Our Christmas

Christmas in our house this year started promptly the day after Thanksgiving! I’m not usually that on top of it, but I wanted to maximize the holiday cheer we get to experience this year. We didn’t do any black Friday shopping this year because 1. I don’t have the patience for that and 2. I don’t need anything that bad to fight the crowds. Maybe that will change once we have kids, and have to buy more stuff around Christmas, at least that’s what everyone tells me. For now we save ourselves the stress and sleep in!

I guess I shouldn’t say we did no Black Friday shopping because we did partake in one deal the weekend before at Best Buy (when there were no crowds) we bought a new fridge. It’s pretty much the only resolution I made at the beginning of 2013 that I actually accomplished! I’ve been saying for 3 years that I wanted a new fridge for our kitchen. The one that was here when I bought the house was small and probably about 50 years old. It was time! It was delivered on Black Friday and it’s beautiful. Isn’t it weird how you can be excited for fridges and house items. Oh how times have changed. Every time we need something from the fridge I take a minute to stand and stare because it makes me happy! (yes I’m aware this make me old!)
We spent our actual Black Friday getting all our Christmas decorations out. I did have to make one run to Home Depot, but not until the afternoon. The mad house had died down by then. I needed to get a Christmas Tree because you can’t set up for Christmas with out one! The first two years in our house we had a real tree, but I hate having to remember to water it and all the needles that fall make a mess. Plus after Christmas it always ends up just sitting in our side yard for months. Last year we used this old pre-lit tree my Grandpa had given my Mom, but I’m not a fan of the pre-lit trees. Getting the lights plugged into each other correctly was a pain and having them wrapped around every individual branch was annoying. It also made it really hard to fold up and store. I now have come to the realization that was all because this particularly tree was a first generation pre-lit tree and they’ve come a long way since then. I can’t imaging their still that complicated? I feel like putting lights on a Christmas tree is not that complicated and what if next year I want colored light instead of all white? I need to have options!!
All that to say I got a smaller (width) non lit tree at Home Depot that was on sale for really cheap and I have no regrets. I headed home to find just the right spot to put it up and with a little help from my Mom who stopped by . . . BAM! We were ready for Christmas!
Matt put up our outdoor lights and I finished putting out all the decoration by the end of the weekend. I love outdoor Christmas lights, but sadly we’re pretty much the only house on our street that puts them up! Where’s the Christmas spirit? Our neighbors are a bunch of grinches!
It’s a good thing we got everything up that weekend, because the rest of the month of December was quite busy for us! We had lots of Family on my Dad’s side come down for an early Christmas celebration. Following that we headed down to Jupiter to visit Matt’s Uncle and his family who have a winter house there. We spent Christmas Eve and day at my parent’s house and ended up having hamburgers and hot dogs because everyone was Turkey’d out! It was great!

Beautiful day at the beach on the day before Christmas Eve
Our actual Christmas morning was full family time and present exchanging. Matt got me a super cute puppy paw necklace, because we’re so obsessed with out beagles! My Mom found this awesome metal goat at a local antique fair they have here locally. It’s made out of recycled scrap metal and it’s perfect for our front porch. She also found this handmade coozie made from recycled jeans that fits on a solo cup. I’d never seen them before but it’s pretty cool. My in-laws sent me some garden art that I actually found when we visited them in North Carolina when we were earlier in the year. I had no idea they secretly bought it the same day we were there and saved it for Christmas! So sneaky but I love it and it’s so cute in my garden outside.

As always the Puppies have to be included in the celebrations. Lucky and Nigel both got new toys, we have to get un-stuffed for them or they will rip the stuffing out in 2.5 seconds. They still manage to eventually find what little stuff they heads of these toys have and rip it out, but they last a few weeks longer then regulars. I found those antlers at Petsmart this year and had to get them for the little brats. They don’t love them but they are super cute wearing them, especially Lucky with his cute red nose!

We got some Christmas goodies from our jobs this year too. At my school they like to do Secret Santa so that way you have a choice to participate and your’re only on the hook for getting stuff for one person. It’s lasts for a week and we do little gifts each day before they “big” present exchange on Friday. My secret Santa is an artist so she made a bunch of Gator things for me. One of Matt’s coworkers wife made these cute cookie jars for each of them. It’s one of those where you layer all the dry ingredients in a mason jar and top it with cute Christmas material or bows. All we had to do was add water, oil, eggs, and bake. I don’t usually bake a lot of sweets but we made these cookies and they were delicious!
The day after Christmas we hopped (well not really since it was delayed 1.5 hours because there was no crew) on a plane and headed for Greensboro, NC. Matt’s Dad lives there and his 60th birthday was that weekend. We went up to have a weekend of celebrating. It was nice to get away to the country and relax. I also picked up a new hobby (more on that later).
Over all the holidays were great! Now it’s on to getting ready for our up coming vacation!! Have I mention that we are headed to Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam in 24 days!!!!
Til next time!



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