Hashtag Christmas Recap

Since I didn't get a chance to recap my Christmas/weekend on Monday because we were driving back (and I was too lazy to do it while I was at my in-laws'), I figured I'd combine my recap with Hashtag Humpday with Lauren

Plus, it's the last day of 2014, and I can do what I want! :)

Christmas eve morning started out with Coop and I accidentally getting locked out of the house. Which then lead to Cooper getting muddy and a scrape on his chin and me climbing the back fence and deck to get in. Long story short: #itsucked

Cooper got groomed that morning which he needed anyway and came out looking #sofreshandsocleanclean #sosoft

That afternoon MG and I packed up the car with our stuff and our presents and made the drive up to PA in the rainy/foggy mess. What should have taken 2.5 hours took 4 and we missed going to Mass with the family, but at least we made it! #unhappycampers #itdidntfeellikeXmasEve

That evening we went to MG's aunt's place for some Christmas eve fun with food, drinks and the fam and later that night helped get the presents loaded for the next morning. The pups looked on in cute puppy-ness:

#whatchadoinguys? #stopmessingwiththosepresentsandpetus

Thursday morning I woke up next to my husband for the first time on a Christmas morning (so nice), and we made our way with his parents over to his oldest sister's house in our PJs. The kids were up in their rooms, eagerly awaiting our arrival (and their ability to go downstairs and rip through their gifts) #somanypresents #kindaspoiled #floorcoveredinwrappingpaper

After the flurry of gifts unwrapped by the kids, the adults exchanged gifts. MG got me an awesome pair of boots that I had wanted along with a Michael Kors navy vest and a necklace that I've had my eye on for years. #hedidgood

MG loved the gifts that I got him, and his parents surprised us with this super fancy smart thermostat for our house, along with various other gifts (like clothes, matching robes for me and my SIL's, etc) and some cash money #okaymaybewearespoiledtoo

Talked to my parents on the phone that morning to wish them a Merry Christmas since I wasn't there with them (luckily we were able to celebrate the weekend before, so all wasn't lost) #lovemyparents

That night we made our way to my other SIL's house in NJ and had our Christmas dinner together. My SIL did it up big time and had a beautiful table decorated and dinner ready for us. We opened more presents after dinner and me and the sisters and brothers in law all did our Secret Santa exchange.  #itsourtradition

I had my brother-in-law Joe for the second time out of 3 years, and lucky for me, he's a character. I got him the most perfect gift ever (for him): An Eagles onesie for men!

#mansie #seriouslyitscalledamansie

My SIL's mother in law was so sweet and got MG and I an ornament representing our new house. And MG's mom's friend made an ornament for us out of our wedding invitation. I'm in love!

#itsperfect

Friday was a low key day for everyone, recovering from the holiday festivities, and that night we went to see Unbroken with MG's parents and sister. It was incredible and I highly recommend watching the movie if you haven't read the book

#amazingstory

Saturday morning MG and I drove to NY to see his best friend, and our couple friend from VA was in NY so they met up with us that night for dinner. MG and I spent the day walking around NY, and had the famous crab and pork soup dumplings for a late lunch #soupdumplingsforthewin

We walked through Central Park and Rockefeller Center, and I got to see the Today show's studios. I'll be honest, the streets were jam packed near 30Rock and after a little over an hour of crowds and getting pushed around, I was ready to get out of there #crowdsmakemecranky
(the only way it would have been worse was if everyone had a shopping cart #CostcoOnAWeekend)

#artsy

Late afternoon, we met up with MG's best friend and girlfriend, our friends joined us, and we all went to dinner at a Mexican restaurant which had THE most amazing food #mexicanisneverabadidea

After dinner our couple friends left to head home and the 4 of us went to a hotel bar that looked straight out of the 20's or 30's. I channeled my inner Downton Abbey while drinking a Chardonnay #goingbackintime

We headed back to our friend's place and went up to his rooftop which had almost a 360 degree view of the city. He's right by Gramercy Park so the view was incredible. #goodviewscostmegadough

After staying up chatting, laughing and catching up, we finally headed to bed to giggles and funny comments

MG and I made our way back to Philly Sunday afternoon after grabbing brunch with our friends. Traffic was a breeze, thankfully. We lounged around and spent time with MG's parents and then his sister, brother in law, and their kids all came over for dinner and to hang out. #funchaos

And then Monday morning we packed up and headed home. A busy, super fun-filled, first Christmas together as a married couple came to an end, but with so many amazing memories to last us!

#luckiestgirlintheworld

How was that for a recap? 

Hope you all have a wonderful New Years Eve and some fun celebrating tonight! #popthatbubbly 

2014 Recap: {Oct, Nov, Dec}

I can't believe that there's only one more day of 2014 after today, but what better time to finish up my last recap post than right before the end?

{October}

-I participated in the Blogtober link-up and discovered a ton of blogs, and met some great new friends through all of the fun post topics! (Hey Biana, Jessi, Emily,...!) 

-Did a Wedding Day: the Lost Footage post

-Got my Louis lovers!

-Cooper turned 6! My little pup is growing up!

-Tried out some new recipes

-Visited our friends in Minnesota, got to see their adorable little boys, found out they are pregnant again, and got to go to the Vikings game!

-Visited MG's family in NJ and saw his sister's new house (which inspired us to do more work on ours haha)

-Discovered an amazing brunch with penny mimosas in the area and spent 3 hours there with these pretties:

{November}

-Painted our entryway, the ceiling, and the trim, and got new lights throughout, and then got a new carpet runner for the stairs which has MADE the space:

-My bloggy bestie Shay gave birth to her beautiful baby, Nicholas!

-Painted and redecorated the guest room

-Went to some local wineries with a group of friends and had a blast

-Hosted our first Thanksgiving together as a married couple, in our new house!

{December}

-Put up our Christmas lights around the house, our decor inside the house, and our tree with all of the ornaments I got at my bridal shower the year before

-Celebrated MG's birthday up in Philly, and then down here on the actual day

-Took advantage of a ton of Cyber Monday sales, particularly at Loft!

-Watched lots of Christmas movies, sent out our first Christmas cards, wrapped presents, and enjoyed having the Christmas tree lights on to set the holiday mood every night

-Went to friends' holiday parties almost every weekend

-Resolved the be a Better Me and have stuck to all of it!

-MG and I went on our 4th annual pre-Christmas dinner at Old Ebbitt in DC

-Drove up to Philly to celebrate Christmas with MG's family (first Christmas morning that we woke up together in the same place)

still need to recap this but we only got home yesterday!

-Went to NY to meet up with friends and spend the night enjoying the city and good company

-Tomorrow we'll be celebrating the New Year with a group of friends!!

That's it for 2014!! It was quite the memorable year, filled with the excitement of our wedding and buying a house, and being surrounded by the best of friends. Here's hoping 2015 is just as special and memorable! I hope all of you have a wonderful New Year!

Merry Christmas!!!

Wishing you, your family and friends a very Merry Christmas!

Hoping your day is filled with lots of love, laughter, happiness, and memories for a lifetime!

Our Annual Tradition

Merry Christmas Eve! Hopefully all of your ducks presents are in a row and you're safely on your way or already where you'll be celebrating the holidays!

Last night MG and I went on our 4th yearly pre-Christmas dinner to Old Ebbitts in DC. It's something we did when we first started dating, and have continued ever since. It's kind of fun to have a yearly "check in" and reference point to talk about everything that's happened that year. This year was no exception, except that this was the first one that we've done since getting married.

We left the house ready to make the drive into DC:

I ordered one of the most amazingly delicious dishes I've ever had and I was a member of the Clean Plate Club because it was SOOOOOO good!

We were at dinner for almost 2 hours which was fine overall since the ambiance is great. There was a period tho where the table of 2 next to us invited another person to come join them and the person was basically sitting at our table. Luckily MG let her know we could barely hear each other with her sitting there, and she moved over (with an attitude, but whatever) and they eventually left.

(She was basically sitting where MG was haha)

We got our annual post-dinner picture together and then headed to see the National Christmas tree:

Typically there are trees around the big tree that represent each state, and each one is decorated with special things from that state (ex: maryland has crab ornaments, etc)

This year it was just all LED lights on the trees and no ornaments, which was cool, but no tree was really different than the others.

On our way back to the car, MG offered to take the picture of a family with this insanely nice and very professional (read: expensive) camera. The guy then offered to take our picture with his camera and offered to send it to us. This is one of 3 that we woke up to this morning in MG's email:

(don't mind my half on/half off glove/mitten in the picture making my hand look weird haha)

On our drive out of the city, I snapped this photo of the National Monument in all the fog:

And so goes another year of our tradition. I love that we sort of fell into this tradition, but its always fun to go back and talk about the previous year!

And now I need to get myself fully prepped for all of the Christmas festivities to come! Hope you have a merry christmas eve!!

2014 Recap: {July, August, September}

Ahh, the summer months!

Here's what I was up to in July, August and September:

{July}

-Recapped the wedding dresses that didn't make the cut

-Finished staining the deck (it was quite a process!)

-Drove to Charleston for 4th of July with our friends; spent most of the day at the pool, then out in the city at night

-Spent a week in Kiawah, SC with MG's best friend and his gf in the cutest cottage ever, and saw gators!

-Went to our friends' beautiful wedding in Charleston

-Met the top male model for Polo there and tried to sneakily paparazzi him without him knowing

-DIY'ed a mirror re-paint

(still haven't figured out where to put that thing tho haha)

-did lots of reading on our deck

-Had a quadruple date with my friends from work and their significant others, and another date night with one of our favorite couple friends

-Went to NJ for our friends' parents surprise anniversary/vow renewal, and met up with some friends from home while up there (small world!)

-taped off, picked out paint (after like 9 samples) and painted the kitchen walls gray

-Recapped some awesome things from growing up that kids today won't understand

{August}
-Replaced the hideous 80's fixture in our dining room

-Painted our kitchen cabinets like an assembly line in our basement

-Had the kitchen turn out amazingly well! (all the hard work paid off!)

-Made a bunch of yummy new dishes!

-Went back up to the Shore to spend time with MG's family. Ran into my same friend from VA up there again!

-Read a bunch of books

-Went to my buddy Bree's Bachelorette party and had a TON of fun!

-Had my first week back at work, but started the week with these from MG:

{September}

-Painted our living room

still need to hang the photo ledges for our gallery wall

-Another school year started

-Did a gallery wall in our kitchen (and figured out the easiest way to do one)

-Went to my buddy Bree's beautiful Moroccan wedding

-Saw a comedy show with my girlies from work and our significant others (so funny!)

-Did a run-down of my exes

-Went up to Philly and met the newest member of the family, Burton the puppy (who even now looks nothing like a puppy anymore!)

These were definitely some jam-packed months, but super productive ones on the house, and full of lots of vacation time!

Next up, the last part of the year: October, November and December!!