Christmas Wish List

My Wish List...

A French Bulldog puppy

Lily needs a brother

A trip to NYC

This house because of the the following pictures (plus location!)

A canal on our favorite lake to go out on.

And for this guy to feel like himself again.

I have a hard time coming up with things I want for Christmas, but these things I'd like very much.  In order from least to most, in case someone's reading this...

Holiday Freak Streak!

I hope you all had a great Thanksgiving weekend!  Mine was productive and time well spent with family.  I was so not ready to go back to work yesterday!  We painted the entire house minus the master bath over the long weekend.  I think it would have pushed us over the edge if we painted one more wall, but the color looks nice for selling a house.  I'm pretty impressed that John and I alone completed our house in just two days...that's an accomplishment for ya!

With the holidays coming up, I'm sure I'm not the only one that gets busier and eats a bit more junk food.  It's just too good to pass up!  This year, a couple of my friends and I are doing a running challenge!

It was inspired by Runner's World's challenge, but we didn't see it until yesterday so we made our own official challenge (see, we have a poster).  It starts December 1 to January 1, (2012 ahh!) and we will be running at least one mile, hopefully more, every day.  Even the busiest person can find time to squeeze in one mile a day!  We're hoping this challenge will give us the motivation to keep moving through the holidays.  One of my friends, Krystal, is the most motivated runner I know, so I'm sure she'll be kicking my butt if I try to slack!  Let me know if you'll be joining in and we'll keep each other motivated through this busy and fun time of year!

Day 2: Favorite Holiday Memory

Day 2: Favorite Holiday Memory

My favorite holiday memory is Christmas breakfast.  It's always at my parent's house.  They started it when I was little, so we could be a home Christmas morning.  Both sets of grandparents and most of the family would come over.  I don't have a year in specific that I loved, it's just great every year.  My Granny and Granddaddy used to sit in the driveway to wait until they saw signs of life so they could come watch us open presents.  It was fun to be able to celebrate first thing with all the family...especially my grandparents.

It's over already?!

Christmas seems to fly by these days.  It's almost a month of anticipation, then it gets here, and it just seems to fly right by...  This Christmas was wonderful!  It's our only engaged Christmas and we fully enjoyed the time with our family and friends.

John and I cheat pretty much every year and exchanged presents Christmas Eve, before church hehe :)  It's really the only time we have together just us before the mad dash around Central Florida begins!  He got me a waterproof camera I've been wanting, specifically for our honeymoon...and a really cool watch.  He's working on introducing me into the world of the watch wearers.  I have never worn one consistently, so he got me one with lots of fun things going on in hopes that it sticks.

We went over to John's parents to spend some time with them before Christmas Eve service and then headed to church.  This was the first Christmas Eve service I can remember where they didn't read from Luke, so I was a little disappointed with no official Christmas story from the bible, but we did still get to celebrate Jesus, so I guess it worked out :)  Following church, we ran down to my aunt's house for dinner.  Here are my little cousins with their pillow pets we bought them...squealing ensued for the rest of the evening over them, so I guess they were a hit!

We went back to John's after dinner where he set up his present and proceeded to play early into Christmas morning.  He did a lot of napping Christmas day!

Christmas morning we went to my parents for presents and breakfast.  They have a nice little family shot of John, Lily and I that I'll post later, plus a full family shot.  Greatest picture of the day goes to my mom...

...after finding out her and my dad were going on a trip haha.

We spent the rest of the day at John's grandparents spending time with his family.  After we got home, Lily got a special present that I have to share :)

 Grown men putting a pink Snuggie on a ShihTzu...funny!

 She's smiling, I think she likes it...

Thanks Jason & Ashley :)

We finished our Christmas watching:

Despicable Me!! Ho, Ho, Ho!

How was your Christmas??

Let's get real...

I've been doing a lot of thinking lately about life, love, ect.  And I've realized that sometimes I suck at loving others.  Not with people I really like, but with those that annoy me or that I just don't like to be around.  I'm not mean, but I'm also not loving to them.  I'm not really sure what to do.  A lot of times it just makes me frustrated or mad, but I know I really shouldn't be letting people affect me in that way.

Sometimes, things people do are messed up, but I have no control over anyone else...just my reactions and how I handle myself in the situation...and that is what I'm working on...

This has been on my mind for a while, especially now, because it's Christmas time.  To me, that symbolizes not only time with ones I love, but the ultimate gift...Jesus became a man, came to earth to one day die for everyone.  That is the ultimate example of love.  He gave himself for everyone.  Sometimes it is hard to fathom.  He knew what was to come...that He would die for people who loved him, and those who hated him.  The crazy part is, I'm not asked to die for anyone, I'm just supposed to love them.  Why is it so hard sometimes?

How do you respond to those that aren't friendly, or go out of their way to be hurtful?  How do you learn to love them, even when you don't want to?

Miscellany Monday

{one}
I have checked out.

I do not want to be at work anymore until after New Years.  It's not that I don't like my job, I'm just done.  My motivation for all things work just left me one day last week and I can't find it.  I really think we should have a "holiday" like they do in some places in Europe.  Businesses shut down.  People do fun things.  It's for the good of the people...and their mental health.  Who's with me?!

{two}

5 days til Christmas.

Already?!  It seems crazy Christmas is almost here.  Almost done shopping, but not quite...

{three}
Lunar Eclipse.

So, tonight, you should check out the lunar eclipse going on.  First of all, it's pretty cool that this is happening  because the last one on the winter solstice was 372 years ago and secondly, you may never see another one of these in your life time...at least according to the scientist who say the next one is in 2094...I'll be 110 years old, so I'm pretty sure I won't be making that one.  I'll be setting my alarm to watch.

Check it out more info here.

{four}

A Festivus for the rest of us.

Every year, John's college buddies have a party in honor of Festivus...the Seinfeld holiday.  If you're a fan of the show, I'm sure you know about it.  There's the airing of grievances, the pole and feats of strength challenges.  This year, the party was in town, so we went up to a friend's house to enjoy the evening.  The feats of strength challenge this year was wrestling in sumo suits.  We had a good time and it was fun seeing friends we don't see too often.  It was a very late night and after a few small precious hours of sleep, we were up for John to go row...I'm exhausted.

{five}
Row, Row, Row your boat...

So, in high school and college, John and his brother were rowers (as was Robin, John's SIL).  The men's team that they rowed with in high school decided to get together and face off with alumni of an old rival for fun.  Sunday morning, we went in the cold rain to watch the boys.  Robin ended up steering the boat since they didn't have anyone to do it.  After I couldn't see them anymore, I went and slept in the car...

{six}

Happy Monday.

I don't have much energy to think of anything else fun, so I'm signing off.  Have a great day friends :)

Finally Friday!!

Happy Friday my bloggy friends!  Is it just me, or has this felt like the looongest week ever?!

1. Do you regift...and if so, do you have a regifting horror story?

I can't remember a time that I have regifted, but I've been at parties where I've noticed that things have been regifted from others from the year before.  It's a funny thing to notice, and I always hope the person I knew brought it doesn't notice, but then again, how could you not?!  

2. Do you know what you are getting for Christmas this year?

No, I really don't.  Sometimes I can figure out something, but this year, not so much.  I guess I'll be surprised!

3. Who brings the most gifts in your family, you or Santa?

It's a joint effort really.  I mean, who doesn't love getting gifts from Santa?!  "SANTAAAAAA!!! OMG! Santa, here?!...I know him! I know him!"-One of my favorite clips from Elf.  I tried to embed it, but it's disabled, so here's a link for those of you who would like to enjoy! :)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9jyCfRHumHU

4. What store do you love to by jeans from?

I love, love, LOVE, my Buckle jeans!  Last year, John and I had gone out of town and we needed to grab some clothes, and we found Buckle...and ever since then, my life hasn't been quite the same.  I mean, I just didn't know jeans could make your butt look that good.  Haha, jk jk, but I do love them.  I got 2 pairs that day and they're definitely my go-to pairs.  They always look good and they're comfy.  I also have an 8 year old pair of Abercrombie jeans that I like a lot...they've withstood the sands of time...

5. Christmas meal: Big, All Out Meal or Snacks and Apps?

Ha!  Over the holidays, all we do is eat!  Starting with Thanksgiving and rolling (literally) on through the month of December, we eat...LOTS of big meals.  But today, let's just take a snapshot of Christmas:

Christmas Eve: Candlelight service, then, Christmas Eve dinner.with a spread of ham, rolls, potatoes, potato salad, pasta salad, veggies, desserts galore + much more that I probably don't remember.

Christmas Day: We start the day out with breakfast at my parent's house.  When I say breakfast, I mean a big, full, southern-style breakfast.  You name it, we most likely have it. Then, roll on over to lunch where we have a huge spread at John's grandparents.  Then, we end the day by snacking a little more and falling into a sugar coma for the next few days.  Oh the glory of Christmas eating...

That about wraps it up for today, folks!  Only one week left to finish up that Christmas shopping!  I have almost finished!  We will have completed everything for J's parents this weekend (I hope) as well as a couple other family members...we're getting there!!  I hope you can all enjoy this next week, even though it's going to be super busy for us all I'm sure.  Take time to remember what Christmas is all about!  

Spending time with Family...

& Friends!

& JESUS!!!

Why I Run & A Warm Glow

This is why I run, do Insanity workouts, and go to the gym:

This doesn't really do justice to the cookies we made last night.  This is just a fraction.  The table you can kind of see in the top left corner...yea...that too was covered in cookies being decorated.  We had a great time last night!  After next week, I will be banned from sweets for a couple months.  Until our snowboard trip I've decided.  I can't handle all the sugar anymore!!  But, Christmas to me isn't quite complete without decorating some sugar cookies :)

The Warm Glow:

So...

I'm tired of my white, white winter legs.  Most of the year, I carry a decent tan, but when it gets cold the jeans come out and bye bye tan.  I want to look into getting some type of self tanner that adds a nice glow of color to my skin.  Especially since it will just be warming up when the wedding gets here.  I'm just nervous about the orange look I've heard about and the streaks.  Any advice on a good brand to buy or how to avoid the orange skin and streaks??  Any advice would be appreciated!!

Oh, yea, and...

100 days until the wedding!!!  

Tomorrow we will be in DOUBLE DIGITS! What?! 

Happy Thursday Bloggy Friends!  We're almost to FRIDAY!!

It's the most wonderful time of the year!

So, I'm going to go ahead and brag a little on my guy here :)  I've been talking about wanting to go to Disney to see the Osborne Christmas light display for years now and John made it happen!!  He has family in town that just so happened to be out at Hollywood Studios last night and his parents, a neighbor that just happens to work for Disney...yay!  So...we joined them!  It was amazing!!  This is what over ONE MILLION LIGHTS looks like...Whoa!

 It was literally freezing outside last night, so I had to break out the snowboard jacket and gloves!

Video of the lights :)

After we enjoyed some hot chocolate and the lights, we went and rode some rides.  John's cousins have three boys under the age of 13 and they are hilarious!  We had a great time with them!  I did get schooled by a 9 year old on the Toy Story ride...geez...

Miscellany Monday

{one}

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

We have had many dinners over the past few weeks, as well as a few Christmas parties as well.  This weekend was full of them!  Friday, we had John's work party at Bella Collina...beautiful.  It's amazing!  The inside matched the outside beautifully.  It felt like you were in Tuscany...or at least what I feel like Tuscany would be like!

Saturday night, we had another party.  Here are a couple pictures:

Our tree!

and

Thanks to Ashley for the rest of the pics!

Group shot!

The lovely ladies

And these, are our fellas :)

I can't tell you how happy this picture makes me!  It was after the gift exchange and the boys had new toys to play with! Ha!  Yes, they do have sling shots and Nerf guns!

{two}

Relaxing is so good...

This weekend was surprisingly relaxing, despite how busy we actually were.  I actually got to lay in bed after I woke up and watch a movie...Saturday AND Sunday!!  Lily enjoyed the relaxing weekend as well.  She even got to sleep in bed with me so she was happy.  

See...

{three}

Christmas cookies galore!

This week, I'm getting together with some friends and we are baking and decorating Christmas cookies!  Yay!  I'm so excited!  It's one of my favorite Christmas-y things to do!

{four}

Working off those Christmas calories ain't easy!  

Especially if you knew what, exactly, I was eating.  Ha!  Let's just say I feel like an Oompa Loompa...

...just not so orange. 

You know that gross feelings when you've been eating entirely too much sugar and other bad things...boo.  Thankfully, I've been keeping up with my workouts.  I've completed 2 weeks of my Insanity workouts...only 7 weeks more to go!  Ha!

I've also decided to run another 1/2 marathon in the spring.  I've got my sights set on one that I'm super excited about, but it's also on a very important day...ahem!  Robin's (future SIL) birthday!  So, I'm not sure if that's going to be the race, or another, but I'm starting to train again tomorrow...well, more like maintain the training I just finished...Woo!

{five}

Christmas shopping is almost done!

Almost!  Usually we do a Christmas Eve shopping expedition and breakfast with my dad...it's tradition!  We get up at 5am, hit the mall around 6, shop, shop, shop and are at breakfast by 9am when the crazies come out!  It's been something my brother and I have done with my dad since we were elementary school age.  Why stop the tradition now?!   How's your shopping going?

{six}

Baby, It's Cold Outside!

That's right, it's cold again in Florida.  We had a lovely weekend of weather in the 70's and then...we're back to freeze warnings!  After a warm start, the temp dropped over 20 degrees in minutes as the front blew through.  It was crazy!  If I only had a fire place...*sigh* wishlist for the next house :)

{seven}

Wedding Wednesday will return this week!  

We did something special yesterday for the wedding and I need opinions for something important!  More on that Wednesday! :)

Hope you all have a wonderful Monday, bloggy friends!  Keep warm, it looks like most of the country is covered with icy temperatures!!!