Christmas Thoughts Mind Dump

1.  It's been nearly two months since my last blog post.  However, life has been very eventful and has been full of blog-worthy posts.  Maybe I'll catch up on those updates soon.  While I hate that I haven't documented life well over the past couple of months, I really have a fondness for that sweet gecko who was pictured in my last post.  :)

2.  Over the past four nights, my husband and I have slept at four different places representing two countries, two states, four cities/households. 

3.  We left our coastal Carolina home over a week ago and enjoyed five days in beautiful Playa del Carmen, Mexico.  The trip was amazing, despite the fact that we were involved in an airport fiasco trying to return home.  We were stuck in the Houston airport for hours upon end and finally were able to get "home" by getting on another flight that was headed to Alabama (as opposed to our actual destination of Nashville, TN), where Josh's brother Jason was sweet enough to drive and pick us up during the middle of the night.  That's true love fo sho!  We are very grateful and probably would still be stuck in the Lone Star State if it weren't for Jason.

4.  The snow made for a beautiful White Christmas, but I'm ready for it to melt and warm up now.

5.  Last week's road trip from Charleston included way too much fast food.  On a positive note, we don't do fast food near as much in Charleston as we did when we lived in our KY home.

6.  This has been a crazy year with our move, Josh's new job, adjusting to a new city, still trying to sell a house in another state, my job search, one grandfather being moved to a skilled nursing facility, and the recent deaths of both my great-grandmother and great aunt.

7.  We have an upcoming trip to Seattle planned due to Josh's job training.  We decided that this was an opportunity that I couldn't miss, so we look forward to traveling to this northwestern city in a few weeks.

8.  I purchased a pair of jeggings a few weeks ago and while I was shameful at first, they have become one of my favorite pieces of clothing.

9.  Due to many of our items being in storage in KY we didn't have any Christmas decorations this year.  That includes having no Christmas tree.  I did paint our pumpkin in Christmas colors and we displayed Christmas cards, so we had a little bit of Christmas spirit in our Carolina condo.

10.  Christmas cards are one of my absolute favorite parts of Christmas!  I absolutely adore receiving them!  This year we did a card showing the beauty of our new town.  Here's our card:

 

11.  I failed to have the mail service stopped before we left on our two week trip.  I hope the postman still delivers even if it means our mail is stuffed like sardines.  I also hope to arrive back to many Christmas cards waiting on us.  I plan to keep our card display up for months into the new year. 

12.  My mom is a magnet to stray animals, therefore a new pet has recently been added to the family.  Josh and I are already in love with her sweet face and love for cuddling. 

13.  Josh and I both agreed that we had a great Christmas day yesterday.  We did quite a bit of running around to see different family members, but it was a great day full of quality time.  This year we put less focus on the gifting and I believe that the entire family had a much more enjoyable time hanging out and enjoying each other. 

14.  We still will celebrate my Dad's birthday in the next few days.  He is a Christmas day baby and we always have some family birthday time for him.  However, we are going to do something fun and give him his gifts later this week, which we look forward to doing.  We did manage to have some of the Mexican waitstaff to sing a Spanish birthday song to him last week! 

15.  We wish you and your family a very Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Our Home for the Holidays!

WELCOME TO OUR HOME!

Not much decoration outside, but our front porch has a little Christmas spirit! I love these pre-lit trees in urns -- after-Christmas bargain last year!

The stockings were hung by the chimney with care.....Our mantle and fireplace (not lit in this pic)....I fixed the poinsettias so that they are now in coordinating pots.  Take note to our tree topper (the star) on the right -- it worked with our tree last year but it's too heavy for our new tree...maybe I'll catch another after-Christmas sale!

Our tree -- also a bargain last year!  I love that we had done so much Christmas shopping so early this year!  What a relief!  The packages stacked to the right were for our Angel -- does anyone else do this?  If so, isn't it the best part of Christmas shopping?!!  We have more fun doing this than anything else!

This tree is fiber-optic and I got it after Christmas a few years ago at 90% off!  It's fun to see the colors change and I use it to display these large word ornaments. (Please excuse the box under the table -- I'm keeping all wrapping paper, tissue, boxes, etc in here so it's easily accessible for gift wrapping)

I love this pewter nativity set -- so simple, but a great reminder of the reason for Christmas!  It is displayed at an area of focus, just in front of our logs at the fireplace.

 

 

 

I fell in love with this tree skirt last year, so I waited until the day after Christmas and scored a deal!  You can't see the details, but it is red, green, white & silver.  However, this little portion peeking out from the gifts is all that's visible now.  It's bitter-sweet because I'm sad I can't see the skirt, but so thrilled that we did gift buying to early!

 

Josh added some humor to some of the gift tags -- I enjoyed the surprise...the one is for his little brother!

 

Christmas cards are one of my favorite things during the season!

That's all I have pictures of.  We enjoy simply decorating our home for Christmas, but we're not into making it extravagant.  Hopefully you enjoyed the quick tour -- now come on and visit!  :)

Our 2009 Christmas Card:

We wish you a Merry Christmas.....and a Happy New Year!!!