A December to Remember

Wow. December was definitely a crazy month! It started off with our wedding on the 5th (Happy 1 Month Anniversary to us!) followed by Cory’s exams, our Honeymoon to Disney, my Grandmother’s passing the Monday before Christmas and finally a ton of Christmas and New Year festivities. I felt like I was on a crazy emotional roller coaster for the entire month. So many wonderful, yet very emotional moments.

Our wedding was an absolute dream. I am so thankful for our temple marriage and have already felt the blessings of it in the month we have been married. We were so blessed to be surrounded by so many of our family and friends on our special day even though it made it hard to speak to them for very long. The last thirty minutes was an awesome dance party and we had to almost literally be pushed out the door. It was a wonderful day and we are so thankful for everyone who made it so special for us. We spent that night at a bed a breakfast in Camden and had a little picnic in our beautiful room. By far the best day of my life.

The next week was a rough one. We were both impatient to be on our way to Florida but we still had school and work. After Cory’s exams were over we were finally able to leave. Cory finished with A’s and B’s by some miracle because I know he did not study nearly as much as he should have this semester, but I guess he had some good excuses. J Driving down 95 to Jacksonville in the dark is not an experience I would like to repeat. I have always been wary of big rig trucks and that is about all that drives on 95 at night. Plus there was construction going on almost the entire way so I was a huge bundle of nerves the entire time. We made it safely though and had an absolutely wonderful time. We ate so much food, but it was all delicious. Everything was decorated for Christmas and it was so magical. The weather was wonderful. We wore shorts and short sleeved shirts and even went to the water park! Cory had never been before so I had fun playing tour guide and showing him all my favorite parts. :) We are already talking about our next trip. :)

We got back from the honeymoon on Friday and my grandmother passed away the next Monday. She was in the final stages Alzheimer’s disease and so it was surely a relief for her to be free of that body. She was one of the most wonderful women I have ever known and it was definitely hard to say goodbye. She had been on a downturn since Thanksgiving and so we had expected it, but it is never easy to lose someone you love. She and my grandfather had been married for 57 years. Someone asked her once when she knew she was going to marry him and she answered “Third grade.” J She was always the last to sit down for dinner and the first to ask if there was anything you needed. Her recipes for tea cake cookies and spaghetti were famous. My brother and I even made our own commercial about her spaghetti while watching home movies when we were little. I have so many wonderful memories of her and feel so grateful to have had such a wonderful woman as my grandmother.

The thing about loss is that it tends to bring families together and that was definitely true for our family this year. It was nice to be able to spend so much time with my extended family leading up to Christmas and we really learned to rely on and help each other. Cory and I had a wonderful first Christmas together. The nice thing about getting married at this time of year is that you get to spend a lot of time together. It has kind of spoiled us. :) Our nicest present was from Mom and Dad. They are paying someone to paint almost our entire house and we are so excited and grateful! We finally have a move in date: February 6th! I can hardly wait! Right now we are living with my aunt in two little rooms. It will be so nice to be able to spread out! :)

For New Years we went up to Cory’s brother and sister in laws house to celebrate his nephew’s birthday. It was a lot of fun but crazy with all those kids! Cory and I are both looking forward to a wonderful New Year filled with many more exciting adventures! I will have some pictures of how the house is coming to post soon (fingers crossed)!

This has definitely been a Mega-post! I will add trying to be a better blogger to my already pretty extensive list of New Year’s resolutions so hopefully they won’t be so long in the future. :) Also, I am going to try and get Naomi to teach me how she uploads all those pictures. I am terrible at it and I think that is a fitting reward for such a nice long post. Right, Na? :)

The Holidays Begin!

I always forget to add pictures first and it messes up my stuff! Anyway, I just love this little ornament so I wanted to show it!
My little Christmas Tree!

Right now I am in the middle of finals, so this blog entry is going to be a quick one. I had a wonderful Thanksgiving last week at the River. I call Georgetown my new hometown because whenever we have family get togethers, it is almost always there. I went Black Friday shopping for the first time and it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be (even the waking up at 4:30 am). Poor Cory couldn't sleep in the inferno that was his and Gilliam's room so he got up about 3 and went for a walk (and gave mom a bit of a scare when she walked outside and he was coming up the porch steps to make sure I woke up). We didn't try to go to Walmart and when we saw there were cars parked along the edges of the Target parking lot we decided that wasn't worth it either. Our first stop was Dick's Sporting Goods where we ended up not buying anything but we did run into Uncle Charles! The bad part is that by 9 am, I was exhausted. We kept on trucking until about 11:30 when we finally got out of the Bass Pro Shop after many adventures, including getting lost and almost ending up in North Carolina! I lasted long enough to show Mom what I bought and then promptly feel asleep for 4 hours! Sadly, that still only added up to 8 hours total for that day. Next time, I will definitely stay with Papa and Miss Anne who are about 45 minutes closer to everything than we are at the River.

I put up my little Christmas tree on Monday. It is not as big as the one I ussually have because I will be moving in less than 2 weeks(now 1 week!!) I'm so excited to get out of this apartment because it is just not the same now that I am alone here. I've tried to spread my things out in an effort to make it seem not quite so empty, but I still don't like it. I'm moving in with my Dad's cousin Nancy who is like an adopted aunt. We try to do dinner at least once a month and we always have lots of fun. I lived with her the summer after my freshman year when I went to summer school and it was great, so I am definitely excited! She lives in a cute townhouse one exit down from Cory's house which is an extra perk. :) She's letting me have the two upstairs rooms and will be buying new appliances for the kitchen so I can cook for her! Nance is many things, but a cook is definitely not one of them! Since I love it so much, I don't think it will be a problem. I'm not offically moving until next Tuesday, but I am going to be staying there after Saturday because Cory and I are taking my bed to the river on Saturday when we go to Thompson family Christmas! I'm excited to be seeing everyone! We always have a lot of fun and good food!



This year I decided to use the newspaper to wrap my gifts, or at least decorate them. I got suckered into subscribing to the weekend paper by this high school kid who knocked on my door. I don't live in the best neighborhood (my neighbors may or may not be drug dealers) so I knew he wouldn't have much luck. I just couldn't help myself. But I will say, I have enjoyed looking at the sale papers at least! Anyway, I just went through the papers and cut out pages or things I thought the person whose gift I was wrapping would like. Then, I either wrapped the present in the page, or wrapped it in paper and then taped the pictures on there. It has been a lot of fun so far, and cheap!