Christmas #2

Darby and I celebrated our Christmas on Thursday night since we're going to be out of town until New Year's. I made dinner for us (Paula Deen's beef bourbon and onion-cheese bread), and we ate on our china. After dinner we opened gifts. I already knew what his gift was to me - staying an extra night in San Antonio when we go for Erin's wedding next weekend. But, we also decided to fill each other's stockings, so that stuff was a surprise. I got him a game he really wanted called Ticket to Ride and some Wii points. Below are some pictures of us with some of our stocking stuff. I guess I didn't realize that my hair was in my face. :)





After opening gifts, we went and looked at Christmas lights and then went to Starbucks for some gingerbread lattes. When we got home, we ate apple pie that we had gotten for free at United with a coupon. Free pie! Woo-hoo! It was a great first Christmas. And it's not over yet!

Christmas #1

Darby and I went to Arkansas this weekend to celebrate Christmas with his mom's side of the family. It was a whirlwind trip. We flew out of Abilene at 8:30 Saturday morning and got back in at 8:30 Sunday night. His parents generously offered to pay for our plane tickets and a hotel in Searcy, so how could we refuse? It was fun getting to spend time with his aunts, uncles, and cousins. We had a big get-together Saturday night. There was so much food; I'm still full! I've only been to Arkansas once before, and that was a long time ago, so it was neat getting to see some of the scenery. We went to Harding on Saturday night; they have a huge Christmas light display every December. It was beautiful; there were lights hanging from the trees, which made it look very magical. I wish ACU would do something like that. This weekend was the kick-off of our many Christmas celebrations to come in the next ten days. Holidays get crazy once you're married!

Now that all my grad. school applications are turned in (finally!), it's really starting to hit me that I'll be going back to school. I'm excited because I'm a nerd who actually likes school, but I will miss my free time in the evenings. I've enjoyed being able to cook more, scrapbook more, and read more. I want to set some goals for the 8 or so months of freedom I have remaining, so I don't look back when I've started school and wish I had gotten more done in my time off.

1. Finish my wedding scrapbook. I got off to a good start this fall, but Christmas gifts kind of derailed me.
2. Continue to stick to my plan of baking at least one batch of bread per month. I am trying to overcome my fear of yeast breads.
3. Read at least 6 books that I owned prior to this year. I keep buying or borrowing new books, and I never get around to reading the ones I already own.
4. Seriously clean out my closet/dresser. I'm pretty good about weeding out clothes that I know don't fit anymore, but I need to take EVERYTHING out and really evaluate which clothes I actually wear. I know I have some things that I haven't worn in at least two years and some things that I probably shouldn't have worn in the last two years :)
5. Invite more people over for dinner. I love to cook, and cooking for a group is usually more fun than cooking for two. But I rarely invite people over - mainly because I don't want to have to clean the house AND cook. I need to stop being so lazy, though.

Well, I think that's a pretty manageable list. It helps me to put my ideas in writing, so maybe I'll actually follow through with them.

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

I began getting the Christmas decorations out before Thanksgiving, but I didn't get everything arranged until this weekend. Here are some pictures:


Here's a wreath that I made. Well, I tied the fabric bows onto a store-bought wreath. This is actually hanging on the inside of our door because I was afraid it might get stolen if we hung it outside. (I might be thinking a little too highly of my handiwork). I realized in looking at this picture that the top of the wreath looked weird; I've fixed that now, so you can all quit making fun of me behind my back. :)


Our cute stockings! We ordered them from Pottery Barn. Since we don't have a mantle, I hung them from the bar.


Our Christmas tree. We don't really have room for it, but I really wanted to put it up. So it's kind of just in the middle of our living room. Oh, well! It's still very festive. And we even have some wrapped gifts under it. I did some wrapping this weekend while I was avoiding finishing my last grad school application.

I also have a little shelf in the dining area that has Christmas stuff on it, but I forgot to take a picture of that. I love decorating for Christmas, and I am so excited about mine and Darby's first Christmas as a married couple!