Christmastime 2012 Highlights

Merry Christmastime!! (It applies until January, right?) I hope your Christmas has been wonderful! Mine has been very blessed, indeed.

 

 

Disclaimer: Ever since I got my iPhone for Christmas last year, I've been highly dependent on it for my photos and have, therefore, been negligent with my real camera and bad at taking a good amount of pictures. So, since Instagram has become my more consistent form of mini-blogging, I'll just share the images that I highlighted as they occurred throughout the season.

 

The week before Christmas, Matthew and Heather joined us at the historic Ryman Auditorium for Andrew Peterson's "Behold The Lamb of God" concert.

 

 

The tag line for the show is "The true tall tale of the coming of Christ." Within the concert, they tell the whole story of the Bible in song, from the creation to Jesus' coming and including His crucifixion and resurrection. It's awesome, and a great way to put the focus on Christ at Christmas.

 

And it was so cool to see so many amazing artists and musicians on one stage coming together to proclaim the Good News.

 

Moving on to other highlights, Brad and I won 1st place in our neighborhood's home decorating contest. Again. Holla! We already have big plans to up the ante next year.

 

This year, I bought some Scentsicles to make our artificial tree smell more like a real one. They're scented ornaments that are just fragrance-infused sticks which blend into tree, allowing you to "smell the real smelling smell of a real tree" without seeing the true source. I loved it.

 

We personalized our annual ornament to add to our growing collection. We also (secretly) backlogged one from 2006, which is the only year of our marriage that we failed to commemorate with an ornament. It has been bothering me for six years each time I trimmed our Christmas tree and strolled back down memory lane. I figured if we could get one unique to that year, it wouldn't really be cheating. So we snuck one in honoring our college graduation. Now we officially have an ornament for each year, and in the future, nobody is any the wiser. Trick, trick. Well, except all of you guys. But, shhhh.

 

Brad's family came down early to celebrate the holiday. I didn't take any photos (oops), but here's one that Matthew took of the aftermath. Jeremy got a toy train set, and their dad got a remote controlled helicopter. For not having any children in the family, we still represent the toys!

 

 

While his family was in town, we all went to the Belcourt Theater, which is this old, historic movie theater that plays mostly independent films, classics, or movies with cult followings. We saw one of my Christmas favorites, "Home Alone." It was so much fun to watch such a familiar movie with a large audience. Every time something hilariously unfortunate happened to those darned Wet Bandits and I heard the innocent laughter of children (and adults) all around me, my heart was filled with even more Christmas joy. And I may or may not have taken a picture of the title art as it appeared on the big screen. I hope I don't get arrested for copyright infringement!

 

 

Later in the week, Bradley and I spent an evening in our car driving around town and looking at Christmas lights while we drank some warm coffee. I do love memories like these.

 

We didn't see any of my family this holiday, but we did ship gifts back and forth. My parents let this beauty appear on our doorstep! With their encouragement, we opened it before Christmas morning, and we are so glad we did! We used it to make a couple batches of Brad's delicious eggnog.

 

We kicked off Christmas Eve by going back to the Belcourt Theater to watch "It's A Wonderful Life." They host multiple daily showings of this Christmas Classic every year during the week leading up to the holiday. It may become one of our annual traditions. Watching movies at home without an auditorium full of other film lovers just seems so boring now.

 

When we got home, we swapped our gifts of Christmas PJs, made some cookies from scratch (We seriously love that mixer!), and waited for Santa to come.

 

Christmas Eve just isn't Christmas Eve without a reading of "The Night Before Christmas."

 

Nor would it be complete without boarding the Polar Express!

 

Christmas morning we woke up as a family and exchanged stockings.

 

Chester was anxious to dig into his. I think he was irritated that he could smell bones and treats in the bottom, but he couldn't get to them easily. Even though the sock monkey was initially tossed aside to get to the tasty goodies, he has since played with it a lot. It's actually already missing an ear. Oops.

 

Then we had our traditional Christmas morning breakfast of cinnamon rolls and hot chocolate. Brad tried to make a batch from scratch, but he accidentally killed the yeast and the dough didn't rise. (Yeast is so finicky!) Luckily, we had a tube of Pillsbury on hand. That's still homemade in my book.

 

Later Christmas morning, we finally got to the (other) main event of the day: "Les Miserables"! We had both been so looking forward to this film release, and we were not disappointed. Seriously, go see it. It's amazing. Such great acting and singing and storytelling and visual cinematography!

 

That evening, we had Hill Ridge over for Christmas dinner. With Publix' help, Brad perfectly roasted a ham, and I baked a couple casseroles. Our friends brought over some other side dishes, and we topped off the meal with sparkling grape juice. Oh, and Brad mastered the yeast and made some awesome rolls from scratch. I was thrilled to not only get to spend a great Christmas dinner with our best friends, but also to set my table with my new Christmas dishes!

 

After that, there was nothing else to do but settle in and finish this year's Christmas puzzle.

 

I sure do love Christmastime. I can't wait to finally have children to share all of our traditions with. 

 

How was your Christmas holiday season??

Christmas Card Displays

One of my favorite activities during Christmastime is sending, receiving and decorating with Christmas cards from people we love. Last year, I proudly hung them all on our door. But this year, I saw this cute idea on pinterest for displaying cards that I simply couldn't wait to do in our own home.

So I ran to Big Lots and bought 50 feet of red velvet ribbon for $3 and a package of clothes pins for like $1.50 and got my cabinet doors ready for cards. As the Christmas mail has come in, I've immediately pinned it to the awaiting ribbon.

I really like how the decorated doors not only display the love from some of our favorite people, but also warm up our entire kitchen. (And, as an added bonus, there's no tape to peel the paint off of our garage door. Lesson learned.) I'm definitely going to miss the eye candy when we have to eventually remove them.

However, just because the cards will be taken down from our kitchen cabinets doesn't mean that they'll get thrown away. I found another creative way to showcase cards from Christmas past. You just punch a couple holes in the edges and then bind them together with metal binder rings to make a little booklet that  you can set out as a coffee table book for the holidays. Brilliant, right ?

So, now I actually have something to do with the old cards that I just couldn't bear to throw away at the end of the season. I'll make a new pack each year and just toss them on the  table when I set out our Christmas decorations. And it's really fun to casually look back through them and see how people have changed over the year(s).

And speaking of Christmas cards, here's a virtual version of our 2011 card, just for you! Of course, it features a picture from NYC! Did you send out any this year?

Thanks to both of these new tricks, I have a fun and creative way to show off both current cards and past ones. This makes me love my Christmas cards even more! Do you display the ones you receive? Let me know if you use these same techniques. They're really cheap and easy. Hope you have fun decorating with your Christmas mail!

Joyful blooms

This summer heat wave is making me really crabby. (Seriously, a heat index of well over 100 degrees? Not even being able to check the mail without breaking a sweat? No thank you!) So I decided to focus on an aspect of summer that always makes me smile: pretty plants and the opportunity to work with them.

From the time we purchased our house, Brad and I have enjoyed gradually settling in and making it feel more like home. During the warmer months, that means we're even claiming the yard as well. This summer, we outlined the landscaping that Brad did a year ago with some brick-like "bullets." I think the trim makes the design look much more finished.

When Brad planted the Autumn maple tree (above right), he moved the little magnolia bush and ground cover to the other side of our garage. We've had quite a few blooms this season, but they haven't lasted too long. I'm hoping next year it'll be covered in flowers.

Since I had recently discovered that I really love watching plants grow (God is so visible!), my birthday wish was for a flowery tree to go on the left side of our driveway. I thought I really wanted a cherry tree, since they're so pretty, but the guy easily convinced me to get this hydrangea bush (pruned to resemble a tree) when he said that the blooms last much longer. More flowers make me happy; Sold! It has already grown quite a bit since April, and the little bushels of tiny white flowers are slowly developing. (Note to self: I need to take a current picture.)

Because it was my birthday, the nice (and very knowledgeable) flea market nursery guy let me choose from a host of additional small bushes for free! We chose this pink weigela bush, because pink is my favorite color of flower we knew it would look great in the place of our faltering rhododendron, which we had to move to the back of the house where it gets less light. (And where it is now thriving! Even if it remains unphotographed. Another note to self...)

The azaleas lining the front porch really showed off this year! It's so fun to see plants that we placed there last year come back all on their own (with a lot of  help from their Creator) just to exhibit God's glory. It is actually when these came into bloom that I really learned of my love for working with plants and flowers. It's like witnessing a miracle! And it serves a visual reminder of God's redemptive nature to bring forth beauty where there once was none.

Lilies of all kinds are my very favorite flowers ever (followed closely by tulips), and when these determined stalks surprised us by unexpectedly sprouting out even through a weed barrier and the rocks we had previously laid, I was thrilled! I don't know where we have been all our lives, but it simply didn't occur to us that these flowers would reappear this year. But now I know that bulbs come back and multiply year after year. I guess those "common knowledge" things have to start sometime!

I can't remember exactly what these cute little flowers are (geraniums? anyone?), but they're the perfect "welcome home" on our front porch. This picture was taken immediately after I planted them, but they've since gotten so big that they hang outside of the basket and take up about half of the vertical space. Oh, I just love to watch things grow!

To let that "God automatically makes bulbs reappear and multiply" lesson sink in even further, our day lilies have recently exploded! Last year, we planted six in this area, and this year we must have well over ten plants blooming like crazy. But, seeing as how I looo-oo-ooove lilies, I'm absolutely ecstacic! Brad says that if they keep this up, we may have to relocate some, though. We're thinking of removing the rock in that little section and adding some of the day lilies to the other lilies and just having a lily patch right there. At this rate, it would fill up that area in no time! And a lily patch is right up my alley. The only thing that could make it better, is a few tulips thrown in for good measure.

If our neighbors ever see me come home from work, I'm sure they wonder what in the world I'm doing, because I drive so slowly into the garage, providing me enough time to take a good look at every plant as I pass. When it's not 100 degrees out, I'll pull in and then walk around the whole yard checking out each flower and leaf, noticing any new buds that may have sprouted during the day. It's like they're my little babies or something.

I think flowers are such a wonderful gift from my Father. It's like He just wants me to know how kind, loving, generous, powerful, and creative He is. I mean, generally all women like to receive flowers as a gift from the man they love; I look at flowers growing in the earth as gifts directly from the One who truly holds my heart, as an expression of his love for me. What an incredible blessing.

There. That was just the refocus that I needed in order to break me away from this heat-induced grumpiness. Thanks for your help. 

Fine dining

I know some people may not care all that much, but I'm super excited about our new dining room table! Our old table was a wonderful blessing when it was gifted to us at the start of our marriage, and it has served us very well for over six years. However, it could only fit four, and that was not very conducive to hosting dinners, which is one of our favorite things to do. Especially every thanksgiving, when we've had to shove our card table up to one end to make room for the entire family to sit together.

As our homes have increased in size over the years, so has our available space for a dining area. A bigger table has been on our wish list for a pretty long time, but it hasn't quite ranked high enough on our priority list to also consequently find its way into our budget. Thankfully, my dad graciously volunteered to swap tables with us, since he had a large one just hanging out in his underused dining room. Holla! Now look at this baby! And this is the size of it while only including one of the two additional 1.5 foot leaves!

Isn't it just wonderful? (I know I'm a big dork for being so pumped about furniture, but I'm not even embarrassed about it. It is what it is.) I wish I could take a lot of credit for the way it turned out, but in all honesty, a lot of it was Brad's doing. I definitely wanted to stick with our red and black theme that I love, but it was all Brad's idea to make the "captain" chairs red and the others black, and it was also his idea to have the duel tablecloths (red by black chairs and black by red chairs), and he even stumbled upon the damask cloth all on his own while I was elsewhere in the store! Seriously, I have to give him all the credit. He's my own little interior decorator.

But I will totally take some credit for the floral centerpiece. While it was a mutual effort to piece the flower arrangement together, it was all my idea to use free party favor beaded necklaces as the vase filler. That's decorating on a budget right there.

PS. Just for comparison's sake, here's a picture of our old table being dwarfed in our larger dining room. It was great while it lasted, but I'm so glad to have more proportionate furniture in there that will comfortably seat more people.

Isn't it just so inviting? With the extra leaf added, we can totally fit the whole family at one table for Thanksgiving. (At least until we have to make room for a high chair or two!)

Well, what are ya waiting for? Come on over! There's plenty of room for you to join us for dinner! Hope you like spaghetti! :)

Hey, Homey

After more than a year in Mehaffey Manor, Brad and I finally have curtains hanging in our living room! I've wanted curtains on the windows since the day we moved in, but it was just one of those things that kept getting pushed to the back burner. However, Brad decided to gift me the curtains (and rods and rings) of my choice for my birthday! What a great gift! (I think it could have been more for him than me; I literally haven't stopped whining about our lack-of-curtains for a year. I think he's just as happy to hush me up as I am to hang them up!)

I love the sunlight streaming through the windows, so I didn't want anything too dark. I considered getting a cute pattern, but I didn't want anything to compete with the design on the rug. So, after a month of looking around, I decided to go with something simple to just soften the edges yet not add anything busy to the decor. (And under budget, mind you. You're welcome, Bradley.)

I'm so happy with the way the classic, cream sheers brighten up our otherwise brown room as well as adding that final touch of homeyness to our house; I've always believed that curtains (and rugs) are the subtle elements that complete a space. I know it's something small, but I'm so, super excited to finally have a completed living room. Happy birthday to me!

Christmas House

We have a Christmas House! It's our house, and it's a Christmas house! Oh, I'm just so happy. I didn't necessarily realize it before, but every time I ever envisioned our future home, I always pictured it at Christmastime.

One aspect I was insistent upon in finding our home was a front porch. But not any ol' front porch would do; it had to be big enough for two rocking chairs and it had to have spindles and rails to drape garland on during Christmastime! So, even though I couldn't talk Brad into hanging (or purchasing, really) exterior lights like he helped hang on Kris' house, I still think the outside of ours looks nice and festive! Oh, isn't it just WONderful??

As soon as we walked into our house for the first time last February, I immediately imagined our Christmas tree located perfectly in the center of the living room bay window.

And I was also already anxious to see a fire burning under our Christmas stockings hanging from our Christmasy mantle.

And I was super pleased to see that it featured a banister going up the stairs so I could wrap lit garland around it, which I had always wanted our future home to posses.

And as soon as I saw this particular space off of the living room, with a little prompting from Heather, I knew it was the perfect place for a shelf and bench. And then, once we put up the (long awaited) furniture, I knew it was going to be perfect for my Christmas Corner! I love having such a prominent place to display my Christmas village (note the chapel on the "hill" in which Brad and I were married) as well as our Christmas story books and other random holiday accents.

I've always loved decking the halls for Christmas, but there's just something even more special about it when it's your own home. I'm fully aware that I'm oftentimes a tad bit dramatic (...Okay, sheesh, you could at least pretend to disagree with me on that one), but I'm so not exaggerating when I look around our house, get all giddy, quickly clap my hands and exclaim, "This is just like a dream come true!"

Because I quite literally have dreamt of having this house. And in that dream it was always Christmastime, and the house was fully equipped with garland and bows on the front porch, our tree in the front window, stockings hanging from the mantle over the fireplace, and garland wrapped around the banister. I can't lie; envisioning Christmas in this house is partly what solidified our my decision to purchase the  home and officially declare it Mehaffey Manor.

I think Bradley might be getting a little annoyed at me constantly shouting, "Oh, I just love this!" every time I see the festive outside of our humble abode or focus on a warm area within, but I really don't mind it even if he does. I simply can't help it. Really. Sometimes I honestly cannot believe how much God has blessed us. It's even more obvious to me during this time of the year. I really am just so happy.