Three Little Riggs: December: The Most Wonderful Time of the Year

Wow - this is a longgg post. So long that I doubt anyone will get through it, but hey I've officially blogged all of 2012! So glad I'll be able to look back on this year and remember everything we did - which was a lot!! It was a wonderful year, and Christmas is the most wonderful time of year...I love the feeling it brings all through the month of December!

Prepping for Christmas! - The first weekend in December we got ready for Christmas by decorating our house, taking our pictures for our Christmas card, and picking out the fattest tree ever! It was really fun getting ready for our first Christmas in our house!

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Beer Tasting/Christmas Party at Josh & Paige's - We took a break from decorating and went over to Josh and Paige's for a beer tasting and delicious dinner. I always love seeing Blevin!

Dinner/Service Project with GDOT - Kevin helped his company plan an event they hosted for GDOT which included a dinner and a service project. They decided to decorate Christmas trees for the Atlanta Children's Shelter. Kevin really enjoyed working on this and he was really impressed with Atlanta Children's Shelter.

Dinner at Maggiano’s - The second Friday in December we got together with Kevin's friends for dinner at Maggiano's. We did the family style dinner - it was TONS of food and lots of fun with friends.
Kevin’s Company Holiday Party - The next night we went to Kevin's company's holiday party. This year they had it at Max Lager's in downtown Atlanta. It was fun to get dressed up and hang out with Kevin's coworkers, many of whom he has become good friends with over the last couple years.

After party Sage - always fun to see Steve show off his dance moves!

Church & Lunch w/ Mom & Dad - That Sunday Mom and Dad came up for church. Afterwards they came over to the house for lunch and to see our Christmas decorations.
My Company Holiday Party - The next weekend we had my company's holiday party on Friday night. We had it at a little place in downtown Roswell called Vin 25. It was another fun night of getting dressed up, having some delicious food and wine, and hanging out with fabulous coworkers!

I wore the same dress but paired it with some fancier shoes - my wedding shoes :) (the one on my right foot)

Christmas in Alabama - The next day (Saturday) we went to Alabama with my parents to celebrate Christmas with my Dad's family who lives there. It was also my little cousin Reese's birthday party so we got to attend that too! Below is the only picture I got from the day - Reese getting into her birthday cake before everyone else!

Falcon's Game - The next day Kevin went to the Falcons vs. Giants game with Matt Miller. The Falcons were really fun to watch this season!!

Mt. Paran Christmas Concert - That night we went to Mt. Paran's Christmas concert. We went to this last year and loved it so we were glad we got to go again. Their choir is amazing and it really put us in the Christmas spirit!

Christmas with the Riggs Family - The next Friday night we headed to Newnan to get together with Kevin's dad's side of the family for Christmas. It was especially fun because of new baby Caroline, and her sister Morgan put on quite a show for us!

Cuz and Jim Come Visit - Cuz and Jim come down for Christmas every other year. We always look forward when it's their year to come! On Saturday (this is the Saturday before Christmas which was on Tuesday), Cuz & Jim and Mom & Dad came up to Alpharetta to see our house. We ate lunch at INC in downtown Roswell and it was delicious! After lunch we went to a couple nearby antique stores and then we headed to our house. We sipped on Poinsettia cocktails (champagne with cranberry juice and Cointreau) and had some yummy treats that Kevin and I had been baking for Christmas gifts.

Horne Family Christmas - The next day (Sunday) we headed down to Newnan to celebrate Christmas with my mom's side of the family. It was great to see everyone and once again the children stole the show! It is so fun to have children around during Christmas because their excitement is contagious.

I love these pictures!

Happy birthday Jesus!

Jim handing out his homemade aftershave to the men, such a cool gift!

Pride & Prejudice and Cinnamon Rolls - that night we spent the night at Mom & Dad's and we continued our tradition of watching Pride & Prejudice with Cuz and Jim. Something we always look forward to! Jim also made the most delicious cinnamon rolls I've ever had! It was quite the process to make them but it was worth it!

Cousin Reece!

Christmas Eve w/ Nana & Papa - The next day (Monday) Kevin and I hosted Christmas Eve dinner at our house for my parents and grandparents! It was lots of fun. I put together a yummy cheese plate and Kevin was a great chef - he prepared shrimp & grits and a delicious arugula salad with fried goat cheese and homemade caramelized onion salad dressing.

Christmas Morning - Christmas morning we woke up at our house just the two of us, or four of us really - including Roger and Floyd :) We had a nice Christmas morning eating what was left over from Jim's cinnamon rolls and unwrapping gifts. Then we did a little cooking - we had been wanting to give our first try at making homemade biscuits. It is definitely an art! They were good but we need some more practice as they turned out a little flat. Thankfully I had been wanting some sausage balls so we made those too and they are hard to mess up!

Christmas Day - After enjoying our Christmas morning at home, we headed to Newnan (yes for the third time in 4 days, all worth it though!) for Christmas lunch at Kevin's grandmother's house. This year we each did baskets for the family we were paired with - I thought it was a great idea! We were paired with Kevin's cousin Caleb and his fiance Jessica. We gave them a basket of fun baking stuff and they put together a super cute basket for us - monogrammed flag for our yard, red & green cake plate, red & green soap dispenser, Christmas ornaments, picture frame, etc.

Christmas Night - After we left Kevin's grandmother's, we went by to see my parents and exchanged gifts. They surprised us with a Neato vacuum cleaner! It has definitely come in handy having Roger. We named it Judy Bug, after our favorite Moreland School janitor / sweet family friend. Then we spent the night with Kevin's parents and exchanged gifts with them. They gave us several thoughtful little things (even Keith got me some earrings from his trip to Colorado!) but our big gift from them this year was money which we were grateful for! We intended to use it to go towards getting a dresser for our bedroom, but the the transmission in my Honda blew out the Saturday before Christmas so really it went towards that!

Kevin's parents even got Roger an edible card!

Kevin's Parents Come up for Dinner: The day after Christmas we invited Kevin's parents up for chili and cornbread at our house. We hadn't been able to find a time for them to come up and see our Christmas decorations (we had a slightly busy schedule in December!) so it was great to have them over. Kevin had the day off and I took the whole week off and it was nice to just relax after all of the busyness of Christmas. Kevin has perfected his chili recipe and my cornbread turned out pretty good if I do say so myself!

Get-Together with High School Friends - That Friday night we had all of my high school friends over for our holiday get together. It's always fun to see them! We had a very cheesy night - cheese plate, pizza, red velvet cheesecake, a few participants of "Tacky Sweater" attire, and looking through old photo albums that Brianna brought. The kids were a hoot - we don't have a very kid-equipped house so they entertained themselves through pillows and blankets and playing "telephone" with Josh!

My baby

Tenley using her "bluetooth"

Tacky sweater participants

Whew! Thank goodness I took the week of Christmas off! I actually had a week and a half off because New Year's Day was on a Tuesday so I didn't go back until Wednesday. It was a busy, fun December and I'm glad I had a break! I had time to sort through all of our gifts and find a place for them, do some laundry, spend some quality time with Roger and Floyd, and get some sleep!