New Years Dateiversary

New Years Weekend 2012 was exactly what I had hoped for...ANYTHING other than 2011.

Don't get me wrong: I love where we are and how we got here, but holy cannoli did we get tried this year.  Besides a trip to Italy and our Wedding Day, this year has been nothing but challenges for Scott and me.  Instead of going through what was horrible about it, I'll save you all the negativity and just say we are truly looking forward to a New Year, a new start and a new life in 2012.

Scott and I started dating 4 years ago and our "date"iversary is officially New Years Day.  Every year we like to celebrate it by going out with friends NYE and hanging low at home on NYD. 

Saturday, New Years Eve:

Our weekend started with a 4-mile run around our neighborhood.  In case you missed it, I posted Week 1 of my half-marathon training and you can catch up on how it's going every Saturday until the race.

When we got upstairs we ate a quick lunch and started getting ready for the night's festivities.  Scott and I were excited to open one of the bottles of champagne he brought back from his recent trip to Paris.  Ohhh la la!

This picture taken from my Instagram gallery.

While Scott did some stuff around the house, I got my beauty primping on.

Like I said, we have been looking forward to 2012 for quite some time now.  I took advantage of getting ready for it in every way including a new sequin dress from Express, new Steve Madden nude pumps, a new necklace from Aldo Accessories and of course, two of my go-to Fashion Favorites: Sally Hansen Nail Strips in Glitz Blitz + Pink (or Coral) Lips.

Pictured above is MAC Sheen Supreme Lipstick in Full Speed.

A group of us got together for something different this year.  Instead of just going downtown like every NYE, we went to the James Bond 007 Party at the Enzian Theater.  

If you live in Orlando, I would recommend checking Enzian out for dinner and a movie.  It's the only place I know of that you actually get dinner served while you're watching a movie inside a theater.  

The theater inside and outside bar make it a great venue for low key date night, or a fun night out for a Holiday.

3...2...1...

*HAPPY NEW YEAR!*

Sunday, New Years Day:

We spent our Dateiversary doing exactly what I envision as the perfect day.  We slept in without an alarm, stayed in our pajamas until 4pm, and had cinnamon rolls for lunch:

We like to "go big or go home" at the Hesington household, and to be honest with you I feel perfectly okay about eating two rolls, with the 4 training days ahead of us this week.

"Lunch" was followed by lots of lounging, watching the Season Finale of The X-Factor, and comfy slippers.

Eventually we got dressed to celebrate our Dateiversary by going to a great restaurant by the house called Agave Azul.  It's some of the best Mexican we've ever had, and has a great atmosphere.  

It also doesn't hurt that they're serving dishes are adorable...

The guacamole appetizer was sooooo yummy!

When we got back to the house we continued our annual Dateiversary tradition of giving sale ornaments as presents.  Scott forgot to get an ornament this year, but I think he got distracted by all of the ridiculous Stocking Stuffers he got me.

Good thing I got a set of four ornaments for him instead!

I found these guys at Kirklands for under $3 each!
I hope your New Year is starting off just as wonderful as ours has.

Questions:

What do you normally like to do for New Years Eve?

Do any of you who are married celebrate your Dativersary?

Naughty or Nice Stockings

Although our first Married Christmas is over, there is still so much I want need to share.  If I didn't elaborate on the presents that appeared in my stocking this year, it would be a shame...because they were out of control.

I'm not really sure if I was on the Naughty or Nice list this year because Santa (or Scott) left me pretty confused.  I'm beginning to think that Santa had nothing to do with this because everything I found had a Japanese label on it.

 Hmmm.  I do remember Scott saying something about a 100 Yen store.

Yup...it's all coming clear now.  I also remember saying something about all the stuff he didn't need to bring home from Japan:

Eh, you win some and you loose some...and I'm not quite sure which category my Stocking Stuffers fit under.  I need your help deciding, so let's start at the beginning...

We decided our new iMac and our new running shoes were our Christmas presents to each other, and I was kind of counting on Santa Claus to help me out with the stocking part...no such luck.

So, I did what anyone would do in this situation and started digging in.  The first thing that made me question Santa's work were these Spicy Choco Sticks.

Since when did spicy + chocolate = yummy?

Next up...exactly what I was hoping for...a Nose Ball Roller.

I mean, you never know when you might need to roll your nose.

We had a good 2-minute laugh at the next one...

Mind you, these are a size Large.  Who fits in those? And WHY are they made of my fuzzy sock material?  Oh, wait...I've been looking for these...Finger Puppets!

I love how there's two happy puppets and two angry ones.  What the heck? I promise you it gets even better...

Who's up for a nice round of the Panty Hose Game?

Or, can I interest you in borrowing my Instant Balloons?

The list of crap stuff goes on and on...but I'll leave you with the best highlight of all: Dried Fish.

Go ahead, dig in to those bad boys...I dare you.  I guess my Nose Ball Roller came in handy, after all.

Oh...my husband.   He found such joy in this that he decided to re-gift some of my presents for my niece and nephew.  Notice how the wrapping is just as awesome as what's inside.

What happened next is best explained in this video:

Whether you were good or bad this year...I hope your Merry Christmas Stockings turned out to be more Nice than Naughty.

Question:
Did anything outrageous end up in your stocking?

Married Christmas

2011 was the first Married Christmas for us, and it was a good one.

Friday Night

We started celebrating with a few friends of ours from the west coast who came home for the Holidays.  Jenny and Cara both live in L.A., are absolute sweethearts and we always make sure to get together when they come home.

We're a special group.

Sleepy? Nope...not Jenny (texting).

Christmas Eve

We kicked Christmas Eve off with our annual 5,000 Candles Candlelight Service.  The entire congregation lights up as we sing Silent Night and it's a beautiful way to praise Jesus Christ.

 
After the service we headed over to our family friends for our annual Christmas Vacation Christmas Eve tradition.  Ever since I can remember, my family has gotten together with the Blackmons and we bring in Christmas the best way we know how...by watching the movie Christmas Vacation
EVERY. SINGLE. YEAR.

Stahl and Blackmon Parents, festive as I'll get out:

Stahl Family:

We had a not so nice game of White Elephant Gift Exchange, and enjoyed the night by indulging in chocolate.

YUM: Chocolate cupcakes with chocolate frosting, served with a side of Scott's banana/pumpkin bread...

...which ultimately lead to parking in front of the television and watching (not to mention quoting every line possible of) Christmas Vacation.

Scott still doesn't understand how we can watch the same movie every single year.  The best part about it is that for majority of the movie we're walking around the house not even paying attention and out of nowhere someone will hear a part coming up and re-enact the entire scene wherever we are.  True story.

Christmas Day

I woke Scott up on Christmas Morning with these banana pancakes.  Go ahead, say it out loud..."he's  a lucky man."

After opening some presents from Scott's family that was under the tree we spent our first Married Christmas exactly where we got married: our church, First Orlando.  I was excited to get to go to a Sunday Service with him (since I usually work), and Christmas Day was a perfect way to kick off my new availability to attend services on Sundays.

After service, we came home to change and Scott surprised me with some pretty outrageous stocking stuffers.  I know Santa wasn't responsible for this one because everything in them was something funny from Japan.

Yeah, my husband is quite the funny man...or at least he thinks so.

After laughing until we cried at some of the stuff in my stocking (more details and pictures coming soon) we packed up our gifts and headed over to my sister's house.

Once we got there, I realized I forgot my camera and decided to spend more of my time with family over taking pictures anyways.  I loved seeing my niece and nephew and all of their new presents.

I guess you can say they've accepted Scott into our family...

Christmas dinner at my sister's has traditionally been lasagna.  She makes a mean meaty lasagna and cooks a second veggie lasagna, just for my mom.  One of these days I'm going to have to share a picture of it...because it's seriously some of the best lasagna I've ever had.

In lieu of showing you pictures from Christmas Day I didn't take, I'll finish off with a few gift highlights from Scott's family:

Scott's mom had this ornament made for us, and got the idea off of Pinterest.

I LOVE this.  It says HBSH on the front, has a dangling cross just like the ones from our Handfasting Cord, and the inside is filled with shreds of our wedding invitation.

Isn't that cool?!

Scott's dad also gave us something pretty special.  Kirk and Kay live in Powell, Missouri on what you could consider a farm land.  They grow some of their own herbs and this year decided to package them up for Christmas gifts.

We also got a really nice Wusthof Cutting Knife, which we were pretty excited about!

There were several things we really enjoyed, but nothing really beats these:

Baby pink "UGGs" complete with a pregnancy test.  Do you think they're trying to hint towards something?!  I just about died laughing when I saw this duo.  Nevertheless, the boots are adorable and I'm sure they will come in handy in the future.

For now, I'll stick with the slippers Becky gave me.

For those of you who celebrate Christmas, I hope you had a weekend filled with chocolate cupcakes, family, movies and fuzzy slippers also.   

Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, Merry Kwanzaa and a Happy New Year to you too!

5,000 Candles

Every Christmas Eve, Scott and I look forward to the Candlelight Service at First Baptist Church of Orlando.  Our church is known for being quite large, but that isn't necessarily a bad thing.  Although It may be considered a mega-church, there's a life group and/or sense of community for everyone.  

It's nights like Christmas Eve where I'm proud to be a member here.  Every year FBCO hosts a service dedicated to worship through music, remembering why we're celebrating Christmas the next day.  Jesus is the reason for the season, after all.  

 Everyone is handed a candle as they walk in, and to close the service we light 5,000 Candles.  The majority of the pictures you see below (except for a few at the bottom) were shot by a very talented friend of mine, Tim Smith at Honor Photography.  Thanks again, for capturing the night perfectly.

♪♫

Silent night.  Holy night.

All is calm, all is bright.

Round yon virgin, mother and child.

 

Holy infant so tender and mild.

Sleep in heavenly peace.

Sleep in heavenly peace.

♪♫

Here's a video I took from last year's service.  Since I filmed so much of the set-up in hopes of catching the congregation light up row by row, I only filmed the first verse of the song.  We sing all three verses of Silent Night, and as each verse is sung you lift up your candle higher and higher.

You can actually hear Scott singing, he's the one on my left with a surprisingly pleasant voice.

Christmas Eve Candlelight Service 2011

More Christmas stories to come...