Floating Along...: Happy Holidays

Rewinding to a few months ago - our 2013 holiday season!

Carolina Christmas

We spent Christmas with Bo's family this year up in North Carolina. Lucky for me, I also got to spend it with my brother, Paul. He lives about 20 minutes away from Bo's sister Charlotte (who lives in Charlotte, so convenient!) and her family, who were hosting Christmas. We stayed with Paul, his girlfriend Sarah, their two roommates and their FOUR dogs. Lot of people and dogs and total chaos, which is just our style and we loved it. Thankfully they have a huge yard and everyone got along great.

A few days before Christmas, we saw the Nutcracker with Bo's mom and sister Dudley at the Belk Theater in Uptown Charlotte. It had probably been 20 years since either of us had seen it, and we thoroughly enjoyed it though were reminded that we are just not fans of ballet. So it might be another 20 years before go again ;)

Aside from the ballet and a few family dinners, we rarely left the house. We spent days in our pajamas just watching Christmas movies...

and painting Christmas cookies, definitely one of our favorite (newer) traditions...

mine are on the top row, Bo's are on the bottom. Obviously.

and watching all the dogs play together (or sunbathe)...

and logging many hours on the couch with the dogs...

Charlotte and her husband Doug hosted an absolutely wonderful Christmas. This was actually my first Christmas with them, ever! They always spend Christmas with Doug's side of the family, who I finally got to meet this year. Their Christmas traditions reminded me so much of my own family's, so it was comforting to have a feeling of home. We went to Christmas mass, where our nephew Stuart was a shepard in the nativity scene, followed by a big family dinner at their home with presents and music and great company. Major fail - never took a family photo!

how fun is their Santa spread?! I need this.

Christmas morning was also very similar to my family's - stockings, Santa gifts, opening presents one by one in our pajamas. Charlotte made a breakfast feast for us, and afterward my brother Paul came over and we FaceTimed with the rest of our family. Leslie's in-laws get along with my parents SO well and were nice enough to invite them up to Daytona so they didn't have to spend Christmas without any their children, for the first time in 30 years.

return of the Christmas pajamas!

And Bo's family kindly invited Paul to spend the day with us, as Sarah is a nurse and had to work; otherwise it would have been Paul's first Christmas alone, ever. So we all got to be with a new mixed family which turned out to be pretty awesome. After our family phone call, we drove up to Blowing Rock to spend the evening with Bo's parents and enjoyed a long day of cooking, drinking, and eating. Overall, a pretty fantastic Christmas.

6th Engagement Anniversary

Every year we have a steak dinner on December 30th to celebrate the anniversary of our engagement. (I posted our engagement story here.) This year we went to KR SteakBar, which was a phenomenal meal, served Italian-style with several small courses. Coincidentally, it is right across the street from our old apartment where Bo proposed six years ago. Such great memories.

New Years Eve

We had a very, very low-key night at home to ring in the new year for once. It was actually a really nice change from our nights on the town the past several years. Dudley came over with her pup, Madison, and we all enjoyed lots of good food and champagne, a few movies, and we watched the ball drop on TV. Happy 2014!!