New Year's Eve Party

This is the story of our first New Year's party...on our 5th anniversary! We had great friends and family over to celebrate with us and we also had a beer tasting contest which was such a fun way to spend the evening. We had 3 rounds of tasting and people brought a 6 pack to enter in each category they wanted to--the more beer you brought, the better your chances of winning! I think the winners were from the "Domestic" category-Goose Island 312 (from Katie and Zach Ressler), the "Foreign" winner was La Fin Du Monde (Messamore's!) and the "Seasonal" category winner was Winter Hook from Red Hook Brewery (Dave and Lyndsey Guggenmos). The winner of each category got to take home one of each of the beers that were in the contest which ended up being 10 different kinds! It was great! We would definitely do something like this again--maybe for a summer BBQ or something. Oh, and I can't forget Will's music video playlist which was perfectly timed and really fun entertainment! Great conversation and fun times were had and the only casualty of the night was front porch chair cushion that was burned with sparklers because that's where we decided to light them since it was sleeting outside (brilliant idea by me!)!

Photos are by the lovely Charlie and maybe a few from our camera too that was miraculously revived after a year of not working just days before our party! Also...Will says I can't have anymore parties when I have a week to decorate, plan, clean and bake for because it cost too much money (it really didn't...I just spent a week doing different projects for this one!)! Enjoy!

The decorations---so much glitter! I had so much fun getting the decorations all ready and the after Christmas sales with lots of Gold and Silver things for cheap prices made it easy to go maybe slightly overboard!

Entry table--found the awesome printable here in the frame which Will modified some to say "Old Friends" right above "New Beginnings". You can also see the beautiful dish that Rob and Char gave us for our anniversary! Such sweet friends!

Tissue Paper Tassel Garland--my favorite last minute Pinterest find! It was so easy to make! I'll be doing this project again for showers/parties in the future!

Tissue "Poof Balls" and 3D Snowflakes! A staple for most showers/parties I help with!

Glitter letters! Easy and fun!

The whole table...I don't think I have a pic of my embossed napkins, but they were awesome too!

Cake Balls! Debbie got me a cake ball pan for Christmas so we gave them a go...the pan worked great...the cake pops tasted just ok, but they looked cool! I'll have to try again with a different flavor!

Champagne Raspberry Jello Shots...delicious! Now for some pics of friends who came to celebrate...we didn't take nearly enough pictures with people...oh well!

 

These next 3 might be my favorites of the whole night...we may have had some wine/beer... 

And of course a few fun pictures with my guy on our 5th anniversary!

Love him.

Love,
The Messamores

5 Years!

I don't know if I'm a bit more nostalgic these days because it's our 5th anniversary--sort of a big milestone, or if it was just because of an awesome Winter Break and good time together with families and friends, but I was. Here's what I've been thinking about in light of celebrating this milestone!

The traditional anniversary gift for 5 years is Wood. Now, I didn't get Will something made of wood, although you could say his new tread desk made with some wooden shelves was part of his Christmas/Anniversary gift, but I did think about how symbolic that is for us because of how much we've grown as individuals and a couple in 5 years! Seriously...we were BABIES when we got married and it is hard to even explain how much we've "put down roots" (got that wood/tree reference?) and matured into small little saplings like those ones you get on Earth Day in elementary school in our first few years of marriage. The growth I think we've experienced in our faith, perspective on marriage, careers, and just in general as adults (what?) over just the past 3 years has been nothing short of amazing. The main thing being a deeper trust in the Gospel and looking to Jesus as our only hope instead of each other. Our early years of marriage, at least on my part for sure, Will can speak for himself on this though--(even though back then I would have said I didn't) I definitely looked to him to make me happy, lead our spiritual walk, fix things when they were broken, and do all the things I expected a husband should do...well, needless to say, that left me feeling pretty bummed out when (Surprise, Surprise...) he couldn't fulfill all those things for me. Our church really helped to shape these last few years for us as we grew to understand that to look to our husband/wife to be our ultimate hope is nothing short of idolatry--as our pastors often say in Redeemer wedding ceremonies that I help with occasionally--and that is a problem! Luckily we don't have to rely on each other for all of those things and we can put our hope and our trust that Jesus will satisfy us, make us happy, help us with any problem, guide my spiritual walk, and is the Ultimate Husband. Now, that's not to say we shouldn't try to be those things and strive for that in our marriage of course, but I think the main thing is it should free us to love each other, give grace and help one another more because we can let go of some of our expectations and just follow the example He set out for us.

This may sound a bit over the top and cheesy, but I think the fact that we've begun to understand (we aren't there yet and I don't know if we ever will be) this truth in recent years has been the best thing that has happened to us in the past 5 years. Our roots are set deeply in this truth and hopefully that will help us to grow old and strong (and hopefully not too big around) together!

I love you Will and I'm thankful that God gave you to me.

For some more insights on this perspective on marriage that has really changed our hearts--check out this article by Tim Keller which is a preview of a book we would love to read this year, The Meaning of Marriage.

Also, hoping to have a post up soon with pictures of our awesome Anniversary/New Year's Eve party where we got to celebrate and probably another post about one of our anniversary traditions--I want to keep on writing but I guess that's something I'll have to learn about blogging--keep it short and sweet!!!!
Love,
The Messamores