Christmas Week: Part 1

I love Christmas. Like, loooooooooooooove it. 

It used to be because I loved the excitement of opening presents. {that hasn't entirely faded...}

But nowadays, its a mixture of the absolute joy that always seems to hang around, the celebration of Christ, the family get-togethers, the endless hot chocolate and candy, and most of all, watching other people open the gifts I got them. 

{Yay!}

Since Chris & I travel up north to be with family for the holidays, we open our presents to each other before we leave. This year, we decided that instead of opening them all on one day, we'd create a new, beautiful thing called......

Christmas Week. 

{Yaaaaay!}

We open one present a day, every day this week. 

Day #1:

I got a scarf, Chris got a Green Lantern shirt. 

Day #2:

I got BOOTS, Chris got a wrench organizer. 

Day #3:

I got a hot chocolate maker, Chris got a Hand Reflexology Kit. 

{He's already pretty amazing at it...I swear it makes my headaches feel better.}

 Oh yes. That's fur-lined on the inside all the way down.

I love the spirit of Santa. :)

A Thursday Laugh

This is my all-time absolute favorite Halloween commercial. 

And if it doesn't make you laugh...well, obviously there's something wrong with you. 

Happy Thursday!

Christmas is in the air...and on my door...

I love Christmas! 

{have I mentioned that yet?}

And I came up with this Christmas wreath all on my own. 

It's super easy.

First, get a wreath and lots of ribbon {it takes more than you think}. I picked up a grapevine wreath and a couple spools of ribbon at JoAnn's {leave it wrapped}. Then, head to your local dollar store and get a few stems of fake poinsettas. Feel free to also look at the DI for other fun embellishments. 

Wrap your wreath. 

Behead the poinsettas.

Ready your other fun decorations.

{I just cut up a candle circle I found at DI. I wanted a bit of green in my wreath}

Hot glue away!!!!

Glue as many flowers or as few as you'd like until it looks just the way you want it. :)

VOILA!

Easy-peasy.

Anyone else have some cute Christmas crafts?

The First Day of December Joyfulness...

Let the Christmas month begin!

Fittingly, it snowed today. 

Yes, I know the days are wrong. But they were right when I took this picture!

Baby, it's cold outside!

Thankful Comes First

I haven't really posted much about Thanksgiving {because I was out enjoying it of course!} so I wanted to get in one 'Be Thankful' post before I start gushing about Christmas. {Christmas! *GASP* I'm so excited!}

The other day in R.S. one cute gal said something that stuck with me. 

"Thanksgiving comes before Christmas because you have to learn to be thankful for what you have  before you can get what you want."

And I, for one, am extremely grateful to have so much. 

We weren't able to go north for Thanksgiving this year because I had to work the day before and the day after {sigh...such is life}, so instead my family made the 300-mile trip down to spend the holiday at our house. 

1. I am grateful for family.

It was so much fun! It was us, my parents, my little brother, and my uncle and his fiance {who are by far some of my coolest relatives}. Chris deep-fried a turkey and helped me set up the table and all the chairs and clean the house. 

2. I am grateful to be eternally sealed to my super-sweet & awesome husband. 

Going back a few days, on the Sunday before Thanksgiving we have hosted for the past 3 years what we call our"Pre-Thanksgiving Dinner," which basically means we invite all of our friends over and eat lots and lots of food. {ahh....it makes me feel stuffed just thinking about it}. Everyone brings something--we did the turkey, someone else brought yams, someone else brought mashed potatoes...etc etc. And every year we do our Pre-Thanksgiving Dinner it reminds me how wonderful it is to be surrounded by the people you love {I suppose they could be using us for the free food....but I'll give them the benefit of the doubt}. One friend turned to me in the midst of our chaotic 28-people-full kitchen and said, "Jeez, you and Chris have a lot of friends!" 

3. I am grateful to have lasting friendships.

And that's just the tip of the iceberg. Our roomy apartment, our cats, our jobs, our working furnace, all our grandparents, fun neighbors, hot chocolate, great co-workers, movie theater popcorn....and the list goes on and on and on!

A recent talk in church focused on how we could add more gratitude to our lives. So even though it's after Thanksgiving, I'm still giving thanks. And I'm trying to remember to say thank you, even for the small stuff.

So don't forget: Blessings always show up--even on the bad days. 




And to end, in words stronger than mine, I quote:

"In the gospel of Jesus Christ you have help from both sides of the veil and you must never forget that. When disappointment and discouragement strike--and they will--you remember and never forget that if our eyes could be opened we would see horses and chariots of fire as far as the eye can see, riding at reckless speed to come to our protection. They will always be there, these armies of heaven, in defense of Abraham's seed.


I close with this promise from heaven.


'Verily, verily, I say unto you, ye are little children, and ye have not as yet understood how great blessings the Father hath in his own hands and prepared for you;


'And ye cannot bear all things now; nevertheless, be of good cheer, for I will lead you along.'


'...I will go before your face. I will be on your right hand and on your left, ...and mine angels [shall be] round about you, to bear you up.


'...The kingdom is yours and the blessings thereof are yours, and the riches of eternity are yours.' (D&C 78:17-18; D&C 84:88; D&C 78:18)


Oh yes, 'we'll find the place which God for us prepared.' And on the way, 'we'll make the air with music ring, shout praises to our God and King; above the rest these words we'll tell--All is well! All is well!' "


--For Times of Trouble, by Jeffrey R. Holland

Made By Me

Okay, so technically this project has been going for quite a while. Took a couple days to build...another week to actually get it up on the wall....and several weeks to finally hang some pictures. 

But here it is:

Obviously it's not finished {I need more pictures!}, but I think it's turning out pretty darn awesome.

Lazy, Lazy, Busy

It's true.

I am twice as lazy as I am busy.

When I finally get home from work #1, get done with at-home work #2, tidy-up the house, and possibly make dinner, all I want to do is sit. On my butt. Maybe stare at the wall, or something useful like that.

But instead, tonight, I am doing you all the honor of blogging. 

{yaaaaaay}

We went camping a while ago. Which may not seem like that big of a deal to most of you, but see, I've actually never been camping. Don't judge. And actually, it was kinda fun. I like the fire part, the hot chocolate part, the billions of balls of gas burning millions of miles away {name that quote!}, the morning hot chocolate, the fishing...pretty much everything except the sleeping on the ground in the cold part.

But I'd go again. :)

Now, skipping right over Halloween {for which we did nothing} {zip} {zero} {nada}, we'll go to last night.

Date Night. 

Winky winky.

I set up this super fun, super easy date {thanks to the Dating Divas} for Chris. I made THIS invite:

...and left it on his desk at work alongside a bomber hat {don't ask me why he wanted one}.

So when he came home....I had set up a  few candles and snowflakes a magical wonderland of cozy goodness. AND made caramel apple bites. AND picked up some movie theater popcorn. AND bought some yummy white chocolate caramel to go in our hot chocolate. AND rented the movie Elf. 

And he was super excited....

....and we both lived happily ever after. 

DIY SKIRT

I just wanted to briefly show off this super-cute (or so I think), adorable skirt.

That I made. 

Okay, well, I didn't actually put it together. I bought a skirt from DI for $3, and followed this tutorial and added new buttons.

I guess you could say, as a friend of mine put it, that I edited this skirt. 

:)

But, seriously. Not bad, huh?

Tomato, Tohmahto

This is a post about food. 

Yummy food. Mmmm...drool.

You know those nights when you seem to have an excess of fresh tomatoes straight from your (neighbor's) garden? I'm going to give you something to do with them. 

This recipe comes from a cookbook that my mom made me when I moved away to college, and I absolutely love it because 1) it's EASYYYYYY, and 2) it also happens to be rather tasty.  

PASTA POMODORO

12 oz angel hair pasta

1/4 cup olive oil

3 1/2- 4 cups cherry, roma, or grape tomatoes, diced or cut in half (I like to use a few more tomatoes b/c I like them so much)

3/4 tsp dried basil

1 1/2 Tb fresh/bottled garlic

1/4 tsp each salt and pepper
1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese

Ready? Okay.

Cook your pasta. (See how easy this recipe is?)

Put the olive oil in a large skillet and heat it up. Add the tomatoes, basil, and garlic, then cook and stir for about five (yes, FIVE) minutes. Stir in salt and pepper.

Put pasta in bowls and top with tomato mixture and Parmesan  cheese! 

I like to serve it with salad and crusty garlic bread (because it's also easy!). 

And then your husband just might look at you like THIS:

...because he's super-excited about how awesome your cooking is.

Oh and PS? The double-fudge cookie dough Blizzard from DQ is amazing.

The One Where I Feel Like I Have Talent

So this past week I seem to have caught a bug.

A crafting bug! {Ha! Gotcha!}

I was looking around on Pinterest {join it} and saw a couple cute necklace projects that I just HAD to try. Because they are super-duper cute.

So I made this necklace:

 {Sadly, not my ACTUAL necklace...I was too lazy to take my own pic...but it looks EXACTLY the same I PROMISE.}

 Total cost? $5.

And then I made this one:

 

Cost of this piece? $4.

I think I'm on a lace kick. 

Just look at this dress.

 

Anyway. Moving on. To something completed unrelated. To my next subject.

Chris and I went on a drive up into the mountains today, and can I say, it is absolutely beautiful up there.  We ended up at Duck Creek Lake, a small pond that is surrounded on all sides by pines and aspens. 

I love it up there.

It reminds me just how wonderful God's creations are. 

 See the squirrel?

{aw}

Don't judge too harshly on the pictures here. I don't have a tripod. That means the camera was balanced on rocks, trees, and other various small objects to  get it pointed in the right direction.

I love nature.

I love Chris.

I love crafts.

That's all you need to take away from this post.