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??

One Week More

Ohmygoodness, you guys!!!

[image source]

So, you know how I have a tendency to get kind of obsessed with a few things? (What me? Never!) Well, my newest obsession has become Les Miserables. And people, seriously, it should become your latest obsession, too!

 

Mere months ago, I didn't know anything about Les Mis more than the fact that it's a "fancy" musical which I'll probably never encounter. Pssh. How naive I was! Little did I know that it is the most epic story in history (besides the story of Christ)!

 

A good friend of mine introduced me to the trailer, and the rest is history. Here, let me do the honors of paying it forward to you. Feast your eyes on this!

Shyeah! Toldja so! Based on those two and a half minutes, I decided that it looked absolutely monumental. Since then, I've been pouring over everything I can get my hands on through the trusty world wide web. Brad and I have listened to the soundtrack, I've watched the 25th Anniversary Concert, and I have seen every clip that the film has posted on youtube. It's official. I'm obsessed.

 

From my limited understanding of the history, Victor Hugo's 1862 novel about the life of a convict (and those surrounding him) during a French Revolution and spotlighting social injustices of the time has inspired many film adaptations as well as the musical that's been running here and in London since the 80's. But I'm pretty sure that this is the first film to be based on the musical which is based on the book. And they're doing their best to bring the authenticity of Broadway to our screens. The director insisted that every take be sung live rather than prerecorded and lip synced during shooting.

I can't get over how incredibly amazing this film will be. The more I learn about it, the more excited I become. The story! The actors! The voices! You better believe that Brad and I have already purchased our tickets for Christmas morning, opening day. I can't wait! (You can also count down the days with this Les Mis advent calendar!) 

One Day Week More! I can already hear the people sing!

Ready for Christmas

There are few things I love more than a Christmas house. And in addition to our award winning exterior decorations, the inside is all ready for the holiday as well! This is the first time we've celebrated Christmas twice in the same house, so it was kind of weird to decorate and already know where everything went. Thankfully, the addition of new Christmas cards and new ways to display them has added a little variety from last year. And Brad and I found some new stockings that we like better, so our mantle looks a little different, too.

Our tree is mostly the same with a few new additions. And my good friend, Kristen, made me a wonderful green, red, and silver ornament wreathe to hang on the wall, that features a happy Noel the Gnome in the center of it. She knows me very well.

Of course, we personalized our annual Mehaffey ornament for 2011, but we also added some fitting NYC ornaments to our collection. The adorable Mindy and Brad initials are another gift from Kristen, the other M is for Mehaffey and each couple in the family has a matching one, and the "Faith" precious moment one was a gift from my mother-in-law, encouraging us to keep our faith in the Lord as we continue on through our fertility process (so thoughtful!).  I love that we add to our tree's "trimming" each year.

But wait, did you notice all of those presents??? Many of those are for other people that we love, but some of them are for Brad and me, too. Holla!! I'm dying to see what's inside them! (I'm really just anxious for some nice slippers. One of those wrapped boxes under the tree better have a pair of slippers for me! Ahem, Bradley.)

Of course, Christmas is so much more than slippers gifts under the tree. I hope you all get a chance to spend time with your family and those whom you love this weekend!

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!

PS. I'm praying for many of you who are especially reminded of losses over the holiday season, or may be celebrating Christmas for the first time without that certain someone who is missed dearly. My heart is with you. God is near.

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!

Tastefully Griswolding it

I interrupt this just-begun NYC series to bring you our Christmas House for 2011! (The series of posts regarding our Thanksgiving trip will continue at a later date. I make no promises for continuity. But eventually, all six days will definitely be documented. Guaranteed.)

Oh! I just love Christmastime! And I love coming home to our festive Christmas house!! I really enjoyed our outside decor last year, but this time we upped the ante with lights!! Lots of lights! (That we bought in after Christmas sales, last year. Sneaky.)

It took an entire weekend to complete, and we joked that our house was going to look very Griswoldian when it was all finished. But I think Brad was able to pull it off in a more tasteful, classic way than the classic vacationers. I love that there are wreaths, garland and bows to enjoy during the daytime, as well as pretty lights to see at night! (The bows on the mailbox were Brad's surprise touch. He pretends that he does all of this for my benefit, but he totally loves it, too!)

And look at these super adorable, super cheap, super easy little Christmas trees I made out of upside-down tomato cages, some garland, and a coupld strands of twinkling lights. I'm not generally crafty, but I really like the way these turned out! And they oh-so-conveniently hide our very occupied outlet by the front door. [Thanks, Pinterest!]

And now, the grand unveiling of our Christmas House at night! *Drumroll* Isn't it just magical?? Brad decided to add lights even to the garland draped on the railing, and Charles had some extra net lights for the bushes to complete the whole scene.

The lights go all of the way back on both sides of the house. Thanks to our automatic timer, this is the pretty view I get to see as I drive through our neighborhood to our house every day. Ahh...

I really like how our entryway turned out. I feel like it's so warm and inviting. I love the glowing lights outlining the house and the twinkling lights on the mini trees and the fact that you can see our Christmas tree through the window, as well as the shadows of the bows. What a very happy, pretty time of year. :)

And to be honest, I'm really glad the exterior decorations all turned out so well, because it was a pretty scary process to hang them. Brad climbed all of the way to the very peak of our steep roof and down each side attaching lights every few inches. I could only watch long enough to take these few shots, and then I had to go in before I got too nervous. Kris volunteered to throw boxes of lights up to him, and even to "catch him if he fell." (How very kind of him.) Even with his fear of  heights, he climbed out onto our porch roof to provide some assistance. I guess he was just returning the favor from last year (and again, this year). Thankfully, another friend brought some extension ladders the next day to finish off the sides of the roof where it was too dangerous to venture from the shingles. Good friends are good to have. Jussayin...

Tonight, our HOA is hosting a community walk to view all of the houses in the neighborhood, and then they're awarding a $50 gift card to one winner with the best decorated home. Our fingers are crossed that we'll make the cut!

**Update: We totally won! Holla!!!

Big Plans in the Big Apple

Guess what Brad and I are doing this Thanksgiving. Give up?

We're going to New York City! Yahoo! Yea! Yippee!! Holllllaaaaaa!!! We're going to spend the whole week in The Big Apple, and the best part is, we are going to watch the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade live! Ohmygoodness. I honestly couldn't possibly be any more excited ever, ever. Eeeee!!!!

And while the Parade will obviously be the highlight of our trip, there's another event edging in at a very close second: We're going to see Wicked on Broadway. Holy cow, I absolutely cannot wait!

We have big plans for the week that we're there. We've spent months pouring over every available activity in NYC, including landmarks, tours, museums, shopping areas, etc. and grouping them by location. Our poor visitor's map has already been well worn in.

We've decided that this will definitely be more of a "trip" than a "vacation," since there will be no relaxing for us in the Big Apple. We plan to wake up early each morning (especially Thanksgiving morning), eat a quick breakfast at the hotel, then head out for the entire day, only to come back late in the evening to crash for the night. Our itinerary is jam packed, and it's just how we like it. (Don't judge me for my color-coded excel spreadsheet. The level of my nerdiness is directly proportional to my level of excitment. Just consider yourself lucky that you don't have to view all the other tabs in that workbook. Ha.)

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New York City has so many iconic locations. The Statue of Liberty. The World Trade Center memorial. Central Park. The Empire State Building. Times Square. So many! I mentioned to my mom that I want to have breakfast at Tiffany's in honor of the classic film, even if it's just a donut by the entrance, and she surprised me by sending me this Tiffany and Co. coffee mug to prepare. I already feel so ritzy just from that pretty packaging alone!

Oh my goodness! I'm so excited I can hardly stand it! I know that we're going over Thanksgiving, but I have to admit, I'm mostly excited about Christmas in New  York.  Can you believe we'll actually visit the real Macy's on 34th street? We'll get to see the Plaza like in Home Alone 2: Lost in New York. We'll get to shop at FAO Schwarz and walk past the men dressed as toy soldiers at the door on our way to stepping on the Big piano. We'll get to ice skate at Rockefeller Center, all bundled up in our winter scarves. And we'll witness, live, Santa Clause starting off the Christmas Season at the end of the Parade!  This trip is a Christmas fanatic's dream come true!

Seriously, I have to calm myself down when I start thinking about it. Brad and I haven't been on a week-long vacation since our honeymoon six years ago, and neither of us have ever been to New York City. I can't wait to make all those wonderful memories!

Any recommendations, if you've visited the Big Apple in the past? Or if you love a movie scene or TV location in the city that's a must-see?

image sources: here, here, and here