Spreading some Holiday Cheer

While I enjoyed Thanksgiving, I am glad to be moving on. Although, December is a crazy month for us. Do you have one of those months in your family?

Nic's birthday is on Sunday, mine is on Monday, Marcos' is on the 12th, our 18th wedding anniversary is on the 16th, then there is the family Christmas Eve (what I like to call Christmas Adam) on the 22nd, the real Christmas Eve on the 24th and then Christmas Day on the 25th. Of course, then there is my aunt's anniversary on the 21st and my grandparent's on the 22nd (missing you, grandpa!). Then throw in wrapping parties, cookie exchanges, my neighbor's daughter's bridal shower and wedding - yikes!

Whew. I am just glad I remembered all of that.
With all of that said, I am not ready to put the tree up yet. For several reasons. The first is that Nic's having a birthday party on Saturday, here at the house. I want to celebrate his special day before we celebrate Christmas! ;) Second, I *just* completed my formals... why would I want to move things around now? I need at least a week of good, clean, fun. ;)

However, that doesn't mean I can't get my mantel and bookcases all dolled up.

I pretty much reused everything I had from years past. The Elf is new... and so is the reindeer glitter art, which was so easy and sits in a dollar store frame.

I printed off a picture of a reindeer from Google, traced it and filled it in with Elmer's glue and then sprinkled red glitter all over it. The tree art on the right is a gift bag from the dollar store... I just cut out the front and put it in the frame. Here are some posts about easy, cheap, Christmas crafts.

Even my couch is getting in the spirit. For now, anyway. This sweetie will have to move and make room for our faux evergreen come next week. I love my new pillow case from IKEA. Mr. and Mrs. Clause... and some random kids/elves/hired help. Did the Clause's ever have kids, do you know?!

That's it for now... just a little holiday cheer popping up here and there.
We are looking forward to two new holiday traditions we are starting; meeting our new Elf {on the shelf} and also our advent calendars! Yum, 25 days of chocolate. ;)

Do you  have any special holiday traditions?

Leftovers

It's family tradition to get together on the Saturday after Thanksgiving to enjoy leftovers. But, really, they aren't leftovers. We just call it that, because we serve food that could be considered leftovers from Thanksgiving. It's another reason to get together with the whole family.

Of course, I had to take along my new camera to see what I could capture in the way of beautiful people. In the shots below, you will see cousins, second cousins, third cousins... and aunts and uncles, who are grandmas and grandpas.

You get the idea.

First up, my two nephews (okay, really second cousins), Ben and Austin. Heart breakers.

My cousin Chell with our other cousin's baby, Rose Grace (aka Gracie)

Chell's husband, Darryl.

Proof that they weren't actually leftovers. A new turkey!

My Uncle Mark with his grand-daughter Gracie.

My third cousin, Ryah

And her big sister, Selah

My Aunt Anita and my niece (okay, second cousin, but her grand-daughter) Charlotte.

My nephew (er, second cousin) Evan

My cousin Chell and our second cousin Laurel

Third cousin Ryan and his grandma, our Aunt Barb

My Cousin Jonny's step-daughter, Lily (she's the big sister to Gracie)

And last, but never least, my daddy...

Isabel and Nic were with me, but tired of the darn camera in their face. They ducked. Often.

The weather was beautiful, the spirits were bright - we couldn't have asked for a better day to spend with our family.

Okay, now I am officially done with Thanksgiving. On to Christmas, people!

The Formals are Finished.

This post has been a long time coming. Have *you* been waiting, with baited breath? Don't answer that, especially if the answer could potentially, most likely hurt my heart. Let's pretend you've been waiting for this reveal all your life. And I will continue to be happy. :D

These formals were a labor of love. I've read a few blog posts as of late about people having buyer's remorse. We did just that when we purchased our house a little over two years ago. The house was HUGE (it still is, lol)... and we needed to fill it up fast. Needed, huh?

In the past two years, we've grown. We've come to realize what we like and what we don't like. Even during the makeover process, I started out with one thing and ended up with another. But in the end, I love how the formal living room and dining room turned out. Very unformal-like. There's no plastic covered sofas in there, no-siree. It feels comfy and lived in, which is something we've never been able to accomplish so far in any place we've lived.

You can read all about the process of transforming the first two rooms (one large, really) you see as you enter our house.

Here are the latest before pictures... I say 'latest' because it's been through a few different phases.

The rooms wouldn't have won any "Ugliest Space" award, but they just weren't us.  After a few months, we finally got our act together and this is how the rooms look now. Well, yesterday. ;)

There are some items I will go into detail about in a future post, or two. Like, the background on those fab chairs...But for now... can you believe the difference?

I could stare at this pictures all day, but instead, I think I am going to curl up on that couch with a good book. Like the one sitting on the side "table"... from Young House Love.

Don't forget, guest bathroom reveal tomorrow!

Oh so thankful!

I am down right exhausted. I can't be the only one, though. Today was a beautiful day full of trials and triumphs. This was our first Thanksgiving without my grandpa. It was hard. But we know he was with us in spirit.

Marcos, the kids and I spent several days getting the house in order and finishing up the million or so projects we started over the past several weeks. Some reveal pictures of the guest bath and formal coming up tomorrow or Saturday. When I've actually recovered from today! ;)

We had a fantastic meal. The food was wunderbar. I spent some time in the details to make sure our guests felt the impact right when they walked in the door. I love setting the table for the holidays. This year, I went with silver, gold and white as our color scheme.

I purchased most of my decor at Target and the Dollar Store; very affordable. Here are a few more shots:

I used regular mixed nuts from the produce department to add some natural elements to the table. The table cloth is cream with gold glitter thread embedded in, the table clothes are gray and yellow/orange.

Here are some of the people I was lucky enough to spend the day with:

I think I can speak for all of us when I say we felt so thankful and so blessed. We said "Grace" and mentioned everyone we could think of, praying that they were feeling thankful and loved, too.