Tuesday, December 9, 2014

My Favorite Christmas Tradition

The holidays are just the best time of the year, don’t you think? They’re filled with so much gorgeous décor, fun activities, and traditions. I know every family has their own Christmas traditions, whether it’s baking cookies together or going ice skating at a special rink, or just getting together for gifts and games on Christmas.

When Ben and I first moved in together 7 years ago I thought it would be fun to start our own tradition by getting each other a special ornament. It was a way to build our ornament collection and to give each other a personal gift that reflects our interests. I’ve loved searching for the perfect ornament for Ben every Christmas season, but I think he wins for getting me the better ornament each year. Here are the ornaments we’ve exchanged.

2008

Ornaments 2008

A snowman doctor for Ben to celebrate his first year in med school, and a first Christmas photo ornament from Ben to which we added a pic of our new little family (no Finnley yet).

2009

Ornaments 2009

I laughed so much when I opened my ornament and saw that, without planning it, we had gotten each other these mini glass ornaments! We even got them from the same store!

2010

Ornaments 2010

A Mizzou glass for Ben, and a really sweet and whimsical ornament for me.

2011

DSC_0865Wedding ornament

We got married in 2011, so without discussing it, we both happened to get each other wedding ornaments. I made a ornament filled with our wedding invitation, and Ben ordered a hand painted ornament from Etsy personalized with our wedding date.

The last two years we decided not to buy each other more ornaments since our tree was getting pretty full and still growing (I worked at a home store in 2012, so I collected a lot of ornaments from them that year, and last year we got a new tree that happened to come with tons of ornaments), but I’m so happy we decided to start this little tradition of ours. I love looking back on the ornaments we’ve given each other; they’re some of my favorite gifts (given and received).

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**Thanks to Coupons.com to for sponsoring this post! All opinions expressed are my own**

Monday, December 8, 2014

I’m Back! (And Where I’ve Been)

Hello friends! It’s been way too long since my last post, I’ve missed you all!

There’s no one reason why I haven’t blogged in two months (whoa, long time), but rather a combination of several factors.  In October I went back to Illinois for a long weekend for my high school reunion, and a week later we left for a week-long trip to Washington D.C. Then when we got back I got hit we got with some bad news (the “c” word) about a family member that got me pretty down. That’s on top of the rollercoaster that another close family member has been going through with her health for the past several years (f*cking cancer). So between being busy/out of town and the rough stuff with my family, I just wasn’t in the mood to blog.

Then after I hadn’t posted in a few weeks it was hard to get started again. It’s kind of like exercise; once you get out of the habit, it’s not easy to get back in it.

But I do miss this little blog of mine so I’m coming back. I have a great Christmas themed post tomorrow, plus my kitchen transformation, a tour of my house all decked out for the holidays, and a desk makeover. Stay tuned!

And thanks for sticking around while I’ve been gone, it means a lot!

Perhaps my favorite part of Elf...although it's hard to pick just one favorite!!