25 Days of Christmas Bucket List & Thanksgiving Holiday Festivities

Now that Thanksgiving has passed the Holidays are sadly half-way over but I accomplished the majority of my house decorating checklist over the weekend so I can enjoy the rest of the holiday season (mostly) stress free. This included the creation of my 25 Days of Christmas Bucket List. This is the first year I've generated this list and as a checklist enthusiast I'm so happy I feel organized about all the things I didn't want to forget to do this month!

25 DAYS OF CHRISTMAS BUCKET LIST
25. Buy a Christmas tree from our annual tree farm and hang decorations the first weekend of December

24. Cut fresh trimmings from the tree and place in vases, trim a slice from the trunk to make a yearly ornament and do this trick.

23. Send Christmas cards the first week of December & find a new way to display the ones we receive like this

22. Hang and keep up with the advent calendar

21. Actually do holiday crafts I’ve pinned like these tags, previous year holiday card saver (yes I keep them for some reason…), snow globes and these holiday lanterns.

20. Make a Christmas wreath for the front door and add these glittered bulbs

19. Buy a gift for an “Angel Tree”

18. Have a date night, drink mock/cocktails & watch Love Actually

17. Per usual, I will open my Granny’s homemade dessert package before Christmas day to indulge

16. Relax and sit so little mini can listen to Christmas music on the record player

15. RSVP “YES” to as many holiday party invites we receive before we have to worry about babysitters!

14. Play the Christmas Vacation drinking game (milk shots for me)

13. Make Christmas treats for the local Firefighters

12. See a classic holiday movie at the historic Tampa Theatre

11. Make treats for neighbors, co-workers & friends.

10. As an annual tradition, go see The Nutcracker ballet with my mom

9. Have a white elephant gift exchange and holiday potluck with friends

8. Watch The Christmas Story and leave the TV 24 hr run in the background during our marathon of opening presents

7. Find a 2013 Christmas ornament and a ‘coming soon’ ornament for little mini

6. Host a get together after the holidays with friends and family that are in town and roast s’mores by the fire

5. Go annual Christmas shopping with my mom to enjoy the hustle & bustle!

4. Start at least one tradition with Nate like these.

3. Host Christmas Eve dinner with the family that’s in town

2. Go on our annual Christmas Eve walk around the neighborhood with the dogs to look at lights

1. Have a relaxing, slow moving and memorable Christmas holiday with my family

Thanksgiving was quiet and relaxing for Nate and I this year, we went to my parents house with the dogs and hung out with my mom all day. My dad came back from Kuwait (presenting a paper) around 6 so we waited to eat at the regular dinner time, then he went to bed and it was the 3 (4) of us again :) Our day was filled with watching the parade, playing with the dogs outside and playing our usual game of scrabble. 

Carli was busy chasing/catching lizards

Templeton went for a swim & Carli feels like she needs to save him...

We didn't go Black Friday shopping but we did do Small Business Saturday. Our neighborhood, Seminole Heights, had a shop small 'bingo' shopping event and you had to visit at least six shops to submit your bingo card to be entered into the raffle. We haven't received a phone call so I assume neither of us won...

Our Saturday local shopping included Cleanse, Health Mutt, Buddy Brew, Microgroove, Velo Champ and Yesterdaze. I'll share some of our goodies on my 22 Weeks post! 

Thankful for Pregnant Girlfriends

Thanksgiving is for being thankful. This year I'm thankful for having a bestie that's also pregnant so we can share what the hell is going on with our bodies :)

My friend Megan is two weeks and 2 days behind me, I'm at 21 weeks and she's at 19 and this was in no way planned. As in, neither of us planned on being pregnant right now, at all. My brief 'how we found out' story is here (it may help make sense for the rest of the story) and Megan is the one who told me to take that first pregnancy test. We pretty much talk everyday during the week on Google Talk at work (when we're obviously not busy...) so we're aware of the most up-to-date facts on our lives and clearly, questionable periods.

Once I told Megan my first test came back positive (and I still wasn't 100% convinced because i had a very light period and thought it might be a false positive) she was very excited and quizative on the details and how I was feeling. She and Nate were the only people that knew and I'm happy she was there because I'm a google-er and read every situation that could possibly happen so when Nate would take Google away from me I would freak out to her about what I read. Part of my freaking out and just being a worrywart was because we had a miscarriage two years ago (weirdly, we got pregnant both times in July) so Megan helped smooth out my worries and google my questions since she was concerned and wanted everything to turn out okay this time around.

The next week Nate and I were on our trip and Megan was still checking in with me and asking very concerning questions on how I was feeling and what weird things my body was doing. Half way through our trip I received a text from Megan's boyfriend asking what my plans were on a certain Saturday because he had a surprise planned. Nate and I were relaxing in a coffee shop reading on our smart devices (yay... decaf on vaca) and I looked at Nate and said, OMG TRAVIS IS PROPOSING!

Fast forward another week after our trip Nate and I are lying on the couch watching a movie and I get a text from Megan that said, "Well it looks like you won't be going through this alone!" with a photo of a positive pregnancy test. I looked at Nate.... and said, HOLY SHIT. Nate and I just stared at each other, giggled and we couldn't think of anything else to say because she had no idea what other surprise lied ahead.

Remember all those detailed questions she asked about how I was feeling and what my body was doing? This all makes sense now :) Megan kept telling herself during these weeks that there's no way she's pregnant because I was but her body was definitely telling her, yes way! There's so much to this story and the next couple weeks leading up to her engagement but this post would be a novel after I tell you how many times I had to tell Megan not to tell her parents, friends and the world (at 6 weeks pregnant) since I and very few others knew she was getting engaged. Sorry, Mary :)

BABY BUMPS IN COMPARATIVE WEEKS