Anddddddddddd its over!

Does anyone else feel kinda depressed after Christmas is over like I do? We do all the crazy shopping, decorating, preparation and then its gone in a wink! I have to say though this was a pretty awesome Christmas. Besides being sick with an upper respiratory infection! YUCK.

My Christmas vacation started Friday December 20th!

After work Friday I met up with my Ma and we headed to the mall to finish up some Christmas shopping. It took us an hour to get there! The traffic was ridiculous. The mall was nuts of course. But we had a lot of fun like we always do! Saturday we did some MORE shopping... and we said were done Friday night haha. Shopaholics for sure. (I blame my Nana, she started it!)

Sunday morning I had the privilege to sing with some friends of mine that I used to sing with at my parents church. I just love when we all get together! Its like we never quit singing together.

Sorry for the poor picture quality

 Laree's church is in a movie theater! How cool is that? They don't currently have a building right now. So they rent out the theater room. Any money they receive from the congregation they use to put back into projects to reach the community. Rather than paying a large mortgage payment on a building. Check it out here.

Later Sunday afternoon Andrew & I went to my Papa & Memas for Christmas. All the family got together ate yummy food & exchanged gifts.

These are my custom made bullet earrings my cousin Sheanice gave me! How cool are they?! I see these online all the time I just haven't bought any because they are kind of expensive. So I was super surprised when she gave me these for Christmas!

Monday I was off work! High five for me! Except that I spent all day at the house waiting on the cable guy to come. Finally around 4:30 I got out of the house to take my little brother shopping. He was looking for a certain phone case that Best Buy ended up not having. BOO! But I did get a last minute gift card & grabbed a couple of other things I needed for our new place. Again.. thought I was done with the Christmas shopping, NOT!
I started coughing Monday night but I felt ok. Little did I know I would wake up Tuesday morning with a horrible fever! I went straight to the doctor, found out I had a stupid upper respiratory infection. So I was sick through out Christmas but I still got to see all my fam & do the Christmas festivities with them! I wasn't letting the sickness take over!
Anyways.. Later Monday night I cooked "Christmas Fettucini" for my parents, the hubs & my little brother at my parents house. (you will know about the Christmas Fettucini if you have seen the movie The Holiday) After dinner we exchanged gifts with my parents. I love giving my family gifts. Especially because I know my whole life my parents have worked so hard to give me everything I ever wanted for Christmas, birthdays, anything! I made my parents both an album of pictures this year. They both loved them. Of course they got a little teary eyed. Thats when you know you did good. :)

My parents tree

Here are all the goodies from my parents! My Ma did good as usual. These were all things on my list! :) I definitely needed those plates. I have broke 3 of my 4 nice dinner plates since we've been married. Thanks Ma:) & yes thats right you see a Naked pallet! SO EXCITED! I absolutely love it!

Tuesday after I went to the doc as I mentioned before and got some rest, my fever finally wore off. I got ready for round 3 of Christmas! Yes 3! We headed over to the hubs Aunt & Uncles house. We ate some good food again & watched the kiddies open their gifts!

My sweet Mom in law :)

Me & the Hubs. Wearing my new tribal print leggings!

My in laws & Little Delaney. She is precious!

I started to feel bad again later that night. But we had to go to my Nanas too! Its tradition! On my moms side of the family all the little kids get multiple presents but the adults all draw a name to be a secret santa. But me and my cousin Tiff always cheat! haha! We make sure we get each others names or just don't put our names in the bag! Sneaky we are ;) I got Tiff a really nice Simply Vera Wang purse from Kohls! & some make up from Ulta. She got me a gift certificate from a little boutique right outside my hometown that I absolutely love! & some make up from Ulta! We know what we like :) After all the commotion at Nanas I went straight home to my bed. My fever had started kicking in again. So I took some tylenol and passed out.

Wednesday morning, Christmas Day! I crawled out of bed when my sweet hubs woke me up. Still feeling pretty crappy. But I had to get up its Christmas Day of course! The hubs and I exchanged gifts. We both loved all of our gifts of course. One of the things he got me was a massage gift certificate! CANNOT wait to use that thing! Another gift he had for me hasn't come in the mail yet! USPS SUCKS. Obviously.
After we finished exchanging gifts we headed over to the in laws. My Mom in Law had cooked us all a huge breakfast! It was delicious!  After breakfast we exchanged gifts with my Mom and Pa in law and my 2 sisters in laws. Andrews parents really spoiled us this year. My Mom in Law gave us 4 sets of Fiesta dishes! They are gorgeous dishes. Thats what happens when you get married. You get excited about dishes! Ha!
I also made my Mom in Law an album of our wedding pictures and pictures from my bridal showers. She loved it. :)

The in laws pretty tree! Told you they spoiled us!

After we were done at their house we headed over to my Nanas again and had some Christmas lunch. Her turkey & dressing is amazing! Like I needed anything else to eat but you can't pass it up!
We ended Christmas Day lounging around our house. I still wasn't feeling the best. But no fever at least. I was enjoying my pretty Christmas tree....

the top hat is my favorite!

My parents came over for a little while. My mom brought me my stocking & I gave her the stuff that was suppose to be in here stocking that morning. But I forgot to give it to my Dad! I do all the Christmas shopping for him. He's just a little clueless on what to buy. lol. Its ok though. We love him anyways. :)

We had an amazing first married Christmas with all of our family. I loved spending time with them. That is the best part of the holidays to me.

Thats what happens when you get older. You stop caring so much about the gifts and care more about just being with family. I love it. :) We are so blessed! I hope you had an awesome Christmas like I did!

Christmas is here!

I'm back! I know I have been slacking the past couple of weeks! I have been insanely busy. Between my sister in laws wedding, doctor appointments & moving into our new place this past weekend, I am pooped y'all! Seriously I am ready for things to slow down a little. But it will still be crazy until after Christmas I am sure. But I can't say I hate it though. I like the business of the Christmas season. I know call me crazy!

Like I said we finally moved last weekend. We were living in a TINY one room apartment. Now we are living on my parents rental property until we build or buy a house in a couple of years. To say we are blessed is an understatement! Mine & Andrews family helped us move everything Saturday. My poor hubs was so sick, he had a really bad cold & cough, and he had to work from 12 Saturday afternoon until 3:30 AM Sunday! Crazy!  So having all the fam help was a blessing! & you'd think not much stuff would come out of a 1 room apartment! LIES! I don't know where it all came from!

After I got some of the house in order Andrew & I started putting up our Christmas tree Sunday night. I absolutely love it!

The burlap top hat & red burlap ribbon came from Kirklands. The berry & gold leaf twigs came from Michaels. All of the ornaments were Andrews ornaments that my Mom in law used to put on a little tree for him at their house. They are all country themed so they went perfectly with our tree! I also bought some pine cones from Michaels and spray painted them last night with gold glitter spray to add to the tree. I am getting real crafty these days I tell ya! :)

This is my fancy garland me & my Ma made! She had some extra plain garland. So I went to Michaels and got the berrys, gold leaves & pine cones for a total of $6! You can't beat $6 Christmas garland!

A Pinterest inspired decoration! I had these glass jars from my wedding, bought the little ornaments from the dollar store and the battery tealight candles from Michaels. & the fake snow.... is Epsom Salt! How cool is that?!

I have an obsession with baskets or platters.... anything I can make a centerpiece out of! I got this pretty red basket from a antique/thrifty store in my hometown for super cheap & the potpourri from Ross. The potpourri doesn't smell that great but its pretty anyways!

I also have an obsession with bird cages. I used a bunch in my wedding ,but then sold most of them because I knew I wouldn't use them all. I found this gold bird cage at Ross a few months ago on sale! Ross is the place to go for home decor. & the gold vine from Michaels.

Besides my tree this is probably my favorite Christmas decor! The burlap runner is from Etsy, all the floral stuff is from Michaels. The candle holders were also from my wedding. They were hot pink but my Mom in law used them in my sister in laws wedding and painted them red. Which matched my kitchen perfectly! Now I just need some pretty sparkly candles. The gold platter is also from a antique/thrifty store in my hometown.

So there you have what Christmas looks like at my house! I was so excited to have my own decorations to put up. It is Andrews & I first married Christmas so its really special. I can't wait for next week! I am like a little kid around Christmas. Christmas music, the decorations, the lights,cool weather, I love it all!

The Latest Happenings

Whats been happenin'?! A whole lot of things around these parts. & its about to get wayyyyy busier with the holidays coming up. Which I am pretty excited about!

1. Christmas Decor

Has anyone noticed all the Christmas decorations already coming out?! We can't even get through Thanksgiving without Christmas taking over. Slow it down people! BUT I do have to say I am getting a little bit of the Christmas itch. Mainly because I get to decorate my own house this year! I get to buy my first Christmas tree! I AM SOOOO EXCITED! Can you tell?! I am thinking about doing a burlap Christmas tree. I saw one decorated in Kirklands recently and I almost died. (no forreal..) It was gorgeous! Here are some ideas I've been looking at....

Google

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Now only if I had some mad sewing skills I could make that adorable burlap tree skirt! Because I'm sure its a little pricey to buy.

How are you decorating your tree this year?


 2. I found a dresser!

Sorry for the crappy iPhone pic

Tadaaa! I finally got a dresser for our bedroom. I mentioned in this post that I was on the hunt for a dresser! I love this one! Even more than the first dresser I had found at Goodwill ,but was sold when I got back to the store to buy it. The wood is really pretty on this dresser but I am planning on painting it still. I am going to get some samples first to try, to make sure I get the right color I want. I have never painted furniture before so I am little nervous. But the good thing is I am going for a rustic look so if I screw it up it won't matter!


3. I am officially a nerd!

I finally broke down and went to the eye doc. I had been getting a lot of headaches and my eyes felt exhausted at the end of the day. So I got some new specs for reading! I like them. & everyone else says I look good in them too. So thumbs up for me :)

Christmas in September?...........

Christmas is only like 97 days away people! (for real, just ask Google)

Seriously this year has gone by entirely too fast. I bought my first Christmas gift yesterday.... I know super early. But I had to get it before it was gone. Christmas is my most favorite part of the year. Besides my birthday of course! I love the decorations, the cold weather (ya know if us Floridians are lucky enough to get some chilly weather) & the family time. I LOVE buying gifts for people. I'm a shopaholic so I get a thrill out of anything that involves shopping. Its my high. (I know I need help, don't judge me) Now don't get me wrong I know what Christmas is really about. Jesus. Bottom line. But I enjoy all the other good stuffs that come along with the season too.

So I thought I would just go ahead and share my Christmas list with the world.... So feel free to send me a gift or $$$. I take either. ;) (also this if for my mom and husband to see hint hint...)

1. Leopard Print Dress from Southern Fried Chics I am obsessed with anything leopard!
& Southern Fried Chics! They have the cutest stuff.

2. Gold Link Bracelet from J.Crew LOVE this bracelet.

3. Deep Tissue Massage. With hot stones! The stones do wonders.

4. A New Laptop! Seriously mine is hopeless. It had some viruses & I wiped it out a couple of times. Its old. & just done. I just want something I can connect to the internet with. That is it. Nothing fancy.

5. Naked Eyeshadow Palette. LOVE LOVE LOVE!

6. New Boots! I love cowgirl boots or knee high boots. I would take either... or both ;)

Southern Fried Chics

7. Hazelwood Soap! The hubs & I went to their little shop in Waynesville, NC on our honeymoon. I love their Versatile Soap! Go visit their site! You will love it.

That is the end of my list... FOR NOW! ;) Haha!

What is on your list this year?!