I know I am about a month behind for posting about Christmas... but none the less... here is my post.
Christmas changed for me this year, because for the first time in my life I did not do two things during Christmas that I have done every year prior my entire life. Every year prior to this I have gone to Aunt Karen's house on Christmas Eve. But this year, we all met at my mom's house and celebrated Christmas there. Also another BIG change is that for the first time in my life I did not wake up on Christmas morning at my dad's house. Every Christmas before this I was always living there during the holiday time. This year, I was living in a house with Cody. So for the first time on Christmas I spent Christmas morning unwrapping my presents with Cody and not my parents. A little bit strange, but at the same time it was kind of nice. We woke up and made cinnabons, and then traded presents with each other. After that we went over to my dad's and then to my aunt Sherry's house to see the family.
Here is some of the decorations in my living room. These pictures were taken after Christmas so it's all scattered around a bit.
Here is Cody's favorite Christmas present... his 55 inch 3D TV. We bought this together with all of the Christmas money that we had received. We are super nerdy... we have two pairs of 3D glasses and we have 2 or 3 channels on our TV that come in on 3D, and those are very basic channels. So we sit there and watch fish swim in the ocean, and we are like ohhhhhhhhhh so cool!!!! Haha.
Here are some of my decorations in my kitchen. This is Cracker Barrel favorite of mine. I have a plate that matches it that is super cute, but I didn't really have a place to put it this year.
Here is the bane of Cody's existence. He hated these three little pieces on our counter. I can't wait to move into our new house and have a pantry!!!! Then I will have all the counter space I want to put out my Christmas decorations! Muhahaha.
Here is my kitchen table. I thought it was cute.
We had these little guys up in our hallway.
Here is one of my Christmas presents that I love!! Cody and I went to Big Lots and they had a sale on these soft, wonderful, memory foam rugs... well when we were at Big Lots Cody decided that he was going to sneak and buy these for me. He told me to wait in the back of the store while he did some shopping. At the same time I had been desperately trying to find him a robe that he wanted from Christmas, and I found a REALLY nice once (that he loves and wears everyday by the way) so I tried to sneak up to the register to buy it for him... and I'll be darned if he wasn't up there in the other lane buying these rugs for me. He was SO mad at me for catching him buying them. He wanted it to be a surprise. Whoops. But I DO love them. I like to take my slippers off right before I go into the bathroom so that I can feel how soft and comfortable they are. We actually have gone back to Big Lots since and bought more of these for the other bathrooms in our new house.
This is too cool of a story to not write about. As most people know years ago I used to love playing basketball. So about ten years ago , my mom went out and bought me a Santa holding a basketball. Somehow he was long forgotten in our attic, until my mom went up there this year to pack up some things and to bring my Christmas stuff to my bungalow. Well... I was flabbergasted when I saw this guy, because Cody loves North Carolina basketball. It is his all time favorite team, and last year we watched just about every North Carolina basketball game together. Can you believe that I found a Santa wearing a North Carolina sweater and holding a basketball up in my attic?? Talk about a sign... I'm sure this guy will be finding a spot to be put out in our new house.
Here is my coffee stand. I love the Thomas Kincaid snowman on the left. He is so gorgeous. My mom got him for me a couple of Christmas's ago and I've loved him every since. The globe on the right side is a new find this year that was in my attic. It used to be my mom's but she gave it to me to put out this year.
Here are my snow man guys that my mom got me a few years ago.
I wanted to take a picture of some of my favorite ornaments. This one has always been a favorite of mine. It was my parents that they bought together, and it was always my favorite one to put up on the tree. I love the way that the Christmas lights reflect off of it.
I got this ornament at Cracker Barrel about 5 years ago. I think she is gorgeous. She is so pretty that she usually puts my Angel on top of the tree to shame.
My aunt Karen bought this ornament for Cody and me this year, and I absolutely thought it was great. I love the idea. I can't wait to get one of these made every year from now on. I also can't wait to put up a "New House 2013" ornament up on the tree next year!!
Ugh. These guys. These have always been my dad's favorite ornaments. He always wanted them hung up on the tree. So somehow they made it on mine this year too... even though I've always thought they were so ugly!
On Christmas night we left my aunt Sherry's this year around 7 pm (also a new occurence) and started to head out to Hancock New York to see Cody's family (we were trying to beat a large snow storm that was coming in the morning). I think that is a good compromise for us. We get to see my family on Christmas Eve and Christmas and then we spend a week with Cody's family over his birthday and New Years. We hadn't seen anyone (besides his mom) since last Christmas. I was excited that we got to spend a lot of time with his niece and nephew, and of course the rest of his family. This was the first time that the kids started to me Aunt Melanie, and it was really sweet. I don't have any brothers or sisters so these are really going to be the only nieces and nephews that I'm going to have. While we were there we went to visit Cody's dads house for the first time, and I met his girlfriend. They had a nice house, and really sweet dogs! He had three poodles. One was a large poodle and the other two were small, and while they were all nice dogs the little female dog was a sweet little snuggler. It made me miss my grandma's dogs, Katie and Puppup. Cody and I were fighting over which one of us got to snuggle and kiss her while we were there. We've pretty much sworn off dogs for anytime in the near future because we want to travel and dogs are high maintenance, but maybe... just maybe someday we will get a little poodle. We were also with Kelsie the night when she lost her second front tooth. Now she is missing both of her front teeth as you can see in the picture above. It was so cute. She was really scared at first when her tooth was bleeding, but then she quickly became excited and giggly showing us her two front teeth missing. Overall it was a good Christmas. I can't wait to wake up next Christmas morning in my own house!
