Our SECOND Christmas

I think it's so funny that people make a big deal out of your first Christmas together as a married couple. Especially people who aren't the couple. Almost everyone I talked to leading up to Christmas asked me if I was excited for our "1st Christmas." Honestly, I felt like this was our "2nd Christmas" .... because it is! Last Christmas, David and I pretty much knew we were going to get married (he proposed 6 days later) so we spent the holiday like we were a committed couple. We visited each other's family and spoiled each other with far too many gifts. LOL! THAT was our 1st Christmas. So, in today's post, I'll tell you about our 2nd Christmas together :)

Christmas Eve we got together with David's immediate family. This is a feat in itself because of past tensions involving some members of the family (I won't get into it). So it was nice to have his close family together -- especially the kids. I haven't had much interaction with David's nephews and niece so this was my first "real" experience. They were cute and a lot more rambunctious then at the wedding. They were perfect angels at our wedding. LOL! Morgan, the 2nd oldest, found a little keyboard and was picking out Christmas tunes. At one point I started playing with him and teaching him the notes to "Jingle Bells." We opened some presents. Overall it was a fun visit.

The Jean Family on Christmas Eve
(back) David, Me, Annessa, Jason, Pam and Mack
(front) Wesley, Anna Ruth, Grady and Morgan

Christmas morning David and I spent time just the two of us. My favorite gifts where a folding basket that I can use to hold some of my crafting stuff and a new bigger jewelry box. Can you believe my old jewelry box was a present from my boyfriend in High School? That tells you how long I hold on to stuff. David's favorite present was a set of remote helicopters that battle each other.

Christmas afternoon we went back to David's parent's house to have some more Christmas fun. Then we took off for Cookeville to see my side of the family. That night we didn't do much besides hang out with my parents, watch TV, and play with my niece and nephews. This is only our second time playing with my new nephew Carter. He was 2 weeks old at the wedding. Now he's 2 months.

 

 

Day after Christmas was finally my family's "Christmas Day." We had to wait until the afternoon to open presents as my sister had to work that day. My favorite gifts from my family were some books that I've been wanting to read "Crossed" & "Reached" by Ally Condie and "The Casual Vacancy" by J.K. Rowling. David got some cool grill accessories.

The Smith Family for Christmas
(back) David, Me, Tim, Dana, Katie, John
(middle) Cole, Mark, Cathy, Carter
(front) Claire and Brogan

After my immediate family opened presents we had some of my extended family (grandparents and aunt and uncle). We always have just a simple dinner and then do a fun game of dirty Santa.

It was a great 2nd Christmas for the "new" Jean family. She got to spend quality time with a lot of family and really cherish the important things that matter during the holiday season.

5 Things I've Learned - #5

We are 5 days away from Christmas! Can you believe it!! Anyways, I can never think of things to post here so I thought I would start talking about the 5 things I've learned since being married. No, I am not saying I am a marriage know-it-all .... in fact if these posts show anything it's that I had no idea what I was getting myself into. LOL!

#5
No matter what, every single toilet in the house will get dirty 5x times faster then when I lived by myself.

I didn't have any brothers growing up -- but I did have a dad and if there's one thing I knew about guys before getting married was that when they use the bathroom they will disappear for a good 10-15 minutes. I remember many a trips to the movie theater or mall with my dad and having to wait outside for what seemed like forever for him to get finished. Well ... it hasn't stopped. Now I'm stuck waiting for my husband. I guess it's punishment for all the time us women make men wait when we are shopping at a store.

Anyways, back to the cleaning. I'm probably a terrible house-wife but I've never stuck to a schedule that required me to clean once a week or even once every other week. I'm the type of person that if it looks dirty THEN I will clean it. Whether that's every other day or once a month. So when I lived by myself it was more like once a month when it came to cleaning the toilet. Now that I'm married it's at least once a week. AT LEAST!

I'm still very lucky that my husband is a clean person -- probably cleaner then me. He puts away his dishes, his clothes, and other stuff. So don't misunderstand me. I'm not complaining about my husband. It's just one of the things I've noticed.

For my married readers? What's something you find yourself having to clean up after your husband?

Wedding Day Recap

The last time I posted on this blog was just a week before the wedding ... now we are a month and a half into our marriage. Believe me I've sat down many times to write an update but it seemed like everything was either too mundane or too long to write everything out. BUT, It wouldn't make sense to have a marriage blog if I didn't at least post something about the wedding day.

I woke up that morning having tried very hard to get a lot of sleep. I feel asleep easily the night before because I was SUPER TIRED! But about halfway through the night I woke up and had this intense feeling of "oh my GOD, I'm getting married today!" I ended up talking myself out of freaking out and falling back to sleep. Definitely a God thing.

My hair stylist was getting to the house super early. So my first bridesmaids started arriving around 8am to get their hair done first. Kayla is the name of my stylist. She was super friendly and very fast. Honestly, she wasn't my first choice just because I wasn't comfortable having someone I didn't know do my hair for such an important day. But after doing 2 trial runs with her I was comfortable and she ended up doing a great job on both hair and makeup.

Not a great picture of me
but it shows Kayla



Curling my hair for an updo

Pictures taken by Becca Sanborn

Trina, Becca and I ran to Subway and got a quick bite but then headed straight to the church to get ready. At this point I was feeling really good. I wasn't nervous but more excited to finally get the day started. My photographers arrived and they started snapping as we got ready. Some of my favorite pictures are from this part of the day.

Putting on my mother's veil

Mom helping me put on my "something borrowed"
Earrings from friend Caitlin Hepburn

Double-teamed to lace up the back

After getting ready, we did some pictures of just me and then what felt like an endless number of pictures of my family. Looking back I have mixed feelings about me trying to do so many family pictures at this point. I should have done more with my bridesmaids. My thinking was that we would get to do a lot of wedding party pictures after the wedding at Travellers Rest Plantation. But because it was so cold (Thanks Hurricane Sandy) my bridesmaids didn't last long outside in the weather.

We waited what felt like forever for all the guest to get inside. In the meantime, me and the bridesmaids were tucked away in a small lobby.

My sister and I waiting.

We finally heard all the voice from the main lobby die down and I knew it was MY time. All of the bridesmaids went ahead to get ready to walk leaving me and my dad some time to sit back. We didn't really talk about much. At least not much that I remember. I do remember him saying that he was happy that David and I had found each other and that he was proud.

Really like this picture of dad and me. It was moments before walking down the aisle.

There seemed to be a small glitch with our musicians. The bridesmaids had walked down the aisle and were standing for close to a minute -- but the musicians kept playing their song and hadn't switched to mine yet. So dad and I stood there for a while just waiting. I could see David through the glass and he looked quite nervous. As I knew he would!! Later everyone told me he was SUPER nervous. Finally our wedding coordinator flagged down the musicians and it was our turn to walk down the aisle.

I tried really hard to remember what it was like to walk down the aisle. I wanted to be able to replay that video over and over in my head. I remember seeing specific faces like my friends Andrew and Forrest and some people from work. Then I tried to focus as much as I could on David. I only broke away for a moment when I saw my Grandfather who was crying. It made me almost cry, because I don't have the greatest relationship with my Grandfather ... still at that moment I knew he really did love me.

The ceremony was perfect. It was done by David's childhood friend Paul Bonner and my brother-in-law who I've knew since I was 6, John Capshaw. They each had a different approach and it came together for the perfect package. I did start crying at one point. It was when Paul was telling everyone "our story" and how we met. I started talking about the video I made that I later posted on Facebook that reconnected David and I. I started thinking about how the girls that sparked that video were all sitting in the crowd and how the small things in our life (that we may not want to do) can turn into such great and wonderful things. Of course I didn't have tissues when I started crying, but I was able to rein in back in and do fine the rest of the ceremony. David told me later that he cried when my dad was giving me away -- but I didn't see it until the pictures came back later.

Exchanging Rings

Mr & Mrs. Jean

Final Kiss for my Dad

David and I didn't see each other before the wedding so after the ceremony we did more family pictures and then got into "our car" and headed to the Travellers Rest. The car was one of the things I didn't really care about, but it seemed really important to David's parents so we let them treat us. It ended up being a really nice, classy touch for the wedding. We took David and I's pictures together at Travellers Rest and did as much wedding party as we could -- but again it was really cold. I think my dad said it got down to 49 degrees in the wind.

My cold wedding party ....

The rest of the day was sort of a blur. I remember lost of fun moments at the reception like getting to see my Channel 5 friends and friends from college, youtube and Disney. It was a great mixture of people. We also did something called the "Shoe Game" which I had found on pinterest and asked my bridesmaids Trina and Becca to host. It ended up being one of the highlights of the night and for the people that stuck around I think they got a good laugh. We ended the night early, which I knew we would do all along. All and all, I was happy! Of course there are small things that every bride would change looking back -- but that's another post for another day.

Sheri came all the way from Utah. We were friend while working for Disney and hadn't seen each other in 7 years.

Rachel came from Texas. Also a Disney friend.

My MTSU TV gang. 7 years of friendship and still going strong.

Proof that Channel 5 people were there. My photographers sadly didn't get a lot of pictures of them.