Christmas Decorating

School was released early today. It was the first time since I started working there and quite a shock...it's 35 and raining! Apparently an ice storm was on the way. I've driven through feet of snow on my commute to and from this school and they haven't blinked an eye - they simply put the chains on the bus tires. Anyway, no complaints here. I've already finished all my "evening chores" (e.g. running with Willow, packing my lunch, thinking about dinner, etc.) and I'm sitting on the couch with time to blog!

I'm also staring at my Christmas decorations...ones I've been enjoying for a few weeks now.

I'll let you look for yourself. Let's start outside - I froze my buns off and drove myself a bit crazy with several broken light strands trying to get all those fence lights up after Thanksgiving. It was worth it - the neighbors like them :)

Next year I'd like to add something to the windows, but ran out of energy this time.

My mom and sister weren't home at Thanksgiving to make our annual boxwood wreath (so sad), so I picked this one up at the Christmas tree place.

Moving inside...I struggled a bit with the mantle as our ceilings in this house are so much higher than my past ones...I do love my pointy santas and that I could hang my stockings this year though.

You've seen the tree...

The sugar mold got a little spiced up.

As did my maple sugar taps that John made me last year :)

Happy Wednesday - Christmas is almost here!

xo!

The Tree!

A few weeks ago, Matt and I headed here to pick out our Christmas tree :)

The place is so cute...

They give out free candy canes and hot chocolate after you cut down your tree.

AND they have a sweet furry friend to welcome everyone.

They didn't have enough large trees this year (not sure why) so they trucked in some extras! No way was I going for that though!

Our December has been pretty mild with very little snow (I haven't been complaining because we woke up this morning to 15 degrees and I know the snow will come at some point...). So - we had a nice day to walk around and pick out our tree!

I did LOTS of looking (poor Matt).

At least he had a great view in the background to entertain him!

I finally picked one....

And Matt got to work.

Hooray!

She's the perfect size :)

xo!

Thanksgiving

I did do something on my trip home besides snuggle with babies. We spent Thanksgiving with Matt's family and it was wonderful! We had a really short visit this time and tried to squeeze lots in, but we spent Thanksgiving day at home relaxing :)

La'Turkenisha made another appearance....

She was quite popular and everyone wanted to have their picture taken with her!

I'm happy to report Willow warmed up to her this year, unlike what happened last time.

It's a good thing because her presence was requested in the first family photo...

We enjoyed a fried turkey this year. Have you ever had a fried turkey? They are quite delicious!

Willow stuck close to John for the day, hoping for some scraps.

She was rewarded for her patient and persistent begging...

Father and daughter :)

We feasted at a beautiful table...

On some delicious food!

We did have another family photo session where I had a bit more control of the light and shadow situation - I think they turned out well!

Matt and I usually get to see both sets of our parents at the holidays since we are from the same hometown. This time my parents went to visit my sister in Georgia and my brother was working down in Florida so I didn't get a chance to see them. Thank goodness for iphones and Facetime so I didn't feel totally disconnected :)

Happy Tuesday!

xoxo

FINALLY!

Over Thanksgiving I finally had the chance to meet my babies. I've posted about the big baby shower on the blog before but as a reminder three of my best friends from college had babies this fall. I had the chance to meet two my new favorite people - a surrogate neice and nephew :) I apologize that I haven't edited these pics but if I wait until I have time for that I'll never post them so here you go...

Worth belongs to my friend Kate and was the most precious boy ever. Just take one look at him. He makes the cutest faces and I loved watching him take in the world.

Kate is looking so fabulous - you would never know she had a baby 5 weeks ago!

Me, on the other hand, not so fab looking but I had to document our first meeting :)

Baby legs :)

I had the chance to see Worth over several days - lucky me. We enjoyed going out to lunch twice and were joined on the second day by Lizzie who drove down to spend the afternoon with us. Love you Lizzie and thanks for making the trip!

We drove to Richmond to meet baby Katherine on Saturday - so perfect and adorable! I couldn't get my fill of looking at her either and only had 5 hours to see her (it was so hard to pull myself away). Sarah is looking equally as amazing, but wouldn't pose for me take her pic :)

K was decked out in her game day attire cheering on UVA looking adorable. It didn't help us win but she played her part - even giving a little cheer as she was falling asleep!

She had the most adorable fingers so I took some extra pics of those :)

I mean, come on, this is the ultimate in cuteness!

It's so amazing to see my friends in their new role as parents - they are naturals. These are some lucky babes to be surrounded by so much love :) I didn't get nearly enough time with either new mom and am so missing living close to them right now!

I'm still here...

Wow. I'm sorry to all of you that actually faithfully follow - I'm so behind in the blogging department. I have lots to share from Thanksgiving. We traveled home to VA and I was finally able to meet 2 of my babies :) We had a great time seeing friends and family as well. I'll post pics when I get them loaded!

For now, I already have these uploaded so thought I'd share...

We had beautiful weather in October and November this year. It was SO different from last year when it rained almost every day. Our temps were mild (for VT) and many days were sunny. It's amazing what a difference that makes!

We did a bunch of hiking - these pics are from our hike up Mad River Glen.

My noodle. Isn't she pretty?

We caught the tail end of the leaf season...

On another note...I think I've mentioned that we had a tree removed. The tree person said he wouldn't come back to take the stump until we removed the concrete. Our neighbor (and friend) offered to bring his chainsaw over and take care of the stump for free. He thought it would be fun :)

First the guys took out the dirt and concrete...

I offered to watch the kids since Joe's wife was off on a training run :) Cousin came over to help me!

After 2 trips to Lowe's for new chainsaw parts...they were ready to take down the stump.

It looked like progress was being made.

Unfortunately, that's about as far as the saw made it. The stump proved too strong for the guys. They recruited another helper who tried his hand at using a hatchet without much more luck.

Long story short, the stump remains in the backyard.

Hope you are having a good week! Only a few more days until the weekend....

xoxo