A Little Behind....

I know we are now halfway through January, but you know, I just took down the Christmas decorations and trees in our house on Tuesday!  So, it seems only fitting I do our Christmas update now....before it is Valentine's day!  ;)

We had a great Christmas....and we hope you all did too!  It was so fun to decorate our new house and truly "deck the halls"!

Wreath from my Grandparents
...in our brand new kitchen!

We only enjoyed this for a short time before leaving for the Southeast for Christmas, and maybe that's why I left it up so long....or maybe because I dreaded taking it all down alone since I had amazing help putting it up!  Funny to see that picture, since the foyer is now a cream color and that horrible faux finish is gone!

Traveling for Christmas meant flying into Atlanta and spending several days there with my family and our friends...

I must detour now to share my excitement with our gift giving/getting this Christmas.... I was determined to buy American made gifts for everyone and help our own economy and create jobs this year.  I was so successful and so pleased with my efforts!  We gave Ava Anderson Non Toxic gifts (of course!), John Boo's butcher blocks for family (made in Chicago...I am super jealous I bought these for everyone yet still don't have one for myself) ;o) and sweet puppets for all of the kids!  I'm so glad I stimulated our economy because it made up for the foreign sewing machine I had been dreaming of and received from Todd, my parents, and my brother and the amazing pink Ralph Lauren slippers my sister's family gave me for Christmas!  Another cool gift we got from my sister, brother-in-law and their children was a sheep donation in our name to a struggling family in another country for wool and meat.  Okay, back on track....

....Then, we rented a car and drove to Kentucky to spend a few days with Todd's family and some friends (who I think love Breck more than us!)...

....and we rounded out our trip with a quick pass through Nashville and Birmingham on our way back to Atlanta. It made more sense to bring Breck, and he has become quite the frequent flyer!  He has decided if he is in the suitcase when it comes out to be packed, he will get to go!  So, he camps out!

Here he is just hanging out in Hartsfield-Atlanta Airport waiting to check in for our return flight home!  Such a nut...I could not get over how funny this was!

When we arrived home, we were greeted by all of this fun mail (lots of bills, too!)!  It was so fun to go through all of it and see everyone's pretty cards and gorgeous families!

Yesterday, a group of friends here got together to bind our cards for safe keeping and future memories.  I am so excited to keep up this tradition!

We returned home just before New Years and went to a masquerade party to ring it in with some California friends in their new home!

We are wishing all of you a Happy and prosperous new year!

Ornament Craft Night!

I have wanted large, sparkly, red ornaments for our traditional Christmas tree in our living room.  It has lime green mesh ballooned on it, with all of our childhood ornaments, but it really needed something else to help pull it together.  I searched all over this holiday season, but couldn't find anything like what I wanted -- who knew large, red ornaments would be impossible to find??  So, this crafty girl decided to make her own!

I bought round craft ornaments at Michaels for dirt cheap -- no really, I think they were a dollar a piece.  Then, armed with red glitter and decoupage glue I went to work!  I removed the tops of the ornaments, and swished a mixture of the glue and water through the inside of the ornament.  I let the excess glue drain, then poured glitter inside and moved around until it was completely covered.

Todd came home from work halfway through the fun and decided to help!

...and these are his picture-taking "skills"??  Now you know why I am never in pictures!

For 14 ornaments, I spent right around $20!  The entire project took about an hour, and we have handmade ornaments we can enjoy for years!  The best part -- the glitter is on the inside, so we won't have shedding issues over the years!!

We tied the ornaments with sheer ribbon and placed on the tree!

No excuse!

I really have no good reason as to why I haven't posted pictures or blogged lately other than... I haven't felt well (gluten...blah, blah, blah), we are finally back home and trying to get back into the daily grind (why is this so hard???) , I have been trying to figure out how to use my new Mac (yes, my new Mac!!  Loving it, just need to get acquainted with it a little more!), and we are preparing for Todd's parents to arrive this afternoon for a weekend visit (and yes, I am sitting here blogging as if I have nothing else to do!)! 

So, here is my quick attempt at a Christmas catch up:

We went to Atlanta and Kentucky to visit family and friends for the holiday.  We started in Atlanta with a fun night with friends, and a matinee of A Christmas Carol at the Alliance Theater.  We had a quick bite before the play, and got this cute picture of us with the Abregos!

We spent the next several days with my family just north of Atlanta celebrating Christmas, and enjoying time together.  We got to see my nephew and neices, and do Christmas with them, which is always fun!  We left Christmas morning for Kentucky to spend the next few days with Todd's family.  The drive on Christmas day was certainly not what we expected, because...it was SNOWING!!!!  Yes, we had a White Christmas in Georgia, all the way through Tennessee, and into Kentucky!  In fact, we had snow for a couple of days!  It was so fun to put Breck out in the snow, and watch him walk through and look up at the falling flakes in confusion!  Our dog, who is named after a ski town, didn't like the snow!!  I guess that's how it goes!  :)

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas, and are now back into the swing of things!

Lights, lights, lights!!!

Another great date night!  But, I'm beginning to think every night is date night in the Hood.  Sometimes, it's just date night in!  :)  This was a such a fun date night....we went to Hollywood Studio's at Walt Disney World to see the Osborne's light display on the streets of America!  The Osborne's (not Ozzy) are from Little Rock, Arkansas and after proving to have the most impressive light displays in the US, they teamed up with Disney to make it even more exciting.  I have been wanting to go see the lights all month, and with Christmas quickly approaching, and our calendar getting full, we decided to go! 

It has been quite cold here....no really, it has....27 degrees cold!  So, we layered and pulled out our ski jackets (which haven't been used in over a year), and headed to the park just to see the millions of lights synchronized to almost an hour of Christmas music.  We had such a fun night, and were surprised by the intermittent "snow" fall!  Here are some pictures so you can see how extensive the lights are!

Our attempt at a picture of ourselves!

Someone else's attempt at a picture of us....at least ours wasn't blurry!

And, I thought it would be helpful if you could get a little taste of the experience, so thanks to YouTube, you can check it out here:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5UySCUo_ek4&feature=related  This still does not do the display justice, as lights are all up and down the side streets, and they are also lit and synchronized. There is also a huge Christmas tree between buildings on the right that is lit too! 

We ended our night by meeting friends for coffee at a local coffee shop.  It was so nice to warm up, and the peppermint latte I enjoyed was amazing!!!  We hope you are all having a wonderful Christmas season!  We are especially enjoying getting all of your Christmas cards with pictures in the mail!

What we have been up to....

I decorated for Christmas today, and Breck has been very intrigued with the entire process.  In fact, he is pretty convinced the tree skirt is his new bed - it makes for a great nap!  I took a few pictures I thought I would share...

What is all this stuff??



Woken up from my nap under the tree!