Happiness List

Things that are making me happy this morning:

• New shampoo! From Aveda. I just can't get enough of the smell.
• The lunar eclipse. We got up last night just in time to see it at its peak. Did you see it?
• Yesterday was the longest night/shortest day of the year. It's all uphill from here folks!
• The cookies I made for my neighbor and hairdresser. I wanted to stick some in the mailbox for the mailman, but Lee said that was weird. (He's probably right.)
• My Kindle, and time over the next two weeks to get sucked into it.
• My sister has Now & Then recorded and waiting for us to watch when I get to her house (talk about a blast from the past).
• Also waiting for me when I get to her house? An afternoon of baking and decorating cookies with some of my favorite little people.
• My shopping and wrapping is officially DONE.
• Date night tonight! We're stuffing ourselves with Italian and then coming back to open our gifts to each other. (And give Sugar her gifts too!) Can't wait!

Isn't this just the best time of the year?

Last night we hosted Lee's family's annual Christmas party. We were happy to finally be able to have the party at our house this year and thankful that everyone was willing to drive to Raleigh so that we could host. (I think the promise of shopping at Crabtree helped.)

We had a great time and, of course, some great food (everyone brought a variety of appetizers, dips and desserts).

I did not do a good job of taking pictures (the host never does, right?) but finally managed to break my camera out when we wrangled the cousins on the steps for a photo op.

And of course Sugar had to steal the show.

I love these next shots, because they do a great job of capturing the chaos of the night overall.

Our house is usually pretty quiet, with just the two three of us, so it was nice to have a house full of hustle and bustle for a change.

Ok, I'm off again to bake cookies and finish wrapping the last of the presents!

Deck the Halls

Our Christmas decor hasn't changed much since last year. I did a silver, white and light blue color scheme in the living room and bright red and green in the kitchen.

We had to put our tree in a different spot this year since we have a new bookcase where the tree used to go (I promise I'll show you our living room progress someday), but we found a spot for it and I had fun decorating the bookcase as well.

Let's start with the outside.

One of my favorite things is making our front door wreath with live greenery every year. My grandma taught me how to do it and it's one of my favorite parts of our decor. We don't have a live tree anymore, so I love still being able to smell that wonderful Christmas tree smell as we walk in the door.

And now the living room.

Now on to the dining room.

And the red and green kitchen.

This card holder was my DIY project this year. I've been wanting a Christmas card holder since they won't all fit on our fridge (since our fridge is true stainless steel, the front of it isn't magnetic, so we only have a little square on the side where we can hang stuff). I couldn't find a card holder I liked so I decided to make one.

We had this old barnwood frame laying around, so I tacked on some ribbon and used mini clothespins to hang the cards. I originally wanted a regular white frame, but the barnwood really grew on me. (Plus it was f-r-e-e free.)

The card holder is packed to the max now, so I might have to go even bigger next year! I'm not complaining though because one of the things I love most about December is checking the mailbox to find Christmas cards waiting for me.

So that's a peek inside at our Christmas decorations. I have ONE LAST Christmas present to buy and a few more to wrap and then I'm DONE! It'll be here before we know it!

New Chandy

Remember when I showed you our dining room, but said it wouldn't quite be complete until I replaced the non-matching chandelier?

Well we finally got around to it.

I was really coveting the Restoration Hardware chandelier, and it did eventually go really really on sale, but it was still over $300, and once I saw it in person I wasn't sure that the crystal arms were really what I was looking for.

We settled on this guy from Lowe's:

Even though it was a special order item, it was REALLY affordable. As in $130. I was able to sell our old chandelier (which is still selling at Lowe's for $175) for $90 on Craigslist, so I basically upgraded our chandelier for 40 bucks. Not bad at all.

Lee absolutely hates this chandelier. Not sure why, but I'm really happy with it. And we all know that's all that matters.

A Few Christmas Notes

1. How awesome are Target's holiday ads? The music makes me stop what I'm doing and watch the commercials every time. Did you know you can download all of the songs for free? My favorite song (and commercial) is Toy Jackpot.

2. Christmas had me really stressed out this year. Even before Thanksgiving I was starting to feel all kinds of anxiety, like I was behind on Christmas and it wasn't even Thanksgiving yet. Now that cards are mailed, my house is decorated and my shopping is 80% done I'm feeling better and am actually looking forward to what's left on my to do list. Maybe that's because my to do list is now down to: attending two holiday parties and hosting one, baking cookies, some last-minute shopping, and wrapping presents -- all things I (somewhat) enjoy.

3. Speaking of stress though, you know the line in the song Home for the Holidays that goes 'From Atlantic to Pacific, Gee, the traffic is terrific!' What the hell are they talking about? Are they being sarcastic? I sure hope so.

4. We debated long and hard about sending out a Christmas card this year. Is it lame for a married couple to send a card? Should we just wait until we have a kid? Lee and my sister had almost talked me out of it. But then I realized that it's something I enjoy doing, and I LOVE receiving cards, so I wanted to return that happiness. The cards printed much darker than the proof, which I was a bummed about, but I still like them. Here's how they were intended to look:


5. My new addiction is Starbucks' salted caramel hot chocolate. I can't go in Target or Barnes & Noble now without ordering one.

6. I always try to save up a chunk of my vacation days for December, so I can have a nice long stretch off at Christmas and a few days here and there to get stuff done (I have to use up my PTO by the end of the year). Including time that the agency is closed, I have a full two weeks off at the end of the month. I'm very excited about that. Even though my to do list is a mile long, it's mostly filled with fun things like books I want to read and movies I want to watch.

7. Friday was one of my random extra days off. I don't think I took a second to rest all day long. My day = cycle bootcamp at the gym, shower, vacuuming up pine needles and glitter, pick up dry cleaning, post office, Panera for lunch, Target (with a salted caramel hot chocolate of course), pharmacy, wrapping presents, about 5 loads of laundry and packing for Charlotte.

8. Speaking of Charlotte, we headed there this weekend for Steph and Tyler's wedding, staying downtown at the Omni. We had an amazing time dancing and singing the night away at the after party, and at the after AFTER party. Again though, we're not cut out for that kind of shenanigans anymore, as we found out on Sunday morning.

9. What is up with this weather? It is NOT supposed to be this cold this early. I should've asked for more gloves and scarves for Christmas.

10. I'll be back later this week to show you our Christmas decor, along with a little DIY project I concocted last night.

'Tis the Season

Have you seen the Acura "Season of Reason" commercials this year? Most of them are over-the-top, but when Lee and I saw this one the other night we just stopped and looked at each other. Lee said, "That is totally you." So, I give you...stocking lady:



One example of my OCD-ness: our entire mantel and fireplace is decorated in white and silver -- white poinsettias, white quilted stockings, silver stocking holders and candlesticks, white and silver ball ornaments. Mine and Lee's stockings have our name embroidered on them (in silver thread). I bought Sugar a stocking to match ours but instead of getting her name embroidered I bought a silver ornament from Pottery Barn that's shaped like a dog house that has her picture in it and her name engraved on it. I hung it on her stocking.

The problem? It came with red ribbon. I hung it with the red ribbon as it came but for three days it kept bugging the crap out of me. One shock of red in all of that white and silver. It just stuck out like a sore thumb (to me). So I did what any OCD-Martha-worshipper would have done: I dug through my craft box and found some silver ribbon and replaced the red with silver. It made me feel much better. I showed it to Lee saying "Now doesn't that look better?!" Of course he had no idea what the difference was and when I explained it he threatened to commit me. Oh well. That silver ribbon sure makes me happy.

After all, those stockings aren't for the kids, they're for the holidays.

Let's Play Catch-up

So what have we been up to in the month since getting back from our trip? Here's a rundown:

1. Halloween was a dud, again. I was all prepared with my candy (still holding out hope) and we got two trick-or-treaters, both of which were our next door neighbor's kids. Our neighborhood is always bustling on Halloween, but people never seem to make it down to our cul-de-sac.

2. We bought a new washer and dryer, which morphed into a laundry and powder room makeover. Maybe I'll get my act together enough one day to take pictures and blog about it.

3. I helped celebrate Stephanie's last days of bachelorettedom with a long weekend in Charlotte, lots of girl talk, some shopping, lots of dancing at Whiskey River, and a pole dancing lesson.

4. We celebrated Brandon and Caitie's nuptials with two back-to-back nights of drinking and dancing. (November was pretty much a blur of drinking and dancing for me. I'm clearly not cut out for that anymore.)

5. We had a great Thanksgiving, as usual. Of course we ate too much, but loved every minute of it.

How's that for a whole month in 5 bullet points?