Why Didn't I Think About This Earlier?!

One of my New Year's Resolutions is to spend less time on the computer and more time with Mike, focusing on things that need to be done around the house (or just fun things I want to do), and spending more time with my Bible (something I really need to work on).

SO, today I was organizing some things in our office and found my old camera. I decided to see if it still worked since our "new" camera is currently on it's way to somewhere so the flash can be fixed and low and behold, IT WORKS! (we got the new camera because the old one decided to not work consistently) All this to say - I have pictures to show you. Nothing all that great but something to look at other than words. :-)

First of all, we got more snow last night. Here's the view out our front door today. We're supposed to get more later this week...

Here are my two favorite gifts this year: the first two pictures are of a "book" that my Mom gave me and each of my brothers. She has spent the last two years scanning all of our old family pictures and then having our old VHS tape converted to DVD so that we all have copies of every family movie and all of the pictures of us growing up. I'm only 3 discs in to the movies but they are so funny to watch. I love hearing my Poppop's voice, too, oh how I miss him!

I also got cowboy boots. I haven't had a pair since I was little and was so excited to find a good pair for a GREAT price. My Mom and Dad ended up buying them for me and I can't wait to wear them with cute skirts and dresses this summer. (now to find those cute skirts and dresses...)

Hope ya'll are enjoying the last day of your breaks! (assuming everyone is going back to work tomorrow...)

Christmas in Canada

(no pictures, our camera flash broke so we had to send it in, sorry!)

This year was Mike's family's "turn" for Christmas. We got to Seattle on Monday afternoon and grabbed some lunch before shopping at an outlet mall for an hour (we limited it to one hour so the boys didn't get bored) :-) and then headed North.

Most of our week was spent hanging around the house (boo for Christmas colds) but we did get lots of family time in and got to hang out with several of Mike's friends from home. Oh, and hockey, we watched lots of hockey. :-)

We got home Tuesday night, we even ended up catching an earlier flight home which was great because we had a three-seat row to ourselves (an Economy plus row at that!) and didn't have to deal with the 20 minute delay that our original flight had because of the snow. Mike did have to go back to the airport the next morning to get our bag but it was so nice to be home earlier - with or without our bag!

So yeah, that's it. Kinda boring but oh so relaxing and nice to spend time with family!

Merry Christmas!

Christmas blessings to you and yours!

Isaiah 9:6 - "For unto us a child is born, to us a son is given....And he will be called Wonderful Couselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace."

The Nester's Tour of Homes

Yay! I can't tell ya'll how excited I am to see everyone's Christmas decorations!

In the mean time, welcome to our home!

I took this picture a few nights ago - it looks like it was snowing but it wasn't even close. I guess I need to clean the lens on my camera! :-)

Here's the house lit up with our outside lights. We have candle lights in every window - I love the way it looks. We're going to put more lights up next year, we realized this year that we needed a little more outside.

Our Christmas wreath on the front door.

Our mantel - I don't light the candles very often but it looks so pretty when I do.

Our tree all lit up! I still love how well my tree skirt turned out.

Some of our Christmas ornaments - the pineapple my Dad and brothers brought us from Colonial Williamsburg; the Swarovski tree, holly, and snowflake some family friends gave us as a wedding gift; the ornament we got in Hawaii on our Honeymoon; the fishing moose from our road trip to Grand Teton Nat'l Park and beyond; one from NYC that friends sent us after we couldn't find one when we were there (in June); and every Texas girl needs a cowboy boot on her tree! :-) Mike and I try to get a Christmas ornament wherever we travel - it makes for wonderful memories and lots of fun when we pick them out together.

The platter on the bar next to the tree - a dear friend gave it to us as a wedding gift and it makes me smile every time I look at it.

A poinsettia (99 cents from Lowes on Black Friday - my only purchase that day) on the table next to the couch with an angel figurine that Mike's Mom gave me the first Christmas we were married.

The shelves above the couch.

The bell that hangs from the chandelier over the dining room. I took the picture before I added the poinsettia to the center of the table and to the corner shelf.

A snowflake candle holder in the guest bathroom.

We also have glass balls and tons of berry picks all over the house in random places. I've seen several tutorials online for these magazine Christmas trees so I made a few the other day - they're very cute!

We do have a little tree in our basement. My grandparents gave me $20 before I went back to school at Thanksgiving my senior year of college. I lived in an apartment style dorm that year and knew we needed a little tree (even if it only had lights and a ribbon tree topper). My Mom added the lantern lights to the tree a few years ago when they had the tree up in their basement.

That's it! I can't wait to see everyone's decorations and get ideas for next year!

Have a very blessed and Merry Christmas!

More Than Christmas Gifts

To go along with the Advent Conspiracy, I thought it might be a neat idea to share some Christmas gifts that also give to someone in need in some way, shape, or form.

Of course, there are TOMS. For every pair of shoes purchased, they give a pair to someone who needs them. How cool is that?!

If you want something a little more "springy" - there are Sseko's. A group of women in Africa make these shoes, learn about business, hard work and so much more. The cool thing about the actual sandals is that you can change out the straps.

The beads on these necklaces are made out of paper. Again, women in Africa make these necklaces and benefit from their sales. Several of my friends who have traveled to Africa have necklaces like these and they are so pretty!

I know there are LOTS of other organizations/companies who do similar things - these are just a few of the ones that I'm aware of. In the spirit of giving but focusing on the REAL meaning of Christmas, I can't help but think if you can find a way to give to multiple people in some way at the same time, why not?

If you know of other organizations like the ones above - I'd love to hear about them!

O Christmas Tree

I can't wait to see all of the Christmas tree's on Kelly's this week! Hop on over and check them out for yourself.

Now, without further adieu, here's our tree!

Nothing too big or spectacular to add to this year's tree. (I took the picture pre-new rug) We got 4 new ornaments during our road trip this summer (one from each of the following places: Grand Canyon, Redwood Forrest, Grand Tetons, and Yellowstone) and of course, the tree skirt that I made.

I love our Christmas ornament theme - each ornament has a story to it. Most of them are gifts from friends (yay for getting married close to Christmas) or ones that we get from the places we visit (we have ornaments from our honeymoon in Hawaii, trips to New Mexico, Canada). I guess our theme is "things we've done together" and I love it.

Merry Christmas!

A Very Happy Thanksgiving

Our house is SO quiet now. My brothers were here for a week and my parents had been here since Wednesday but they all left this morning and Mike and I are relaxing and trying to get over the sniffles that we have before we go back to work tomorrow.

We had a wonderful week with our family here. Between the food and the Wii my parents brought with them, family pictures, seeing friends, and just enjoying each other's company - we had a blast.

Here are pictures of the highlights! (I can't get any of the pictures to rotate for some reason - sorry!)

The new candle holder my parents brought us from Chicago.

Breakfast on Thanksgiving morning - pumpkin bread!

The centerpiece on the table.

Ready for Thanksgiving dinner.

My parents and I got up at 5:30 on Black Friday to get 99 cent poinsettias at Lowe's. (that otherwise would have been between 4 & 8 dollars each depending on where we got them) We got 18 between our homes. Yep, we're funny like that.

The wreath I decorated for our front door.

We got our Christmas card from Aspen Boutique this weekend too!

And finally - a little late but here are the flowers Mike got me for our anniversary. :-)

Weekend Highlights

Highlight #1

I found eggnog at the grocery store which means I can start enjoying eggnog lattes!

Highlight #2

A wonderful nap this afternoon.

Highlight #3

Organizing "my part" of the storage room so that next weekend, I can start decking the halls. :-)

Highlight #4

Getting our new recycling bin on Friday. Yep, get excited people. We switched trash companies so we could have a recycling program. The coolest part is that we get rewards for recycling. They weigh our bin each time they pick it up and we get points based on the weight. From there, we can redeem our points for coupons and gift cards. YEAH!!!

Highlight #5

Spending time with Mike. Even if Paul Blart: Mall Cop ended up being FAR less funny than we anticipated. To the point we shut it off about half way through.

Hope ya'll had a great weekend!

Pumpkins, Plants and Tree Skirts

Yay for productive weekends!

Friday night, I made our tree skirt after I got all of the necessary fabric either on sale or half price because of coupons. Here's the final product. I'm excited.

I backed the burlap with red and green fabric that says "NOEL" on it. I did it so that the burlap had some reinforcement and so that it wasn't rough against our wood floor. I remembered seeing the fabric at the fabric store last year and it was on clearance so it was even better. The hilarious part was, as many times as I reminded myself to make sure the 'right' side ended up on the outside when I turned the skirt inside out, it didn't and now the fabric says "LEON". Yep. Great job, Sarah. At least I'll laugh about it every year I pull it out. :-)

Mike and I ran errands today and got pumpkins for the fall and a new little plant for our living area since I killed the last one. I DON'T have a green thumb.

Groceries for the next two weeks are put away, laundry is done (minus ironing), I made pumpkin bread for us and a loaf for our sweet neighbors just because and now I'm watching the Yankee vs. Red Sox game. Now, if only we got the Cards game tonight... they're gonna clench!

Hope everyone is having a great weekend!!!

Tree Skirt

Yes, I know it's a little early to be thinking about Christmas but I'm making something so I need to get started on it. Not to mention the fact that I'm one of those crazy people who decorates for Christmas at the first of November. You have to have it up long enough to enjoy it!

So, last year our poor tree was naked at the bottom. I couldn't find a tree skirt I liked and honestly, I wanted to make one but couldn't find the right inspiration. The other day, I came up with the perfect idea.

Picture burlap:

bordered by a red plaid taffeta ruffle (I want a little bit of a deeper red than this though)

and some kind of rope trim to finish it all off

I hope it turns out as well as I have it pictured in my mind but we'll see!