Christmas and New Years

I know I'm back-tracking a little but these are memories I don't want to forget!  I posted about The Bell Family christmas and my grandparents christmas visit but I haven't posted about our first christmas or christmas in Charlotte!

I didn't have to work Christmas Eve until 11:00pm so I cooked a small Christmas meal of baked chicken, sweet potatoes, and green bean casserole.  We ate at the dining room table and had a nice family dinner--Jovie was on the table and Marley was in my lap. :)  After dinner, I called my family at my grandparents to say hello.  I barely got the word out before I started crying! ;)  I think some of my family members shed some tears, too, but it was definitely nice to get to talk to everyone!

  When I got home Christmas morning, David made breakfast (cinnamon rolls and bacon!) and we opened presents!

This little boy met me at the door :)

Of course we had this on our tv ;)  I leave it on all day on Christmas!

David had a helper in the kitchen... ;)

I know I'm going to love having children one day because I love seeing how excited Marley gets to "open" his stocking!! Ha, call me crazy :)

Jovie wouldn't stick her nose in her stocking, and at first she wasn't too sure about all her new stuff....

But she soon figured out all her new toys were very fun!

I missed being in Charlotte with my family for Christmas, but it was so much fun having our very first married christmas together!  I enjoyed watching him open his gifts and I hope he enjoyed watching me open mine.  It was a special morning for both of us.

  

I worked the next few nights and after I got off work Wednesday morning, I grabbed a Starbucks at work, came home to pack, and then we headed straight to Charlotte!  We still had a few more gifts from my mom, aunt and uncle, and cousins to open.  I was so tired when we got there that I had to take a short nap, so I'm looking pretty rough in these pictures!  Having a fire place is a staple to me during the winter (even though it hasn't been very cold this winter...) and we don't have a working one in Greenville yet, so I plopped myself down in front of the one in Charlotte and that's pretty much where I stayed the whole time!

We've already watched this once!  (On a side note: Scott got Forgetting Sarah Marshall which we had never seen...we watched it over New Year's and we loved it!! Have y'all ever seen it??)

New scrub tops!! :)

SO. EXCITED. for my new pottery barn blanket!! I don't even share with David, ha!

My handy man :)

My favorite book of all time is Pride and Prejudice...I love the Keira Knightly version of the movie but have never seen the BBC version and I got it for christmas!!  I can't wait to watch it!!

We had a short visit in Charlotte, but it was fun.  David, my mom, and I headed to the mall and David and I finished getting everything off our wedding registry!  We had a few gift cards and we really lucked out- we ended up with $1.73 left. :)

We headed back home for New Years.  We love having people over so we hosted some friends for a New Year's Eve bash.  My cousin Scott has become a regular at New Year's so he came, too.  It is so much fun having him visit :)  Jess, Jake, Scott, David and I went out to dinner for sushi in downtown Greenville and then came back to our house for a get-together.  Just for my own record, this is who was at the party: Jayma and Casey, Brian and Marybeth, Scott, Cyndi and Erik, Phil and Emily, Jess and Jake, Andrew and Katye, and of course us!  I can't believe I hosted the New Year's party and didn't take any pictures!  The only pictures I have from the night are these:

 

Sparkly nails and a sparkly purse to ring in the New Year!

 

Out to dinner with my best friend! 

  

The holidays were so wonderful to us this year- this whole year was wonderful to us!  I'm sad that the holidays are over and family have all gone home, but I'm excited for things to calm down a bit.  David and I have one more present coming our way this Saturday- our new bedroom suite is being delivered!  I am extremely excited about it and can't wait to decorate our bedroom accordingly, ha!  I hope everyone has had a wonderful week- mine is just getting started ;)

PS- Emily K.: I'd love some info on some churches!!  My e-mail is eer.bell@gmail.com 

Thank you! :)

Year in Reveiw: 2011

I did this on my old blog the last few years and I really enjoyed doing it, so I decided to do it again this year!  This has been a huge, wonderful year for me so I thought reminiscing would be a great way to "go out" on 2011!  You are supposed to pick one picture from each month of the year, but it's my blog and I've picked more pictures :).  Here goes!

January

We spent a lot of time inside...it was a cold and snowy winter!

February

I found my wedding dress! 

And we spent time with good friends :)

March

We had our engagement pictures taken towards the end of March!

April

We found a nest of baby bunnies in our yard.  It was fun to watch them grow!

May

I graduated from nursing school with some wonderful friends!

Scott graduated with a Masters degree from Duke!

And I ended up in the hospital the night before my big nursing test with Salmonella poisoning :(

June

I passed my nursing test-  I am now an official licensed nurse!

We got our wedding invitations in the mail!! :)

July

I officially moved to Greenville...

We had fun playing at the pool :)

I had my first wedding shower! :)

And started my first nursing job in the NICU :)

August

I helped a wonderful friend celebrate at her bachelorette party!

And celebrated at my own!

I also had another wonderful shower hosted by some of my favorite family members :)

September

We had an amazing time with friends at our rehearsal dinner...

I enjoyed celebrating the wonderful women who graciously participated in my wedding at my bridesmaid luncheon :)

And I got to marry my best friend :)

October

We spent the first week of October in Hawaii on our honeymoon! :)

And Jess, Jake, David, and I went to the pumpkin patch!

November

We helped Scott celebrate his 24th birthday...

And hosted our very first Thanksgiving meal!

December

We traveled up the mountain and got our first Christmas tree!

David and I celebrated our first Christmas as a married couple.  We cooked breakfast (and Marley helped ;) )

It was a wonderful year full of exciting things and amazing people.  I hope 2011 was as good to you as it was to me, and I hope 2012 brings more wonderful things as well! :)

Merry Christmas!

The Bell's hope you all have a wonderful Christmas filled with lots of love and time spent with family!  We can't wait to spend our first Christmas together as a married couple!  Merry Christmas! :)

I Got the Big Bag!

This has been a hard holiday season for me.  I've loved decorating and I'm definitely in the Christmas spirit, but there have been so many changes.  One of the big changes is my job.  I've mentioned before on here that I had to work Thanksgiving and I'm working all of Christmas.  I've never been away from my family for Christmas so getting used to that has been difficult.  But, everyone has made this such a wonderful holiday season for me!

Friday night, Jess and Jake came over to watch a movie with me and David.  Jess and I had been shopping earlier in the day and bought matching pajamas (don't judge!) and we had so much fun!

We made sugar cookies and watched Babes in Toyland.  (A very strange movie...)

Marley has really enjoyed the Christmas tree...

 and Jovie has enjoyed...well...the bags.

David's family came up Saturday to have an early "Bell" christmas since we won't be able to go down there.  We opened presents on Sunday and just had a nice time hanging out!

David's dad got some gift cards to Lowe's and the Steve Jobs book!

David got a travel cigar kit, some gift cards to PF Changs, Visa card, and Lowe's, and this:

Do you think they are trying to tell us something?! ;)  Not for a while!! :)

Susan got a necklace, a pair of hoop earrings, a beautiful ring from her dad, a coach wallet, a fossil over-the-shoulder purse, and a couple of gift cards (I can't remember where to!)

Chase got a Lowe's gift card and a couple of bath towels!

David's mom got a necklace with matching earrings, a giftcard, and some home-made coasters with pictures from our wedding in September!

I got a new dish to go with my christmas spode collection, this cute monogrammed hand towel, a christmas scrapbook to fill a page each christmas, a pair of beautiful earrings from David's dad, and some gift cards to Target, Starbucks (yes!), and a visa card!  

Monday, my grandparents traveled down for a Christmas visit!  They have been to Greenville a few times, but haven't gotten to explore why everyone loves it so much.

They got in around 2:00pm and we showed them around our decorated house and then opened presents!

My grandmom got some cloth napkins from pottery barn.

My granddad got the biography of Steve Jobs--not lying, I want to read it, too!

David got a nice travel converter kit for when he travels to Germany, a nice pair of pajama pants, and a lowes giftcard!

And this year, I got the big bag!! Every year, whoever gets the "big gift" gets the big gift bag and never once have I gotten the big bag!  Until this year.  I was so excited :)  My grandparents got us some much needed tv trays!

I also received a very nice coach over-the-shoulder purse which I love, a new pair of flat boots from Nordstrom, and a pair of fleece pajamas!

My grandparents also started a new tradition for us: they gave us an ornament of a partridge in a pair tree- I'm sure you can see where that's going :)

After presents, we took my grandparents to downtown Greenville to walk around and show them the Falls.

 We had so much fun walking through the Mast General store and walking through some of the cute shops.  We ended the evening with a nice dinner at Trio's- a really cute italian place!

Our families and friends have really helped make this a memorable Christmas for us and we are so thankful.  I am looking forward to coming home from work on Christmas morning and having Christmas with just my husband, my dog, and my cat. :)  We are making new christmas traditions and we couldn't be more excited about that.  I hope that everyone else is having a wonderful holiday season, too!