Pre-Christmas Festivities

December has been such a busy month getting ready for Christmas, shopping, end of year hustle at work, fun celebrations and seeing our family all around Texas.  As soon as I stopped a few days ago, my body shut down on me!  I was describing to Jason yesterday that I felt majorly hungover...but I hadn't had ANY alcohol the day before.  I will call it my Christmas hangover. 

We had a WONDERFUL Christmas and still have one more set of family to celebrate with...how lucky are we?  Lots of posts coming to document all of our celebrations, but first I want to list all of the pre-Christmas festivities I had so I can remember this whirlwind month. 

Dec. 3 & 10 - Shopping day with Jason
So fun to spend the day with Jason, shopping for our family and getting in the Christmas spirit!  We even carved out some time to look at houses in the area. 

Dec. 4 - Cookie & Ornament Exchange with the Junior League girls
Adrienne was the hostess of the year!  She organized this wonderful idea to get all of the "waitresses" together to share our favorite recipes.  We had the best ornament exchange too.  Love the ornament I won (from Erin) that is a picture of us gals in Fredericksburg from our summer trip.  I brought Hello Dollies, a family favorite and so easy.  Recipe post coming soon.

Dec. 7 - Pi Beta Phi Alumni Ornament Exchange
Lauren hosted the annual Pi Phi ornament exchange in her beautiful home.  Best part was Darcy, our junior group President, bringing her "special" ornament from last year's exchange!  Why didn't I take pictures?

Dec. 15 - Christmas Lunch with Ashley
Ash and I accidentally made a new tradition of eating at Pei Wei every Christmas for our gift exchange...gotta love their kids honey seared chicken!  So great to see her and catch up.  She always gives the most thoughtful gifts...bows to be re-used included!

Dec. 16 - Shopping Day with Mom
Another favorite Christmas Tradition: Lunch and shopping with my mommy!  Such a fun day including lunch at Cheesecake Factory and a late afternoon treat at Tea Cake Factory (what was our deal with factories that day?).  We even managed to get in come Christmas shopping.

Dec. 21 - Christmas Lunch at work/Dinner with Grandma and fam.
Full day!  Lunch at our corporate office from Luby's!  That night Jason and I hosted dinner at our place since my Grandma was in town from Arkansas.  All of the "Townsend" family was there including Carter's dog, Zeke!

Dec. 23 - Tacky Sweater/Enchilada Night at Dad's
This will get it's own post later this week!

Dec. 24 - Church and Chinese Food with Mom and LE
Full post coming on this one too...

One Year Baby...Let's Eat Some Frozen Cake

We followed the tradition of freezing the top tier of our wedding cake to eat on our 1 year wedding anniversary.  There it sat in our freezer taking up lots of much needed space...oh, how I cursed it sometimes.  I was very apprehensive about how it would taste - I've heard it's not really that great after a year, but a fun thing to do. 

We had to leave really early the day of our actual anniversary, May 23, to catch a plane to Costa Rica.  Rough life, I know.  I figured we would eat it on May 22 so we would have time to enjoy it, but Jason was very set on eating it on the actual day. Not wanting to eat wedding cake at 5am, we stayed up until midnight before cutting the cake...this was huge for Jason who is usually fast asleep by 10pm. 

We ate it and looked through wedding pics...it was so fun and the cake was AWESOME!  Just to refresh you - we had white cake with pineapple filling and buttercream frosting.

Something Blue

I will have two items with me that are "Something Blue."

First are the "I Do" crystals for my shoes!

I also have a toss garter that has a blue ribbon it on. What were your something blues?

Something Borrowed

Really, my grandmother's pearls and Jason's grandmother's garter are borrowed too, but I want to have one item labeled as my "Something Borrowed." I will be borrowing my mom's rosary. We are Catholic and use the rosary not as a symbol, but as a tool for prayer. It is very special to us because my mom's rosary has really helped her and I through some tough times.

We will be wrapping the rosary around my bouquet so it will be there with me while I walk down the aisle and marry Jason!

Thanks mom for letting me borrow your special rosary!

Something New

Even though I will be wearing lots of new things on the big day (dress, shoes), my official "Something New" will be a pair of pearl studs that my mom gave me for the wedding! They are so delicate and classic. Each pearl has one tiny diamond that is connected to it. They are perfect for my wedding look. What I think is so neat about the earrings my mom just found is that they look like they were made for the pearls from my grandmother.

What was your something new?

Something Old

I really don't know the history behind the Something Old, Something New, Something Borrowed, Something Blue. Maybe in my spare time I will research it! Wherever it came from, I love it! I will be sharing over the next few days my "somethings" and I really want to hear what you did at your own wedding.


For my Something Old, I have 2 things that are truly amazing and special to me. As an added touch, I have a "something old" from my family's side and from Jason's side.

I will be wearing my grandmother's gorgeous pearl necklace. It was given to my Grammy by my grandfather, Vic in 1951 at Christmas time. This was during the Korean War where my grandfather was stationed. My grandmother looked forward to the mail everyday because she knew there would be a letter for her from her love. One day the letter was different. Grammy described it as a package decorated with an array of colorful Japanese stamps. Her heart raced as she opened it and found the pearls-which she calls the most beautiful string of pearls she had ever seen. Grammy, I have to agree. The pearls are so gorgeous and look like they were made specifically for my wedding dress. I can't wait to show you! My grandparents have been married for 57 years! The pearls definitely symbolize a successful marriage to me.

I will also be wearing a garter from Jason's grandmother. It was worn by Jason's "JoJo," and has been passed down to everyone in the family who has been married. The garter represents about 137 years of marriage. For every bride that has worn it, a ribbon has been tied to it. It is so gorgeous and meaningful.

These pieces will be worn with great love and pride on our wedding day. Jason and I are so lucky and grateful to have such a loving and supportive family.

What have others used for your something old?

On a side note, my camera decided to break just days before our wedding and honeymoon...ahhh! I will have to post pics of these gorgeous pieces later. I promise! Because I hate blog posts without a picture, here is a sweet one...you know I am a sucker for dogs at weddings!