{Christmas Eve}

Things that I love about Christmas Eve:

1. Anticipation

2. Family

3. Baking cookies

4. Music!!

5. Snow (when we have it )

6. Gifts

7. Taking down another ring on my Santa calendar

8. The smells of the Christmas candles

9. Fun with Friends

10. Being alive and able to enjoy the holidays with all the people I love

When You Can't Sleep

I don't really know what has been going on this week, but I have not been sleeping at night. Aaron has been getting up at 5 am for work and that is when I wake up. I usually can't get back to sleep for a few hours and then I wake up at noon and feel like a bum. Today I woke up at 9 which was great, but after a busy day Aaron and I ended up cat napping on the couch and woke up at 10 pm. Now I am wide awake and he is snoozing like I should be. There are a million things I can do in preparation for tomorrow...today and Christmas. I just don't know if I want to go to Wal-Mart at 3 in the morning. I don't know if I want to go anywhere by myself at 3 in the morning. The problem is I know if I go to bed I will stay awake for an hour or more and I won't wake up until noon again. I can't let that happen because tomorrow we have lots of things planned. Maybe I can't sleep because I am really excited... I don't know but this is bothersome...

I watched a great movie today. Well I am not an acclaimed movie critic but it was pretty good in my opinion. Anywho it is called Morning Glory. It has Rachel McAdams and Harrison Ford. I like Harrison Ford. He is really funny in this movie. If you are looking for a feel-good movie as Netflix calls it, then this is a good one. I wouldn't call it a full blown chick-flick, but I guess a guy wouldn't watch it alone :) It is good watch it! That is my 3 am recommendation.

Christmasie Crafts :)

I think Christmas is hands down my favorite holiday. If I had to pick one reason why it is probably because of all the lights. I love shiny and sparkly things. They make me happy. I have a ton more reasons for loving Christmas and most of them have to do with making things with friends and family. I have been helping the kids at school for the past couple weeks with all sorts of decorations and crafts and gifts. That inspired me to do some crafting of my own. 

You need mini bows. Maybe not this many but I am doing a couple and I like to have options.

You need a hot glue gun with some glue and curling ribbon in any color that strikes your fancy.

glue one end down and start wrapping! Keep gluing as you go to secure the ribbon.
(I didn't do that on my first one so I need to on the next one!)

Phase one complete.

I went back the other direction with a different shade to make a candy cane looking pattern. Glue the same way as the first time.

then add bows :) peel off the paper on the back and use hot glue to keep them super secure. If you need to trim the adhesive strip on the back to for the width of the headband.

 The first attempt is not so bad I guess.

But I wanted to add another bow :) I like bows.

For review--

you need: mini bows, curling ribbon, hot glue gun, glue sticks, headband(s)

This took me 10 minutes and I am pretty happy with the turn out. I can't wait to wear it with my Christmas sweater!!

{Thank You Notes}

Okay so I will be the first to admit that I am slow about things. This has gotten progressively worse since I have been with Aaron. He is the most chillax person in the world and that is great, but it also means that we both tend to push things off. That is not so great...

So we struggled with what to do for our thank you cards. Then we decided and we struggled to find where to get them from. Finally we found a place that would print us 100 cards for free that we could design! In reality it cost us 15 bucks to ship but hey it was still sort free...well just cheaper than they would have been other places. Now we have the cards, the list of peeps to thank and the gifts they gave, we have pens, and most of the stamps and addresses. Unfortunately every time I am ready to work, Aaron wants a nap. On the other side of that every time Aaron is willing to work on them I am doing some project or filling out something for seminary... that is another stressful topic.

Despite all of those things we resolved to finish them by the end of Christmas break. Do you want to know how many we have done?? Okay, Okay don't be so pushy I will tell you :)

One.

We are horrible people, but we are trying to get better. I actually have a stack in front of me and I am working on more as we speak... or as I type I guess. I just need Aaron to do the addresses when he wakes up and we will have at least 20 done :) Since I am so dedicated to doing these now I take little breaks to look at stationary and cool pens and things. For fun I am going to show you some of the neat stuff I found. I am a real hard worker :)

Barnes & Noble letter stationary set

 

From Barnes & Noble also

From rubber stamping fun

This has nothing to do with thank you notes but I found it one pinterest and it reminded me of the notes my mom used to put in my lunch box :)

Sick Day

Today I woke up at 5 am when Aaron got up for work. The plan was for me to drive him to work so that I could have the car for later when I needed to go to work. Unfortunately the cold I had been trying to ward off came on full force and needless to say I felt like poo this morning.

I couldn't fall to sleep again so Aaron gave me some meds and made my bed out in the front room. He turned on the Christmas tree. I fell asleep with Home Alone 3 on for background noise and the tree was my night light. I woke up at 11 feeling rested but still icky. It was one of those days I hate but love at the same time.

The reasons that sick days are bad is because there are a million things you can do, but you don't have the energy to do them. Also, if you are like me, you don't have the will power. I spent the afternoon cat napping through Cake Boss and thinking about how I will accomplish all of our thank you notes from the wedding.

There are also a million and a half reasons sick days are great. You get lots of sleep, hopefully. You get to lay around and hopefully not feel too lazy. Also it is kind of acceptable to wear sweat pants all day and not take a bath until 3 pm. I love sick days now that I am married because Aaron is a real good caretaker. I have always thought he is the more nurturing of the two of us, and I have lots of examples to back that up.

Today he came home with everything we needed for dinner, he got lots of medicine for me, and jello for my scratchy, hurty throat. He made dinner for us and he even rubbed my feet while we were watching Burn Notice. He hates rubbing feet!

All in all today was not the day I had hoped it would be or that we had planned it would be. It was however a nice day to cuddle up, get well, and spend some time receiving wonderful care from my hubby :)

Christmas Time is Here!

So Aaron and I have been really excited for Christmas. In some sense I have been too excited and I have to really watch myself to hold back from getting ever kind of decoration I have. It is just really exciting to have your own home and to start new traditions. I am so blessed to be able to experience Christmas in a way I haven't in years and I can't wait to spend it with my whole family in our little living room :)

So many wonderful things come from Wal-Mart :)

We picked him because not only was he 20 bucks, but his name is Wesley and we go to Indiana Wesleyan so we thought it was a match made in heaven :)

Picking a winner

I'm super happy :)

These are my favorite...

but Aaron likes traditional white lights.

So many colors! How will we choose!?!

Essentials

Ornaments :)

Time to put up the tree 

He is supposed to be 6 feet tall, and I don't know if you can tell but he is my height and I am 5'7''

Lights!

these are very pretty :)

tinsel = magical

We got an UP ornament for a wedding gift since we played it at our wedding :)

Another Wedding gift :)

We got this little guy on the honeymoon. I love him.

All Done! with presents :)

I can't wait for Christmas at our home with my family. It is going to be awesome!

Wesley :)

I love our Christmas tree :)

R for Rice... or radical... or rambunctious...or reindeer

Some crafts I tried to decorate for cheap. This is an old applesauce jar that I used hot glue to spell,'let it snow' and then I painted over it. It turned out alright and it hides the router on the kitchen table :)

Mason jar + Christmas sprinkles I have had for 3 years + candle = Christmasy candle idea I got from pinterest :)

Santa belly pail from target. It lives on our entry table and hold my Xmas pens :)

Clementines are a must during the holiday season

Pine scented candle and I haven't posted about it yet but that bottle in the background was made by Aaron and it is awesome.

I mistakenly told my best friend this was my Advent calender... but I am still calling it that because that is what I call it :)

Hooray for Christmas!