anniversary, but I think it is still fun to keep up with even if we don't do anything special. We now keep up with the married anniversary instead. I still know the dates of the first hand hold, first arm around the shoulder, first missed kiss, first official kiss..Sam says I have way too good of a memory! We were just sitting here talking about our anniversary dates from the past. Year 1: Mazatlan with his cousin Daniel (In Sam's defense, at 6 months he took me to Morton's which was very very very fancy and he had to go to work! lol) Year 2: The Melting Pot with a pink rose waiting at the table (Romantic I know!) Year 3: Spent a Saturday at Gatlinburg Year 4: The Melting Pot and Rockettes (No rose on the table this year...just a ring waiting in the coat pocket!!!) Year 5: Night out with Emily Barrios to see Matagascar 2. It's hard to believe that Sam and I have been together for half a decade! I was a sophomore and he was a senior in high school when it all began on that December 5th night! We have so many memories some good, some bad but all very special. So here is to another year of ups and downs, twists and turns with many more to come! By the way.. I know it's Thursday the 4th, but just pretend that it is really the 5th for this post cause I just wanted to go ahead and blog about it! :)

Amazing Day

Today, Lindsey and I went to a homeless food center in Clarksville called Loaves and Fishes. Lindsey had to go there for a class and not wanting to go alone, I volunteered to tag along. As we were walking in the door, I am not going to lie I was very nervous and scared! We were in line to eat, but were overwhelmed with guilt when we looked around and saw people with 3 or 4 plates of food. We both decided to just find a spot to sit and take everything in. Lindsey did snag some awesome sweet tea! We found a spot and began talking to the people around us. One man asked us if we were excited and ready for Christmas. We both said yes and he replied with "It's just another day!" Wow! That really put me in my place! Christmas is a very exciting time for me with the chance to get to be with family and get a few new things. More importantly it's about our Savior that was welcomed to this world! It is so much more than another day for me, but for him nothing was going to change! He left to go to work for a man, but another man was sitting at the end of the table so we began to talk to him. He asked us if we knew if Austin Peay had a center for people to come and write and share writings. We didn't know because we both spend all of our time in one building only! What fun! We asked him about his writings and he pulled a few from his bag. Let me just say...THEY WERE AWESOME! Several times, both me and Lindsey got teary eyed. It was like we were reading his inner most thoughts. It was so neat, sad, humbling, funny, so many emotions! I can't remember a lot of what he wrote, which really makes me mad! If I would have gone straight to the computer I would still know it. I should written it down! I remember bits and pieces of them though. He said, "Homeless has no race, no creed." and "Finding places to sleep, sometimes an abandoned house. Jealous of a cat or dog because at least they have a home and someone to cuddle." It was such an amazing humbling experience! I am so thankful for the life that I live and the things that I have. It is all taken for granted! Thank you Lindsey for not wanting to go alone so that I got the chance to have such an eye opening experience!