2011, the Year in Review

There are so many things to look forward to in 2012 and I am certainly getting excited about many of them. But 2011 was the absolute best year I can remember...so it will be difficult to top!
It was hard to narrow down (and I admittedly cheated) but here are my top 11 moments of 2011:

1. Buying and settling in to our first home!

2. January weekend in Charleston, celebrating engagements (and all of the other engagement parties and showers that would follow!)

3. Ellen's 22nd birthday -- and our first (but certainly not last) dinner party at 1327

4. Easter weekend with White and Frazier grandparents

5. Ellen's college graduation weekend -- in particular, favorite moment was her Seussical rendition of the class' history

6. seeing New Kids on the Block and the Backstreet Boys in concert. yep. that's right.

7. Bachelorette weekend with my favorite girls at Sullivans Island

8. sneaky wedding portrait -- to and from Spartanburg in a day with the whole family!

9. picking out our first Christmas tree and cutting it down ourselves, during Thanksgiving week (and thanks to Carl Frazier for the saw which we will use for years to come to cut the bottom of the tree to save!)

10. I'm going to cheat and combo moments -- witnessing the marriage of Meredith and Tyler, Hadley and Hollis, Chris and Anna, Meg and Garrison, and most recently, Ben and Kat (and celebrating many other happy couples from a distance!)

11. and of course...committing all that I am and all that I have to THIS guy

Thankful for 2011 and looking forward to what 2012 will hold (spoiler alert: a honeymoon to Ireland, some graduations, a big birthday or two and at least one wedding are already on the books!)

cherish...
efo

Merry Christmas With Love

Our first married Christmas was incredible - we started some new traditions, continued participating in some family ones and overall had a ball seeing family, eating and exchanging gifts. But -- my favorite part of Christmas is always GIVING gifts -- so here are some of my favorites I got to give this year.


As should have been expected...we made good use of the incredible photos from Meredith Daniels Photography for our Christmas gifts. Check out a few of the DIY (do-it-yourself) gifts that family members received:

Mom looking through the wedding photo book we gave to all of the parents and grandparents; these were a HUGE hit! These were of course only sort of DIY, we put them together on Snapfish.

Jason received this framed photo of our first dance, with lyrics to the song we danced to "You are the Best Thing" by Ray Lamontagne.

Dad got one too, with the lyrics for Dylan's Forever Young -- which he also used for our toast during the reception! (Jason's mom Kim got one of her and Jason dancing as well and yes -- I learned that from Pinterest!)

Tried out making fresh salsa for the first time. Will keep working on perfecting that...and then maybe you'll get some next year!

Ellen received this shadow box with little pieces of her Meredith College graduation weekend that I had hung on to since May in hopes of surprising her.

and a FAVORITE gift to give to the parents -- an ornament with our wedding invitation inside!

I hope your Christmas was filled with love and joy -- and plenty of great gift giving.

cherish...

efo