I know that you aren't sitting around thinking "WHERE IS KELSEY WHY AREN'T CHRISTMAS/NEW YEARS POSTS UP???".
However.
I have the intent to print my blog into books as a way to sort of journal-keep (I know handwriting is the real-deal, but for my A.D.D. self, this is what I can handle right now). So for me it is important to keep up with blogging so that one day when my child (NOT PREGNANT) looks through the books I intend to print he/she won't be like, "Mommy, did you and daddy not celebrate Christmas or New Years your first year of marriage?". Okay, like they'd really care. But I would.
SO! Here is what we did for our first married holiday season:
Attended our first "Ugly Sweater" Christmas party. I wore one of my mom's old sweaters, and Taylor wore one of my dad's. Mine was somewhat cute (you can't see it well in this pic..but it was just falling apart :( ), but unfortunately my dad once wore Tay's sweater and unfortunately it used to be good-looking. yikes!
Though I never got to go on a study abroad before getting married, I have flown more being married than I probably ever did prior to getting married. Taylor and I took our THIRD trip to Hawaii in the year 2012 for Christmas/New Years since we spent it in Utah in 2011 when we were engaged (Tay's work didn't let him off for Christmas, but we got to go for New Years, which actually was the first and only time I met his family before we got married!). It's funny because when people hear that my husband is from Hawaii they assume that ALL we do when we go is go to luaus, eat coconut, and surf. Not exactly. However, this trip I convinced Taylor to take me to do some touristy things that made him kind of embarrassed (acting like a giddy tourist anywhere can be kind of embarrassing I guess).
Getting to Hawaii was a little stressful and tiring. We finished our finals on Friday, Dec 14. The next day we had a class Christmas party with our Primary class (so cute!), then we left the following Monday. During this time I also had SOOOOO many orders to do for Just Buttons & Bows. Which was AWESOME but reallllllly tiring. I ended up not even STARTING to pack until Monday morning, and our flight left early that afternoon. Long story (sort of) short, we got to Hawaii. Yay!
The day we left to Hawaii, Utah got a hugeee snow storm! I won't lie, it made me sad because we hadn't had much snow yet, and I was sad to miss a (FINALLY) white Christmas.
However, we got on our plane, and made it to Hawaii.
This post will mostly be pictures, because it was almost 6 months ago, and pictures are how I can remember what even happened. But we mostly shopped, ate, spent time with family, and ate some more. Taylor and I both got the flu at separate times on the trip, which was REALLY not fun, and it led to me losing instead of gaining weight for the first time ever in Hawaii.
Our first day there, Tay and I went shopping at Ala Moana (my favorite mall ever). We didn't want to fly with all our presents, so we did most our shopping in Hawaii. We went to lunch with my mother-in-law (she came shopping with us. I LOVE shopping with her!). We at at BUBBA GUMP SHRIMP! In case you don't know why that's cool, it's the restaurant from the movie Forest Gump. I loved the food and the restaurant was SOOO cute!
My first visit to Hawaii to meet Taylor's family we (our nieces and I) started the tradition of having a "girls night" sleepover where "no boys are allowed". This visit we made salt dough Christmas tree ornaments, watched movies, and did nails. The girls were nice enough to let Tay join in :)
Tay and my adorable mother-in-law
Christmas morning. We took pictures of each other taking pictures. Not sure where my pic of Tay is...
{pic is out of order...but at this point I don't care!} Tay and Kaiakea. Love this boy!
We went to go visit Tay's old school {Kamehameha}
Meet "well" AKA Noelle :)
The kids going through Grammy's things
Zacky boy and Kevin on Christmas
Christmas morning we had brunch and opened LOTS of presents. Everyone was so generous.
Anson!!
This little rascals fight over everything (meaning Noelle likes whatever Kaiakea has at the moment)so they got the same thing :)
This trip I taught Peyton how to braid hair. She did really well!
Me being the ultimate tourist, I made Tay bring me to the King Kamehameha statue that is used as the "headquarters" for the show Hawaii Five-O!
Also made him take me to go on a tour of Kualoa Ranch, where lots of big films and shows have filmed (even if it was only one scene...still cool right??)
My cute boy :)
Signed by the LOST cast!
Sunny +glasses=no bueno
Had fun with our friends Matt and Wendy visiting for the week
Saw Wicked with my mother-in-law, Tay, and Tay's siblings. It was SOOOO GOOD!!! Tay even loved it!
Such a fun night!!!
We had so much fun over the holidays. It was so much fun spending time with family there.