Tannenbaum


For those of you who came to our place in December, you saw how our home because a Christmas tree forest. We had three Christmas trees in all. The first one was in our living room with white lights and my new cute Target ornaments, bought by our last Wedding gift-card. I kind of was in love with this tree. From the snow to my mom’s antique bird ornaments that she gave me this year (which are very special to our family), I wish we could have kept it up for longer.

The next tree, which I forgot to take a picture of before I took it down, was a miniature fiberoptic. It was super tacky. But I bought it last year for my apartment and couldn’t help to put it back up again. I put only two ornaments on the top of this tree. They were little angels–a girl and boy–straight from Mexico, which is where Blair brought them for me last year.

And lastly, the third tree was in our dining room. T.J.’s aunt gave us this tree, that’s why we have so many. We put up our personal ornaments that we had accumulated through the years. My Grandmother, Penny, gave me an ornament each year at Christmas, so it was fun to see all of them on our own tree. We also put up T.J.’s ornaments he got on his mission to Micronesia.

(Sidebar: It’s kind of embarrassing how chubby my cheeks were and how horrible my haircut was in this photo. But it calls for a good laugh, especially compared to T.J. normal sized head.)

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Catching up

Everyday I’ve been thinking, “Wow, I really need to blog about this!” But I haven’t had much time, and I caught a cold, so I haven’t been in the mood to do too much.

My break has been great. I can’t believe it’s more than half over. The house is quiet. I’m riding solo, as my friend Jason Derulo would say. And the next semester starts in six days. But I’m actually anxious for it to begin because the sooner it starts, the sooner it ends. Forever.

I’ve got a lot of posts coming up, hopefully pictures coming soon. We’ve done a lot here in my ol’ Kentucky home and I still have to get caught up about our Christmas with my great in-laws.

But anyway. I hope YOU had a wonderful Christmas and that you have a fun New Years Eve. When you head out to your parties this weekend, remember what Nance (my mother) always says:

Remember who you are.

Don’t do anything I wouldn’t do.

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We need a little Christmas

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Done. Finished. Finito. Complete.

I am finished with my finals and presentations. I have to say, I’m pretty proud of all of my scores. The majority of my final grades were set in stone–no matter my scores on my final, so it really took the pressure off of my finals and so this week actually hasn’t been that bad. Last week was a little more stressful, but none of that matters now because I am finished. In one semester I will be done forever. It’s the greatest feeling!

Now that finals are done and we aren’t leaving for Northern Kentucky/Cincinnati until next Tuesday, here is my to-do list. Don’t be confused, I am excited to do all of the following, I just have been waiting for some time to complete all of it!

  1. Work as many hours as possible at work. Since we are going to be off of work for a couple of days (a little less for T.J. fortunately), I need to get in hours now so it doesn’t hurt us later. I’m excited for a big paycheck!
  2. Write and send out all of Christmas Cards!
  3. Make my gift for my niece Claire! (I don’t want to give it away, but it involves lots of tulle and will be darling!)
  4. Finish painting my bathroom, it’s taken me forever but I finally have time now.
  5. Finish the Hunger Games
  6. Clean the house including the basement… that one will not be as fun, but will be worth it in the end.
  7. Wrap all of our presents
  8. Watch Inception about ten times
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Christmas Card

My talented sister-in-law took photos for our Christmas Card (which reminds me, if you would like one, please let me know). Here are my favorites!

P.s. I edited them, so the mad photo taking skills are hers, but if you see errors in the photoshopping process, that was my fault…

Matching Sweaters

Tomorrow, T.J. and I are getting pictures taken by his sister, Lacey, for our Christmas postcard. I’m very excited, but I don’t know what we should wear. Clearly, I want it to look wintery and festive, but a tiny tiny portion of me wants to get really ugly Christmas sweaters for fun. How about doing our photo like one of these?

Just kidding. But I do need suggestions on what to wearrrrrrr for our first married Christmas card! A red jumper? Leather brown boots with a red top? Help!

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25 Days of Christmas

Another Christmas Miracle: 25 Days of Christmas on ABC Family. If we didn’t have free cable, I’d probably be tempted to buy it each December so I could watch all the movies.

We took a break today to prepare for the coming week and have watched a couple of these Christmas movies shown on 25 Days of Christmas. It made me think of my favorite Christmas movies list. Here are my top ten in order.

  1. Elf. It’s so good, I watch it all year long. But I watch it multiple times throughout the Christmas season to get an extra dose of holiday cheer. Favorite quote- “We elves try to stick to the four main food groups: candy, candy canes, candy corn, and syrup.”
  2. Home Alone
  3. Home Alone 2
  4. The Santa Claus
  5. The Grinch
  6. The Muppet Christmas Carol
  7. Miracle on 34th Street (the new one, not the old one)
  8. It’s a Wonderful Life
  9. Charlie Brown’s Christmas
  10. The Polar Express (or maybe the new Christmas Carol or the 2nd Santa Claus)

What are your favorites? Am I missing one from my list?

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Christmas [Prime] is Here

I decided to do the majority of our Christmas shopping online because I don’t have much time to do shopping and I don’t want to overspend.

So, I planned everything out and have ended up spending less than planned!

“How?” You may ask. I’ll tell you how:

Amazon AND their amazing Prime shipping. It’s truly a Christmas miracle. If you have a student email account, you can get free two-day shipping.

FREE TWO-DAY SHIPPING!

Don’t you hate when you buy things online and the shipping turns out to be just as much as the product itself? Leave your worries at the door, and try it out. Plus, Amazon has everything you could imagine, for much less than the stores at the mall or Walmart. I’m telling you, I’m a real fan.

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Weekend Winter Wonderland Date

Problem: Think of a date that costs relatively nothing, yet will be a fun break from school and get us in the Holiday spirit.

Solution: Make Waffles for dinner, go on a drive to see the lights in Provo including the live manger at the Provo Tabernacle, come home and watch Home Alone while making Christmas cookies for T.J.’s work part tomorrow.