Showing posts with label #Christmaswiththecoats. Show all posts
Showing posts with label #Christmaswiththecoats. Show all posts

Tuesday, January 2, 2018

CHRISTMAS | 2017

Matthew and I were both very lucky and thankful to have a good bit of time off around the holidays this year. We took the week after Thanksgiving off and then some days before and after Christmas. My last day in the office was on December 18th, and I worked from home a couple of half days. So needless to say, today is going to be rough, getting back into the swing of things and back to our routine!

I am starting to realize that adult Christmas (and Thanksgiving!!) breaks are SO much better than when we were kids! There were a couple of days over Christmas break where I only got out of my pjs to shower and get into a new pair of pj's- the best feeling ever! We watched so many Christmas movies this year and I loved it. Here is a quick overview of our Christmas break...

I spent one day watching Christmas movies and making cinnamon rolls for our neighbors, family, and friends. I ended up making 2 batches of the Pioneer Woman's cinnamon rolls again and was able to give them to 19 families (we saved a pan for ourselves)!

This girly loved us being home so much.

One morning we went and watched the Pred's open practice. My BIL joined us. It was very cool, but sadly, it didn't last a long time, we only got to watch them practice for about 30 minutes. It was still a good time though!



I didn't do a Christmas home tour this year, but I did remember to snap a few pictures around the house. I LOVE our home decorated for Christmas, I wanted to spend every second at home that I could by the fire and Christmas tree. So cozy and relaxing!




We hosted my mom's birthday dinner again this year right before Christmas and we hosted my FIL's graduation dinner right before NYE!

Ellie and Reagan were hammin' it up for some cheese.





Sister pictures!





We went to church Christmas Eve morning and then back to our house to load everything up and get Reagan before we headed to my parent's house for the day! 

I surprised my dad with tickets to Tim Allen's comedy show that is coming to Nashville in April. He was so surprised and we are both excited for a father/daughter date to see Tim Allen!!

We spent Christmas Day with Matthew's family, and sadly I didn't make a single picture on Christmas day. We did finger foods this year on Christmas Day and it was so good!

We got back home the day after Christmas and finally got to do our Christmas together! Matthew got me a new luggage set and some other things and I got Matthew an away Pred's jersey and some other things.


We spent the rest of the day lounging around before packing up and heading out the next day to St. Louis, MO for the Pred's game. I'll post more on that later this week!

Butterfinger Reese's Cups are my FAV and Matthew had a bag in my stocking, such a fun surprise.

 Christmas wore Reagan OUT.

Christmas 2016 on the left and Christmas 2017 on the right...she has gotten so big!!
And that's a wrap on our Christmas break/Christmas festivities! I can't believe it is all over already. Christmas is my absolute favorite time of the year, and I am already on the countdown for Christmas 2018!! I stepped away from blogland over the holidays so I am excited to read and catch up on all of your blogs this week as I am getting back into the swing of everything!


Thursday, December 21, 2017

DAVE BARNES CHRISTMAS CONCERT

For my birthday Matthew surprised me with tickets to Dave Barnes Christmas concert, that was this past Monday night. I have wanted to go to this concert FOR YEARS. So to say I was excited and counting down the days until the concert would be a complete understatement. 

Monday was my last day at the office until 2018 and I only worked half a day on Tuesday, so the concert was the perfect way to kick off our Christmas break!! I listed to Dave Barnes Christmas CD all day in preparation for his concert that night.


We went to one of our favorites, Maggiano's, for dinner, and as always, it was incredible. We were seated at a table in the corner, away from other tables, in front of double doors that lead to the balcony (the doors were closed, of course) and this was our view. So beautiful!

Matthew got us incredible seats for the concert and I was pretty much in a Christmas-Dave Barnes-music loving daze the whole night. It was absolutely perfect and such a fun night! Dave Barnes is so talented and hilarious! This was the first time I have ever been to his concert and I didn't realize how funny he was.




There were to special guest performers, Matthew West and Charles Esten (Deacon from the show Nashville)! They were really good, too! It was a really fun night and definitely something we want to go to again! 

Thank YOU, Matthew, for the best birthday gift, ever!! 

Monday, December 18, 2017

HOW TO MAKE A CHRISTMAS BOW 4 WAYS

If you are wanting to take your Christmas wrapping to the next level, I gotcha covered! 


Erica has created videos to show us how to make each bow, and they are so helpful! You can find written directions and more here.

The classic bow is the easiest to make and always a classic.


The double bow is adorable and perfect for those smaller gifts that you still want to add a little more to.


The gift bow has some volume to it and will definitely impress your family/friends.


And last, but certainly not least, the big bow! A personal favorite and beautiful option. This is perfect for those bigger gifts or even to add to a wreath.

Erica, you did a great job on these bow and videos! Thank you for sharing them with us! :)

Friday, December 15, 2017

HALLMARK CHRISTMAS MOVIES

We have been watching Hallmark Christmas movies like crazy this year, and l-o-v-i-n-g-i-n-g them!
They are all cheesy, have most of the same characters, and same story to them, but we can't get enough. Since we got rid of cable last year, we just pull up the YouTube app on our TV and watch them on there. Who knew people uploaded full length Hallmark movies to YouTube?!?! The quality isn't always the best, but it's free, so it will do ;) There are a couple of Netflix originals that are pretty good too. 

Here is a list of some of the ones we have watched so far...


Which cheesy Christmas movies do you recommend?! 
We still have some that we want to watch before Christmas, so send any recommendations our way!

Wednesday, December 13, 2017

CHRISTMAS CARD | 2017

I am so excited to share our Christmas cards today! By now everyone that we sent them to should have received them in the mail, so I am ready to share them today. One of my favorite things about this time of the year is sending and receiving Christmas cards, I look forward to seeing them come in the mail almost every day the whole month of December. Definitely beats bills coming in the mail. ;)

We went with Mpix this year and could not have been happier! The customer service, quick shipping, and so many options to choose from made it even easier picking out our cards this year.

We had a hard time choosing which pictures to use from our Christmas pictures we had made but ultimately decided on the 4 below. Reagan, of course, stole the show again this year with that smile of hers, and we LOVE it!


I wanted a way to display our Christmas cards from previous years, so with a little twine and mini clothing pins, I hung them on our chalkboard in the kitchen, and love how it looks.

Tuesday, November 21, 2017

CHRISTMAS PICTURES | 2017

We had Christmas pictures made a couple of weeks ago by, Kate, for our Christmas cards and we LOVE them. 

We were crossing our fingers and hoping Reagan would cooperate for pictures, and she did!

 Fun fact: We get her to sit still and look at the camera by holding up a slice of American Cheese....so yes, we brought a slice of American Cheese with us to our photo shoot. Works like a charm every.single.time. ;)




Kate had the cutest set up  and it was in her parents backyard. How fun is that?!



After we got some of the three of us my sister stopped by and held on to Reagan for us so we could get some of just the two of us, and I love them!



I'll be sharing our Christmas cards next week!


Wednesday, December 28, 2016

CHRISTMAS | 2016

And just like that our second married Christmas is over! I am so sad to see it go but had the best time with my sweet husband, adorable puppy, and all of our family. This will be a picture heavy post, so get ready!

Christmas "break" started for me early Thursday afternoon once I turned my out of office on and darted out the door. I met my best friend at my house and we went for a Smoothie run and then finished up some Christmas shopping! After that Matthew and I grabbed dinner and then went shopping for our girl...we may have gone a little overboard, but it was her first Christmas!! Some of that stuff was for our other puppy friends, too ;)

Friday morning we woke up and did our Christmas together since we would be spending the rest of the weekend with family. It was the sweetest morning with the fire and Christmas music going. Reagan was our big Christmas present to each other this year, but we decided to do stocking stuffers and of course, we did a little extra. We just can't help it!! :) We let Reagan open her gifts first and it was just THE best. She was so excited and we could not stop laughing at her. We wrapped a couple and then left a couple in her stocking for her to pull out.
 Also, we have completely come to terms with how crazy we are about our girl...no shame!
 Safe to say, girly had a great first Christmas!! She was also spoiled by our families :)

After she opened her presents Matthew and I exchanged gifts. Matthew's stocking was filled with Pred's stuff, some new headphones and candy and my stocking was filled with hair stuff (he just GETS me and I love it!!), candy, and tickets to go see Sound of Music live in February!! Matthew knocked it out of the park again this year and I am so thankful for him. 

After we did our Christmas together I headed for the kitchen to make my cinnamon rolls. I made the Pioneer Woman's cinnamon rolls this year for our neighbors and loved ones for Christmas, and REALLY enjoyed it.
 I made two batches and had soooo many pans! I definitely see this becoming a tradition. 
They took longer than I thought so I spent most of the day in the kitchen. I also made white chocolate cookie dough fudge and it was fantastic, but so very rich lol.
I had a sous-chef in the kitchen with me for a little bit, but she got sleepy very quickly!

Saturday morning, Christmas Eve, we woke up and finished wrapping the last of the presents and watched Santa Claus and then packed up and headed to my parents house for the day. 
Before we left for the weekend I had to snap a picture of our girl in her Christmas dress ;)

 We spent the day hanging out and cooking the last of everything. Mom had most of it done already. I made a cookie pie for dessert that night and my youngest sister helped me with it!
Matthew with the fur babies!
Christmas Eve with my loves!

After dinner that night we changed into our Christmas pj's my mom got us all and then opened gifts with the whole family. Our families were too sweet and gave us some really nice gifts! After most of my family left we did Christmas with my parents and sisters and it was so much fun!! We were so excited to give everyone their gifts. The best reaction was from my sisters, we made them open their presents at the same time and loved it. 
They loved their Patagonias!! 
My parents bought us a lot of cute coastal decor for our coastal themed guest bedroom and some other goodies. I also got stocked up on some clothes...woo hoo! My parents surprised Matthew with some tools and a huge flashlight that he loved lol.
Our matching Christmas pj's! Christmas traditions are my favorite!! Matthew and my dad also got matching Christmas pj's :) My dad finally has someone to have matching Christmas pj's with lol. Side note about the pj pants...I forgot mine at home so had to improvise with a pair of my dad's Christmas pj's from a few years ago...thankfully they were really similar to the other ones lol. We just didn't want to drive all the way back home for pj pants so those worked. My mom had us these adorable monogrammed shirts made to go with them. These are all iPhone pictures, maybe one day I'll remember my camera ;)
 Aunt Mady
 Crazy aunt Mady!
After we opened presents and made pictures we sat around talking and checking out our new gifts.
We headed to Matthew's parents house later and went to bed after we unpacked our stuff. We woke up early Sunday morning and did Christmas with his parents and brothers and SIL!  We loved giving everyone their gifts and enjoyed our time together.  Our families were too sweet and gave us some really nice gifts. We got the Amazon Echo Dot and are so pumped about it!! We actually got two which works out great because we can have one upstairs and one downstairs. Matthew's older brother got him a really cool gift. His parents have always had a carousel that went around the bottom of their tree and played Christmas music. Well it's a tradition to have it out at their house and the boys love it. They stopped making them the year Matthew was born and they are really hard to find now but his brother searched and searched and found the same exact ones. So now we have one for around our Christmas tree next year...so exciting!
I got an adorable Pandora charm of a puppy to add to my bracelet and some comfy pj's and a cute Vera Bradley bag! We also got some date nights from my BIL & SIL and my cousins!

After we opened presents we got ready and then headed to church. After church we snapped a quick family picture in our Christmas outfits before we changed into comfy clothes for the rest of the day!
my skirt can be found here, and they are sold out, but this shirt is somewhat similar.

We had Christmas lunch and then spent the afternoon hanging out and talking while snacking on tons of delicious desserts. We had the best time with everyone and Reagan loved playing with her cousin, Darcy! Sadly, I hardly took any pictures on Christmas Day. Later than night after everyone left we watched The Help with Matthew's immediate family. My SIL and I never watched The Help when it first came out so we all watched it that night and it was such a good movie!! After the movie was over we all headed to bed because we were just exhausted!
Monday we woke up and had brunch with Matthew's family and then loaded up the car and headed back to my parent's house to get some gifts we left because we didn't have room to load them before we left and to see what all my sister's got for Christmas. We hung out with them for a bit before we finally headed back to our house to unpack everything! Late Monday afternoon we headed to my mema's house for our third and final Christmas celebration. We had a delicious dinner and then gave everyone their gifts. We got them hand painted Christmas baskets while we were on our cruise in Cozumel, and they loved them!

Matthew and I both took Tuesday off to catch up on some rest because we knew we would be exhausted from the long holiday weekend. We had the best day together. We cleaned early that morning and then lounged around the rest of the afternoon watching Christmas movies and playing with our girl! We went to dinner with our best friends, Ethan and Rachel last night to Macaroni Grill, it was our first time trying it! And then did some shopping after since we were at the mall already.
I am holding on to Christmas for as long as I can...I'm still listening to Christmas music and enjoying our Christmas decorations until the end of this week! We'll take it all down by New Years Day. 

I planned on going out the day after Christmas to check out the sales but never made it. We stopped at Home Goods on the way to my mema's Monday afternoon and I found Spode Christmas dishes there for $7 and then they were 50% off!!!! You better believe I was freaking out and bought it all! I had been looking that morning online at the same exact dishes and just didn't want to pay $80 for 4 dinner plates. I am so excited and can't wait to use them next year on our farmhouse table that Matthew built us! I also found a white pre-lit Christmas tree at Wal-Mart and some silver and blue ornaments for 50% off for our coastal guest bedroom next year! 
 We are now at 5 Christmas trees (lol) and Matthew has officially banned me from buying anymore. I got the two main things I was looking for and could not be happier about them or what we spent on them. Talk about a deal!!

 This time of year is so fun, and I love being around everyone and spending tons of time with family. I am already looking forward to next year!