Snow Day!

We got so much snow yesterday! Definitely a lot for Nashville, at least. Look at poor Walter! He's got snow up to his thighs!

He doesn't get to often, but Chester absolutely loves to play in the snow. I tried to get a picture of him out there, but he was running around so fast that it was hard to capture him in the frame. Aren't his little paw prints adorable, though? That bottom picture of him is on our front porch; we had so much snow that it even drifted all the way up to our front door!

So, what did Brad and I do today, you ask? Well, we stayed home, of course! I called in to work due to the icy roads (along with the majority of the office), and we bundled up in our pj's, slept in super late and watched Christmas movies all afternoon. The hospital ended up calling Brad and telling him not to come in tonight, which  meant we even had the whole evening together! We woke up and are going to sleep together for the first time in a very long time!

So our evening has consisted of football, beer (for Brad, blegch, water for me), and PIZZA!! Not lame pizza either. This is no Totino's, or other frozen, or Little Caesar's, which all have a rightful place, but are totally not big deals compared to Papa John's!! And since I agreed to let Brad spend his unexpected evening off watching football, he let me get pineapples on half of it just for me! Yum, yum!

Pretty much, the (entire) day shut in with my love has been quite a blessing. It reminds me of another time we were snowed in. I guess, every once in a while, God just tells us to slow down and enjoy time with our favorites. Who are we to argue?

Awkward Mehaffey Family Photos, 2010 Edition

Every Thanksgiving, the family takes advantage of the fact that we're all together to take the family photo to be included in the annual Mehaffey Christmas card/letter.

It's a pretty difficult task to take a good picture of the entire family without it looking too awkward. Exhibit A:

The guys are way too tall when they're standing and the girls are sitting. (Besides, what girl wants to be squished, hunched over and sitting down in a picture?)

 

Okay, then let's switch. Nope, now the girls are really far away midgets. And the guys look like dorks. (No offense, guys.)

Well, that obviously didn't work. Everybody on their feet! Let's try the stairway and banister for some variety. (Besides, I love having a garland-ed banister! What a great opportunity to show it off...)

Yeah, okay. That one's better, but it's still worthy of the Awkward Family Photos website.

Speaking of Awkward Family Photos, we couldn't help but immediately compare our Christmas poses to some that are even worse!

After multiple failed attempts, we did eventually achieve a family shot that we all agreed was sufficient enough for this year's edition of the Christmas Chronicle. At least it's less awkward than some.

The process may be somewhat awkward every Thanksgiving, but it generally provides lots of laughs (which is good because it means genuine smiles for the picture) and more good memories. Besides, it's a real treasure to have a snapshot of our family exactly as it is at the time. Every year we enjoy reading past Christmas letters and laughing at the family photos that accompany each of them. It's always interesting to see who and where we have been. I'm actually really grateful for the tradition.

Do you send out Christmas cards or take annual family pictures? Do they end up being equal amounts awkward and awesome?

O Christmas Tree

There are fewer things I love more than Christmastime; not only the day itself, but the entire season. (Which is why I began my Christmas season as early as possible, even before Thanksgiving, this year.) Nothing visually demonstrates the season better than the decorative centerpiece of the holiday:

The Christmas Tree

I love decorating our tree every year. Not only does it mean the start of Christmas, when I can finally stop reigning in my excitement and start watching the movies, listening to the music, seeing the sights and smelling the scents, but it also allows me to take a stroll down Memory Lane, starting in 2005 during Brad's and my first Christmas together.

Every year since then, we have purchased and personalized an ornament. (Except for 2006 - would it be a lie to get one and just backlog it for the missing year? Maybe with something cute with caps and gowns since that's when Brad and I graduated from college?) This year, we got to personalize two since we got an additional one to commemorate the purchase of our first home!

I love the opportunity to reminisce as we remove each ornament from storage and carefully place it on the branches. We have one from our honeymoon in Niagara Falls, others that we colored ourselves, and even a sweet baby one honoring Brad's very first Christmas back in 1983! (Thanks, Elaine, for passing down your firstborn's ornaments as he transitioned into his own home.) We also have a plethora of tree decorations that have no sentimental value other than making me smile every time I see them sparkle.

Looking at a Christmas tree shine makes my whole body relax. For some reason, sitting in the glow and enjoying the twinkling lights feels like home to me. It's calm and it's peaceful. It's comforting to know that families all over the world are doing the same thing. It provides a sense of stability and joy even when the world may not be going the way you'd prefer.

I definitely love Christmas Day, and especially the birth of my Savior which it represents, but for me it's the entire Christmas season building up the anticipation for that celebration that is my favorite. A whole month (or more) of peace and joy and hope and love and kindness and sharing and selflessness and warmth and family and togetherness and fun and sparkles and shine and cookies and smiles and stories and friends and movies and music and smells and gingerbread houses and decorations and completeness. And it all begins with the Christmas Tree. Let the Christmastime begin. 

Have you put up your Christmas tree, yet?

Lights at Heights

Emily bought some Christmas lights on sale last year and simply could not wait to decorate the outside of her house with them. However, Kris is pretty much afraid of heights and not at all excited of the prospect of hanging them along the high rooftop. So whether or not she would be able to convince him to string the festive lights for their neighbors us to see was kind of up in the air.

When Brad got the panic stricken text message from Kris this past weekend pleading with him to "just come watch, maybe catch me if I fall, and try to make sure I don't die" as he decorated his house,  I should have known that it was obviously code for " please crawl all over my roof, climb to the very highest point, and do all the scary high up work to hang these lights for me so my wife will be happy and and stop begging me to do it."

I snuck a few glances (and pictures, obviously) out of our window while I was getting ready for the church Christmas party, and I wasn't at all surprised to see Kris' feet planted firmly on solid ground or to see Bradley climbing around their rooftop like a monkey. I suppose that's what friends are for. I think it's even in the BFF Agreement, Article 7.

All the combined hard work definitely paid off, though, because it really looks super awesome. I love looking out my window and seeing the twinkling outline of a good friend's home. Makes me all full of warm Christmas fuzzies.

Now, if I could just talk Brad into hanging lights up on our own house, I'd be even happier...

Gerber Generation

Vote for Miss Charlie Joy to become the next Gerber Baby! You can vote once a day, every day. (Seriously, only once. Trying to trick them by using a different email address won't work as long as you're on the same computer. Believe me. I've tried.) They pick six winners every month to win various prizes, and the baby with the most votes at the end of the six month period is not only crowned the next Gerber Baby by appearing in a Gerber ad, but they also receive a $25,000 scholarship! Click on the photo below to vote for Charlie, and feel free to come back every day to do it again and again if you happen to be so inclined!

And just in case you need a little more convincing of CJ's monumental cuteness, check out some recent Christmastime photos of my (best friend's) precious little girl.

See? Toldja she's the cutest little thing in all the land! She makes my whole heart just fall right apart. Definitely Gerber material if you ask me. Help make Charlie the winner by voting!

♥ As you can see, I'm a very proud "Aunt." ♥

Cozy

We've had snow in Nashville the last couple of days! Now, granted, snow in Nashville isn't quite the same as snow, say, anywhere farther North. These were more like consistent flurries, but it still counts!

So, when Brad and I got home from church yesterday, we immediately changed out of our Sunday Best and into some warm, fleece (past Christmas) pj's and ate one of my favorite winter meals: Grilled Cheese and Tomato Soup. Then we bundled up under a blanket on the couch to take our customary Sunday afternoon naps.

There's just something about this meal that makes me feel so cozy inside, especially when it's combined with snow and warm pj's... I love this time of year!

What are some of your favorite winter foods?



Red and Green and Jeans

So Lindsey, my BWF (best work friend) and Chester's surrogate mama, realized that she and I are very Christmasy when we go outside together! Guess that's why we make such a great pair.

Also, did you notice those jeans that we're wearing!?! At the office!? Oh yeah! We can totally wear jeans to work right now while our office is undergoing an extensive (overdue) remodel!

Right now, our entire office is dust and sheet rock and hammers and nails. Walls are being removed and new offices are being built and we're getting all new carpet and changing all of the paint and decorations. The end result is going to be amazing! I just hope we can make it through the reconstruction without losing our minds. They claim that it'll be finished by the end of the year before Busy Season 2011 begins. We'll see.

Luckily, my area hasn't been demolished, yet. Since the reception area and lobby is what clients see when they come in, they're waiting until the end to destroy it with hopes of a super speedy recovery. When it's finished, I think it'll be awesome. The location of my desk is shifting and I'm getting a new coffee bar and mini fridge for refreshments! Holla!

With that end result in mind, and the fact that we can wear jeans to work as we battle the drywall dust, I'm pretty much a happy camper.

Puzzled

I've always enjoyed puzzles, even though they aren't necessarily Brad's cup o' tea. There's just something so relaxing and rewarding about fitting those little jigsaw pieces perfectly into place to unveil the not-so-secret picture. (Besides, what else are you going to do in the winter while Jack Frost is keeping you indoors? This is much better than watching TV. Well, unless it's a Christmas movie, of course. Ahem. Sorry, I digress...)

My friend, Jessica, told me about a tradition she grew up doing with her family during the Christmas season. Every year, they choose a puzzle to assemble between Thanksgiving and Christmas. When it is completed, they glue it together and back it with cardboard to keep it sturdy and then hang it up as part of their Christmas decor. But before they do that, they write the year on the bottom front corner and have everybody who helped with it, even if they only put a single piece in, sign the back.

Every year, her family loves to reminisce as they hang all of the puzzles up around the house, making a timeline of sorts, chronicling their past Christmases. She said part of the fun is choosing the perfect puzzle to showcase. After accumulating so many years' worth, it's been a neat challenge for them to locate puzzles with different pictures and scenes or even unique shapes, like a Christmas tree or a wreath or a stocking. (How fun!)

Well, I love puzzles, and I love traditions, so I jumped all over this task as soon as she shared it with me. I whipped this wintery snowman out of our closet after our Thanksgiving meal, and with a lot of help from certain family members, (even though we were minorly distracted by a board game) we made some pretty major progress by the end of the evening.

Once I had a free minute after everybody had left, I dove back into puzzle land. I didn't necessarily intend to, in fact. I had just finished setting up my Christmas Village (yea!) and was about to head upstairs to do some laundry when I passed the assembled border and scattered pieces tempting me from the coffee table. I thought, "Eh, what the heck? I'll put a couple pieces in." After a while, I was reminding myself of the impending chore and saying, "Okay, when I find that elusive piece, I'll be done." It wasn't long before it was, "Once I finish this section, I'll quit." But by then, I thought "I might as well complete the whole thing since I'm so close!"

Yeah, I'm not proud to admit that I stayed up passed midnight to piece the scene back together. Not only did I not even begin the laundry, but I also took the fun out of the rest of the season by finishing it so soon! (Am I weird that a puzzle is like crack to me? So addicting!)

Oh well. It felt good to stand up and see what I had accomplished. Told ya there's that sense of satisfaction when the pieces fit together to look just like the box cover. Now all I need are Elaine and Jeremy's (anybody else's?) signatures on the back, and I'm good to go.

The new Christmas Puzzle Tradition is officially in effect.

Full Bellies and Hearts

Is there anything better than enjoying delicious food and wonderful company at the same time? I don't think so. That's why Thanksgiving is the greatest ever. Add Christmas decorations and music to the setting, (which I unashamedly did this year and have zero regrets) and it's some of the best times ever spent.

We started off the holiday in Illinois with my side of the family. We gathered at my older brother's house for a feast on Thanksgiving day, just like last year. Jennie, is an incredible cook (she even made an apple pie completely from scratch!) and supervisor in the kitchen, so the dinner was unsurprisingly amazing. We had such a great time sitting around the table and reminiscing about old times and poking fun at each other. (YAMS!) It's not very often at all that all of us kids get together, but we quickly made up for lost time, while Dad pretended not to hear some of our confessions stories from childhood. Loved it.

After such a huge meal, everybody vegged out. We all lounged around the house, watched football and possibly even dozed off here and there. Totally works for me.

Making our lazy snuggling even better was the fresh blanket of snow falling outside! It was so cozy! (It was getting dark out, so the picture is hard to see, but when I used the flash you could only see the nearest snowflakes very brightly.)

And, just because I can't get enough of him, look at my adorable nephew in his old man pj's! I love him and those bright blue eyes of his! (Rachel was running around too much to snap a picture of. Sad day. Guess that's what happens when you're three. Busy, busy, busy.)

I declined the offer to join Jennie for some Black Friday shopping (she's loony), and Brad and I headed back to Nashville to prepare for our second Thanksgiving of 2010. Mehaffey Thanksgiving is always conveniently celebrated the Saturday following the holiday, and we were hosting the family for the second year in a row. I couldn't wait to utilize our new spacious house and see what our kitchen was really made of!

Of course, the girls slaved away in the kitchen all morning while the boys played video games. What's new? Brad finally adventured out from the man cave when it was time to carve the turkey.

I believe the kitchen worked just fine, as the meal was wonderful, if I do say so myself. We had so much food that we had to pull out our TV trays and set them around us as "overflow tables" (a technique I learned from my mom) to hold some dishes. (PS. Don't judge us for the table being elongated by a card table. We're still young.)

Even though the dinner was interrupted by some Thanksgiving visitors, it was a pleasant meal around the table(s) with people we love dearly. Doesn't get much better.

Well, maybe a little... That evening, we took a hiatus from our very important Christmas puzzle assembly to play a board game that my brother, Richard, had given me just days before. Quelf is the most random game we have ever played; possibly in the world. The whole family made fools of ourselves as we acted out ridiculous scenes (ice skating around the room with no top lip), had drawing contests with our opposite hands (of a rhino arm wrestling an elephant), recited silly sayings as events occurred ("serves your right, Captain Poopy Pants"), tried to get people to participate in strange scenarios (evacuating the room because of a manure filled tornado or standing to salute you as you "toot" the national anthem through your nose), and barked viciously at any of the four dogs when they came close to the game board (they were so confused and joined in with the barking). Honestly, as crazy as all that sounds, it was even worse in person. Much worse, actually. You should have seen us. I haven't laughed (until I cried) that hard in ages.

Even though it was a four-day weekend, it was so jam packed full of food, family, and fun blessings that it simply flew by. I'm so grateful that we both have such awesome families to spend the holidays with. God sure does spoil me rotton. Thanksgiving is such a fitting name, since there is so much to give thanks for.