New Year's Weekend + More Christmas Celebrations

Oh what a week it’s been!  We have been cleaning out the house, putting away Christmas decorations, playing with new Christmas toys, and lazing around the house.  This past week I was off every day except for Wednesday and B was off every day except for Thursday, so we had a lot of time off together as a family, which was nice.

Thursday was spent cleaning out a few things around the house in the morning, and then we met B at Chuck E. Cheese on his lunch break so the kids could play.  It was nice to get out of the house with them, and B was able to take a long lunch, so the kids were able to burn off some energy for a couple of hours. 

Thursday evening was our last evening with my brother and his family before they headed back to Texas, and it also happened to be my bro’s birthday, so we met them at our favorite brewery downtown for dinner, and then we went back to my parents’ house for cake.  I snuggled my nephew extra hard because it could be another year before we see him again… he won’t even be a baby anymore by then.  :o(  The kids also enjoyed spending some time playing with him on the floor.  Olivia was completely enamored with him and both kids told us that they want a baby.  Haha.

Friday was another lazy day at home.  It was spent organizing the last of the new Christmas stuff and taking down the last of the Christmas decorations AKA the tree.  It’s always the very last thing that I take down.  I normally leave it up until New Year’s Day, but this year, I was just ready for a clean start.  Aaaand I didn’t want to be spending my New Year’s Day cleaning like I always do.  I posted this picture of my new gold Swell Bottle on Instagram... it was one of my gifts from B and it’s just so beautiful!  I can’t wait to chug-a-lug tons of water from it!

Friday evening we headed over to B’s dad’s to celebrate Christmas with him… B’s sister and her family live a couple of hours away, so we always wait until they come to town to celebrate with his side of the family.  We had another Christmas dinner, opened gifts, and spent time together.  Olivia got to spend loads of time with her cousin, Haley, and she was in heaven.  She and Haley are the only girl grandchildren in Brian’s family, and they are the bookends – Haley is the eldest at 17, then there were five boys born including Jacob, and then Olivia is the baby at 2.  Those girls have to stick together, I’d say… and they do!  And please note that there are zero pictures of Jacob from this Christmas celebration because he and all of his boy cousins were too busy running around to take pictures.  Every time I would even try, he would run in the other direction.  Sigh.

Saturday was New Year’s Eve, but we had one more Christmas celebration with Brian’s mom and step-dad before turning the holiday over to NYE.  We had a huge feast at their house for lunch, followed by opening loads and loads of gifts.  I mean, look at all of them!  I was so excited to receive a new gym bag that was on my Christmas wishlist, along with a couple of books I have been wanting, as well as a few other things.  One of the gifts I was most excited about is a new organizing tray for my office.  I didn’t even ask for it, but his mom just knows me too well!  I can’t wait to get it put together and organized! 

Once the Christmas portion of the celebration was over, we also celebrated my nephew, Braden’s, birthday as his birthday is the day after Christmas.  We have just been celebrating nonstop this past week, y’all!

Saturday afternoon and evening we kept it low-key… Olivia napped and Jacob played with some of his new toys.  I spent the afternoon putting away all of the new toys and clothes the kids had received at the last two celebrations, and then we went out to run a couple of errands. 

Bath & Body Works has had their semi-annual sale going on, and they had the three-wick candles for only $10 each.  $10 each, y’all!!!!  I was on a mission to grab a couple of the Champagne Toast candles since those are my favorite New Year’s scent, and I ended up getting the last three in the store!  As a matter of fact, the lady who checked me out said that people had been looking for them high and low and they had thought they didn’t have anymore, but they had just found three in the back and they had just put them out, so I had gotten there at just the right time!  She said both locations in our city have been sold out for a while now, so I got really lucky.  And they were only $10 each.  And I had a $10 off coupon!  Man, I sure do love a great deal!!

Anyhoo, after B&B Works we headed to Five Guys for a quick dinner, and then we ran to Walmart to let the kids spend some of their Christmas money.  Jacob opted for a car crusher to go along with his Hot Wheels set, and Olivia opted for yet another princess dress… this time it was Sleeping Beauty.  Although the sleeves ended up being really itchy so we ended up exchanging it the next day for an Elena of Avalor costume… who by the way I’ve never even heard of.  The dress is really cute, though! 

On the way home, we swung by the liquor store drive-thru to grab a bottle of Tito’s to make some Moscow Mules to have before our champagne toast at midnight.

When we got home, the kiddos started playing some more, and I was just getting ready to settle in to play with them, and I started feeling really nauseated (and no, I’m not pregnant, haha.).  I ended up feeling that way for the rest of the evening, so all of our festive Moscow Mule and Champagne dreams went out the window.  Instead, I put on my PJs, rocked Olivia to sleep (because she was petrified of the fireworks that our neighbors were doing), laid on the couch while B rubbed my feet, and we watched that train wreck of a performance that Mariah Carey had put on.  Did any of y’all see that?!  It was just awful.  We ended up staying up a little past midnight to get our NYE kiss (B was brave and kissed me even though I wasn’t feeling well) and then it was time for bed.

New Year’s Day didn’t start out any better as I was still feeling super nauseated, so I laid around and watched cartoons with the kids most of the morning, and then around lunch time I finally started coming out of my funk.  I have no idea what it was, but I’m just glad that a) I never threw up, b) that nobody else got sick, and c) that it’s over!!

It rained all the live long day New Year’s Day, so we were cooped up in the house for what seemed like forever (with the exception of about fifteen minutes where the kids were able to run out and play in the driveway when the rain slowed to a drizzle), and in the early evening we ran to Walmart to exchange that dress for Olivia, and then headed over to my parents’ house for dinner. 

My mom always cooks a traditional southern New Year’s Day dinner that consists of pork chops, rice, turnips or collards, black eyed peas, and corn bread.  I don’t know if you do anything like this when you’re not from the south, but this meal is what you’re supposed to eat on New Year’s Day to bring you good luck for the rest of the year!  The evening with family and wine and good food was quite welcome after our kind of dismal start to the new year.  My uncle and his girlfriend had not been able to join us on Christmas Eve, so we exchanged gifts with them that evening and the kids got a new game called Pop the Pig.  They LOVE it.

Fortunately both Brian’s and my employers observed New Year’s Day on Monday, so we had one last day together yesterday.  We started the day with donuts, and Olivia devoured hers while wearing her donut footsie PJs.  Hehe.

It rained nonstop again yesterday, so we took the kids to Chick-Fil-A for lunch so they could play on the indoor playground and burn some energy, and we also went to Lowe’s to grab some shelving for that downstairs closet that we added on in 2015.  B is installing them as I type this and I’m soooo excited!

The rest of the evening was spent having breakfast for dinner (including mimosas to use the champs that I couldn't drink on NYE), getting the kids bathed and back to bed at their regular time of 8 PM and watching TV.  We’ve all gotten way off track since we’ve had so many days off lately, so 6 AM is going to come very quickly every day this week.  Yuck.  

Once the kiddos were in bed, B and I flipped back and forth between college football and… The Bachelor!!!!  I suppose that’s the one redeeming quality about January… my favorite guilty pleasure is ba-aaaack! 

Happy Tuesday, all!  Enjoy the short week!  (If you have one, that is!)

New Year's Weekend 2015

*Linking up with Our Pretty Little Girls for Tuesday Talk.