Tuesday, December 27, 2011

A Christmas Story

I'm proud to announce that Christmas 2011 went off without a hitch and the festivities aren't even over yet! We still have to have our belated family time with the Hajek clan in George West. Lindsay, Santa Clause will be coming back to town! I'll also be sharing a little more Christmas cheer tomorrow when my best friend, Erika, comes to see me! I hope she loves her Christmas present!!!

First off, I'd like to showcase our Christmas decor. This was my first time full-on decorating our home for Christmas. We've had a Christmas tree every year, of course, but that's always been the extent of the cheerfulness of our humble abode.

Our lovely 7-1/2' Christmas Tree. Yes, I know it could have used more lights!

 I was so excited to have a fireplace to decorate this year too!

 My mother gave us this hutch last Christmas. 
Brad's mom gave us these sweet little Christmas dishes this year.
They turned out to be the perfect little combination!

Now to move on to the good stuff! Brad doesn't do very well at the whole "waiting to open presents" thing. So, we had to improvise. Friday night we opened our stockings and I went ahead and let him open a present too. He picked the box that held his new brown leather Vans. 
For those of you who don't know him, the phrase "close toed shoes" does not exist in his vocabulary. It's always flip flops, flip flops, flip flops. However, when we were up in Longview back in October for his sister's wedding, I refused to let him run around in flip flops! So we took a little trip to the mall and were able to compromise on some grey Vans Classic Slip-Ons. Needless to say,  they are now his favorite shoes.
 Apparently Brad decided on a Hello Kitty theme for my stocking.
I'm not complaining!


Excited about his new shoes!

The next day, Christmas Eve-Morning, it was off to his mom's house to open presents with his parents and little sister, Katelyn! He had to work from 11:00a.m.-8:00p.m. and his family was heading to his grandparent's in Victoria for Christmas Eve, so we had to do it early. We got all kinds of goodies! I got a scarf I had been wanting, Coach Poppy perfume (it smells divine), a Hello Kitty coffee table book, some money and a gift card. Brad got a cool new phone, clothes, a book and a few other things. His family also loved the gift we had picked out for them! Unfortunately, there was a down-side to the morning. His other little sister, Lauren, and her husband Blaine were unable to come down. They had just been down for Thanksgiving and that long drive from Dallas to Corpus Christi is a little too much to make more than once within such a short time frame. I wanted to take a picture of everyone making sad faces to send her, but time got away from us. This was her very first Christmas away from home :(
  His parent's house on Christmas Eve Morning. It was magical.

 Brad giving Charles some attention!

 Brad's mom teaching him how to play Holiday Town on Cityville.
Now I know where he gets his video game addiction from!

Every year Brad's mom gets us a new ornament. 
This is the sweet little baby she gave us this year!

Christmas Eve afternoon, while Brad was at work, I made a trip to Alice to spend some time with my mom. She was originally supposed to come to our place for the evening, but the weather was pretty icky and I didn't want her driving in it.She was really tired too, so it worked out best for me to go there. Plus, I got a homemade lunch out of the deal. What's better than that?!? We exchanged gifts and she loved what we got her. I really loved my gifts too! Namely the Sperry's and Season 1 of Ahh! Real Monsters!

Later that evening, Brad and I got home at about the same time and he was just itching to open the rest of his presents, so I finally gave in. I gave him the previously mentioned Vans, a Star Wars shirt, 2 Transformers (Did I mention he's almost 30?), a Lambicht gift set, and I know I'm still missing a couple of things. He also opened the presents my mom sent for him, which were a blue pair of Vans and a really nice wine tool set.

As for my gifts from Brad, he's never been a great shopper. He always gets me the most random gift or two, it's just too overwhelming for him. So you can imagine how surprised I was when I saw all those little boxes under the tree with my name on them! He did so well! He gave me a beautiful black and gold bracelet with rhinestones from Dillard's, 2 new additions to my charm bracelet from James Avery, the Taylor Swift - Journey To Fearless DVD, Kung Foo Panda 2 (Did I mention I'm almost 25?), and a big bottle of my favorite perfume in the entire world, Princess by Vera Wang.

Out of all the gifts he gave me, the perfume was the most treasured. I know I had mentioned to him that I had run out, but he's not one to remember those kinds of things. So I squealed when I opened that last box that had the perfume inside. Here's my corny little story as to why the perfume was the most special gift he gave me: It was the weekend before Christmas of 2007. My mom and I were in San Antonio for the weekend doing some last minute shopping. We went to Sephora at La Cantera Mall to grab a few things she needed. As we were walking into the store, she noticed the beautiful bottle holding this fragrance and stopped to smell it. We went about our business, gathering the things she needed, and as we were about to get in line to pay she asked me to go grab a large bottle of the perfume. When we got back to our hotel room she gave it to me as an early Christmas present. I, of course, put some on right away and put the little crown cap on my finger as a ring. Brad and I had been talking for a while at this point, as friends of course, I knew he had feelings for me, but I was still unsure of how I thought of him. That night, we were texting back and forth with random small talk and for one reason, or another, it just hit me that I really did have feelings for him. A couple short weeks later we began dating and, well, you know the rest of the story.

So, ever since that night, I've always associated that scent with my then new found love for that cute boy who is now my handsome husband.

Our new shoes from my mom!

My pretty bracelet. (No, my wrist is not as huge as it looks in this pic.)

I cannot wait to pop these in!

 Vera's going to have to learn to share with Poppy, because I love them both!

Since we were unable to go to Victoria and spend Christmas Eve with his entire family, we opted to head up for a few hours on Sunday. Although we missed all of his aunts and uncles, cousins and their babies, we did get to spend more time with his parents and grandparents, and we did still get to see his cousin Lindsey for a little bit. It's always nice to be able to just relax with family! 

Brad and I at his grandparent's house on Christmas Day.
I wish I were more photogenic!

Here is one last little gem to leave you with:

 This was taken in 1986 when Brad was 3 years old.
How cute was he? I guess he's still alright ;)

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