Christmas & NYE Festivities & Weekend Recap

I am about to throw a lot into this one post, so be prepared! I never wrote about my Christmas or my NYE celebrations! It was a busy week between Christmas and NYE and I think I have finally caught up on my sleep and have returned to my normal routine and will be back in the gym today!

Christmas 2014

My Christmases are always fulled and packed with as much stuff as possible that can fit into two days; Christmas Eve and Christmas Day! This was the last year Timothy and I kind of did our own thing with our own families because next year we will be married! I still can't believe our 16 month engagement is now down to 10 months left, time has flown by!

Christmas Eve my sister, Caroline, was with us. She spends every other Christmas Eve and Christmas morning with us and on the other years is with her dad those times. Christmas Eve is always so much better when my sister is there. Typically we have dinner at my mom's house with my grandparents, my aunt and uncle and cousins but since she is no longer with us we had dinner at my grandparents house. We had the usual...BBQ and it was delicious, especially the hush puppies. I got over there around 3 to hang out with my grandmother before everyone else showed up and we had one of my moms childhood friends come and visit with us for awhile. No matter what time of day or what day it is, my grandmother gets visitors every day! I usually talk to her on a regular basis and she is always telling me so and so came by today or is coming by. It is so nice to know she has so many friends that are there for her when Caroline or I can't be. Finally it was time for dinner and we all crowded around my grandmothers 6 person kitchen table, there are 8 of us, and bumped each others elbows while we ate our BBQ. My grandmother has a very large and spacious dining room table but we were not allowed to eat in there because it was already set for Christmas Day lunch. After we ate we hung out for a bit and I gave my sister one of her presents! My mom would always let us open one present on Christmas Eve so I wanted to continue that for my sister. I made her a Shutterfly book with some pictures of her and mom. She loved it and I am so glad I got to make that for her and give her something she will cherish for forever.

After I left my grandmothers I went to my dads house to open presents. Timmy met us there after he finished at his families house. We don't usually open presents on Christmas Eve with my dad but we decided to this year because I usually spend Christmas Day until about 3 at my grandparents and then I go to my Dads do Christmas and then we hit the road to Winston Salem to spend Christmas night with my other grandparents, but this year we wanted to get there a little earlier so we decided to switch it up a little. One of the presents I got my dad was a sweatshirt that said "Beer Makes Me Awesome" with a holder in the sweatshirt for your beer. We both thought it was pretty awesome - Timmy has one as well but his says "This Is My Drinking Shirt"

Christmas Morning...I was moving in slow motion and couldn't get myself together. I thought I woke up early enough to put the casseroles in the oven...but clearly I did not. My mom always made a Breakfast Casserole and a Hashbrown Casserole, so this year I took on those roles (recipes to come). After the casseroles finally cooked, presents in car and I looked decent enough to say I had tried I got in my car and headed to grandma's. I got there rushing thinking everyone was waiting on me...and no one was there except my grandparents. PHEW! I could put the casseroles back in the oven for a little to heat them up. Finally, breakfast was served.

Next came presents!! We all sat down in our seats we sit down in each year and I was Santa and was passing out all of the presents! I really dislike that part but it was ok. I got some pretty amazing things this year and my favorite had to of been an antique jar that contained the dried flowers from my moms funeral. I never knew how much things like this would mean to me, but they were honestly my favorite presents and holds a lot of meaning to me.

After presents, Caroline and I took our dog Lilly and headed to the Church. We were hoping to go see Mom and tell her Merry Christmas and inform her of some of the crazies at Christmas, but the gate was locked. It really doesn't make sense why the Church locks the doors to the OUTSIDE columbarium, especially on Christmas when probably tons of others want to see their loved ones.

But when we got back it was time for lunch. We enjoyed a delicious lunch full of laughter and before we knew it, it was time for Caroline and I to head to our dads houses. She went to hers and I went to mine. 

I frantically gathered all my stuff in 15 minutes when I got home and hopped in my Dad's car and headed to Winston Salem to see my other side of my family. There we had appetizers of cheese and crackers and sausage dip. For dinner we had....BBQ. Yes, I always eat BBQ 2 nights in a row on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, I don't mind it but after Christmas Day no more BBQ for me for awhile. Then we head downstairs to open presents. Of course, we all sit in the same seats every year and we open presents from youngest to oldest, then oldest to youngest one at a time. It is really nice because everyone gets to see what everyone got! We have decided to change it up a little next year. Instead of everyone buying everyone multiple gifts we all drew a name and we all must get that person a present - the limit is $100 and NO GIFT CARDS. We were all supposed to keep it quiet about who we got but as soon as I drew mine I looked right at the person and everyone knew and then my cousins and all of us went to the mountains the next day and we all blabbed who we got. 

The day after Christmas Dad, Kaylee, Timmy and I headed to the mountains to meet my Dads dad. We went with my aunt and uncle and 3 cousins as well. That was a great weekend! We went from Friday - Monday and it was so much fun. We always all look forward to spending time together at the mountains. We were going to go skiing but it was just too hot, I think the high most days was almost in the 60s. We played a lot of cards, bet money, played beer pong, had a pool tournament and played a lot of catch phrase - which was very intense. Timmy won money and I lost money - pretty typical. We had a lazy day one day where no one left the cabin and then one day we went bowling and went to the bar to watch the Panthers game. The bowling games were pretty intense, all of these games we played Chase Family vs. Clark Family. Clark Family won almost every game.

NYE 2014

We did exactly what we did last year and I was totally OK with it! I worked for about half a day and then went home and got ready. When Timmy finally got off work and was ready we headed to our friends Whitney and Jim's house, we ate pizza and began our festivities. Around 7:30 we went to the same local bar we go to all the time and rang in the New Year there. It was so much fun! There were tons of familiar faces, lots of NYE noise makers and Whitney even brought us some pretty awesome hats to wear. We left around 1am to go home and continue the night, but it didn't last long and I was asleep by 2am. It was a great night with some of my best friends! 

First picture of 2015!

This is my favorite picture of the night! 

I started off the New Year right and cleaned my ENTIRE house. It felt amazing after I was finally finished. We took down all the Christmas decorations and I relaxed on the couch with some netflix. It was a great day.

I was sad to put up the Christmas decorations and put up my 3 new ornaments I got this year! The silver ball from my best friend Erin and the other monogrammed ones from my best friend Whitney!

My weekend consisted of relaxing and a cookout! I needed to catch up on some sleep and that is just what I did!

::: linking up with Biana, Bella and Lisa ::::

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