Holiday Highlights

Chuckie and I spent December 20-January 5 in Louisville for Christmas and New Years. It was so good to be home, especially since we didn't get to go home for Thanksgiving. Our days were super packed from the time we got home until we left. We tried to fit in as much quality time as we could and I think we accomplished that. One day we met someone for coffee at 10, I had a lunch date with someone else at 12:30, we went to someone's house in the afternoon, met family for dinner and then went to a bar with some friends. That's pretty much how every day went. Most nights we didn't get in bed until about 2 a.m. We both came back to Boston extremely exhausted but also extremely happy with how we spent our time at home.

I plan to do a separate Christmas post because I have too many good pictures from the day that I want to share and don't want to cram into this "highlights" post.

So for now, a glimpse into our busy visit home. (Please note, I didn't take any pictures but we did get to eat at Havana Rumba, Wild Eggs AND Chick-fil-A (twice) while home which are all places we miss a lot when we're in Boston. It was glorious.)

My cousin, Caitlin, turned 21 on 12/21/12- the day the world was supposed to end. We made sure we partied hard and I think Caitlin had a pretty good birthday.

Tequila shots all around!

The traditional "5 Hagan girls and Chuckie" picture we've taken at important events for 10 years now!

Us and the birthday girl!

My friends Elizabeth, Emily and I have had a "Girl's Christmas" on December 23 every year since our senior year of high school. Appropriately, we call it "Eve Eve." While no Eve Eve will ever be as good as the first one, we pretty much do the same thing every year- a gift exchange, cookie decorating with Emily's mom, followed by playing the Titanic song on the piano and singing along, and then there's ALWAYS a picture by the Kubitskey Christmas tree.

The same night as Eve Eve, our friends Justin and Jenny hosted a Tacky Christmas Sweater party at their house. It was so much fun and we got to see our Best Man, Branden, who we miss so much!

Of course Christmas was a huge highlight of our trip. This was the first year Chuckie and I have spent all of Christmas Eve and Christmas Day together, so it was very special. Like I said, I will make a separate post just for Christmas.

For Christmas, my parents gave us tickets to the UofL vs UK basketball game which is pretty much the biggest day of the year in Kentucky besides Derby Day. Chuck and I have been to the game before but we've never had seats as good as the ones my parents gave us. It was incredible, and the Cards won!

Also, at halftime we went to walk around and Chuck spotted Larry O'Bannon, who you may remember from THIS previous post about basketball. I immediately went into attack mode, similar to the way I attacked another favorite, T-Will, at a football game, and practically ran up to Larry and in a squeaky voice, asked him to take a picture with me. He told me "One sec lemme finish this nacho" and then happily posed with me for this picture.

Wearing his hood indoors probably so no one would notice him and bug him to take pictures. Whoops.

IT WAS THE BEST DAY EVER!!!!!

New Year's Eve did not disappoint this year either. Our friends, Matt and Jennifer, hosted our game night group at their house for a party. We turned it into our annual Christmas party/New Year's party/kind of a baby shower party for Jennifer, who is due in January! We did a white elephant gift exchange, gave baby gifts to Jen and Matt, ate a ton of good food, and played several games. It was an amazing ending to 2012.

Trying to have the same haircut so we feel connected even when we're apart?

 

When we weren't at Christmas parties, lunches, dinners, coffee meetings, basketball games, etc. we were trying to soak up as much family time as we could. Sometimes I think there's really nothing better than just sitting around a living room with your family, doing absolutely nothing. Actually, while we were doing just that at Chuckie's sister's house, I think I snapped my favorite picture of the whole trip:

LOVE