Minnicks On Their Road To Ever After: Our first Christmas at Milstead!

I may have gone a bit overboard this year (what’s new) but i was so excited to decorate my very first house!

Here’s a glimpse of what our house and THREE tree’s looked like before I get to all the celebrating!!

(Here’s the living room tree-disregard the empty, very unfinished room please! )

(Bedroom tree- inclusive of my favorite Christmas present from mom and dad, a fireplace!)

Dining room!

This was my first time using the battery operated lights for the stairwell, I love the idea of no “hidden” wires!

My canisters were full…I can’t stop baking!

“The Tree is decorated now Let’s Have a cocktail,”

Yes please!!

By Saturday the house and tree were decorated, the cookies and any other baked good you can think of had been baked and the table was set!

Minnicks’ Family Christmas party is a GO! This girl worked hard on fixing my failed Cranberry Mojitos! Note to self and any others; you must crush the cranberries before adding them… they are not just for decoration! Newest addition below- literally met the mailman at the mailbox and placed pictures in window frame 10 minutes before everyone arrived for party! Tucker tried so hard to be social that night, he just can’t help it, he has his daddy in him…. he can literally fall asleep anywhere! We fixed a drink and settled in for some serious Dirty Santa!!

That’s right Mills, you heard us… dirty santa!

Sleepy Tuck! He slept right through the party!

Merry Christmas- round one!

The next day we packed up and headed home to make it in time for new years eve!

Tara is so snazzy, she had Mom-mom on skype- can you tell we missed seeing our Jersey peeps this year!!

Silly me, I thought my shopping- and wrapping was done when I got there!! YEAH RIGHT, little did I know I hadn’t even started (according to daddy)!

Sweet tucker stayed loyal by my side all night while I wrapped!!

The next morning we were pleasantly awoken to hearing “Santa Came!!”

I came down the stairs and found out little miss had spotted her stash long before I had gotten up but had been patiently waiting for the “okay” to open presents!

I tell people all the time, at least she is a polite beggar!

Mom told us last year we were officially grown…. It was the first year we waited to eat breakfast before opening up the presents!!

Mom has filled Billy and Angelas up with eiffel towers ever since their trip to Paris years ago…. he retired it this year and officially told mom “I think we’re okay on eiffel tower items this year mom”…..

The Eiffel towers torch has officially been handed to Alex and I now that Alex has visited! Oh boy- let the shrine begin! Opening presents is exhausting!

I swear our dogs can sleep through anything !

Close to the bottom of the stack I found a box that said “Jen and Alex” and didn’t say who it was from, so while i opened a present i tossed it to Lou to open…. he saw a third of the box and threw this at me…. A Pregnancy test,, thank you Tara… you are just too funny!!

A beautiful mess is what we like to call this on Christmas morning! what’s better than to leave it where it is and make another mess getting dinner ready in the kitchen!

We whipped up a ton of food and baked goodies- just what we need i know- but it was so nice for the first year ever to not rush to cook and eat and to instead just SIT and enjoy Christmas at one house and not be running the roads…. We hated that Alex’s mom chose to work that day but it’s nice to just “be where you are” for at least a couple days of being home!

Tara is obviously more of a help to mom cooking in the kitchen… I am just fine sticking with the baking!!

Monkey bread is a must at Christmas time!

Thanks for the fudge Rachel- I hate that i loved it so much!!!

Mom and I rate A success at the table by forgetting to even pull out half of the desserts after dinner because your already miserably full!

Billy and Angelas Tofurkey- i think it was a new flavor this year?!?!!

True love means picking each other’s teeth, of course!Sweet patient Tuck, I always say he think every day is Christmas morning so you can imagine really waking up and it being Christmas morning- sweet man! The traditional bellies are full, I can’t move spot at moms house!

The next day the relaxing was all over…. and for the rest of our vacay for that matter! But that’s okay, I quickly reminded myself of all the people missing loved ones over the holidays so if my biggest complaint is stressing to squeeze them all into a small break, I’m doing pretty good!

Merry Christmas 2012!

So the day after Christmas we were off and made our rounds getting a lot accomplished before leaving the Boro!

Lunch with Tara in savannah and got to see her work, Alex worked on his new “invention” with Michael, hooked Tara’s house up, hooked mom and dads car up with XM radio, we played Santa with Avery and Julian, spent time with Alex’s mom and sweet Savy and had a night out with good friends! I love savannah!

I LOOOVED going to see my girls- although it wasn’t quite the visit we had planned!! We ended up playing babysitter while amber was with Curt in the hospital for emergency (minor) surgery! All turned out well and Curt is doing just fine!! Best part- i got what i wanted…. playing a late santa claus’ and seeing my girls!

Julian is the MOST polite present opener, she literally looks at each card and presents, tells me how it works and wants to play with it before opening another…. I had to keep reminding her “Julian open these, look you have more!”

It was SO NICE to see everyone out in the Boro!!

Another VERY SPECIAL moment happened over the weekend…..I got asked to be a Bridesmaid in Stephanie and Joe’s wedding!!!!

SOOO happy for these two! Congrats!

We just had to set up a lunch date to begin the wedding planning before i went home!!

Kay was less than thrilled about all these plans… probably because like she said “I have already been married”!! Yes Renee has got her hands full- Kay called her “Narnie” to get a ride to Claires and off they went leaving us in the dust!!