December: Disney, Desserts, Anniversary, Christmas, New Years and so much more!

December 2014 was perhaps the busiest month of my life.  I've been meaning to write for weeks and just haven't had the time!  And that includes having 2 weeks off from school!  It was definitely a great month, but it is nice to get back into a bit of a normal routine now.

Allow me to start with Disney.  I last went to Disney March, 1994 as an 8 year old little girl.  I now got to go almost exactly 20 years later, as a 28 year old.  I went with Tom, my sister-in-law and brother-in-law, my two nephews (ages 7 and 4), and my father-in-law.  I have to say even as an adult, Disney is the most magical place on Earth.  We visited Magic Kingdom twice, which included a Mickey Christmas Party at night that meant extra Christmas shows, extended time in the park, hot chocolate, cookies and more!  We also went to Epcot and I loved visiting the countries.  The last park we went to was Hollywood Studios, which was called MGM when I was there last as a kid.  All the parks were so fun, the shows and rides were great, and most of all I loved being there with Tom, his family, and of course our nephews.  It really was the best vacation I have ever been on and I can't wait to go back!

At "It's a Small World": My all time favorite ride!  We have this exact photo from our 1994 trip!

The shows and parades were awesome!

Walt & I: Thanks for a magical time!

We also baked a lot of Christmas cookies in December.  My friend Katie, you can check out here blog here, sent me the a cookie recipe a day from food network!  It was so much fun.  I couldn't possibly make them all but I did make some.  We made Ree Drummond's Fudge (our favorite The Pioneer Woman), peanut butter blossom cookies, cream cheese spritz cookies, and those classic Pillsbury sugar cookies with the trees on them.  I also made my mom's anisette cookies.  I am so glad that Tom has taken on this tradition with me.  You can read my post from last Christmas to see why these cookies mean so much to me.Anisette Cookie blog post and recipe.  I love Christmas cookies and we are still eating them in mid January because we made so many!

We also had Christmas with the Desseys!  Stevi decided we should have a feast because...well, because why not?  We had so much fun playing with Leo and Juliet!  Leo's big into space this year so that was the theme of our gifts and since we were Disney obsessed this month, we went with Minnie stuff for Juliet!  I couldn't ask for better friends!

December is also our anniversary.  December 23rd to be exact!  I can't believe we have been married three years.  This year was especially special because we have lived in our house for almost a year.  We had a delicious dinner at East Wind, and then we went to a church in Cutchogue for a Candelight Christmas Carol show they have.  We are so fortunate because it is free and falls on our anniversary every year.  We went last year too and it really is a magical evening.  Tom bought me a beautiful charm bracelet (like Pandora, but he got me the one from Kohl's instead because he liked the charms better).  He gave me a Christmas glass bead charm, Cinderella's slipper (to remind us of our Disney trip), and a heart charm.  Over Christmas vacation, he also bought me a footprints charm in memory of my mom and a Hershey kiss when we went to the Amish country for our little Pennsylvania vacation.  I love this bracelet and that we will add to it together as we make more memories.
The East Wind Dinner



Candlelight Christmas


Annual picture holding our wedding photo


Christmas Eve and Christmas Day were both great!  Christmas Eve we celebrated at Tom's dad's house.  There were so many presents and I am always touched by how generous his family is to me. After our evening wrapped up there, Tom and I tried out midnight Mass!  Even though we were both tired, it was really magical.  Christmas morning Tom and I opened our gifts for each other.  He was so wonderful to me!  He gave me a beautiful heart necklace, new sneakers, clothes, a sewing machine, and more.  Tom knows me better than anyone so he is always an awesome shopper for me. I got Tom some things for his pickup truck and tractor, a Jeff Gordon wall graphic for the garage, and some other things he was hoping for.  We then went to Tom's uncle's house for appetizers and then we came back to our house to host Christmas dinner.  Both our dads came and my brother.  We made an Italian feast with antipasto, stuffed shells, meatballs, salad, and bread.   We also had a ton of Christmas cookies for dessert. We played Wii and Beagleopoly (a Beagle version of Monopoly).  Overall, I loved being the hosts with Tom.  We plan to host Christmas Day every year!  My mom always made Christmas so special for us when we were growing up so I hope she was with us when we hosted for our first time this year.

Indy on Christmas Eve

Before

After

We also took a mini trip to Pennsylvania between Christmas and New Years.  We just love our Bird in Hand Family Inn in Lancaster, PA.  It is so relaxing, we love the countryside, the homemade furniture, and the pretzels!  We even got to see a synchronized Christmas light tractor show!  We also went to the American Music Theater to see their annual Christmas show.  It was amazing!  We went to Hershey Park at night for Candy-cane Lane.  It was so cool because the whole park was decorated for Christmas and open at night.  We enjoyed walking around, saw a mini Christmas show, so Santa's reindeer stable, and even ice-skated.  The ice rink was made of plastic though and so slippery!  It was really funny because people were constantly falling!  We only did 2 laps around and gave up but it was really funny!  We bought a mantle from the Peaceful Valley Amish furniture place to put over our TV.   We went in the pool, played ping pong, shopped at the outlets, and overall just had fun together.

Peddler's Village

Tractor Light Show

Cracker Barrel

Bass Pro Shops

 

Tractor Supply

Santa's Reindeer at Hershey

 

The Kiss-mas Tree

 

Off to the theater

 

 

 We love Pennsylvania!

For New Year's Eve, we went to Tom's dad's house for his annual "Rocking Chair New Year's Eve!"  Get it?  Instead of Dick Clark's Rocking New Year's Eve.... because of all the seniors who come to his party and tend to get tired lol.... Anyway, it was a lot of of fun!  And New Year's was especially special because Tom's beagle Indy officially moved in with us.  We still don't have a fence, hopefully in the spring, but for now Tom just takes him out on a leash.  We hope to make him a temporary pen for now in the backyard.  Indy seems to love living with us!  He seems so much calmer and less anxious and has really been well behaved.  He has been following my "rules" of not going on the couches or bed and he likes his 2 dog beds we bought him.  And I am enjoying being a dog mom!  My biggest pet peeve is how much he sheds, but we have been trying to brush him and we even gave him his first bath today!  Plus we are vacuuming daily!  Overall, I am really enjoying having him.

I made these Pioneer Woman Holiday Rollups for Christmas & New Years!

Indy's First Bath

Stepping into the New Year!

So December was hectic but wonderful!  Looking forward to a wonderful 2015 with my Tom.
Every day is a good day as long as we are together!  Happy New Year everyone!