A Year in Review

I work in the TV news business.

The week between Christmas and New Years is filled with "year in review" packages during the news.

"Local Education in 2010"
"2010 Scandals"
"Local Politics in 2010"
"Best Sports Plays of 2010"
"2010 in Health"

... and the list goes on.

So this will be my own little piece of 2010.

I call it: "Kelly's Life in 2010".

January

Ryan and I spent our first New Year's Eve together since we met.


In celebration of Ryan's 24th birthday, I surprised him with a trip to Cleveland exactly 2 years after we met there.

At the Applebee's where we had our first date.

March

Three of my roommates from college came to visit. They met Ryan for the first time, then the girls went out clubbing like old times.


April

Ryan proposed!


Along with our friends and our dogs, we walked around the 2-mile Indianapolis Speedway track in the pouring rain.

It was for charity!

May

Ryan, Maggie, and I moved into our new place.


I successfully ran my first half marathon.


June

I turned 25 years old. Mass amounts of flip cup ensued.


July

I found the dress and immediately purchased it.


August

I ran my first olympic-distance triathlon (and almost died in the 90 degree heat).


September

Ryan and I took a much needed vacation to Florida.


October

We attended our first wedding as an engaged couple.


November

Ryan and I spent our first Thanksgiving together in Philadelphia with his family.


December

We spent our first Christmas together in Illinois with my family.


As for tonight? We're being totally lame and staying in.

But for good reason!

I have to work until 10:30pm, and Ryan is sick. So no going out for us. It will probably be nachos, beer, and a movie to ring in the new year.

What are your plans for tonight? Hopefully more exciting than mine!

Popping the Question

One important wedding-related thing happened on Christmas day.

We got our second flower girl!

I mentioned early on in December that we had yet to ask my cousin to be our flower girl. Being that she lives about 3 1/2 hours away, Christmas was the only time we were able to see her.

I bought her this adorable book about a little girl who was a flower girl at her aunt's wedding...

Source

Here she is opening it...


As soon as it was unwrapped, her mom read her the title of the book. Ryan and I asked her if she would be a flower girl at our wedding.

Despite the fact that she probably didn't even know what that was, she said "yes" and gave us both a hug.


What's totally adorable about this book is it comes with a little packet of "practice petals". Later that evening, my mom put the petals in a basket and my cousin practiced her flower girl walk up and down the hallway.


She was grinning from ear to ear the entire time. I'm sure she'll make a great flower girl!

How did you ask your flower girl?

Christmas According to Kelly

Welcome to my newest followers, Diana Lee and Sara. I hope everyone had a very merry holiday!

Christmas came and went. It was exciting, overwhelming, fun, and exhausting all rolled up into a little ball of wrapping paper.

Ryan and I started off the holiday with our own personal Christmas. We exchanged fun gifts like beer and space heaters.

Mmmm... spacey warmness...

After all my debating about whether or not to give Ryan his cufflinks, a funny thing happened. Ryan, too, gave me a present that is typical of a wedding day gift.


I was surprised by a gorgeous topaz and silver necklace from Rogers and Hollands. (I don't have photos because I'm dumb. You'll just have to wait!)

I wore it once on Christmas Eve, then left it at my parents house for safe-keeping until the big day.

While we were with my family, we received quite a few items off our registry... two sets of china, an electric griddle, a level, bannanagrams, a saucepan, and some mixing bowls to name a few. Looks like we need to add some more stuff to our registry!

My mom fulfilled a few items on my wedding wish list. She started by gifting me these beautiful hair combs...


We both commented how they were much smaller than we thought. I guess that's what happens when you skim over the description portion on Etsy. Woops!


But I definitely plan on working these into my 'do some how. They're just too adorable to let collect dust!

After that, Ryan and I opened a set of toasting flutes.


They aren't the ones I asked for, but my mom picked them out when she was in Germany... so I'm not complaining.


I'm so grateful for all the amazing presents people gave us. Ryan was welcomed to our family Christmas with open arms and a pile of gifts. Talk about spoiled!


It was the first Christmas Ryan and I have ever spent together... and it will be our last as a dating couple. Exactly 6 months from Christmas Day is our wedding. Let the real countdown begin!

The Gift that Almost Wasn't

I love giving gifts. Seriously. When I think of the joy of Christmas... seeing the looks on peoples' faces as they open their gifts is the best part. The fact that I too will be opening gifts is just a pleasant afterthought.

Christmas may still be two days away, but Ryan and I's personal Christmas was this morning!

I bought Ryan a bunch of things (he had at least 7 wrapped presents under our tree)... but there was one gift in particular that was my favorite.

...and it's wedding related!

The very last gift Ryan opened this morning was a small box with cufflinks inside. I ordered them from seller TomatoMade on Etsy.

Click to enlarge

Inside each cufflink is a vintage map. I ordered one to be Chicago and one to be Philadelphia... signifying our two hometowns and the long-distance hardships we endured for the first year+ of our relationship.

Click to enlarge

The funny thing about this gift is I almost didn't give it to him. When I originally ordered the cufflinks, my intention was to give them to Ryan on the morning of our wedding.

But there's one thing I'm not... and that's patient. Once I had these beautiful little cufflinks in my hand, I just couldn't bear to wait another 6 months to give them to him.

And that's how... just this past Tuesday... I ended up frantically wrapping the box with our very last scrap of wrapping paper and adding one final gift to the pile under the tree.

I don't think Christmas would have been complete without something from the heart. This fit the bill perfectly.

I will be taking a 3-day hiatus from blogging in order to spend un-interupted time with family. I hope everyone has a fantastic weekend, and I'll see you on Monday. Merry Christmas!

The Giving and Receiving of Gifts

It's inevitable that with the holiday season comes the purchasing of gifts. I buy gifts for Ryan, Ryan buys gifts for me... we both buy an awkward amount of gifts for our dog, Maggie... you get the picture.

But there's one gift we did not expect to receive this year.

It arrived one afternoon on our doorstep in a nondescript cardboard box, addressed to yours truly. I tore it open with reckless abandon with the assumption it was something I had purchased for a family member.

But inside that box was something far more glorious...


... our very first gift off our wedding registry!


The billing address revealed it was from Ryan's grandmother in Pennsylvania. There was no note included, so we are under the assumption it is a Christmas gift... instead of a very early wedding present.

And with that assumption out of the way, we decided to christen our new waffle maker with some delicious Saturday morning, pre-Christmas waffles.


Yummy!

In theory, the waffles were delicious. I mean, come on... they're waffles! And we made them in our own kitchen!

... in reality, they were slightly lacking. We don't have the logistics worked out yet of what setting we should cook them on... and my "just add water" pancake mix left much to be desired in the taste department.

But they will get better... and we were super excited to open our first Christmas gift.

I've been spending all weekend finishing up all my shopping and wrapping. It's hard to be sneaky about gifts when you live with the person you're gifting them to.


And I've noticed, in comparison to last year, how many more gifts we have under our tree.


I guess that's what happens when you get engaged and your family suddenly doubles.

What are you giving your significant other for Christmas?

Fold, Seal, Address, Repeat

We've been getting a lot of packages recently.

I think this is the first year ever that I've bought all my Christmas gifts online. So day after day, the friendly neighborhood postman stops by and drops off another box.

But when he showed up with this box, I knew it wasn't something I had bought...


It was something I had won!


In November, I entered one of Weddingbee's many contests. A little while later, I received an email that said I had won 100 free holiday cards from Minted.

Woooo!

After the initial disappointment that we couldn't use the $350 credit toward wedding invitations, Ryan and I were excited to create some custom (and extremely costly) Christmas cards.


The entire suite includes a card, envelope, envelope liner, and wrap-around label.


So if you're considering using Minted for your holiday cards (or wedding invitations), here are my thoughts...

• Pro: The cards are extremely high quality and very thick. Our photos look great.
  
• Con: I am finding it extremely difficult to squeeze the cards into the envelopes. It's a tight fit! I'm not sure if this is typical or not.
  
• Pro: Minted has professional designers who personally look at your card and make adjustments as needed. They email you a proof for approval before any printing takes place.
  
• Con: The envelope liners don't come with any adhesive. I had to hand-glue every single one (and got so annoyed that I almost gave up completely)...

It would be nice if they came with little self-adhesive strips or something. That would have saved me a lot of time!

But I can't really complain. After all, they're free! Free... and adorable.


By the time Ryan got home from work on Friday, I had already completed about half of the cards (we're sending them to everyone on our wedding guest list).


I think he approved. (And was glad he didn't have to do any of it.)

Thanks, Weddingbee!