De-Christmafying

So I finally took down my Christmas tree a couple of days ago and can we talk about how that is the saddest thing ever?!  I don't know about you but Christmas trees make me so happy.  I can't imagine a Christmas without one.  Years ago I even spent way to much money by poor college student standards for a little 4ft one when I was in the dorms.* They're just magical sparkly wonderlands, like a little bit of Disneyland in your home.  And who wants to pack up Disneyland? Nobody, that's who.

Now as much as I love Christmas trees I'm typically a stickler on the whole "christmas decor from the day after Thanksgiving to New Years Day" thing but you know what?  this year I just needed it.  I needed the sparkles and colors cheering me up every time I looked at it, and Brian being the guy he is let me keep it up awhile longer (cause if it were up to him the tree would be up the week of christmas tops...what can I say?  he's weird) But he finally said enough is enough so I took her down (although I'm not sure why he was so adamant about it since the tree box is still in our living room...)

I also made this years Christmas ornament (I'm not really late, I made a really cute "bun in the oven" one that will now be sent to a friend who still has a bun in her oven) and it turned out exactly how I wanted even if B couldn't tell what most of the embroidered symbols were *shakes head*

Oh! and I may have put up Valentines Day decorations the same day. What can I say...

*which we actually still own and would probably still use if my mom hadn't given me our tree because she decided she wanted her second tree to have colored lights... yes I said second.  See! Christmas trees=awesome

Life lately according to my iPhone

 

christmas in july

why? cause I found these vintage goodies at the thrift store and had to get them!

and to answer your questions:

yes, I'm already thinking about christmas...I can't help it, it's a disease

and yes I did make sure to post this today so I could use that title...just keepin' it real

so its new years day...

and im putting away my christmas tree...

its twinkly lights make me happy and im a little sad to see it go for the year but its time

but first a look at all my pretty packages wrapped under this tree...

i used wrapping and packing paper and ribbon and twine from the dollar tree

i also use these tags found via

my favorite gift i gave this year (and probably may favorite gift i ever gave) was to my husband

getting him presents is tricky because he doesnt really want or need anything and he doesnt want you to get him something just to get him something...i had to get creative

i saw this post a while back and thought it was super cute

but instead of rootbeer i used beer because hubbers loves beer

originally i was going to go here to get single beers but they dont have a huge selection and i wanted to get ones that he had never had

then a coworker told me about this place and they have a whole giant aisle, both sides, of make your own 6 pack!!! they probably have every beer in the world its crazy!

they also had little descriptions of each beer so i stealthily took pictures of each (thank g for camera phones) and made up a little taste chart

anyway i think hubby really liked it because he is "saving them" because they are "special" and alcohol doesnt usually last very long in this house...

merry christmas

one year ago today...

the love of my life asked me to marry him!

this is the beautiful ring he picked out for me ♥

we were watching this movie and wrapping presents and it was a total surprise!

...i actually was kind of expecting it at christmas time, but i thought it would be christmas morning

on saturday

i went with my family to see this...

we like to take pictures under the lights

going to the nutcracker has started to become a tradition (we did not intend on matching last year)

i loved my outfit especially my hair

particularly because of the giant bow

my dad came along this year which made it much more amusing

at "half-time" aka intermission we had to explain to him the whole story which he somehow missed

and earlier we were discussing the long dance that the sugar plum fairy has with her cavalier...it seriously goes on forever

anyway i inform them that its a pas de deux and thats just what they are

and when my mom inquires as to what that is exactly my dad chimes in with "so its a pot of deuh?"

and then when the dance was taking place my mom leans over and tells him "this is the pas de deux" to which he replies

"dont curse me"

bahahaha

anyway then we went to mels (which has become part of the tradition)

meatloaf: the only thing my sister orders at this place, shes a strange one

and we took scary face pictures

...what did you do this weekend?

oh christmas tree

heres our decorated christmas tree

a lot of the ornaments i picked up at the dollar store, target, walmart, and goodwill

and i have a few very girly ones i got when i worked at gottschalks and lived in the dorms and had a little 4ft tree

...but most of our ornaments are from this tradition that my family had

...basically we would get an ornament every year (usually depicting something that happened that year, or what we were involved in (i have tons of cheerleading ones!)) and we were all grown up we would have plenty of ornaments to put on our tree!

some of my favorites are:

my glass ballet slippers

tinkerbell

and the little mermaid

and from when i was older:

my first year of college (even though i ended up switching schools)

the year i became a photo major

my sorority

and this is last years from when we moved into our place (which happens to be a townhouse...and i love that there are two little birds on it...fyi im the blue one because its much prettier hehe!)

i finally convinced hubbers to get the ones from when he was little from his mom (she doesnt put them up anymore)

there werent many but i love this one:

i got him these for his contribution to the tree (its very girly)

in honor of this (he was very excited!)

this year my mom got us this bridal couple (its on its way)

and i also got this one because we got engaged last christmas eve!

i absolutely love this tradition and i think i will continue to get us an ornament representing the year and it is definitely something ill do with my kids!