THE SATURDAY AFTER THANKSGIVING

We have blocked off on our calendars, because we already have some plans. Big plans. Exciting plans. Plans that I have been look forward to for years. We are decorating our first place together for our first married Christmas. Growing up we never decorated before Thanksgiving, we always decorated the Saturday after Thanksgiving. It was an all day event for my family as we had as we decorated the whole house. We started downstairs and then finished up that afternoon with all putting the tree up and decorating it. Then me and my sisters would put up our small tree in our bedrooms and decorate our bedrooms. My mom would make sausage balls and we would jam out to Christmas music all day while the fire was going. I remember growing up thinking how I couldn't wait to do this one day with my husband and eventually my family. Well the time has finally come to decorate for Christmas with my HUSBAND!! This is a tradition I want to start and carry on when we have children one day.

Since it won't take ALL day to decorate, since we live in a one bedroom apartment, we decided to stretch it out as much as possible with a few Christmas movies to make it an all day event. I am going to wake up early and get the sausage balls and hot chocolate going. We'll snack on sausage balls all morning and into the early afternoon while decorating and listening to Christmas music and Christmas movies.

Once everything is decorated I'll start dinner. I told Matthew I wanted to have a meal that we both like, and that I can cook every year on our decorating day, and of course his first response was Nashville's Hot Chicken Pasta. I'm not a fan of the hot chicken part, but I am more than okay with the fettuccine Alfredo part so I agreed! Matthew's mom found a copy cat recipe so we are going to use that! We already have some cookie dough so we'll have some warm chocolate chip cookies to eat later that night for dessert.

That night we'll alternate between the Egg Bowl (Mississippi State vs. Ole Miss) and the Predators game by our Christmas tree. To say I am excited would be an understatement. This is my favorite Saturday of the year, and I am so excited to finally share it with my sweet husband. I think traditions are so important, especially the ones your create in your first few years of marriage.

Do you and your husband have any Christmas traditions? If so, I would love to hear them!

Share:facebook - twitter - pinterest

THE SATURDAY AFTER THANKSGIVING

State of emergency in pictures

I'm back! I didn't intend to take a week off from blogging but last week I was just in a funk! We got hit pretty hard with an ice/snow storm and it ended up putting me out of work most of the week. I was out of work and stuck at my apartment Monday-Thursday. Thursday I was off due to some Dr. appts and then finally went in to work on Friday and ended up having to stay in Cookeville until Saturday due to more bad weather. I always tell Matthew how I would just love a day or two to myself at my apartment to relax and catch up on stuff. Well I got my wish and to be honest I completely had an awful attitude about it. I was bored out of my mind. I watched SEVEN movies on Netflix on Monday and by Wednesday I was almost finished with season 1 of Parenthood. I didn't go to the store before the weather hit so I didn't have much and what I did have I was so tired of eating it by Wednesday. I didn't get to meet Matthew for our weekly dinner because it wasn't safe for either of us.  I whined to Matthew a lot, I complained about the food I had in my refrigerator, I complained about not being able to drive anywhere, about not being able to go to the gym, about not being able to see Matthew and even about not being able to go to work.  Early Monday morning is when the first round of weather came in. I got up and was determined that I was going to work, even with 1/4 of ice covering my car. I started my car 30 mins early to help melt it and continued getting ready for work. I packed a lunch because I knew we still had more ice/snow coming and that I probably wouldn't be able to leave and grab a salad at lunch. I went back out to my car to leave and tried to scrape the ice off. Nothing. It was going anywhere, even after the 30 minutes of defrost. I finally was able to break through some and make a hole big enough that I could see to drive. My apartment parking lot was a complete sheet of ice. I slid trying to get out of my apartment parking lot and made it two mins down the road and slid a lot already. I then realized it's not worth it and decided to turn around and drive back to my apartment and call in for the day. The roads were just a solid sheet of ice and it was STILL coming down. I made it back to my apartment and called it a day. I parked it on the couch for majority of the day. The weather continued ALL day and eventually turned into snow. Tuesday wasn't any better. Everything was still frozen solid. I cleaned and got together stuff that I need to sell/donate. Tuesday night we got 4 more inches of snow on top of all the ice from Monday. I was planning on going home on Wednesday afternoon as soon as I got off but that didn't happen. Everything was closing. The university ended up closing ALL week, that hasn't happened in over 100 years. Wal-Mart closed, Kroger closed, McDonald's closed, everything.  I went home Thursday mid day after it warmed up a few degrees. The roads were still a mess, even the main roads. The interstate was slushy and had multiple icy spots, but I made it to my Dr appts. I went home to see my family for a little bit before I headed back to Cookeville. I got back right before dark because I knew all the slushy stuff was going to freeze over again.  Friday the ice arrived around noon. It would snow and then turn to ice and then back to snow. When I got off my drive was awful. I can make it to work in 10 minutes and it took me almost 40 minutes to get home with the traffic and just having to take the main roads and driving extremely slow.  I woke up Saturday with no electricity and by time I left Saturday around 11 I still didn't have any. I was finally able to meet Matthew for lunch in Lebanon! He had a hair appt around 2 and I had a bridesmaid appt to pick out my girls dresses at 5 so that was all we got to see of each other on Saturday.  Even through all of that I didn't realize how lucky I was. I complained because I was bored, even though I had power and TV, I complained because I was eating the same thing for three days straight, I complained because I wanted to just get out of my apartment, I complained because I couldn't see Matthew. I didn't realize how lucky I was until I started seeing people on Facebook sharing pictures of what it was like at their house. And then it was like a slap in the face and I felt awful for complaining. I was sick to my stomach for these people. I found these pictures off of Putnam County E-911's facebook page

Tennessee was under a state of emergency after Tuesday, I think. Multiple crashes were happening EVERYWHERE. A tragic story of a mother and her son trying to help someone on the side of the interstate when a semi struck them and killed both, I think the total is up to 22 deaths due to weather related wrecks, and then the state of emergency was raised to a level two for the northern counties that were hit so hard (the above pictures). Thousands are still without power. They have opened churches and some schools for shelters because people can't stay in their homes without power and with it still being in the teens.

I have been watching the news non-stop and reading people's updates on facebook and it's just gut-wrenching. 

So today I am thankful. 

Share:facebook - twitter - pinterest

State of emergency in pictures

Warm Thoughts

Last weekend the weather was simply incredible for January and most of this week it has been very enjoyable. Until yesterday, and we won't even talk about the weather forecast for today and this weekend. Every year at this time I get really tired of the cold weather and wish I lived in sunny and warm Florida. I often get jealous when I see friends Instagram posts of them wearing shorts or opening their windows because it's so nice outside in JANUARY.
So today, I am thinking warm thoughts and acting like my cubical is in an office with a beach view instead of an ugly highway that is wet and has salt already on it to prepare as the temps drop today and tonight ;)

You can find all of these images and many more similar to them on my travel Pinterest board ;)

Posts from this week: Six Months Our 1st Place!!

Share:facebook - twitter - pinterest

Warm Thoughts