Christmas 2011

We had a fantastic Christmas in Savannah this year - I'm so glad we had the opportunity to go!  I feel so lucky that Garrett had the entire week before Christmas off.  It's pretty rare to have Christmas breaks like that in a residency program.  We certainly try to take advantage of every day he has off!

We got to Savannah on Monday night the week before Christmas.  The week was spent wrapping presents, eating treats, decorating cookies, baking, going walking, playing outside, playing a LOT of Wii (guys), and a day shopping (girls - thanks to the Dads who stayed home with the kids all afternoon!), playing games in the evenings, ice skating (I actually skated by myself a few times around the rink! (I am a horrible skater)), and just chatting a lot.

Decorating cookies:

Playing outside:

The kids opening their Christmas jammies:

Cookies for Santa:

Kids' table:

 Lots of sparkling drinks:

Probably the most successful kid picture we've taken to date.... no one is crying or trying to run away!

Probably my favorite experience over this Christmas break was getting to spend a nice, quiet Christmas Eve together.  After the kids went to bed, the adults sat around talking and reading some great Christmas stories out loud.  After the stories, we made little "time capsules", where each of us wrote down on a piece of paper some of the best things that happened to us in 2011.  We also wrote down what we hope to accomplish in the coming year, and the idea is the next year we'll open them up again and read what we wrote down.  After everyone was done writing, some of us shared what we had written and it was so fun to laugh and cry together.  There were some tough times over the last year, and we got to talk about those experiences and I think it brought us all a lot closer together.

And finally, Santa did come!  He brought Abby a pretty pink bike with sparkly streamers on the handlebars.  She loves it!  Santa also brought Garrett a bike, so they've already taken a few bike rides together since coming home this week.  The weather has been gorgeous, so hopefully that will last a while!

Lately......

An "Instagram-a-day".......

 Ellie sitting in her doll stroller (this really cracked us up... she would strap herself in and put the doll blanket on her lap, and scoot around the room.  It looked like a little wheelchair) - Trying a new quilting pattern (circles)

 Spin park - Abby eating a tortilla

  Hunting for alligators - Merry Christmas/Happy Valentines Day/Birthday/Anniversary to us

  Abby making faces - Ellie eating lunch

  Rylan, Abby, & Ellie - Thanksgiving turkey

  My nephew Gavin - The Nutcracker

  Kids - Playing Catchphrase late into the night

  Pizza night - Abby

  Christmas tree shopping - The tree

  Happy Birthday Kristi - Ellie at the park

  Future heartbreaker - decorating Christmas cookies

  Dancing to Christmas music - Fooling around (yes, that's Felicity in the back seat)

  Refusing to sit on Santa's lap - Garrett and Abby reading in bed

It's beginning to feel a lot like... 78 degrees.

Dancing to Christmas music

Despite listening to the Christmas channel on Pandora for 10+ hours a day, I'm having a hard time feeling Christmas-y this year.  I blame it on the weather.  It was 78 degrees today - how am I supposed to be in the Christmas spirit when it's so hot outside?

Haven't I blogged about this before? ;)

I grew up in New England - I am used to snow.  Ice storms.  Snow days.  Freezing weather.  Seeing my breath in the chilly air.  Hot chocolate.  Stringing popcorn and cranberries on the tree (if you do that here, you might as well just put out a "Welcome" mat for all the bugs).

Abby asked me a few weeks ago when we were going to get snow.  I told her that we wouldn't be getting snow this year because it's too hot.  Poor girl started crying on the spot.

By this time last year, I was done Christmas shopping!!  I had made a lot of really cute gifts!  Not so this year.

Now, I do have to say this: 78 degrees is glorious weather.  It is perfect for playing outside.  Going for walks.  Going to the park.  Running.  Lounging on the porch.  It's gorgeous, and I do love it for the most part.

But, I would really love a week of winter.  I would love to look out my window and see snow falling gently.  I love how quiet the world gets while it's snowing outside, or right after a snowstorm.  I would love to have a big steaming mug of hot chocolate or hot apple cider instead of a glass of ice water.

But don't worry, I know what will help, and hopefully I can do them while we are in Savannah next week: watch "White Christmas" and "It's a Wonderful Life".  Decorate Christmas music.  Be surrounded by family.  Visit with friends.  Read Luke 2.  Play some Christmas games.  Do some acts of service.  Eat more treats. :)

... and of course, wrap some presents!  Garrett and I bought ourselves a gift last month during a pre-Black Friday sale so we won't be getting anything for each other this year (or "for the next year"), but thankfully I still have other presents to wrap!  I'm pretty horrible at it (seriously, I am really bad at wrapping, it's embarrassing) but it still gets me in the Christmas spirit.

What's your favorite thing to do to get in the Christmas spirit?

101 in 1001 update

The ones in blue are newly "completed", and the rest are ones I'm (still) currently working on.  Not going to add any new ones to work on until I get a few more of these done:


1. Establish a better flossing routine

I'd say this has been successful!  I floss at least every other day, which is pretty darn good I think.  I'll count it done.

4. Plan something awesome for Garrett's 30th birthday (June 2012)

Still working on this!  It's hard because I keep finding good deals for things online, but of course I can't book anything yet because I am not sure what days Garrett will be able to take off!  So I think the first step is getting Garrett (& friends who are joining us) to take time off, and then working out the rest of the details.

19. Have a fondue night

Will hopefully happen in January.  Bowl game party.

24. Create a will with Garrett

Um, still no closer to doing this.  I keep forgetting!  That, and the fact that we really haven't discussed/can't agree who we want our kids' guardians to be.

34. Host book club

Done!

38. Teach Abby to read

She is doing better all the time!  Still not reading sentences or anything, but some words here and there.

49. Have 6 months of expenses saved up in our emergency fund

Still chugging along here.... 

57. Learn to make bread as good as my mom's

I'd say this has been a success!  Thanks, Mom, for the recipe!  I'll have to post it here sometime, it's sooo good!

62. Make pasta from scratch 
I did this on Wednesday.... it was SO GOOD.  Sadly, I don't have a pasta roller so I had to roll it out by hand, which was REALLY hard and it was kind of "thick" as far as pastas go, but it was still amazing.  I made butternut squash ravioli with a sauce made from caramelized onions, mushrooms, and blue cheese.  Yum.

75. Buy a new sewing machine 
I actually bought a new sewing machine in September, but forgot that it was even on my 101 list, so I didn't mark it as "done"!  The truth is, when I wrote this goal, I was thinking of buying a really nice sewing machine, with all the bells and whistles that quilters love.  However, my current sewing machine broke and it was a cheap-ish machine to begin with, so rather than paying to get it fixed I just replaced it with the exact same model from eBay (for less money than fixing the first one).  So, I suppose that this "counts" as buying a new machine, especially since I no longer see myself buying one with bells and whistles in the next 3 years.

82. Plan (& execute!) something great for my parents' 30th anniversary, hopefully with all my siblings (it's in March 2012)

Still hoping to do this sometime next year, but we haven't talked about it yet.

99. Have ten quilts in my etsy shop

I have nine quilts there, and a tenth quilt top waiting to be basted and quilted!

O Christmas Tree!

 It's a bit embarrassing to say, but this is the first Christmas tree that Garrett and I have ever bought since being married!  Our first year we were married, we went to Big Lots and bought a few strands of lights, bulbs, and a tree stand.  Then we went to pick out a Christmas tree... only to discover that we couldn't afford one, even the smallest ones they had!  So, every year we've brushed off getting a tree because we just couldn't justify buying one since we go out of town for Christmas each year.

This year we are still going out of town, but we figured the kids are old enough to truly enjoy having a Christmas tree.  So, last week we bundled up the kids (i.e., put on long sleeve shirts, ha) and went in search of a Christmas tree.

It was fun to walk amongst the pretty trees and smell that wonderful pine smell... I have always loved the smell of Christmas trees (who doesn't?).  Garrett asked the guy working there which tree was the cheapest, and we eventually led the girls to that one, convincing them that it was the most beautiful tree in the whole lot. (This probably makes us sound like horrible cheapskates.... but it is a very pretty tree, plus remember - we'll be out of town for Christmas.  Can't justify a big expensive tree!  Plus, it was still pretty pricey in my opinion.)

Last Saturday morning we played Christmas music and decorated our pretty little tree.  It's so much fun to create memories with the kids.  I love seeing Christmas through their eyes. 

Leftovers for sale....

No, I'm not trying to sell my two-week-old plain brown rice that I just dug out from the back of the fridge.  Sorry.

But, I mentioned yesterday that I did a little craft fair with my friend last week, and we just happen to have a few leftovers that I figured I would post here on the blog to see if anyone is looking for any last-minute Christmas gifts.

They are rings and earrings, made of resin (kind of looks like clay, but it's plastic-y).  The silver part is all hypoallergenic, nickel free.

$5 each, with a $1 flat shipping rate (if you order more than one thing, it's still just $1 shipping total).

You have probably seen these on Etsy - I think they are SO cute, I definitely kept several for myself!  If you would like to buy some, comment on this post, or email/facebook if you have access to me that way.  Some colors only have one left, so first come first served!  Or, if you really are set on a certain kind that you don't see here, contact me and maybe I can make more for you.  They come in pinks, purples, oranges, grays, red, blues, aqua, yellow, etc.

I hope the pictures are clear enough.... our Christmas tree is in the background and I'm just noticing that all those lights are pretty distracting.

Gray earrings (all the earrings are about the size of a thumbnail):

 Aqua earrings:

All the rings are adjustable:

 Red ring:

 So you can see the size of the rings:

 Black earrings:

 Blue earrings:

 Pink earrings:

 Black ring:

 Gray ring:

 Cream-colored earrings: