auld lang syne.

I cannot believe that 2011 has come and gone. It has been quite the year—John and I got married, we welcomed another nephew, a handful of my best friends got engaged or married, I ended my job of four years and am pursuing my passion for photography...the list goes on. As I sit here reflecting on the past year, I feel overwhelmingly thankful and blessed. GOD IS GOOD and I say that with candor and praise. As mentioned in my last post, I cannot wait to see what the Lord has in store for 2012.

"The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness. “The Lord is my portion,” says my soul, “therefore I will hope in him.” 

Lamentations 3:22-24

To keep in the spirit of this sparkly holiday celebration, I have gathered a few sequined stunners for your viewing pleasure. 

Unfortunately, I won't be able to wear anything of this caliber for New Year's Eve this year because the husband and I are headed to this joint:

Yep, today we're headed to Sawtooth Plantation where I'll most likely be wearing this:

and, of course, these:

Yes, I really do own these...

Anyone else feeling my pain?! Although the weekend will be centered around hunting, we will be hunting in luxury. I can't complain too much. As long as I'm standing next to my sweet hubby when the clock strikes midnight, I am a.o.k. So, here's to 2012!!! See ya in the New Year.

WISHING YOU A VERY HAPPY NEW YEAR! 

framed.

While we're on the topic of "traditions," I have another one that I am starting that I wanted to share. Yes, I know that Christmas is over, but this really pertains to next Christmas and the Christmases thereafter. On Tuesday, I spent the entire afternoon taking down all of our Christmas paraphernalia and boxing it up for next year (sad day). Of these decorations were all of the Christmas cards that we received this year. HUGE thank you to everyone who sent us one. Each card was so sweet and so special and I loved having them on display. Now, I'm not going to lie—I loved our Christmas card. I put a lot of time and effort into choosing the design, making it our own, stuffing, addressing...you get the point. Way too much time and effort to trash it. Do y'all feel the same way? So, I decided to frame it. That way, every year at Christmas we can reminisce by having all of our past cards on display in a cute unique way. And speaking of frames, I loved the one that I got for our Christmas card so much (not to mention it was 50% off) that I bought it in an 8x10, as well, for...

...this beautiful piece of art that my sister-in-law, Lea, gave me for Christmas that I had originally pinned on Pinterest. So thoughtful. I cannot wait to add it to our gallery wall in the bedroom! Here are the finished framed products:

In other news, Wednesday was my last day of work—for the time being. I have total faith in the Lord that the next "chapter" of my life is going to be incredibly fulfilling. I cannot wait to see what He has in store! I hope that everyone had a very Merry Christmas!

traditions.

This past Sunday, the hubs and I stopped by The Fresh Market to pick up some groceries for dinner that evening. The last item on my list was Crème Fraîche so we headed to the dairy section before checking out. While I scoured the shelves for this delicious concoction, John stumbled upon egg nog. Oh my hallelujah, you would have thought that John spotted Jesus he was so excited about it. Want to hear the kicker? He has never, ever, ever, never had a sip of it! WHAT?! Insert mental battle: do we buy it so John can check it off his bucket list OR do we leave it on the shelf to prevent future temptation? Let's be honest, I don't need the added cals this Christmas season. Every time I open the refrigerator it's going to be staring at me. As the mental struggle continued, John excitedly cut in, "let's get it! It can be the start of a new Christmas tradition!!!" ...sigh. How cute is that? I couldn't resist and John couldn't contain his excitement. When we got to the register he put his arm around me and started telling the cashier how it was our first "married" Christmas and that we were starting a new tradition of egg nog drinking together. She laughed and admitted that she had never sipped on egg nog either. Double WHAT?! Long story short, we have started our first Christmas tradition as a "family" and I could not be more thrilled. I look forward to adding many more traditions to this wonderful season down the road. 


Don't have any traditions yet? If you aren't feeling creative, here are 81 popular Christmas traditions written by Patty Getz to spark up your imagination:


1) Make a popcorn Garland
2) Make garland with construction paper
3) Watch Christmas shows together with hot Chocolate and popcorn
4) Make Decorating the the tree a family event, serve hot chocolate and play Christmas music
5) Make your own Christmas cards to send to people
6) Go Christmas shopping at the the Dollar Store And Donate to a charity for Christmas Gifts
7) Donate Clothes or toys for needy children
8) Make a Snowman (...if you don't live in the South)
9) Have a snowball fight (see #8)
10) Make a ginger bread house out of graham crackers and what ever you have in the house. 
11) Paint Christmassy pictures on the windows with washable paint
12) Make a game out of hunting around the house, for things to make christmas decorations out of. 
13) Build a fire, and have a slumber party with your kids
14) Bake and decorate cookies
15) Have a wrapping party
16) Plan to share a plate of goodies with any elderly or young parents in the neighborhood
17) Go Caroling
18) Go for a drive and see who wins for the best lights in town.
19) Attend a Live Nativity.
20) Take a Special drive at night to enjoy others Christmas lights!
21) Invite your children's friends over to make cards or gifts for their parents
22) Go collect pine cones and use them to make ornaments (check!)
23) Make bird treat with peanut butter and birdseed
24) Sing Christmas carols
25) Have the kids write and act out a Christmas play
26) Go to the library and borrow Christmas videos and books 
27) Have a game night
28) Take a walk or drive around a neighborhood that has their houses all lit up and decorated
29) Shovel the snow for your elderly neighbors (again. #8)
30) Read one Christmas short story each night before bed
31) Write Christmas letter to all the relatives with the kids all telling what they have been up to in their own words
32) Go sledding and come back to the house for hot cider and hot chocolate (I'm starting to get depressed here)
33) Take a picture of the kids in front of the Christmas tree, and make it a yearly tradition.
34) Visit the local nursing home and present some of the residents with homemade Christmas cards.
35) Do a random act of kindness for a neighbor that you know is sick or feeling down, like take them a plate of cookies or some homemade ornaments.
36) Attend a Church service together
37) Invite an older person/couple for a holiday meal
38) Have a campout night, and sleep in sleeping bags under your lighted christmas tree or some christmas lights.
39) Make up a Christmas scavenger hunt.
40) Watch the all the videos or home movies of Christmas. Or, look at all the photos from Christmas.
41) Make some ornaments 
42) Color some Christmas pages together
43) Share a favorite Christmas memory
44) Help your local church/library/community center organize a special holiday reading of twas the night before Christmas, A Christmas Carol, etc. Invite seniors/families. Maybe get a local store to donate some cookies or cocoa.
45) Have a birthday celebration, complete with cake, and birthday decorations (for baby Jesus, of course)
46) We make a video of ourselves decorating the tree, making cookies, singing Christmas carols and telling the Christmas story. then we make copies of it for all the far off relatives (beats a humdrum letter).
47) Volunteer as a family for the local shelter or nursing home.
48) Make Christmas cards or snowflakes and take them to the local nursing home.
49) Organize your scout troop or Sunday school or homeschool group and go caroling at a nursing home.
50) Scout or youth group could also offer to paint the windows of local businesses for the holiday with washable paint.
60) Ask the local supermarket if your youth group or older kids can help carry groceries out for senior citizens. 
61) Help sort food for a food pantry that does food baskets for the holiday.
62) Make paper snowflakes to decorate your windows (We did this when I was little!)
63) Organize or volunteer to work in a Christmas wrap booth that gives the proceeds to charity
64) Volunteer as food servers at shelters that provide Christmas dinners
65) Light up your walkway/driveway with handmade luminaries (We did this too! Oh the memories...)
66) Collect pine boughs and pine cones and make wreaths - can be shared at nursing homes or with elderly ones nearby
67) Decorate stockings
68) Get out your old records - or borrow your parents- and listen to the Golden oldie Christmas songs from your youth, and share the memories of Christmas past with your children
69) Learn about different cultures that celebrate Christmas.... and about what they did years ago. 
70) Sing silly Christmas songs with your kiddos... (Grandma got ran over by a reindeer)
71) Find an angel tree and have your kids help pick out a toy for the needy childs name on the angel tree.
72) Make a manger scene out of playdough or clay or even construction paper. Whatever is handy.
73) Create a calendar that the kids can mark off the days til Christmas.
74) Have a Christmas Past, Present and Future evening/afternoon. Get out your photo albums/scrapbooks and talk about Christmas Past, remembering those who are no longer here to share it with us; for Christmas Present, discuss what one thing makes Christmas special for each person; for Christmas Future, talk about your hopes and dreams for the coming years ahead.
74) Make Christmas gifts for your family's pet and other relative's pets. 
75) Take a little Christmas tree and decorate it with your pet's toys and set it in the livingroom with your bigger tree - just for the pets! Wrap up some treats and place them under the pet's tree, too, like a small can of some fancy cat food or a package of doggie treats. (Hopefully the dog won't tear it apart to get at it until Christmas day.)
76) Let the kids make their own stockings out of felt and stocking "packages" out of paper grocery sacks to put gifts for others in. 
77) Gingerbread people made out of brown grocery sacks are very cute, too and inexpensive and make great tags on presents and ornaments for a tree or wreath. You could glue on google eyes and a small candy cane to the gingerbread people, too and make them even more dimensional and if using two sides, you can tape or glue them together and stuff them with cottonballs to fill them out if you want to make them puffy. 
78) Let your child decorate their bedroom door for Christmas. A wreath with some small trinkets on it is charming on every door inside the house, too.
79) Make snowmen out of styrofoam ball ornaments or styro balls or old Christmas bulbs (the breakable kind) in 2 sizes (one larger and one smaller glued together), paint white or glue on cottonballs or fake snow and add glitter. Use google eyes or dots punched out of a paper punch for eyes, Orange pipe cleaner twisted to a carrot shape for the nose, little buttons or mini m & m's or small pom poms can be buttons or even the gold top of a paper fastener clip. Also can use yarn for eyes, smile, eyebrows or braid yarn for a scarf.. use your imagination and whatever you have around the house, toothpicks or tree branches for arms, etc. An old sweater and flannel shirt can provide scarves and hats, mittens for all the snowmen and snowwomen which can be grouped together under a tree branch from outside. Provide all the scrap materials you have and let the kids have a great time making them.
80) Make some snow globes with old jars.
81) Create a God Can for family members: use a tall odd shaped can and attach:

God Can 
When your worries get too heavy 
Follow this little plan 
Just write it on a little note 
And drop it in this can 
You know that any problem 
That you place in Our Lord's hands 
Will soon be taken care of 
Because we can't but God Can! 


Whew! Those are a lot of good ideas. One tradition, not on the list, that I want to start with our family is to read the story of the Birth of Jesus (Birth of Jesus - Matthew 1:18-25, Luke 2:1-14, The Visit of the Shepherds - Luke 2:15-20, The Visit of the Wise Men - Matthew 2:1-12, The Birth of Jesus Foretold - Isaiah 40:1-11, Luke 1:26-28, Mary Visits Elizabeth - Luke 1:39-45, Mary's Song - Luke 1:46-55) on Christmas Eve. I think that we can make this happen...while enjoying a glass of egg nog. 


Do you have any special Christmas traditions?

it's official.

My bestie, Sarah, is engaged!!! This isn't "new" news, but last weekend was the first time that I had seen her since Selby popped the question. Because we weren't able to come to Montgomery for their celebratory champagne toast I wanted to do something special for them in Birmingham. So, last Friday night John and I had them over for a celebratory engagement dinner! 

Setting the table before they arrived.

Of course we had to serve champagne! We had two options: the "Black Velvet" and the "Poinsettia." I recommend both!

I wanted it to be a memorable evening for both Sarah and Selby so I went all out when it came to the menu. We dined on prime rib roast, spring vegetable ragout, smashed potatoes, and fresh baked rolls. MMMM. It was delish!

I am SO truly happy for Sarah. She deserves the respect and love that Selby shows her. I am so honored to be a part of this special time in their lives!

Sarah's getting married!!! WAHOO!

The couple of the night.

John and Selby are really excited too.

We love y'all and cannot wait until 11.3.12!