New Years Eve

Since I’m one of probably 5 people (of 1,100) in the office today and I found this little survey on another blog and decided to copy it and kill some time at work… thanks Amy! Also, let me apologize in advance if 90% of these answers have something to do with our wedding… it was clearly the biggest event of the year for us! J

1. What did you do in 2012 that you’d never done before? Got married!

2. Did you keep your New Year’s resolutions, and will you make more for next year? I’ve never been one to make New Year’s resolutions (probably so I have nothing to break) but this year we do have several “goals” we would like to accomplish; 1) Join a church 2) Travel as often as possible 3) Explore adding on to our house 4) Sod the front yard (fun, right?)

3. Did anyone close to you give birth? HA! If this isn’t a loaded question or what… This was certainly a big year for babies with our group of friends so we found ourselves frequenting the labor and delivery floor at the hospital a good bit. It has been so much fun watching so many of our friends become parents and we love all the babies around!

4. Did anyone close to you die? Close to me, no. But Brett did have several family members pass away this year.

5. What traveling did you do? This year we actually did less traveling than we typically do in a year but we did have a pretty big trip to Hawaii for our honeymoon so we have zero complaints. We also went out to Denver to visit my brother, I went to Mexico for a bachelorette party and we had several trips to the beach.  

View from our window on our honeymoon.

6. What would you like to have in 2013 that you lacked in 2012? More time at home. 2012 was a busy, busy year for us and it really flew by! I think we are both ready to have some time at home on the weekends, get more projects done around the house and just enjoy our hometown together more.

7. What date from 2012 will remain etched upon your memory and why? Duh, February 18^th – our wedding day! It was the most amazing day of my life and cannot even tell you how crazy it is that we are about to celebrate our 1-year anniversary!

8. What was your biggest achievement of the year? Getting a new job. When I moved to Columbia when we got married and left my old job behind I thought the job search would be a simple process and would take no more than a month or two (max). I was pretty wrong and the job search turned out to be a really hard and stressful time but in the end I am so happy with the company and job I have landed and glad I took my time to find the right fit!

9. What was your biggest failure? I really can’t recall any huge failures I’ve had this year. Sure, there are plenty of times I’ve let people down or done things I wish I hadn’t but I would consider that a part of life and not failures.

10. Did you suffer illness or injury? Nope, besides the common colds and stomach bugs we all suffer with It’s been a pretty healthy year! (knock on wood)

11. What was the best thing you bought? A new car! After driving the same car since high school it was definitely time to move on to something new. Once I got my new job and was settled, we started looking around and ended up with a new Explorer. We are very happy with the purchase and while it was sad to see the old Civic go after 12 years, I think it was time for it to find a new home.

Out with the old, in with the new!

12. Whose behavior merited celebration? My husband’s… he has survived almost a year of living with me!

13. Whose behavior made you appalled and depressed? Can’t say any.

14. Where did most of your money go? New car, honeymoon, bills

15. What did you really, really, really get excited about? Can I say wedding again??

16. What song will always remind you of 2012? Warm Love by Van Morrison

17. Compared to this time last year are you:

·         Happier? Yes! Not that this time last year was bad or hard but I was coming to the end of a job I loved, moving away from my family and friends and trying to wrap up the last details of our wedding which all amount to a lot of stress!

·         Thinner? Ummmm that is a big, fat (punned intended) NO! This time last year I was the smallest I will ever be but I think I’ve finally accepted the fact that 99.9% of women are the smallest they will ever be at their wedding so I’ve got nothing to worry about.

·         Richer? Yes, we’ve officially hit “DINK” status (Duel Income No Kids).

18. What do you wish you’d done more of? Worked out! Need to get on that at some point.

19. What do you wish you’d done less of? Stressed/worried about the little things in life.

20. How did you spend Christmas? With my family in Greenville

Our precious pup ready for Christmas!

21. How will you be spending New Year’s? We are driving up to Charlotte tonight to spend it with some of our best friends Lauren and Aaron. We are dressing up, having cocktails and appetizers then have a late dinner reservation at Emeril Lagassi’s restaurant “E2”. So excited to ring in the new year with this couple!

The Owens and The Barbers before either of us were married!

22. Did you fall in love in 2012? I definitely fell in love before 2012 but I can say now that after almost a year of marriage it is true what people say and you do fall more and more in love with somebody the more time you spend with them.

23. How many one-night stands? Ummm I’m married and this is an awkward thing to ask… next question please!

24. What was your favorite TV program? Oh man, how can I even begin to choose!! How about I just say my favorite new show of 2012 which was SMASH. For the wannabe Broadway star I am, this show was right up my alley!

25. Do you hate anyone now that you didn’t hate this time last year?  Definitely not.

26. What was the best book you read? Man, I read a lot so that is a hard questions! But I think I’m going to go with the Hunger Games Trilogy.

27. What was your biggest musical discovery? Don’t have an answer for this one. I just listen to the radio.

28. What did you want and you got? A new car

29. What did you want and not get? To win the powerball lottery! I really thought I had it this year.

30. What was your film of this year? Can I say 2? Good! 1) The Descendents – this was filmed at the resort in Hawaii we went to for our honeymoon so we saw it right before we left so it got us so excited!! 2) Argo – we just recently saw this in the theatre and it was a standout of the year for sure. It was the only time I can recall leaving a theatre and calling people after to tell them to go see it.

31. What did you do on your birthday? Well, my birthday was actually on Saturday! It was my idea of a perfect day… stayed in my PJs until about 2:00, went and saw Les Mis (SO good!), then went to Za’s for dinner with friends (Brett only goes there with me when it’s my birthday or he is in a really, really good mood).

Birthday cake at Za's

32. What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying? Not a single thing. This has really been one of the best years of my life. I’ve been challenged in so many ways with moving to a new city and starting a new job but it is definitely one I will always remember.

33. How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2012? I am no fashionista and actually don’t like shopping that much unless I have to so I’m going to skip on over this one.

34. What kept you sane? A big glass of red wine at the end of the day!

35. Which celebrity did you fancy the most? Taylor Swift… I’m totally fascinated by her and not embarrassed by that either!

36. What political issue stirred you the most? UGH, I am not a fan of politics at all! I’m just glad the presidential election is over for another few years.

37. Who did you miss? Everyone in Greenville! It has been a really hard adjustment moving away from my home town and I miss everyone so much. However, it just makes the visits back that much better!!

The beautiful falls in downtown Greenville.

38. Who was the best new person you met? Can’t really say one particular person and while I’ve known them all for years it was just so wonderful to move to a new city and be welcomed by such a wonderful group of friends!

My lovely friends in Columbia!

39. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2012. Patience really is a virtue… you have to wait for the best things in life.

40. Quote or Song Lyric that sums up your year: “The best is yet to come.”

I feel so blessed by everything in my life in 2012. I can only imagine what 2013 will bring!

Happy Birthday Husband!!

Busy with more family fun today but had to drop in and wish my amazing husband a wonderful 37th birthday! My life has been so much better ever since you entered my life 3 years ago! Can't wait to spend many many more birthdays together! I love you dearly!!

Christmas Traditions: Christmas Morning

There is no more special time for a family than Christmas morning. My parents have always taken Christmas very seriously and instilled wonderful traditions and the love of Christmas into myself and my brother. The older I get the more excited I am to carry these traditions on with my own children and family one day. Here are a few of my favorite Christmas Morning traditions:

Everyone needs a crying Santa picture.

Personal Christmas Tree: Growing up my brother and I both had our own personal Christmas Trees in our bedrooms. We got to decorate it ourselves every year and it was always very exciting for us. Mine of course was filled with Nutcracker ornaments! On Christmas Eve Santa would always leave a few small presents under our tree for us to open as soon as we woke up Christmas morning. I remember being a child and waking up every hour on the hour checking that tree to see if Santa had come! (Now that I’m an adult I know that this was just a ploy for my parents to sleep in a little longer haha)

Waiting for Santa!

Wrapping Paper: To wrap or not to wrap – every family does it differently but to me, everything (I mean everything) has to be wrapped! Santa even cleverly wrapped my gifts in one wrapping paper and my brother’s in another wrapping paper so as soon as we walked down the stairs we would know who’s “pile” was whose. Dad of course always play “trash man” as we throw our balled up wrapping paper to him after each gift.

Gotta love the '80s people.

Breakfast: Every Christmas morning it is the same: Monkey Bread and Breakfast Casserole. Mom has tried to change it up here in the recent years and John and I have protested every time. You can’t mess with perfection I tell ya!

Me and the best Christmas present I've ever gotten.

Advent Nativity Scene: My dad has a very old, paper nativity advent calendar that was his as a child. It is a church and you pull out a little box each day and open a different item from the nativity scene. Of course of Christmas it is always Baby Jesus. Well, my brother and I took opening up Baby Jesus very seriously and had to take turn year to year opening Him. We would have to write down every year who got to open Him that year so the next there would be no confusion (aka arguments) over it.

Our little family when it actually snowed on Christmas a few years ago.

Order amongst the chaos: As kids this drove us NUTS but as I get older and my Type A personality grows, I can’t help but appreciate the little things my mom always did to make Christmas morning perfect. Let’s take vacuuming downstairs before we were allowed to come down and see what Santa brought (as an anxious child on Christmas morning this was torture but now I see why she wanted things to be nice and neat for the day). We also always take turns opening gifts. Again, as a child who just wants to rip into each and every gift it was so hard to control ourselves but now I love the fact that we all take turns and get to see each gift everyone opens.

Through it all though, we never forget the true meaning of Christmas and why we celebrate this holiday at all. I am so very blessed to have been able to grow up in a house and make these memories and traditions and that is never lost on me. If it weren’t for His birth, life and dying for our sins we would not have what we do today.

“For unto us a child is born.” Isaiah 9:6

It's a CRAZY Christmas...

…and I couldn’t be more excited about it!! This Christmas brings a lot of firsts for me; First Christmas as a married couple, First Christmas I’ve lived away from Greenville, First Christmas we are hosting TWO family get-togethers. I just have a half-day at work on Thursday then I am off until the 27^th! We have so much going on over the next few days but I am about to BURST with excitement over it all!! It really is the greatest time of the year!

Here is a breakdown of our Christmas Vacation:

Friday: Off work but spending all day cleaning and cooking to get ready for our visitors.

Friday night: My brother flies into Columbia from Denver and my parents arrive in town from Greenville. We havare having dinner at a new restaurant in Columbia called the Oak Table and can’t wait to try it out. I also have to mention this is the longest it has been since I’ve seen my brother (even when he was living overseas in Europe) so I can’t wait to hug his neck!

Saturday: The rest of my mom’s side of the family arrives (Grandma, Aunt, Uncle and 2 cousins) for our family Christmas. It is now pretty convenient that Brett and I live in Columbia since it is exactly half-way for the family to gather. We are grilling steaks, opening presents and maybe closing out the night with some smores. This is the first time my whole family will see our house so it will be a great night.

Sunday Morning: We head to Greenville!! Given this being the first Christmas away from “home” I’m more excited than ever to be in town for a few days.

Sunday Night: We have a big family/friend Oyster Roast at my parent’s house to celebrate mine and Brett’s birthdays (mine the 29^th, his the 26^th) as well as welcome John into town.

Monday: Church and Christmas Eve party (more on that later)

Tuesday: CHRISTMAS MORNING!!! (again, more on that later)

Wednesday: Brett’s Birthday!! We will head back to Columbia where we will meet his family (Dad, Brother, Sister-in-Law and her son) and have our Christmas and Brett’s birthday dinner.

Whoooo! Did you get all that?? Like I said, craziness but all so much fun!! I hope everyone has a wonderful holiday and don’t forget why we celebrate this time of year! Merry Christmas all!!!

Christmas Traditions: Christmas Eve

I’ve mentioned several times before that I am so blessed to have many, many “aunts” and “uncles” who are not “blood relatives” but relatives all the same. And two of these families are very special to our Christmas Eve celebration. For the past… oh I don’t know… 15(?) years or so we have gotten together with The Hensons and The Hensons (they are in fact “blood relatives”) to have a fun-filled family Christmas Eve Celebration which has now expanded to several other families as well!

Most of the gang many, many years ago! We have changed and grown a lot since then!

The evening starts out by everyone going to their respective church for the Christmas Eve service then we all convene at my Aunt Leigh Ann and Uncle James’ house. We used to do a full meal but now we have taken that down to heavy appetizers (and some adult beverages). After we eat it is time for presents. Since our family has expanded to even more families, husbands, in-laws and grandchildren we now draw names and everyone buys a gift for their person (you get entered into the “pot” once you graduate college – before then you get gifts from everyone). Once we open the “real” gifts it’s on to the White Elephant…

Some of the "kids".

This is always the best time of the night. Everyone gets a gag gift to exchange and we take this part VERY seriously (I’m talking, plan your gift for the year starting January 1 type of serious). We have had some serious ones, some funny ones and some ummm “riskay” ones but it always a fight to the finish for the best gift and I think it is safe to say that the 2 gifts Brett and I are putting into the mix this year will be pretty much the best ones in the bunch!

John's gift a few years ago... you can never go wrong with a blow up yard decoration.

We end the evening with a rowdy game of “Left Center Right” – If you’ve never played it before, it is a very simple dice game that involves one person winning a lot of money! I’m still slightly bitter because after all these years and family gatherings I have still yet to win the money… maybe this year is my year!

Mom after winning the pot a few years ago.

This really is one of my favorite nights of the entire year. I get to spend such a special occasion with some of my favorite families and my best friends. I told Brett very early into our relationship that hands down Christmas Eve was with my family… after a few years in the family I think he now knows why!

Day of Silence

Christmas Traditions: The Nutcracker

I figured with this being the week leading up to Christmas, I would talk about some of my favorite Christmas Traditions starting with one that really does mean Christmas to me: The Nutcracker.

From the time I could practically walk, I did ballet.

My first dance recital "Put your little foot"

And as soon as I was old enough to be in The Nutcracker, I was. So for 11 years straight, that was my family's Christmas tradition.

First Nutcracker performance as a Soldier.

At the time I was growing up in The Nutcracker with The Greenville Ballet, it was THE show in the upstate. We did at least 2 weeks of performances and traveled to Clemson and Greenwood for shows as well. That along with having Saturday rehearsals months leading up to Decemeber and daily rehearsals at the theatre leading up to the show... to say it consumed our lives is an understatement. But we wouldn't have had it any other way.

Those weeks of rehearsals and shows at the Peace Center in downtown Greenville are some of my favorite memories. Hanging out in the wings, studying for exams in between numbers, playing dress up with costumes it is a time I will never forget.

Me and some of the girls backstage during rehearsals.

Yesterday, Brett and I went and saw Columbia City Ballet's performance and it just flooded my mind with memories. (Brett has come to terms with the fact that he will be having to attend The Nutcracker every year for the rest of his life... poor guy). Just hearing that opening music takes me back and gives me excited butterflies in my stomach. I told Brett after the show that I kind of missed parts of the dancing because I couldn't help but replay all of my studio's choreography in my head! (I think those dances will forever be ingrained in my mind!)

Final Nutcracker performance as a senior in high school dancing "Spanish Hot Chocolate"

So now that I've attended The Nutcracker I am that much more in the Christmas spirit and one step closer to Christmas Eve/Day! 

InstaClaus

InstaWhat?? As mentioned before, in my previous life I worked in Advertising. Life in advertising is an interesting one. You work hard and you play harder. The people I worked with made the job and that is because most of the people I worked with were just big kids. Big, crazy talented, creative, kids. Each year the agency would do some pretty cool holiday card/website/video game/etc. to send out to all our clients. Well this year's is no exception and is so darn awesome I had to share it! Enter, InstaClaus...

If you go to www.InstaClaus.com you can get all the site instructions/details but essentially they are using the latest trending social media site, Instagram, to give gifts to needy children. Each child has their wish list in the "workshop" and with 5 pictures posted to instagram relating to that gift (and tagged with the appropriate #hashtag) the agency will buy the gift for that child and deliver it. So whether you are familiar with Instagram or not, go check out the site! Us "EPers" are for life so I'm pretty proud of the work of "my" past company.

Merry Christmas!

2012 Christmas Card

Now that our Christmas cards have officially hit the mailboxes of our friends and family, I am so happy to get to share the final product! As I said before, a friend of mine - Miss Wyolene - aka. Morgan Young helped me create such a perfect representation of who we are. I just love the way the fun green script stands out against the black and white picture (which happens to be one of my favorite captured moments from our first dance at the wedding). We also paired the card with a snazzy gold envelope to help it stand out amongst the standard white envelopes you get in the mail... can you tell we worked in advertising together??

So, a big thank you to Morgan for creating our very first Christmas card for us! I know we will always keep this to remember our first Christmas together as The Owens! I am so lucky to have such talented friends! (She also managed to get these from the printer, packaged and shipped to me all while having a newborn at home! She's a saint I tell 'ya!)

Morgan also custom designed our wedding invitations which you can check out on her blog HERE! 

Weekend Recap: 12/10/12

What a perfectly blissful weekend! After 3 weekends on the road traveling, it was so incredible to be in town for a full 3 days!

Friday Night we headed out to do a little Christmas shopping and ended up finding and purchasing 2 of the gifts we had been struggling with finding so glad we decided to go out that night! Then we headed over to The Pizza Joint (one of our favorite) for dinner. We also had to toast a big celebration... I've mentioned before that we still own my house in Greenville and have been renting it out for a year and a half to some amazing tenants (we really feel like we hit the tenant lottery!). Well, their lease was coming to an end at the end of the year so we were trying to decided what to do - sell or rent some more - when our tenants decided to sign another year lease! We are SO thrilled to be keeping the same wonderful people in the house and the fact that we don't have to worry about it until 2014! Also during dinner we got the text we had been waiting all day for - Baby Roy Westbrook had finally been born!! Double cheers!

CHEERS!!

Saturday Morning we laid around a bit (watched a little Saved by the Bell - true story) then hit the town to finish out our Christmas shopping. We got it ALL done! Such a relief to be done with the shopping and just have to get everything wrapped and ready for the festivities to begin! We also had the honor of heading over to the hospital to visit with the new mom and dad and meet Baby Roy! He is so precious and we are thrilled for our friends!

Saturday Night we decided to go to the Riverbanks Zoo Christmas lights with our friends Amy and Lee and their son Bowers. It was so much fun seeing the lights and spending time with good friends!

Really dark picture but this is me, Brett and Bowers.

Me, Amy and Bowers

Sunday we decided to be extra ambitious and get up and go to early church so we were able to go to church, grocery shop and get home all before lunch! We then did a few projects around the house (including finally hanging the curtains in our guest bedroom). Then we walked over to a new neighborhood right down the street that was hosting a Tour of Homes. The houses were absolutely stunning and had me drooling and jealous as we left and walked home. It was a beautiful day (almost 78 degrees) so we sat outside, took Brinkley for a walk around the neighborhood and grilled some chicken kabobs for dinner.

It was truly one of those weekends that everyone needs from time to time. We've got a busy few weekends ahead with the holidays but all worth it! Hope everyone else had a great weekend as well!

The Friday Five: 12/7/12

It's been awhile since I've done a Friday Five post because well, it's been awhile since I've actually been home on a Friday/weekend. We have had a crazy few weeks with 2 trips to NC and 1 to GA we are happy to have a weekend at home to relax and finish Christmas shopping. So with that, here are 5 things I'm thinking about this Friday morning:

1. Baby Roy: As I got into my car this morning to drive to work I got a text from a good friend that she and her husband were on the way to the hospital to welcome their son into the world. I am so excited I can hardly stand it! Saying a little prayer that they have a smooth delivery and a happy, healthy baby boy and momma sometime today!

2. Christmas Cards: We mailed off our very first Christmas cards as a married couple this week and I am so excited to share them next week!

3. Christmas Shopping: Last weekend Brett had a conference in Atlanta so while he was in seminars I headed over to Lenox mall and got a ton of Christmas shopping complete. This weekend we have mapped out the rest of our stops and should be done with the buying this weekend! Then on to the wrapping...

4. Friends: One of my good friends, Laura Anne sent this picture to myself and our other friend Ashley last night and it just makes me smile. The 3 of us (and our other friend Allie) were so close when we all lived in Greenville right after college. Then it just so happened that all 4 of us got married and moved to separate cities/states (Columbia, Birmingham, Atlanta and Charleston). We don't get to see each other often but we will always share a very special friendship from those first years out of college as "adults".

5. Hall Rug: I mentioned previously about the search for my hall rug and the continued back order notifications I've gotten. Well, the day had finally arrived that it should be shipped. Fingers crossed I don't get yet another one of those back order emails!

My Month via Instagram: November

I feel old for just saying this but seriously though, where did this month go?!?!

Started off the month with a wild and crazy Friday night wine and book party. 

Then found a portal to the black hole behind out bathroom mirror. Oh the joys of owning an old home. 

Started packing on those holiday pounds with a brownie and pumpkin bread.

Hit the 100 day countdown to our anniversary trip to Puerto Rico!

And proved to the world that Brett and I were meant for each other.

We headed to the beach for Thanksgiving and even convinced brothers to make rice crispy treats!

Tried to remember good sportsmanship during the Clemson/Carolina Game. (My mom's coworker had her students send notes to Marcus Lattimore and got this in return.)

Did some fishing and caught a beautiful sunset on the beach.

Finally broke out the Moose Mugs and egg nog to decorate the tree.

And closed out the month similar to how I started it. Relaxing! Can't complain there!

Here's to Demember and my favorite time of year!!