Christmastime

We celebrated Christmas this past weekend...all across Texas!  Since Brad and I got married in November, I wouldn't say we've had any fights, but two of our "heated discussions" have been about the holidays.  First up - Thanksgiving - I thought it was important to see my dad's side of the family (and my grandma had been emailing about Thanksgiving since before the wedding), while Brad usually spends that weekend in Hearne (where his grandma is) since he and his dad and brother hunt there.  I had this grand scheme for going to both places in one day, and we butted heads over that for awhile :)  When it came down to it, we woke up in Hearne on Thanksgiving day, drove to Georgetown for a late lunch with my family that afternoon, then came back to Hearne in the evening so he could hunt Friday! 

Now, Christmas...Brad basically doesn't like driving all over the place when the holidays should be a relaxing time...but for this one, we had fewer days and more families to visit!  My dad is currently in Korea for work, so we did our Christmas meal with him a week early.  That left my mom and Sean in Round Rock, his family in Hearne, and his family in Tyler to go see...in three days!  Again, we clashed about it and for awhile it sounded like he was just going to see his family without me...which I'm not okay with since it's our first married Christmas!...but I guess he was just picking on me, because he came along in the end :)  We started out in Round Rock, where we saw Mom, Sean, and my brothers along with Matt's girlfriend Tess.  Mom made her traditional tenderloin with moutarde sauce, and I brought sooo many cookies I had been making in Temple.

Holiday Hats

On Saturday we made our way to Hearne, and we woke up there on Christmas morning.  I had a stocking!  Felt like part of the family :)

Showing off our new texting gloves!

Family Pic

And after all the Christmas festivities in Hearne, we drove up to Tyler to see Brad's mom's side of the family.  (Teri got a family shot on her camera but I didn't, so here's an action shot of present-opening!)

Papaw gave us a heated blanket (a wedding registry item we had never received!) and I'm sure it'll come in handy in NY.  Teri gave us the new Baylor cowboy boots!  Brad will be wearing his tomorrow...

...at the Alamo Bowl!  We're so excited to go watch the final football game.  Ready to see our Bears achieve 10 wins for this season!  It's a little bittersweet, since we'll be in New York next year when football starts up again, and I'm not sure when we'll be able to personally attend another game!  Maybe we'll fly down in the fall sometime...just can't imagine a fall without football!

Sic 'em, Bears!!

Great Weekend

What a great weekend in Dallas!  We went up to go to brother Dave's annual Christmas party...turns out the Heisman trophy presentation was scheduled to start right as the party was starting, so we had a room full of Baylor bears glued to the TV. 

And of course...Baylor's own RG3 won the award!  First time ever for a Baylor player to win the award.  It's still surreal to think about...so proud of him and he's such a good guy all around.

The Christmas party was fun (of course, got off to a great start!) and we spent the rest of the weekend with Brad's mom.  Now, gearing up to Christmas...I still have a lot of shopping to do, whoops. 

Speaking of Christmas, I'm really glad I won the debate with Brad...he doesn't like that Christmas is a "season" (doesn't like the commercialism of it) and wanted to wait till Christmas Eve to put up our tree!  I got him to agree to get a tree with me if we got the apartment cleaned and all the wedding presents put away...and that happened :)

Merry Christmas and sic 'em bears ;)

We're Married!!

Well, the wedding came and went in a rush!  It was beautiful and the reception was so fun.  16 months of planning...it's weird to not have wedding plans consuming my life now!  But it's a good feeling.  Some ladies get the "post-wedding blues" after it's over...I felt a little bit like I wanted to experience it again, from a guest's point of view, in the few days after the wedding, but for the most part I'm glad to be done and on to spending the rest of my life with my best friend!

Our photographer promised pics within 2 months of the wedding...since we're not even at the 1-month mark yet, I'm just patiently waiting!  But here are some pics I stole from friends' facebook albums!

More to come, of course...everything went really well, the only major mishap came during the exchanging of the rings in the ceremony.  Everyone always jokes about losing the rings, etc...well...our coordinator got the two rings from me so I wouldn't have to keep track.  She gave Brad's ring to my maid of honor right away, then slipped my ring on her hand to give to the best man (Jared) later on.  Fast forward to the ceremony...we're standing up there and our officiant asks Jared for the ring.  Jared gives this nervous smile and kind of shakes his head.  The officiant continues with talking about the rings, and even looks like he might be holding a ring on the Bible! - so I think we're fine.  Then after his statement, he asks Jared again for the ring.  Now I know there's a problem.  I pause for a second, then slip the engagement ring off my right hand and slip it to Brad so that he has something to put on my finger for that part!  Then we continue, Caitlin has his ring as expected and we go on with the ceremony.

Afterward, I found our coordinator in the lobby and asked where the ring was.  She thought she had given it to Jared...she went back to the room to check the ring boxes, and then someone asked her "Is it still on your finger?"  Sure enough...there it was.  I had Brad place it on my hand unceremoniously right there in the lobby :)  Ah well, gotta have a story right?

Anyway, overall the day was everything I wanted it to be.  A meaningful ceremony, and a fun party after.  Lots of friends and familiy stayed and danced all the way to the end when we made our grand exit.  So many good memories from that day.

And I'm sure there will be more pics to come!