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Wednesday, December 29, 2010

Christmas 2010

This year we celebrated Christmas at my parents on the 27th/28th since my sister had to work on Christmas and the day after. I just have to share a mini tour of some of my mom's decorations because they are so neat and different from anything she did in the past... all the blog reading has really inspired her!!

Here is the tree. She made a ton of these music paper ornaments and a tree topper seen here. She also added the paper Christmas words and the tree only contains angel ornaments and a few music instrument ones that go along with the angels.



This is also in the living room and contains all of my mom's handmade angels from over the years... she is pretty crafty.


She made my sister's fiance a stocking this year to match the rest of ours.. that is the fullest the mantle has ever been.

Here is her clay pot tree with a few other decorations and a table with snowmen in the foyer area.


Fabric trees similar to what she saw here and her decorated balance.


The table setting for our Christmas meal.


We opened our presents on the night of the 27th. I must have been really good this year because I got many wonderful gifts. The main things were a DSLR from Eric that I had been eyeing.

And I also received a sewing machine from my parents for a combination Christmas/Birthday gift and we contributed to it as well. I had picked it out back in Sept and wanted it to be a sewing machine that I have for a very very long time. I brought it to my parents so my mom and I could experiment with making something on it. I CANNOT wait to do a post on what we made :)

We had a big Christmas meal around 1pm on the 28th. My mom went all out this year since last year we didn't have Christmas at their house and we didn't have Thanksgiving here this year either. We had glazed ham, macaroni and cheese, squash casserole, waldorf salad, biscuits, and Eric and I made the Pioneer Woman's green bean casserole (I got her cookbook from my parents too)! There were also 2 pies - buttermilk pie and Run for the Roses pie. Everything was fantastic and it still is as leftovers :)


Here are my sister and I and significant others with our godmother, Peggy. Peggy has a picture of us with my parents on her camera or I would have added that too... updated: added 2nd picture of the fam (could see this as a great Christmas card pic for my mom to use next year!)



Hubby and I :)

We had such a fabulous Christmas spending time with family and friends. I got to see my bff Emily a couple of times which was just wonderful!

Linking up to these parties:

Wednesday, December 22, 2010

Gingerbread House Making Party

We had talked about making a gingerbread house for the past couple of Christmases but never got around to it. This year we were determined... we invited friends over to have a Gingerbread House Making Party. So here is how we did it. We supplied the graham crackers, icing, and paper covered cardboard to put the houses on. I also made a couple of appetizers and assorted cookies/desserts and had drinks. We asked everyone to bring things to decorate the houses with that we could all share. A couple people also brought drinks or a dessert/snack.

Here is the set-up. Including us there were 10 people and each couple made 1 house. We expanded our table and also added a card table to the end of it so everyone could sit around it.


I love my Christmas serving pieces


More about this dessert stand in another post...


So here is our 1st Annual Gingerbread House Making Party!

Gen and Josh... they had done this before and had some tips about cutting the graham crackers.


Kristen and Jan... they got fancy with their design.


Eric thought he would be funny... maybe he should have been working faster at building :)
Sean and Kelley.. they went for a tall house but this is before some of it errr collapsed.


Katie and Kyle very focused on their house...


I start to decorate the yard while Eric was still building. He meant for the other side to be the front but I needed a larger yard than that for my plans...


On to the finished products:

Okay so for some reason I don't have a final picture of theirs... I think they were still doing some finishing touches when I took the photos but it is a really cute candy cane themed house!


Gen and Josh
Kyle and Katie (obviously)

Kristin and Jan

Sean and Kelley
Their house made a nice recovery with the columns to hold it up. As Sean said, beautiful and functional!


Eric and Emily
 Yes you just saw a sprinkle pool with peach ring life raft... I think it really completes the yard! And here is the hubby and I with our house!


In case you were wondering, many house decorations were eaten during the build... sugar must have helped our creativity! Thanks to our friends who came to the party! Everyone really enjoyed it! I can see us doing this every year!


Linking up to these parties:

Tuesday, December 21, 2010

Christmas Tour 2010

Christmastime is just a wonderful joyful time of year remembering the real reason for the season, the birth of Jesus Christ. I love so many things about Christmas that have become traditions or will be for years to come... the cookies/treats, driving around looking at outdoor lights, remembering special ornaments that I had forgotten about from the year before, apple cider, and all the fun decorations! I love decorating for Christmas and even did so while in college in my dorm or apt (though on a much much smaller scale).

So here is a Christmas tour of our holiday decor. Confession: we did tone it down slightly this year... I know I know (didn't put out all the decor, skipped some garland, didn't do the candy cane lined driveway) because we are celebrating Christmas at my parents house this year instead of our house so I have also added in a couple pics from last year when I didn't have a blog to share them on.

This was our outside decor last year. This year is the same except no garland or candy canes so just picture that. Oh and the window wreaths... geez I guess we did tone it down outside.



This was our garland staircase last year... I skipped that this year.


Mantel area with the Dollar Store Hurricanes and wooden sock hat snowmen my godmother made along with a basket of pinecones she gave me. I had garland and stockings up last year but this year we are taking the stockings to my parents house so my mom can fill them with goodies :)


The main event.... the tree! I love our tree... it has frosty looking glitter on some of the branches. Oh and the tree skirt was made by my godmother which makes it really special!


A few ornaments I adore... Our First Christmas champagne glasses, oven mitt with utensils, and gingerbread bake shop.


Coffee table... the ornament balls tie in with the mantel and the kitchen table.


Here is the sofa table all decorated for Christmas mostly with some handmade decor from my mom (snowman, angels) and some things I have snagged at hallmark's after Christmas sale (countdown, tree).


Side table with snowman made by my mom and a penguin candy dish (another hallmark buy).


Another side table with handmade santa from my mom and the penguin globe from my godmother. We like penguins if you couldn't tell :)


Last side table (I promise) with a tree from hallmark and another homemade angel from my mom. My mom used to make gifts like all of these each year for friends, neighbors, and our teachers - she made extra ones so my sister and I could have them too after college when we had our own places to decorate.


On to the kitchen area... this is our lovely table. I'm sure you have seen the centerpiece before for summer here and fall here. It is just so easy to repurpose and the perfect centerpiece for this table. Finally something I made haha.


I was inspired by this post decorating cabinets with cards and I decided to use our pantry door. I just taped up some red polka dot ribbon and attached all the cards with little paper clips. It did get quite crowded so next year I may need to do 2 ribbons instead. It was a really easy DIY craft with a big effect on the white door.

The hanging angel was made by my mom (you aren't surprised right?)


Cute snowmen salt and pepper shakers (from hallmark). Can you tell I always go to hallmark after Christmas haha! And a new plate from Josh and Gen - Christmas AND Clemson... score!


A couple other little decoration items are in bedrooms. I put our Clemson santa in the guest room this year since we knew Keith and Megan were coming to stay in it and it would remind them of their house. They have like a million of these and gave this one to us a couple years ago.


I just put a few decor items in the master such as this clay pot tree my mom made. She found the idea here and made a smaller version. And I also put up this little picture holder my godmother sent me with a picture of me in front of her tree at Christmas when I was little.



And a plate on hubby's dresser.


Well that concludes the holiday tour of our home! well the toned down version this year. I'm sure I would have needed to buy more decor in the past if it weren't for my mom and godmother. Now that I blog and look at a bunch of other blogs each day, I have some fun DIY ideas I want to try out when decorating for Christmas next year!

What are some of your favorite Christmastime traditions or Christmas decor?

Linking up to these parties:

Sunday, December 19, 2010

Kiawah Half Marathon

We went down to Kiawah for the half marathon on Dec. 11th. No, I did not run a half marathon but Eric did. I am all for exercise and running is okay but running in the early morning is definitely not for me (especially with cold temps)!

Eric started training for this race over the summer and ran or worked out in the mornings before work. He had a little "running club" of people in his group at work that he would run with twice a week in uptown.

This was his first race ever and my first experience attending a marathon/half marathon. 5 of Eric's close friends from highschool/college ran it too and one of their siblings ran as well. We stayed at the same friend's beach house from 4th of July. Here are some pre race pics. Eric is somewhere in there behind the 8 sign.
 
all the runners


Keith and Eric


We couldn't have asked for much worse weather. It was about 38 degrees and rained during the whole race. Pretty miserable for all those runners with soaked clothes and shoes. Nevertheless, Eric did an awesome job and finished 13.1 miles in 1:48! Only 4 minutes short of his 8 min mile goal. I was such a proud wife cheering him on near the finish line.



He was happy with his time and really tired and sore as to be expected. We watched some of the others from the group finish too and here are a couple shots.



It was quite a cool experience to see runners finish a big race and have a sense of pride and accomplishment. It almost made me want to do it too... if only they did races at like 10am or in the afternoon haha!

We spent the rest of the weekend in Kiawah lounging about as everyone else was aching and tired. We watched a few movies, played games, and ate way too much cheap mexican food. It was a fun weekend with friends and I am so excited for Eric's big accomplishment!
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