Holiday Wrap Up

Hello all! I hope all of you enjoyed spending the Christmas holidays with your family and friends! Wanted to stop in and share our holiday festivities with everyone. I started out by wanting to do a "Day in the Life" post (inspired by Jenna over at That Wife), but I had a really hard time keeping up with what we were doing at what times of the day. Plus, my irritability due to lack of sleep (more on that later) didn't help at all. Despite all of that, the hubby and I thoroughly enjoyed our first Christmas as husband and wife. So, without further ado...

CHRISTMAS EVE

The night before we had gone out to eat and then went over to a friends house to visit and drop off their Christmas gift. By the time we got back home, the hubby was really tired and went straight to bed. I on the other hand, wasn't so tired. I had had a migraine earlier in the day, and thanks to my medication, had taken a nice long nap in the middle of the afternoon. So, I laid down, but brought the laptop to bed with me to catch up on some blog reading and try to put my mind to sleep. Cruz thought this would be the perfect time to lay on my chest (this is his form of snuggling which likes to do at bed time). So I pawned him off on the hubby and continued playing on the computer.

I soon realized that I wasn't falling asleep. So, I asked myself, what do you do at 1 a.m. on Christmas Eve? Why, clean the living room, of course! So I got out of bed, closed the door so as not to wake the hubby with all my noise, and started cleaning the living room. I also wrapped the last two presents for our family members and put them under the tree. The box on the couch is a present from the hubby to me - I didn't wrap it because (1) I didn't know what was in there and if it was something that could be flipped around while being wrapped and (2) I didn't want to accidentally ruin the surprise of what it was.

After cleaning the living room, I climbed back in bed and starting playing games on my cell phone to put me to sleep. Usually when I do this it works like a charm and I'm out in 10 minutes or so. However, this night it wasn't working. I probably didn't get to sleep until 6 a.m. or so.

When the hubby woke up, he wanted breakfast right away, but I convinced him to open presents first. We started with the cats - I had put a couple of cat nip mice in their stockings (yes, my cats get stockings - you can see them here along with the rest of our Christmas decor). I was surprised at how excited they got when I started shaking the stockings and leading them to the coffee table. I wonder if they thought there were treats inside...?

Then it was time for our gifts. This year we set a limit on the amount of money we could spend on gifts. As much as we had agreed to stop being as tight with our budget during the holidays, we also didn't want to go over board. I'll let you figure out whose presents are whose.

Please ignore how bad I look in this picture. Remember, its morning, no shower has been taken yet, and I have had little to no sleep. There are no excuses for the hubby though (Love you hun!).

After presents, we made up a quick breakfast of waffles. The hubby enjoyed some sausage with his and I had some sliced apples with cinnamon sprinkled over it. We typically watch the news while eating breakfast. And yes, it felt like 80 degrees outside on Christmas Eve! Let me just say that it didn't exactly feel like Christmas outside.

Once breakfast was over we started packing our bags since we were staying at our parents house for the weekend. The hubby also did a few things around the house (laundry, dishes, etc.) while I started in on writing some thank you cards (one of the many things on my winter break to-do list). Then we loaded up the car, checked the mail, took the trash to the compactor, and headed to Orlando.

On the way we listened to my new CD and I read the Christmas cards from family & friends to the hubby.

Before we went to Orlando we stopped at BJ's Wholesale to price a new computer. We've been looking and saving for a new desktop computer, and we thought that maybe they would have a good deal. Although we didn't find a computer we liked (though we eventually did at CompUSA and brought it home with us this weekend), we did find an amazing deal (only $20!) on tupperware! I know, its sad to get excited about tupperware, but this stuff is so much easier to store than what we are currently using. So it's a bit of an understatement to say I was happy to put this guy in our cart and bring him home.

When we got to Orlando we dropped off Christmas gifts at my parents house and then went over to my in-laws for Christmas Eve dinner and presents with that side of the family.

Periwinkle loved the gift from Grandma & Grandpa. :) 



We stayed the night at his parents house. It was another sleepless night for me. And because I was so tired from not getting any sleep the night before, I was really frustrated that I wasn't sleeping for a second night. I've never had problems with insomnia before, but I guess my body felt like this was the perfect time to start.

CHRISTMAS DAY

We got up the next morning and had breakfast with the in-laws. Mom had made up some biscuits & gravy - one of hubby's favorites. Afterwards, the hubby and I got ready and headed over to my parents house to car pool over to my aunt's house for lunch. I failed to capture any pictures at lunch because I was beyond tired. By this point in the day I wasn't really in the Christmas spirit. Plus, it was another warm day in sunny Florida - I had an outfit picked out for Christmas, but had to nix it in favor of a tank top and shorts instead. Once lunch was over, we headed out early and went back to my parents house to wait for the rest of the family to show up. My nieces & nephews had a ball opening up all of their gifts!

The kiddos favorite gift had to have been the Disney game. I forget now what it was called, but basically you place Mickey ears on your head and attach a card to it without looking at the card. Then you ask yes or no questions to try and figure out who or what you are before time runs out. The kids didn't really catch on to the whole question thing. For instance, if you aren't a person, then more than likely you don't wear clothing. But, they had fun asking and answering questions anyways.

Although we had plans to go home that night, I really wanted to go shopping the next morning. There isn't a whole lot of places to go shopping where we live, and I wanted to go do something with my mom. Originally we talked about going home and coming back the next day, but we decided to save time and gas and just stay the night at my parents house. Thank god we packed an extra pair of clothes!

DAY AFTER CHRISTMAS

That morning we woke up and headed out shopping. I was a little disappointed because the deals weren't really deals and most of the stores had been picked over by the time we got there. I was mainly shopping for gift bags since my supply had run down to practically nothing. But I didn't realize how expensive gift bags had gotten. I did manage to find one deal though.

These puppies were on clearance at Wal-Mart. All of their Christmas stuff had been marked down to 50% off. The sign above them said they were $9.98 each. But we weren't sure if that was the clearance price or if we took 50% off of that. Still, $30 for a 12 piece setting isn't that bad. The hubby wasn't entirely convinced that it was a good price. But when I explained to him that you usually get a 4 piece setting (which includes cups) for $25, he started to come around. We placed them in our cart and I had decided to buy them even if they were nearly ten bucks each. As we walked around we came across one of those price scanners. And wouldn't you know? Each box was just under $5 a pop! Add that up, and we got a 12 piece place setting for only $15! I was beyond excited! I've been looking for a set of plain white dishes. We have a 12 piece setting now, but it includes 3 different types of designs, and I wanted a set where everything matched. But everything I've looked at was either too expensive, or came with the matching coffee mugs, which we never use. These plates have turned out to be the perfect solution.

After we finished up shopping, we met up with friends and played photographers. One of my bridesmaids is getting married to one of the hubby's groomsmen in a couple months, and they wanted pictures taken to incorporate into their wedding invitation. So, we borrowed my mother-in-laws camera (my battery was dying and we forgot to bring the charger) and headed over to the Winter Park Farmer's Market where we got married and had a mini photo session. I don't claim to be a photographer by any means, but I'd be lying if I said I didn't have fun.

As the afternoon went on though, this started happening:

Isn't it lovely? Even though the picture is really blurry I'm sure you can get the idea. Yep, I had pink eye....for the second time. I had already battled pink eye a week earlier and thought it was gone. (One of my students came to school with pink eye and I guess I must have touched something they touched and then rubbed my eye, so I ended up with it too.) So, as soon as we got home I started the antibiotic eye drops all over again. And for the last two days I've been walking around without contacts. Wouldn't be a big deal except for the fact that I don't have a pair of back up glasses anymore (hubby broke them a couple years ago while we were wrestling). I know, its stupid not to have back up glasses, but it is what it is now. Let me just say that as I'm typing this the desktop screen is pulled all the way to the edge of the desk and my face is literally inches from it - I'm not lying when I say I'm blind. The hubby laughs at me when I have to get really close to something to read it. Hopefully my eyes will be back to normal by Friday, cause I have a lot of things I need to get done before I go back to school!

So how did your Christmas weekend go? Did everything happen the way you wanted it to? Get any good gifts? Or maybe you gave a gift that you were really excited about? Anyone travel and have to stay with family? I look forward to hearing your stories!