25 Days of Christmas

Like I said before, this year is the last year Ben and I will celebrate the holidays as a family of 2. As exciting as that is, I also want to make sure we intentionally enjoy this season of life as it comes to a close. I'm also a sucker for the holidays and traditions in general, so this will hopefully get the ball rolling on establishing some family traditions for the future! So here is my list of Christmas fun to get us in the spirit and take full advantage of soaking up the season:

25 Days of Christmas:

1. Create a CD, Pandora station, or iPod playlist with our favorite Christmas songs.

2. Participate in Operation Christmas Child

3. Christmas Movie Night with seasonal treats

4. Annual Christmas Picture

5. Journal in the Family Christmas Book

6. Attend “A Christmas Carol” at Memorial Auditorium

7. Christmas Cookie Decorating – give to neighbors

8. Drive around and look at Christmas lights

9. Visit a Living Nativity

10. Attend a Christmas Parade

11. Visit a tree farm and choose and/or cut down our own tree.

12. Decorate our Christmas tree while sipping hot chocolate or cider and listening to Christmas music.

13. Annual Christmas Cards

14. Open a present on Christmas Eve -- new pajamas!

15. Potluck Christmas Dinner party with friends

16. Have a special, traditional Christmas breakfast

17. Make Christmas crafts and homemade decorations

18. Give each child a new ornament that represents something important they did that year

19. Attend a Christmas Eve Service

20. Advent Calendar 

21. Take a family trip to the mountains 

That's all I have for now - we'll see if I can come up with others to add to the list and how many we actually get to cross off this year! 

thankful.

I can't believe Thanksgiving has come and gone. This year more than ever I have looked forward to the Holiday season - it's always my favorite time of the year - but this year it's the last time Ben and I will celebrate with family and friends as a family of 2. I've been brainstorming ways to make this year extra special and intentional and it's looking like most of these ideas are going to have to happen between now and Christmas because true to form, the Holiday's are FLYING by.

Even though it came and went too fast, Thanksgiving didn't disappoint - it was full of family, food, rest, football, shopping, celebrating etc. Ben and I spent Thursday with my family and ate our weight...probably more...in every kind of starch, casserole, southern, fallish food you can imagine.

I wish I could say that overflowing plate was Ben's...in my defense, I'm almost 8 months pregnant. After some recovery time on the couch, the boys continued the tradition of a basketball tournament in the backyard. It's mostly friendly competition, but there was blood and a Pistol Pete jersey involved this year. 

We ended the day by skyping with my cousins Michael and Kathleen who were traveling in Barcelona over Thanksgiving - you were missed!! 

Some went back for round 2....  :) 

Friday afternoon Ben, Laney and I headed to Concord to spend the weekend with the Wright's where we celebrated Ben's 26th birthday! Ben was loved on all weekend by friends and family and got to play 18 holes of golf with his dad and brothers, eat all of his favorite foods, and nap on his favorite piece of carpet in front of the fireplace (when it wasn't occupied by others).

In the midst of celebrating, Ann and this hypochondriac got their flu shots like good girls.

Celebrating Ben's birthday was such a great way to end Thanksgiving because it reminded me of how much I have to be thankful for. God has blessed me so much with this man! I truly believe we were created for each other and I am so thankful that I am more and more confident in that every year. 

I am so thankful for you, Ben! You are my best friend and I can't wait to share this next adventure together - how are we going to be someone's parents?? I have no clue, but I do know that you will keep me sane and point me to God's grace. I am so excited to meet our little boy and to watch the way you love him and become his hero. I love you!! Happy 26th!! 

-girls weekend-

i had been looking forward to this past weekend for months and months and now that it's over i have no idea how to summarize it. i have been so blessed by these friendships over the years. now that my life looks very different than it did a few years ago and my friends and i are all growing up and moving away and becoming real people with jobs and bills and houses and boyfriends and husbands and now a baby - i have become aware of how rare the relationships i have with this group of girls are. i have known these girls for a long time - some since i was an insecure baby middle schooler and some since college, but all have had a significant impact on who i am. 

graduating from college and going our separate ways has made me thankful for these girls in a way i didn't recognize before. when i say we have known each other for a long time, i really mean that word. knowing someone has brought on a whole new meaning since not being surrounded by these girls in my everyday life. i am confident that these girls know me, they know my ugliness, they get my sarcastic humor, they challenge me, they show me Christ, they pray for me, they celebrate life with me, they care for me through struggles, and they are the people that i know will love me and my growing family the rest of my life. 

they are also the people that i laugh with the most in this world....seriously, they are WEIRD and i love every second of it. we have done a trip once or twice a year throughout college and these trips make up some of my favorite memories:

back to this past weekend - thank you so much for making me feel so celebrated! i really am so thankful that you could all (almost all! we missed you elisa, virginia and katy!) make it. a big big thank you to kate comer monts for getting all of us together and planning such a great weekend/shower! 

a few of my favorite things from the weekend:

-7 personal shoppers 

-discovering charlotte - who knew it was so big?? 

-mustache pacie's 

-kate's reaction to me wearing ben's men's L shirt in public 

-fat Amy

-pregasaurus references 

-shirley temple's

-friends feeling baby boy move for the first time

-cookie butter

-a murder scene in the freezer, thanks merry

-eating all day every day

-Jesse

-cowfish

-constantly looking for emily maynard 

-cozy lounging at the wright's 

-family style breakfast at the grown up table 

-caitlin's hour long conversation with a stranger 

-sour patch kids 

-talking, talking, and more talking to my favorite girls in this world 

-fall weather 

-getting a gift certificate to get a massage! 

i love you all so much, can't wait for baby boy to meet all of his aunties!!