Christmas Vacation...Not the Movie :)

Christmas was wonderful. There is no better way to describe it than that. Wonderful.

We headed down to my parents house and had a delicious turkey dinner on Christmas Eve.

This was followed by Trivial Pursuit and another game I can't remember the name of.

We played boys against girls and there was some serious "I wanna win" attitudes going on.

There was tons of yelling and laughing.

Hands down, best Christmas Eve EVER!

We can't forget about Twas the Night Before Christmas, as that was read too!

We all retired to the living room and relaxed.

My brother took his girlfriend home.

He got back and realized he lost his wallet.

Then began our journey to find it.

I rode with him to the gas station,

where we witnessed a Christmas Miracle :)

Two guys found it and brought it inside to the clerk.

All money and cards were still inside!

We woke up Christmas morning and went to church.

We came home and had roast for lunch. It was AMAZING!

At one point I think all of us were napping on the couch, the floor, a chair, where ever we could.

Jessica (my brother's gf) came over.

Poppa got home from his sisters.

The opening of presents started!

Boy did we all rack up :)

We must have all been extra good this year because there were tons of goodies under the tree.

Just to name a few:

This girl got TWO, not one, but TWO pairs of diamond earrings from my honey

a pink sapphire and diamond ring from my momma

two charms for my pandora bracelet

$100 to TARGET

$100 cash

a 31 bag I've been dying for

and plenty of other things :)

I know Christmas isn't about the presents, but hey I'm just thankful for what I got!

We then headed to my grandmas for a little bit and then made the trip home.

All in all it was so wonderful.

I did a little post-Christmas shopping and scored some pretty cute Christmas decorations.

I also found this gorgeous purple and teal pandora-esqe bracelet watch for $12.99 on Zulilly!

I am now headed to spend a few days with my family since they are still off from Christmas!

Christmas Presents

I get paid every other Friday. The month of December brought five total Fridays, three of which fell on a pay week. Therefore there was basically an entire paycheck that no bills would be coming out of. Therefore I decided to get Justin a new, bigger TV. He was having some serious "TV envy" as we like to call it. However, Justin ruined the surprise by insisting on us buying one together around Thanksgiving "since theere were such great deals". I finally had to come out and tell him that I was already planning on getting him a TV. I may have even made him feel guilty about ruining the surprise ;)

So we've been enjoying a new 42-inch TV for about a month now.

However, I still felt awful that he would be presentless (at least from me) on Christmas morning so I still bought more.

I also received a nice Christmas bonus from my wonderful boss and decided to do a little spoiling on my parents, brother, his girlfriend and my grandpa who lives with my parents.

I decided to wrap presents seperately, or mostly seperate so that there would be more to open. Under my tree looks ridiculous! With the way it looks you'd think we have a few kids....and we do not!

I told Justin last night that I am going to have to be the mom who starts buying Christmas presents in June so that we aren't poor!

I just enjoy giving to those I love, so what if I am doing a little spoiling this year ;) God knows my parents spoiled my brother and I for so many years, and still do to this day!

I am just very thankful and blessed that I am able to do this. While presents are not the meaning of the season it still makes me happy to give presents!

Christmas Traditions

Merry Christmas Ya'll :)

So first of all it has been FOREVER since I have posted anything. I have honestly been to busy at work to post and when I get home the last thing I want to do is get on my computer. Sorry! However, with Christmas in 5 days work has begun to slow down quite a bit and I can take a break to post.

Christmas is in 5 days! I can't believe it either...I mean it seems like just yesterday it was Christmas and here it is again. I decorated fairly early on and have added to what decorations I had. I plan on adding every year. Christmas is my absolute favorite time of year and I love having as many decorations as possible! Our tree turned out pretty. However, I think I have convinced myself that next year I want to buy a real tree. I feel like ours looks fake because of the way the branches are and I do not have the patience to sit there and play with every branch to make it look perfect.

We had Christmas with my mom's side of the family this past weekend. With everyone getting older, its hard for everyone to get together at the same time. Only two people were missing which for us is a great accomplishment! We decided to cater in Smithfield's Chicken & BBQ and it was delicious! We had tons of desserts and had a wonderful time.

Now on to more traditions :)

1. Christmas music - I could really listen to Christmas music all year long, but I wait until it starts playing on the radio :) So I've been listening to Christmas music in my car and on Pandora at work since before Thanksgiving! Justin however is not the Christmas music lover that I am. We have come to the agreement that beginning the week of Christmas he has to listen too when I'm in the car :)

2. Decorations  - So I said a little about our decorations up top, but I have some other festive things to share as well! I love coming home to a decorated house with Christmas smells. It feels so home-y and Christmas-y! Here are a few more pictures of our decorations!

Our front door :) 

"The stockings were hung on the mantle with care"

PS - please notice Justin's new TV - yes a Christmas present that I did NOT want to give a month early...he ruined the surprise! 

One of my favorites! Got this at Kirklands for $19.99 I think! It's on the kitchen table 

Another favorite! I got this at Ross for $7.99! 

Our Christmas Wreath :) I definitely can't take the credit on this! I got the wreath pre-made at Target for $25.00 and the bow at Michael's for $6.99.

3. Baking - I like baking any time of year, but especially at Christmas! Maybe I'm a little more like Santa than I thought with my addiction to cookies ;) I think I've probably baked chocolate chip cookies at least once a week this month!

4. Christmas Movies - I adore Christmas movies! The Grinch (the cartoon version), A Christmas Story, Christmas Vacation, Elf, & Christmas with the Kranks just to name a few are some of my favorites! TBS shows A Christmas Story for 24 hours beginning at 8PM on Christmas Eve. It stays on my TV pretty much the whole time. As a kid if I couldn't fall asleep on Christmas Eve, I'd watch A Christmas Story :)

5. Twas' the Night Before Christmas - This is and probably will always be my favorite tradition. My grandma (my mom's mom) read this story to all the grandkids every Christmas Eve. My uncle gets a conference call thing set up and everyone calls in. She read the story to her kids beginning when my mom was born and we have incorporated all the additions to our family since then. My grandma found out she had cancer in May of 2006. By Christmas of that year her voice was pretty raspy due to the radiation (she had throat cancer) but she still read the story. The next year she was pretty much at a whisper anytime she spoke so my grandpa read the story. She passed away in March of 2008. Christmas of 2008 my cousin Elizabeth read the story. The next year would have been my turn but I knew I wouldn't make it thru without crying so I passed it on to the next person, my cousin Justin. Last Christmas my mom read the story and will read it again this year. I just love this part of Christmas!

Lastly, Justin and I travel to my parents house on Christmas Eve. We spend the night playing card games, eating goodies and watching Christmas movies. This year we will wake up and go to Church with my parents. We will then come home and have lunch. Around 4, Jessica (my brother's girlfriend) will come over and we will all open presents.

This is the first year we haven't opened presents as soon as we woke up and my brother is not exactly thrilled :)

I am so happy Christmas is almost here :) I hope everyone has a wonderful Christmas with your families and friends!

MERRY CHRISTMAS