Showing posts with label Christmas. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Christmas. Show all posts
Saturday, December 28, 2013
Friday, December 27, 2013
360/365 (12/26) #tbt
359/365 (12/25)
Thursday, December 26, 2013
Monday, December 23, 2013
Sunday, December 22, 2013
Monday, December 16, 2013
Sunday, December 15, 2013
Monday, December 09, 2013
341/365 (12/7)
OK, somewhere I screwed up my numbers. I knew this would happen. But I am FAR too lazy to go back and figure out where it was so, yes, there is no 340. I get it.
I was supposed to take a picture at my company's holiday party Saturday night, but I forgot my phone. So you get this instead :) We got a few more lights up, on the rose bush out front and another strand of the snowflakes to go all the way across the front of the house, but we feel festive :)
I was supposed to take a picture at my company's holiday party Saturday night, but I forgot my phone. So you get this instead :) We got a few more lights up, on the rose bush out front and another strand of the snowflakes to go all the way across the front of the house, but we feel festive :)
Friday, December 06, 2013
Wednesday, December 12, 2012
Productivity. It feels so good.
Hooray for me! I'm on it this year!
OK, that's an odd way to start out a blog post. Let me back up.
I've always been a fan of Christmas cards. I love getting them, and I love doing them for friends and family. Most years I'm pretty good with them. But 2 of the last 3 years I was not. At all. Christmas 2009 Matt and I were both unemployed, and I was trying to figure out moving and getting a new job. So not so much in the real Christmas spirit. I don't think we even really decorated our apartment that year - we both went home to our respective parents' houses and had a nice, depressing Christmas. Christmas 2010 we were past all of that - I was fully employed, back on a good track financially, and Matt had joined me up north and we decorated our apartment and all was good. That year, we made our first joint Christmas cards, complete with pictures of us and the cats. Because no matter what anyone says or how many people call me a crazy cat lady (which I'm not, I have 2 cats that are as much Matt's as mine these days), the cats are part of the little family we've built. We sent out a ton of them, and were so proud of ourselves. Last year, we didn't make them, we bought some, and I did a bunch, but not as many as I normally would have - mostly just family and really close friends.
But this year, I'm back on it! We ordered cards, complete with pictures of us and the kitties again :) Not gonna lie, part of it is that we're in the throes of wedding planning, and it saves me on postage to send the Save the Dates with the Christmas cards. Because with a semi-destination wedding, we want to make sure people have plenty of time to plan. Or something.
So last night, I figured I'd get started on the cards. At least addressing envelopes and stuff - I'm budget-conscious enough that I didn't order fancy address labels, or make a fancy stamp with the return address, or anything like that, so I hand addressed everything. Maybe for the actual invitations, I'll go a little fancier, but not at this point.
Anyway, I made it through my entire list, to include a few people that were added along the way. There are a few folks I'm still waiting on addresses from, but I was WAY more productive than I anticipated being. All I've got left to do now is buy stamps. And seal the damn envelopes. That's my least favorite part. I think I can do it with a q-tip or a sponge and water, because nothing says awesome quite like licking 50-some envelopes...
So yeah, hooray for me! I'm on it this year! :)
OK, that's an odd way to start out a blog post. Let me back up.
I've always been a fan of Christmas cards. I love getting them, and I love doing them for friends and family. Most years I'm pretty good with them. But 2 of the last 3 years I was not. At all. Christmas 2009 Matt and I were both unemployed, and I was trying to figure out moving and getting a new job. So not so much in the real Christmas spirit. I don't think we even really decorated our apartment that year - we both went home to our respective parents' houses and had a nice, depressing Christmas. Christmas 2010 we were past all of that - I was fully employed, back on a good track financially, and Matt had joined me up north and we decorated our apartment and all was good. That year, we made our first joint Christmas cards, complete with pictures of us and the cats. Because no matter what anyone says or how many people call me a crazy cat lady (which I'm not, I have 2 cats that are as much Matt's as mine these days), the cats are part of the little family we've built. We sent out a ton of them, and were so proud of ourselves. Last year, we didn't make them, we bought some, and I did a bunch, but not as many as I normally would have - mostly just family and really close friends.
But this year, I'm back on it! We ordered cards, complete with pictures of us and the kitties again :) Not gonna lie, part of it is that we're in the throes of wedding planning, and it saves me on postage to send the Save the Dates with the Christmas cards. Because with a semi-destination wedding, we want to make sure people have plenty of time to plan. Or something.
So last night, I figured I'd get started on the cards. At least addressing envelopes and stuff - I'm budget-conscious enough that I didn't order fancy address labels, or make a fancy stamp with the return address, or anything like that, so I hand addressed everything. Maybe for the actual invitations, I'll go a little fancier, but not at this point.
Anyway, I made it through my entire list, to include a few people that were added along the way. There are a few folks I'm still waiting on addresses from, but I was WAY more productive than I anticipated being. All I've got left to do now is buy stamps. And seal the damn envelopes. That's my least favorite part. I think I can do it with a q-tip or a sponge and water, because nothing says awesome quite like licking 50-some envelopes...
So yeah, hooray for me! I'm on it this year! :)
Monday, December 26, 2011
Merry Christmas!
I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas, or if you're not a Christmas celebrator, a wonderful last full weekend of 2011 :)
I'm not one to just post random holiday blogs, but my good friend Gil wrote an awesome post on his blog yesterday, and I wanted to share it. Gil wrote about how he and his wife Lee don't buy each other gifts for Christmas, and how he was explaining it to his kids when he picked them up from their mother's house yesterday. Then he talked about some of the things that he didn't get for Christmas, but that some of his friends (some of whom are also my friends) unfortunately did:
I'm not one to just post random holiday blogs, but my good friend Gil wrote an awesome post on his blog yesterday, and I wanted to share it. Gil wrote about how he and his wife Lee don't buy each other gifts for Christmas, and how he was explaining it to his kids when he picked them up from their mother's house yesterday. Then he talked about some of the things that he didn't get for Christmas, but that some of his friends (some of whom are also my friends) unfortunately did:
You see, this Christmas, I did not get news about headaches that are result of a brain tumor that requires surgery. I did not get more chemotherapy in an ongoing battle with cancer. This Christmas, I did not get reminded that I will not be sharing the holidays with a child that has passed away. This Christmas, I also did not get an ongoing dramatic saga with an ex-spouse that refuses to take ownership of her actions and act like a responsible adult. I look into my wife’s eyes and remember how this Christmas I was not giving an ongoing and aching tooth that’s required multiple visits to the dentist.
In the end, I look up to heaven and thank God for all the things He didn’t get me for Christmas. And that is the most blessed and humbling gift of all.Gil has a wonderful way with words, and there's no way I could have said it any better than he did. No, I don't know everyone that he refers to in his post. But I can associate someone with just about all of the examples, as can, I'm willing to bet, most of us. So this Christmas season, I'm thankful for my wonderful family and friends, and for the life I've been so lucky to live.
Friday, December 03, 2010
#Reverb10, December 3rd
The Prompt: Moment. Pick one moment during which you felt most alive this year. Describe it in vivid detail (texture, smells, voices, noises, colors).
Beings that my word for the year was renewal, there are several moments that immediately come to mind for this. The first time I got a paycheck at the new job. The day Matt and I arrived up this way with a truckload of his stuff because he had finally made the move.
However, I think I'm going to go with this past Saturday, when, while watching football, Matt and I decorated the apartment for Christmas, rearranged the living room, ordered a new TV stand, made and ate a fantastic cheesy snack, and just overall had a really fantastic day. And a day is just a moment in time, right? Right. Let's go with that.
The day started with an early run to my parent's house while Matt slept in a little longer. I had made hummus for Thanksgiving dinner, and my college-freshman sister had forgotten to get her share of the leftovers. I told her I'd be more than happy to bring her some. My dad was making breakfast taquitos in honor of my cousin's British exchange student (it's his breakfast specialty, and she had never had one before, and the two of them had spent the night) so the whole house smelled of microwavable sausage links and hash browns. It made me hungry, I'm not going to lie - my grits with mixed berry jelly were feeling pretty inadequate!!
On the way home, I stopped by Wal-Mart and picked up a Christmas tree for us. Artificial, of course - I don't have the patience for a real tree, and this way we don't have to worry about taking it down before our holiday travels. When I got home, we set up the tree and began hanging my collection of ornaments - I've collected many over the years, primarily as a result of family members giving them as gifts. We realized we needed a tree topper, as well as some ornaments just for Matt, so we decided to hit the Christmas store in Old Town, and maybe grab a beer. We stopped into the Union Street Public House, because once I said they had good oysters that was the end of that discussion. We each ordered a beer - seasonal wintry ales, because it was cold outside, and we ordered a dozen oysters. There is little better in this world than a nice, big oyster on a saltine cracker smeared with a little cocktail sauce mixed with just the right amount of horseradish. YUM. We downed that dozen in record time, and the only thing keeping us from another was the cost!
Upon finishing our beers, we headed to the Christmas shop. I found a tree topper right away - a light up star, perfect. We then went looking for ornaments for Matt, with focus on a guitar. We found one pretty quickly, as well as a box of small glass ornaments, a variety of colors and bell-like shapes to fill in some of the blanks on the tree. I was pretty excited about our finds, but that excitement was totally overshadowed by what I found when we got to the checkout line - 4 or 5 different pickle ornaments!!
(A little background here - Matt LOVES dill pickles. The big, whole ones we used to get at sporting events in high school in Texas, but that here come, in slightly smaller form, in a jar. Its become a running joke - he goes through one of those jars just about every week, and I always know when he's finished off a jar the night before because I can smell the pickle juice he's dumped into the sink, because its inevitably filled a glass or plate.)
I told him this was a done deal, but he could pick which pickle. He decided on this one:
We headed home with our purchases to finish decorating our tree and hang some lights in our sunroom. The icicle lights we had bought for our balcony last year in Atlanta work perfectly along the top of our floor-to-ceiling glass windows. Then we settled into the Florida State - Florida football game, during which Matt baked the aforementioned cheesy snack. The cheese, called Fromager des Clarines, is similar to a Brie - a small wheel, enclosed in a white rind. Matt used this recipe that he found online to bake it, and man was it good. The cheese basically came out almost liquefied, and perfect for dipping bagel chips and apple slices.
The best part was coming across the garlic cloves - talk about a bite of goodness! Florida State won the football game, and, to top it all off, Maryland also won theirs, which means that Florida State is playing tomorrow in the ACC championship. In Matt-land, this is very very good news. Which means that, by default, its good news in Rebecca-land as well :)
In between some of this, we rearranged our living room a bit, put out our other Christmas decorations, ordered the new TV stand - all things that make it feel more and more like OUR home. There's something refreshing about that, especially considering that a year ago we were really on some shaky ground. When the day was over, we both felt as if we had just had the best day we had had in a long time. There's something about that feeling that is reassuring. I can't put my finger on it, but days like that really do make me feel the most alive - when I feel as though my life is moving forward and I can go to bed with a peaceful, happy, warm-fuzzy feeling inside. Last Saturday was that day, and I hope I won't soon forget it.
Beings that my word for the year was renewal, there are several moments that immediately come to mind for this. The first time I got a paycheck at the new job. The day Matt and I arrived up this way with a truckload of his stuff because he had finally made the move.
However, I think I'm going to go with this past Saturday, when, while watching football, Matt and I decorated the apartment for Christmas, rearranged the living room, ordered a new TV stand, made and ate a fantastic cheesy snack, and just overall had a really fantastic day. And a day is just a moment in time, right? Right. Let's go with that.
The day started with an early run to my parent's house while Matt slept in a little longer. I had made hummus for Thanksgiving dinner, and my college-freshman sister had forgotten to get her share of the leftovers. I told her I'd be more than happy to bring her some. My dad was making breakfast taquitos in honor of my cousin's British exchange student (it's his breakfast specialty, and she had never had one before, and the two of them had spent the night) so the whole house smelled of microwavable sausage links and hash browns. It made me hungry, I'm not going to lie - my grits with mixed berry jelly were feeling pretty inadequate!!
On the way home, I stopped by Wal-Mart and picked up a Christmas tree for us. Artificial, of course - I don't have the patience for a real tree, and this way we don't have to worry about taking it down before our holiday travels. When I got home, we set up the tree and began hanging my collection of ornaments - I've collected many over the years, primarily as a result of family members giving them as gifts. We realized we needed a tree topper, as well as some ornaments just for Matt, so we decided to hit the Christmas store in Old Town, and maybe grab a beer. We stopped into the Union Street Public House, because once I said they had good oysters that was the end of that discussion. We each ordered a beer - seasonal wintry ales, because it was cold outside, and we ordered a dozen oysters. There is little better in this world than a nice, big oyster on a saltine cracker smeared with a little cocktail sauce mixed with just the right amount of horseradish. YUM. We downed that dozen in record time, and the only thing keeping us from another was the cost!
Upon finishing our beers, we headed to the Christmas shop. I found a tree topper right away - a light up star, perfect. We then went looking for ornaments for Matt, with focus on a guitar. We found one pretty quickly, as well as a box of small glass ornaments, a variety of colors and bell-like shapes to fill in some of the blanks on the tree. I was pretty excited about our finds, but that excitement was totally overshadowed by what I found when we got to the checkout line - 4 or 5 different pickle ornaments!!
(A little background here - Matt LOVES dill pickles. The big, whole ones we used to get at sporting events in high school in Texas, but that here come, in slightly smaller form, in a jar. Its become a running joke - he goes through one of those jars just about every week, and I always know when he's finished off a jar the night before because I can smell the pickle juice he's dumped into the sink, because its inevitably filled a glass or plate.)
I told him this was a done deal, but he could pick which pickle. He decided on this one:
We headed home with our purchases to finish decorating our tree and hang some lights in our sunroom. The icicle lights we had bought for our balcony last year in Atlanta work perfectly along the top of our floor-to-ceiling glass windows. Then we settled into the Florida State - Florida football game, during which Matt baked the aforementioned cheesy snack. The cheese, called Fromager des Clarines, is similar to a Brie - a small wheel, enclosed in a white rind. Matt used this recipe that he found online to bake it, and man was it good. The cheese basically came out almost liquefied, and perfect for dipping bagel chips and apple slices.
The best part was coming across the garlic cloves - talk about a bite of goodness! Florida State won the football game, and, to top it all off, Maryland also won theirs, which means that Florida State is playing tomorrow in the ACC championship. In Matt-land, this is very very good news. Which means that, by default, its good news in Rebecca-land as well :)
In between some of this, we rearranged our living room a bit, put out our other Christmas decorations, ordered the new TV stand - all things that make it feel more and more like OUR home. There's something refreshing about that, especially considering that a year ago we were really on some shaky ground. When the day was over, we both felt as if we had just had the best day we had had in a long time. There's something about that feeling that is reassuring. I can't put my finger on it, but days like that really do make me feel the most alive - when I feel as though my life is moving forward and I can go to bed with a peaceful, happy, warm-fuzzy feeling inside. Last Saturday was that day, and I hope I won't soon forget it.
Thursday, November 25, 2010
Tis the Season....
... for Christmas cards!
Usually, I'm really good about sending out Christmas cards to family and friends. Last year, because of the various life circumstances I was dealing with, I didn't get to them, and it made me a little sad. So I decided that this year, I'd get ahead of the game and start working on them this weekend - Thanksgiving will be over, so I can start thinking about Christmas. I bought some at Target, nothing special, and planned to get to work.
I read a lot of other people's blogs, to include my friend Erik's wife (who I will meet one of these days, darnit!) Jaime's blog, Fried Pink Tomato. The other day, she posted a promotion that Shutterfly is running for bloggers this year - 50 free cards!! (Details here.) I've never used Shutterfly before, but I have TONS of friends who have used them for Christmas cards, birth announcements, and picture books. So I decided I'm gonna go for it this year! I don't have a baby to share pictures of, but I do have kitties :)
So I jumped on the website, signed up for the promotion, and started playing around with cards. These are really cool!! I think I need to take a couple of pictures to really get what I want, but they've got everything from the super religious to the plain and simple, and you can put one picture or tons, depending on what you're looking for. Seriously, any Christmas card you could ever want, with photos or without. They even have Hannukah cards!
Here are a couple I'm playing with:
What do you think? Which ones do you like? I'm kind of excited about this - it should be fun to put the cards together and get them out. And maybe I'll even use some of their personalized address labels too :)
Usually, I'm really good about sending out Christmas cards to family and friends. Last year, because of the various life circumstances I was dealing with, I didn't get to them, and it made me a little sad. So I decided that this year, I'd get ahead of the game and start working on them this weekend - Thanksgiving will be over, so I can start thinking about Christmas. I bought some at Target, nothing special, and planned to get to work.
I read a lot of other people's blogs, to include my friend Erik's wife (who I will meet one of these days, darnit!) Jaime's blog, Fried Pink Tomato. The other day, she posted a promotion that Shutterfly is running for bloggers this year - 50 free cards!! (Details here.) I've never used Shutterfly before, but I have TONS of friends who have used them for Christmas cards, birth announcements, and picture books. So I decided I'm gonna go for it this year! I don't have a baby to share pictures of, but I do have kitties :)
So I jumped on the website, signed up for the promotion, and started playing around with cards. These are really cool!! I think I need to take a couple of pictures to really get what I want, but they've got everything from the super religious to the plain and simple, and you can put one picture or tons, depending on what you're looking for. Seriously, any Christmas card you could ever want, with photos or without. They even have Hannukah cards!
Here are a couple I'm playing with:
 |
| The "Just Merry" Card |
 |
| "Peppermint Bliss" |
 |
| "Picture Ornaments" |
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)