Jonathan and I rang in the new year at the McKeever household in downtown Manhattan with Kim's sister Lauren present, as well as my brother Chris and Tiffany. We missed having my sister there but her boyfriend had gotten them tickets to the party at Resorts Casino. Next year, we will be all together, I hope. Kim and Vinnie were great hosts, and Kim made many delicious snacks. Thanks, Mcs!
I was really into it, huh?
Christmas this year was very nice. Our first one engaged and last one unmarried. Next Christmas, we will be married two months to the day. So weird! Anyway, on to Christmas itself. Jonathan and I spent Eve together for the first time since 2009! I hadn't even realized that until he pointed it out. He came with me to Farmingdale, where we go every Eve. My cousins, from my mother's side, host it every year. It's always fun but this year Jonathan brought along his Elf and Santa costumes. Bernie took over the role of Santa to Jonathan's elf and I have to say, it was a hit! I know Jonathan enjoyed keeping the tradition alive and it will definitely be sticking around in the years that we attend. We even crashed the next door neighbor's Christmas Eve in the costumes! They loved it too, and that family took tons of pictures with "Santa" and "Elf". Success!
My mom's family is really tall, hence the Santa pants not fitting Bernie. Hysterical! It's like a tropical Santa!
I know myself, Ayla and Eliza loved having Jonathan with us on Eve! :)
For Christmas Day, we spent it at Jonathan's house and some family came over for a delicious meal cooked by his parents. It wasn't as busy as other years with the passing of Jonathan's Uncle Dom and Rob and Jean not being able to come in, but it was still very enjoyable of course.
How cute is this child? Her Christmas outfit killed me! I never thought about dressing my future daughters in bows until Victoria came around, lol.
And Johnny with one of his many gifts :)
Later that night, even though we were pooped by that point, we headed over to my parents' house to see them for a bit. By the time we got there, everything had winded down but the girls were still up so they got to open our gifts to them!
This photo isn't Christmas night but it's just to show one of their gifts. They both love Elmo (though now Ayla has gotten into Mickey and all things Disney, yay! Proud cousin right here, lol) and they both sleep on their own so I figured a personalized pillow case would be fun.
But on Christmas they enjoyed their fake food and fairy costumes!
The 26th was also nice and felt like an extended Christmas because Jonathan's aunt Rosemary came over as well as his cousin Alexis and her husband, Gaetano. But while it was good to see them, it was also very sad as we really felt the loss of Uncle Dom that night. It was surreal to be celebrating Christmas without him. Even though it's been many months since he's passed, it is still hard to believe he is no longer here. I am glad I got to know him these past few years. He will have a front row seat to the wedding, that's for sure.
Speaking of the wedding, now that the holiday season is over, it's time to start getting into the wedding planning craze again. We allowed ourselves to take a break after the save the dates were mailed out but there's still plenty left to do. The two things we have to do this month is: register for pre-cana and book our flights to Hawaii.
We were thrown a curve ball last month when we learned that the pastor of Saint Sebastian's, Monsignor Hardiman, was leaving! I didn't know until now that a priest can only be pastor for twelve years at a certain parish. I was sad to hear that regardless of the fact that he was supposed to marry us. But the funny part about that is, the new pastor is Father Kevin, the priest I first had in mind! (He was also a priest at St. Sebastian's many years ago.) He is young, only a couple of years older than us, and married two friends of ours years ago, who also had their reception at Chateau Briand! Since Father Kevin doesn't start until the first of February, I have to wait to talk to him. My fingers are crossed no one else has him saying their wedding the same day.
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