Elfster - Let the Holiday Season Begin

Have you been on Elfster.com? I love this website. Some friends and I are planning a day of baking followed by a pollyanna. This website rocks. You can set up a pollyanna online and draw names. The names get emailed to you! You can create wishlists, anonymously follow a friend's wishlist, follow birthdays and so much more. Thanks to my friend Angela for setting up our pollyanna!

It seems like the holidays are in full swing. It is stressful because I feel like I am behind the eight ball. With taking care of our Lexi, I have barely thought about Christmas. This might be the first year that I haven't had my decorations up and tree up Thanksgiving weekend. Why is everyone rushing me? The stores are making me feel like everything is flying off the shelves and nothing will be left. My neighbors are making my house feel dark and bare with their twinkling lights. I don't like the feeling of this. Christmas is my favorite time of year. I wish everyone would slow down and enjoy it. A girl can dream right?!?

Have you started shopping yet?

I'm Dreaming Of A White....Day After Christmas

I am usually completely bummed out when Christmas is over. Laying in bed Christmas night, I feel exhausted, and it is a major let down. The stress of finding the perfect gift in the perfect size is enough to make me want to sleep for days. Then, the anticipation of watching said people open the gifts puts me over the edge. Even though Christmas is over, I have another year of wonderful memories with my family and friends to hold on to.

The day after Christmas is usually a day spent going to stores to spend gift cards and find sales, cleaning up the house, and gathering a lot of trash! This year was a little different because early in the afternoon is started to snow. It was the perfect excuse to do nothing. Dobbie and I played with Kailyn while I drank new pumpkin spice Keurig coffee! It was the perfect day. The snow fell outside, and our house was cozy and warm. We didn't clean up. We didn't organize. We just enjoyed our snowy day, and it was so nice!

The next morning we woke up to about a foot of snow! I don't have the best pictures because I didn't go outside to take pictures to get the full effect of the snow.

It was our first snowfall of the year. As we started to clear the driveway and sidewalk, our neighbor came by with his snow blower. So instead of shoveling, we played with our snow babies.

Snow Baby #1

Snow Baby #2

Oh, how I love a good snow storm. It can even take away the post-Christmas blues.

Christmas Happiness

Whoa. That was a crazy past few days. It doesn't help that I saved many things until the last minutes which is very unlike me. Christmas Eve is the best day of the year. I love the anticipation of Christmas morning and the giddy squeals and excitement as we eat, watch A Christmas Story, and listen to Christmas music. Oh, and the giddy squeals don't come from anyone under the age of 30...some of us will never grow up...myself included! This year, we added some crying baby to the mix! Kailyn was so excited to see Santa that she didn't sleep ALL day! She was a bit rowdy at our Christmas Eve party! She is definitely going to be a party girl!

My husband likes to do most of his shopping Christmas Eve. It must be secret husband code. Although, my husband did run some last minute errands for me like a trip to the bakery and food store. So, I am grateful! I spent a good part of the day with the baby putting last minute touches on gifts and making something to bring to Christmas Eve dinner. We just hung around without our pants on!

Christmas Eve dinner was spent at Dobbie's parents house. Everything looked so great and festive when we arrived! The table looked great and the food smelled so good!

The food was yummy. I was with my favorite peeps. Things were perfect.

We had snuggles from Aunt Tracy. We had to show off how cute we were in our beautiful Christmas dress! 

We had a photo shoot in our Christmas dress. Don't worry, we changed into our pj's for Santa shortly after! 

Things were perfect...until this. Mommy, I had enough please.

We got home at 10:00 so we could put the baby to bed. 10pm is her new bedtime, and it was been working out well. Now, we just had to wait for Santa!

My husband has also created a tradition of wrapping gifts at 10pm on Christmas Eve night which usually leaves me in bed watching TV alone waiting for him to finish. In the morning, I wake up to the cutest gifts wrapped and sealed with packing tape and 3 bows each. I wouldn't want it any other way!

This was one the best Christmas. We had a wonderful day as we visited our families. We opened gifts, had some laughs, and held and snuggled our sleeping baby (a baby that slept almost the entire day because she was exhausted from the previous day's shenanigans). Thank you everyone for spending the day with us on our baby girl's first Christmas. It was special for us in so many ways, and I know each Christmas will get more special each year as Kailyn starts to get involved in the Christmas magic.

I got a special surprise gift from my mom and dad. A Pandora charm bracelet that I love. I got a few charms that are so meaningful to me. My brother gave me a special charm as well. It was such a beautiful gift, and I will always wear it and remember Kay's first Christmas. Now, I need to fill it up ;)

Christmas day has come and gone. It is always sad on Christmas night. Just knowing that you have to wait an entire year for another Christmas is a bummer. I am excited to see my little girl next year, but I can wait because I don't want time to fly by!

As I get ready to shut it down, I want to wish your family a Merry Christmas. XOXO

The Most Wonderful Time of the Year!

Merry Christmas Eve! I hope everyone has a wonderful day with friends and family! We are doing a few last minute things today. A few stocking stuffers left to buy. A few presents left to wrap. Dobbie is getting my car washed, and I am making spinach dip for tonight. We are heading to Dobbie's parents house for a wonderful Christmas Eve celebrating with family. I cannot wait to share the beautiful dress Kailyn will wear tonight. She will look beautiful! Her Aunt Tracy spoiled her with her first Christmas dress.

Enjoy your day and the anticipation of the Big Man!

Christmas Card Woes

I just sent out the most gorgeous birth announcements. I loved them, and I got so many compliments on them. Now,  my standards are set way too high because I am having some a crazy amount of trouble trying to create a holiday card that will compare. I had planned on making my own holiday cards on shutterfly, but I can't get a good picture.

I have just started using my camera, and I do not know how to fully use it properly. You know, having a newborn doesn't leave a lot of time for internet research and self teaching. Anyway, I can't get a good picture. Either the baby doesn't cooperate, the background looks horrible, or the picture turns out blurry, dark, overexposed, or just plain bad. Here are some attempts to get it right...

Of course, they are cute, but I can't get it just right. I need someone to teach me the in's and out's of my camera, and more importantly, I need help learning how to use editing software! Oh photography gods...I hope you can hear me!

Traditions

I have been working to get the house ready for Christmas. I mean it is December! I would like to say I have been working as hard as an elf, but we really don't have that many decorations yet in our two and a half year marriage so it isn't too hard. The way I see it, the tree is the most important part and our tree is looking beautiful.

As I have been working (or walking by the boxes of decorations thrown about the house), I have been thinking about holiday traditions. My parents gave us the most magical Christmases as we were growing up. My brother and I were lucky to experience these magical Christmases. Writing letters to The North Pole. The anticipation of Santa and waking up Christmas morning. Opening our stockings while we waited for mom to get out of bed! The smell of a big Christmas breakfast cooking while we played with new toys.

The thrill of Christmas day is one of the greatest things on earth for a child, but the weeks leading up to Christmas were more important to me. After Thanksgiving, we would put on Christmas music. We would decorate the tree as a family. Pulling out those old ornaments and talking about the stories behind them. Picking our favorite ones to hang on the tree and fighting over where to put our favorites. Driving around admiring Christmas lights (and secretly wishing my Dad would go Clark Griswold just once).

This is the magic of Christmas traditions. The traditions that light up your memories and fill your heart with happiness. I want to provide that for my daughter. I want to take my family traditions and introduce them to my daughter, but I want to create new traditions with my own family. I just hope I can give my kids such meaningful and heart tugging memories that my parents gave me. One day, I want my daughter to start a family of her own, and I want her to pass on the Christmas traditions that we created for her.

Dobbie and I have already started talking about things we want to do for our daughter. Car rides with Christmas music and hot chocolate to admire the Christmas lights around town. Christmas tree lightings and holiday parades (they have the best in Collingswood)!  Baking and wrapping Christmas cookies for friends and neighbors. I really want to start decorating the tree as a family. We haven't done that yet, but when Kailyn is bigger we can do that. I can't wait for future Christmases with our little girl. Seeing her experience the thrill of Santa and the magic of Christmas is something I am looking forward to.

For now, I will enjoy the only Christmas present I need, my sweet baby girl.