FIRST MARRIED CHRISTMAS

And just like that our first married Christmas is over and it was one for the books! It was the sweetest few days and I am so sad it is already over. I don't like to pack up the Christmas stuff right away so I'm going to enjoy the lights and Christmas pj's through the end of this week....or until the storage totes we ordered deliver (they are supposed to deliver this Wednesday!) I'm a firm believer in enjoying Christmas decorations even after Christmas is over just as long as they are down by New Years Day. I'll probably start taking them down Wednesday night, and everything will be packed away by early Thursday afternoon. 

On to our Christmas celebrations...

I got off early Wednesday and we met my best friend, Sarah, for dinner. If you haven't been on social media this past week or have watched the news then you missed "spring" happening here in the south and along the east coast. Wednesday night a lot of strong storms moved through, there were multiple tornado touchdowns and even more on Christmas day in the south. Temperatures have been in the low to mid 70's and we've had our air running for over a week. It's crazy! I was sweating in my Christmas attire on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day...how's that for trying to look cute on Christmas lol.

We woke up on Christmas Eve morning and ate breakfast with his parents and then headed to my parents house for the day. We decided to spend Christmas Eve (day) with my family and Christmas Day with his family. For both of our families it works out perfectly! We spent Christmas Eve (day) watching Christmas movies, cooking, making pictures, eating, spending time with family, and swapping presents. After my extended family left Matthew and I did Christmas with my parents and sisters. I'm going to be so honest, it was weird giving my parents and opening their presents on Christmas Eve, I've done "Christmas" with them on Christmas Day morning for 22 years. 

This is one of the presents we gave my parents.

I made a chalkboard sign that said "forever you little girl" and gave this picture to them, they loved it!

 My parents got Matthew a ladder...woo hoo! (Sorry, this is terrible iPhone quality)

We loaded up our car and headed back to our apartment for Christmas Eve. We decided to stay at our place for Christmas Eve so we could wake up Christmas morning and do our Christmas together.
Waking up beside my husband Christmas morning was something I have always been excited about.

Christmas morning I woke up early and turned on our Christmas lights and Christmas music. Matthew woke up shortly after and we opened our stockings and gifts. It was such an exciting time. I was even able to surprise him with a few presents. It's hard to surprise each other when you live together and share the same bank account! I had to get creative and sneaky this year and it was fun lol. Matthew even managed to surprise me big time, more on that later. We made monkey bread and sausage balls after that and they were delicious.

So fun starting new little family traditions together.

My heart is so full that I have a husband and home to love on this year. Our first married Christmas was so special and I will always remember these sweet moments we share together. Being married has been such a sweet thing to me, I can't wait for, Lord Willing, many many more Christmases shared together.

After we ate breakfast we lounged around until it was time to get ready and head to Matthew's parents house. We loaded up the car with presents and our bags, we stayed the night with them.

Soon after we got to Matthew's parents house Matthew gave me my last present...my sweet, sweet husband surprised me SO good y'all! Remember in this post where I found my dream desk?

This desk...

Well Matthew went back the very next day and bought it for me. He has been hiding it at his parents house this whole time. Y'all, I am SOOOOO excited about this beautiful desk! Matthew is THE best!

We spent Christmas day spending time with family, eating delicious food, taking pictures, playing games, swapping gifts, looking at Christmas lights, and watching Christmas movies. Such a fun day!

Feeling so blessed to have doubled the size of my family this year!

Such a fun Christmas!

We all three showed up in similar green shirts...not planned, but made for a fun picture!

Again, sorry for the awful iPhone quality. I need to remember my camera!!

Jenny and I got cute pj's from Matthew's parents and we put them on early that afternoon because we were stuffed and they were so comfy! We all loaded up and went and looked at Christmas lights and then came back to his parents house and watched Christmas With The Kranks. We love that movie!

We woke up the day after Christmas and had breakfast with everyone and then headed to my mema's house for Christmas #3, and out last Christmas celebration! It was good to see everyone and eat more delicious food! My aunt and uncle gifted us this beautiful Lenox tree platter with our last name on it.

Can we just do it all again?? This time of year is so fun, and I love being around everyone and spending tons of time with family. 

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FIRST MARRIED CHRISTMAS

MERRY CHRISTMAS, EVE!

Merry Christmas Eve, friends! My heart is so full that I have a home with a husband to love on this year! I am just beyond excited for Christmas morning tomorrow with my sweet Matthew, and I am hoping to take it all in and really enjoy every second.

Thankfully we were spared last night, as the strong storms missed us, but praying for all those who lost loved ones and their houses. I am heartbroken reading all of the news stories today of the damage all the storms left night. We decided to come to Murfreesboro a night early because of the storms, we are so grateful Matthew's parents let us stay with them last night. Tornado warnings and living on the 3rd floor just don't go well together. Please pray for all those who were affected last night by the storms and tornadoes. 

From our little home to yours, Merry Christmas!

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MERRY CHRISTMAS, EVE!

CHRISTMAS CARDS DISPLAY 2015

Growing up my mom always hung each Christmas card up as they came in the mail. They hung on our door frame in the kitchen leading into the living room, it was the first thing you saw when you walked in our back door and I loved it, and still do!

This was our first year sending our Christmas cards and I spent a lot of time picking out the design, the pictures to put on it and handwriting a little note on the back of them, So I know just how much time people put into their Christmas cards. 

I know not everyone puts as much time into them but they are still special! So I wanted to hang them up to display them somehow. We had this blank wall in our dining room and it was the perfect place to hang them up. I love how it turned out, and it was pretty simple! 

I just bought some red and white twine from Hobby Lobby and pinned it on our wall and I used these clothespins that were left over from our wedding reception. This display cost less than $4 for us!

 I decorated our console table a little with stuff I already had, and picked up a couple of cute items. That "oh deer" piece is from Target's dollar section. I loved the Christmas plaid on the deer and it ended up matching my ribbon that I used for the bows on the lanterns!

These clear glass lanterns are left over from our wedding. I LOVE them and LOVE decorating with them. We have about 10 and I am putting them to good use each season. For Christmas I just bought some cheap (AMAZINGLY scented) pine cones and stuffed in there. I found this ribbon for our wreath and made bows for both lanterns. My bows are lacking a little but they'll do for this year lol.

My favorite milk glass dish, ever! I just placed some extra pine cones in it.

 I am going to be so sad seeing these go next week. I really wish Christmas decorations stayed up longer!

Christmas card season is the sweetest of all!

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CHRISTMAS CARDS DISPLAY 2015

CHRISTMAS TABLESCAPE 2015

In the past couple of years I have really enjoyed decorating my table for every season. It's so fun and I love trying to come up with different ways to use things I already have. I also love adding a little bit of decor throughout our apartment. So here is our Christmas tablescape! I had so much fun putting this together...and Matthew even helped a little!

I mentioned in this post, that I got a really good deal on the placemats and napkin rings. I'm telling you, shopping after Christmas for Christmas decorations is THE best way to go! Stores are already marking a few things down so it's will be marked down even more the day after Christmas. 

The plates are a beautiful cream with gold detailing around the edges. I absolutely LOVE them. I scored a deal on these, too! A guy I used to work with in Cookeville had bought a storage unit and there was still a ton of stuff the other people just left so they were selling everything. He had about 50 antique plates and some beautiful platters. Well at the time I was collecting antique plates for our wedding so I bought all of them from him, and in those were these beautiful dinner plates as well as the salad plates. There is also a matching platter that comes in use all the time when having company over!

Aren't those napkin rings adorable?! And how fun is it that they match the gold detailing on the plates already?

We bought these napkins off of Amazon for Friendsgiving. I love the size and they are so easy to clean, just throw them in the washer and wash on delicate, perfect! 

And that's our Christmas tablescape! Since the placemats are so big I decided not to add a centerpiece. 

I love our table and decorating it for each season, and I absolutely can't wait to have a big farmhouse table one day to set!! 

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CHRISTMAS TABLESCAPE 2015

CHRISTMAS PICTURES

This weekend was so good and so refreshing. We didn't have any plans or anywhere to be, the weather was absolutely perfect, our apartment is clean, we went to sleep on clean and crisp sheets last night, we had our windows raised most of the weekend, a new Christmas candle was burning most of the weekend, we had a lot of quality time, and we had some Christmas pictures made.

If you remember our deal, the ultimate compromise, then you know that Matthew held up his end of the deal this past weekend and we had our Christmas pictures made. My awesome sister agreed to make pictures of us at a Christmas tree farm and they turned out great! I absolutely love them.

 We received this ornament as a wedding gift and we absolutely love it!

Because I love our first Christmas card.

And that's about it! We were so lucky with the weather, I still can't believe it...low 70's and partly cloudy. The Christmas tree farms wasn't busy at all so we pretty much had the whole area to ourselves. We did end up buying a small fresh wreath that Matthew picked out! I'm going to try and make a small bow to go on it sometime this week.

I am SO excited for my first Christmas as Matthew's wife.

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CHRISTMAS PICTURES

2015 CHRISTMAS CARDS

As I mentioned before, I have been looking forward to sending out Christmas cards for as long as I can remember. Minted had so many options to look through, and I enjoyed seeing all of the different layout they offered on each card. I love that there were so many gold foil options, but in the end I chose to go with a card that didn't have the gold foil. Maybe next year!

I may have jumped the gun a little on these bad boys, but I couldn't help myself. These delivered at the end of October and I had them ready to go by the end of November. I wanted to mail them off by December 1st and surprisingly I accomplished that. I ran over to the post office on my lunch break last Tuesday and happily mailed them off. 

Without further ado, I present to you...our first Christmas card!

(front)

I left the back blank, because I wanted to add a special handwritten note to each one. 2015 was a BIG year for us and all of our family and friends celebrated us, supported us, and encouraged us through it all. So I wanted to make sure there was a small note thanking them, and wishing them the best for 2016. It took some time to hand write a note on each one, but I love adding that little bit of extra love to them.

(back)

I also spent a good bit of time addressing them with my favorite red ink. I usually only pull this red ink out at Christmas time. It's a beautiful color and I love the way it pops against the white envelopes!

I did have our address added by Minted on the back of the envelopes, and really loved the way it looked!

I am so happy with how they turned out and really enjoyed creating them! 

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2015 CHRISTMAS CARDS

"The ultimate compromise"

One of the many things I have learned very quickly in marriage is compromise. I think we both have had to learn this lol. Whether it be on decor for our apartment, who gets the extra drawer, where we go eat, what movie we watch, etc.
Two things really quick.... 1.) We were talking the other day about our Christmas tree. I still have one from my apartment I used the past two years we could use and will use in the future, but I really want a real tree. At least once. Growing up we used the same exact fake tree every year until I was around 15 or so and then we got another fake tree. Don't get me wrong there is absolutely nothing wrong with a fake tree and there are many positive things that come from having a fake tree. I just really want to experience having a real tree. I might regret this decision a week or so after we get our real tree when having to clean up after it lol but I am willing to do it! I think it will be fun and quite the experience! Also, I think it's going to be so much fun going and picking it out together.
2.) Matthew absolutely hates doing laundry. Really he just hates folding the laundry lol he would rather do every other step in the laundry process (sort, move one load to the dryer & start the next, hang up/put up clean clothes) than fold. I'm not too big of a fan of laundry, but I don't despise it as much as he does lol. 
So the "ultimate compromise" my genius husband came up with...
If I do ALL the laundry until Christmas then we get to go pick out a real Christmas tree for our 1st Christmas together!!!!! I am SO excited. Even though I have a feeling he would have given into the real Christmas tree without a compromise (eventually) I agreed to do all the laundry. Also, apart of our little agreement...we get to make some Christmas pictures at the Christmas tree farm to document our first Christmas. Y'all didn't think I was going to let him get out of all that laundry that easy now did you?! ;) 

Also, I am hoping to be able to make something like this after we take it down!

It's the little things y'all! I hope you all have a great weekend! 

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"The ultimate compromise"