Surviving the 1st Holiday Season

I think it's fair to say that things have been just a little busy around here since our last post. The Holiday Season hit with a bang just a few short weeks after our wedding, and so life was off and running. We enjoyed a wonderful Thanksgiving with Ben's family on Thanksgiving Day and then met up with my parents, brother Ryan and sis-in-law Lauren, and adopted sis Jess for the Church Thanksgiving on the Sunday after Thanksgiving. Unfortunately, Ben had to work a lot during this time and his schedule was frustrating during an already really busy month of December. He worked a lot of odd hours and a lot of late hours which does not translate well for a teacher who gets up at 5:30 every morning. We made it through though! December is a busy singing season for me. I once again was blessed to participate in Northview's Christmas concert the 1st wknd in December and helped lead worship a couple of other weekends that month. We somehow squeezed in birthday parties and other holiday parties in that month too... have I mentioned it was busy yet? ;)

 

Christmas Eve is the time that my family has chosen to celebrate Christmas. This started probably 8 years ago and has worked as our families have expanded. I treasure going to church with everyone that evening, enjoying dinner together, and then celebrating with a few gifts. This year was no exception and I enjoyed the different exchanges we decided to do this year. We did 3 different exchanges; the first one was an individual gift where we didn't spend more than $20 on that person, the second gift was a family gift that was a DIY gift that we had to create ourselves, the third gift was an ornament exchange for one family that would represent their year. It was fun to see our already creative family be creative & crafty...they did not disappoint. :)

  

Ben's family didn't have any specific drawings or exchanges, but they also did a DIY Christmas. We loaded up on tons of yummy treats and we also got my new favorite blanket to snuggle with. It's so fuzzy and warm and has dog bones on it. It's like they know we like dogs! ;)

 

Jackson caught snuggling in my new blanket

 

Just a few short days after Christmas was over, Ben and I hopped on a couple of planes and headed south for our long-over Honeymoon! We went to Puerto Vallarta, Mexico and stayed at the Dreams Villamagna All-Inclusive Resort. We had such a great time! The resort was a lot of fun (I highly recommend the upgrade for the Preferred Club...worth the money!). The food was excellent, the pools were relaxing, the service was unreal, and we very much enjoyed all of the hotel's amenities. We walked the beach, read poolside, jumped waves in the ocean while the sun set, and listened to the waves crash while we enjoyed our private balcony jacuzzi.

Our view from the top floor suite!

 

                                               

 

Quick sunset pic before heading to dinner!

In the middle of our trip, we took an excursion into town and went ziplining up in the mountains. Ben had never been ziplining before, and honestly I can't say that my experiences with ziplining in Indiana can really count after this experience. In Indiana, you zipline from tree top to tree top. While that's exciting for the flat lands of Indiana, it definitely was not comparable to our experience in Mexico going over 30 mph from mountain top to mountain top. There were 9 ziplines on our excursion and on the longest one (1/2 mile long), Ben and I both got to ride with a guide and hang upside down the whole time! It was awesome!

 

After ziplining!

Returning home to cold Indiana was a rude awakening after the warm 80 degrees we enjoyed in Mexico, but we were looking forward to a little normalcy returning to our lives. Ben got to work right away on updating our kitchen, and while I may be biased, I'm telling you- he did an amazing job. For whatever reason when the builders of this house put in my kitchen they left a 5 ft gap between the end of the counter top/cabinets and the wall. It was a total waste of space, so Ben added cabinets (I have more than 2 pull-out drawers now!!!) and installed a beautiful new counter top in the whole kitchen. The change was small compared to most kitchen remodels, but it's been such a nice improvement to the space. Later, he's going to add crown molding to the top of the cabinets and dress it up a little more too! :) He's so good.

 

What the kitchen looked like when I bought it in 2009.

One picture of what it looked like after I painted the cabinets and added new hardware. You can see the random gap that I was referring to earlier.

The new cabinets and counter top! Complete with built in dog bowls (thanks, Pinterest!).

 

And that gets you caught up to about the 2nd week in January. I think it's safe to say we survived our first holiday season with a bang! :) Merry Christmas to each and every one of you!