Christmas 2011

Christmas was BUSY this year!


We got back from the ski trip around 4:30 on the 22nd, then we unloaded the car and went to pick up the dogs from Lee's mom's house [a little over an hour away].  We went to dinner with his mom and sat around and talked for a little while and got back home around 10:30.  We were EXHAUSTED when we got home so we went straight to bed.  


The next morning we got up and finished up a little bit of shopping.  I got to Target around 8:30 and I was so glad I went pretty early because there was hardly anybody there.  Lee and I ate a late breakfast at Panera [their cinnamon crunch bagels are amazing] then came home and did our Christmas together.  He did really good this year [as usual]!  He got me an Erin Condren planner, a new camera, a zebra hat for skiing, The Help movie, season 2 of Modern Family, and a couple of other little things that I had wanted :)  I got him some new gloves for skiing [I gave him those early so he could use them on the trip], a new keyboard for his computer, a burger press to make stuffed hamburgers, and some other little things.  It was a good Christmas :)

New hat :)

My parents came to town on the 23rd, so after we opened presents we spent the rest of the day cleaning and wrapping presents.  I didn't wrap one single present before we went skiing, so we had A LOT to do!  Lee helped a lot.  When my parents got here we used Lee's new burger press to make hamburgers and just hung our for the rest of the night. 

On Christmas Eve morning we went to Lee's dad's house for brunch and to open presents with them.  

Lee's dad and stepmom with my parents

Me and Lee

Me and my folks

After we got back from there we went to my sister's house to spend the night.  We did presents with my family that night then watched my nephew open his presents on Christmas morning. 

 Riley with his Nana

 In his new truck

 Me and the hubs

 This one cracks me up...Riley wanted his mommy!

 Seesters

We left my sister's house around 11 on Christmas morning and headed over to Lee's grandmother's house to do Christmas with his mom's side of the family.  We had an awesome lunch and opened presents over there.  We stayed there until late that afternoon then went to his mom's house to open presents with her.  I made her a wreath I saw on Pinterest and I was so excited to give it to her!

Lee's roommate from college was in town for Christmas so later that night we got to hang out with him.  We had not seen him since last Christmas and it was SO good to see him!

We went to lunch with Lee's mom the next day then came back home.  I've spent the last few days trying to get this house back in some sort of order!  Hopefully we can start the new year with a clean, organized house!

Christmas 2010

Just like it does every year, Christmas came and went with a quickness!

My parents came up on the 23rd and spent the night with us. Lee and I went to Firebirds that night before they got here to celebrate winning first and second place in his fantasy football league, and we've had steak on Christmas Eve the past couple of years so that's kind-of become a tradition for us. We also opened our presents from each other that night.

On Christmas Eve we just hung around with my parents that morning, then Sunny, Joey and Riley came over that afternoon. When they got here Mama and Daddy gave Riley his Christmas present, a Radio Flyer wagon, and then went for a walk to let him ride it and enjoy the nice weather [it's a good thing we did it then, because it SNOWED on Christmas Day so they didn't get to take him out in it then!]



After the walk we came back in and opened presents from each other. Riley helped :)

Ellie and Bruce Wayne were clearly excited about all the presents ;)
After that we visited a little bit more and then SANTA came through the neighborhood! I tried to get a picture but my camera wasn't fast enough. So here's a picture of me and Lee in front of the tree instead:

My parents stayed with Sunny on Christmas Eve so they could be there for Riley's first Christmas morning. We got up early Christmas morning and went by there to say hey to everybody, then we headed to Lee's grandmother's house for Christmas with his mom's side of the family.

It was cold and rainy when we left the house, and by the time we got to her house [about an hour later] the rain had turned to snow!! I've never had a White Christmas in my life, and probably never will again, so it was pretty exciting! This picture is from when we got to his grandmother's, probably around 9:30 that morning:
It snowed pretty much all day, and the yard was completely covered in snow by the time we left, but of course I didn't think to take any more pictures.

That night we went to his dad's house and had dinner with him, then later that night we met up with Lee's old roommate. I had not seen him since our wedding in May of 2008, so I was REALLY excited to see him! [But once again, I forgot to take pictures] He lives in Cincinnati now, so he was pretty amused at all of our reactions to the snow :)

The next morning we had brunch at Lee's dad's house and did presents over there. Brunch with them the day after Christmas has kind-of turned into a tradition, and it's really fun. His stepmom makes a lot of good food [and mimosas!] and it's just fun to hang out with each other. We left pretty early that day because it was still snowing and down here in Alabama we're not really equipped to deal with snow, so we didn't know what the roads would be like later.

That pretty much wrapped up Christmas 2010 for us :)

We Need a Little Christmas!

Since I did it last year, I wanted to post a few of the Christmas decorations we put up this year too!

My little snowman family in our entryway


Our new tree is REALLY tall! Lee couldn't even reach the top with the step stool! We had to bring in one of our outside chairs [they're pretty high] so he could stand in it to put the star on top.


Our niece had been playing with the gravel in our backyard on Thanksgiving, and when we brought the chair in we found out she had left us some in the chair!


One of my best friends gave us this "Our First Christmas" ornament :)


Ellie and Bruce Wayne's "Aunt" got them this ornament this year. We had gone to the Christmas store at the mall and we saw this ornament but I didn't want to pay for it. I went to get something to drink and she told me she had bought something for some of her other friends and asked if I wanted to see it. I saw Ellie's name first and thought "Oh, they have an Ellie too!" but then I saw Bruce Wayne's name, and she said "It's for yall!" So sweet!


I bought these last year and Lee said they should be next to each other on the tree :)


These are just a couple of tables in the living room. Nothing too exciting, but there's one of those Bath and Body Works candles I'm obsessed with!


We have stockings on the mantle, but it looks pretty much the same as last year so I didn't post that picture.

That's pretty much it for Christmas this year. It's pretty simple but I'm happy with it. I've already got plans of what I want to do next year!

Early Christmas

Lee and I have always done Christmas together a few days early. I guess it started because our first couple of years we were dating we were in college and didn't see each other on Christmas Day. So we gave gifts early and it just kinda stuck. We did our Christmas for this year last night. Last year we did our gifts on a Saturday so I had a lot of time to cook a lot of food, but I had to work yesterday so I cooked potato soup when I got home. It was delicous, btw.

THEN we finally opened presents! Of all the things I got Lee, I was most excited about what was in his stocking! I got him some Huey's burger seasoning. When we lived in Memphis we ate at Huey's a lot, and when we moved we went to the store and stocked up. But they don't sell it in Alabama so we've been out for a while. We had talked about ordering it online but had never gotten around to it, and then one of my co-workers had to go to Memphis last week for a meeting. I asked her if she would pick up some Huey's for me and she did so I got to give Lee some for Christmas :) I was REALLY excited! I got him a Keurig coffee maker too, so I was really excited about that. I got him a turkey fryer too, but he found it a few weeks ago, so he already knew about that one. (He wasn't looking for it...they had turned off our gas one day so he went up in the attic to look at the water heater. I had put it up there that very day, right at the top of the steps because I was going to wrap it that night. I didn't even think about it until I heard him stomping around up there. I was so mad at myself!)

Lee did a really good job this year, but he really does a good job every year. He got me xm radio, Wii Fit plus (to replace the wii fit that got stolen in April), The Blind Side (the book), a new mp3 player (because my ipod will NOT hold a charge anymore) and a couple of cd's I've been wanting. The only PROBLEM with what he gave me was that he put all of my favorite candy in my stocking. He put a big bag of Reese's Pieces, Sour Patch Kids and Cookies and Creams Hershey's. AWESOME candy, but how am I supposed to lose weight with all that around? I guess I'll have to hide it from myself!

I'm off for the rest of this week, so of course my throat's been hurting today. So instead of going to the gym this afternoon like I had planned, I slept for 2 hours. I think I'm about to go get some orange juice and spend the rest of the day cleaning up.

I hope everyone is having a great Christmas week!

So this is Christmas...

I'm finally getting around to doing a post showing all my Christmas decorations! I don't have a lot of decorations yet, but I wanted to show what we do have. I try to get a LITTLE bit every year during Christmas time, and I usually get some decorations as Christmas presents. Then it seems like I always buy a ton of ornaments after Christmas when they're like 75% off. So here goes:

Here's the tree. My mom made the bow a few years ago when I was still in college. I keep wanting to get a new angel or star to put on top, but I'm too picky and too cheap to find one. All the ones I like are WAY more than I want to spend, and when I wait until after Christmas they've all been picked over. So the bow will have to do for now.

Had to show Lee's Batman and The Joker ornaments :)

This is my little snowman family Lee's stepmom gave me for Christmas last year. I think they're adorable.

This is my nativity scene that Lee's mom gave me last year. I think it's really pretty. I still want a Willow Tree nativity set though. I asked Lee for some pieces of it for Christmas this year but I'm pretty sure he didn't get it for me :( I guess I'll have to buy it myself next year.

And here's the mantle. It was kind of hard to decorate because of the big awkward TV cutout. Our TV won't fit in there so I got this charger (which I LOVE) when we moved in. I didn't have anything Christmasy to put in there this year, but maybe I can find something next year. I was thinking maybe small tree, but our big tree is right next to it, so that might be awkward. I could always do some rearranging though. Last year I got the plain red and white stockings and attempted to put our names on them like we had when we were little, but that did NOT turn out well (no artistic ability--even just painting names on stockings!) so we got these this year. Mine is the snowman and Lee's is the Santa.

There are a few more little decorations around the house, but this is the main stuff. Can't wait to go shopping for more after Christmas this year!