Merry Christmas!

Just wanted to share some pictures from a wonderful Christmas holiday. I am very blessed to have wonderful family, friends, & students as well as an amazing fiance and a beautiful home.

A Christmas tree of cupcakes for the Willard Family Christmas Party

Cupcakes for the English department meeting
Handmade picture frame by one of my students

Angelina on Christmas Eve

Dominick
Opening gifts on Christmas Eve

Mama & Papa with their youngest great-grandson

Mama & Papa with Danny, Jr.

TJ is laughing because even he never thought his brother would get so excited over a Wizard of Oz Monopoly game
Cory with his Monopoly

Lasagna

TJ

Shannon & Emily

Shannon & Katie

Opening presents on Christmas Day

Damon with his new Red Sox hat, just like Matt's!

Damon modeling all of his new stuff
The recipe box I made for J

Recipes from friends, Hilltop ladies, & LynnArts employees for J to try her hand at:)
Thanks to Beth, Marissa, Mariel, Matt, Sue H., Sue L., Sue G., Nancy F., Auntie Donna, Kathy M., & Cynthia W.,:)

Twelve Pains of Christmas

This being our first year in our own home, I've felt an intense respect for the honesty of the Bob Rivers song "Twelve Pains of Christmas." I'm sure you know it.

"The first thing at Christmas that's such a pain to me
Is finding a Christmas tree"

Definitely not an easy task this year, although possibly not as time-consuming as previous years. Typically we bundle up with my parents & freeze our tails off while hiking around the Ingraham Christmas Tree farm in search of the perfect tree. This year we drove up there, realized it was closed, stopped by another farm, realized they were too expensive, stopped at Home Depot, realized their trees sucked, & ended up at Hilltop Garden Shop, where I'm pretty sure impatience dictated the finding of our tree... which I do love. Even though the set-up included a lot of repositioning because the trunk is crooked. Isn't that always the way?

Oh, did I forget to mention that we put our tree in the sunroom? I assumed (and you know what they say about when you ASSUME) that having our tree out there would be better for various reasons including but not limited to the fact that trees tend to dry out when they're in a house with all that heat & in an effort to keep the pine tree needles in one room instead of all over the house. That being said, the water in our Christmas tree stand is about 5 inches deep & frozen solid. Whoops!

"The second thing at Christmas that's such a pain to me:
Rigging up the lights
And finding a Christmas tree"

I took this on during one of those unseasonably warm days after Thanksgiving in which I wore a sweatshirt & yoga pants & slipped off my shoes while sitting on the ground and stringing lights. It's not like we chose to go all out this year. Two strands of greenery with lights on the railings, three sets of three mini 2-foot Christmas trees lining the walk, & one 4-foot inflatable penguin. Of course, by the time all was said and done, one half of the railing decided not to work so I had to replace that, and we're pretty sure that the landscapers cut a wire on some of the mini trees during fall clean-up. That being said, the now 6 mini trees & new railing lights are fine. We do have half of a Christmas tree that sporadically flickers, but it just adds character as far as I'm concerned!

"The third thing at Christmas that's such a pain to me
Hangovers
Rigging up the lights
And finding a Christmas tree"

There is most definitely a lot of drinking & eating during the holidays. Note to self: postpone diet until January 2nd.

"The fourth thing at Christmas that's such a pain to me
Sending Christmas cards
Hangovers
Rigging up the lights
And finding a Christmas tree"

Stupidly, in an effort to save money on Christmas cards this year, I bought cheaper ones from Michael's. I know why they were so cheap; they were blank inside. After the As, Bs, & Cs of the address book, I pulled out my craft box and used a rubber stamp to fill the middle of the cards. I think I successfully wrote out 48 Christmas cards. I'm pretty sure I forgot people, too. I hope they'll forgive us, whoever they are. I let them sit for over a week before I finally sucked it up and started licking the envelopes - by far the worst part. Matt stood in line at the post office for stamps and mailed them on Friday, guaranteeing that at least a few will get to our friends and family on Christmas Eve or after. I can't wait until we have children for the very simple fact that I love how simple it would be to take a picture of my kid in front of a tree, post it to Snapfish or Walmart.com, pick them up, add stamps & addresses, & mail, like the above picture of Dylan & Santa. Perfect!

"The fifth thing at Christmas that's such a pain to me
Five months of bills!
Sending Christmas cards
Hangovers
Rigging up the lights

And finding a Christmas tree"

Somehow we've done a pretty good job this year of saving money & not over-spending, but that doesn't mean we don't owe more money now than we did 2 months ago!

"The sixth thing at Christmas that's such a pain to me:
Facing my in-laws
Five months of bills!
Oh, I hate those Christmas cards!
Hangovers
Rigging up these lights!
And finding a Christmas tree"

What can I say? So far this month, attending Matt's Willard Family Christmas Party at his Uncle Al & Aunt Melissa's house was my favorite. They just remind me of my own family and I love it!

"The seventh thing at Christmas that's such a pain to me:
The Salvation Army
Facing my in-laws
Five months of bills!
Sending Christmas cards
Oh, geez! I'm tryin' to rig up these lights!
And finding a Christmas tree"

The Salvation Army is sort of like being Catholic - there's instant guilt. Everytime I walk in or out of a store and hear that tell-tale bell ringing, I feel immediate guilt that I never carry cash any more. I search in my purse for pennies just to not feel badly about walking past the poor man (or woman) who is stuck ringing a bell in the freezing cold. It's not even that I don't want to give; it's the inconvenience. I never carry cash. I should go to the bank and get some singles for every time I go shopping from Thanksgiving to Christmas. Maybe I'll add that to my list of things to do for next year!

"The eighth thing at Christmas that such a pain to me:
I WANNA TRANSFORMER FOR CHRISTMAS!!!!
Charities,
And whataya mean "YOUR in-laws"?!?
Five months of bills!
Oh, making out these cards
Honey, get me a beer, huh?
What, we have no extension cords?!? And finding a Christmas tree"

Now, luckily, Matt & I do not have children yet that demand these ridiculous must-have toys of the season. That being said, what is wrong with children nowadays? Four first grade classes in Peabody wrote letters to Santa & my students worked as Santa's helpers to write letters in return. I can't believe what kids want for Christmas! No wonder I have such trouble finding things for my godson. Lists included things like ipods, laptops, video games & consoles, & any other electronic out there. I can't imagine. And in the first grade! Insanity.

"The ninth thing at Christmas that's such a pain to me
Finding parking spaces
DADDY, I WANT SOME CANDY!!!!
Donations!
Facing my in-laws
Five months of bills!
Writing out those Christmas cards
Hangovers!
Now why the hell are they blinking?!?!?
And finding a Christmas tree"

What about Christmas time makes people turn into psycho drivers? I've never seen so many near-accidents, so many angry drivers, so much road rage, so many people FIGHTING over parking spaces - PARKING SPACES! I'm not going to lie - I'm all about getting as close as possible because, let's face it, it's freaking cold out there, but I will NOT argue with someone over a section of asphalt. Life's too short people!

"The tenth thing at Christmas that's such a pain to me:
"Batteries Not Included"
No parking spaces
BUY ME SOMETHIN'!!!
Get a job, ya bum!
Oh, facing my in-laws!
Five months of bills!
Yo-ho, sending Christmas cards
Oh, geez, look at this! One light goes out, they ALL go out!!!
And finding a Christmas tree"

This is something to look forward to in the future when we have children, isn't it? Thank God for BJ's.

"The eleventh thing of Christmas that's such a pain to me:
Stale TV specials
"Batteries Not Included"
No parking spaces
DAD, I GOTTA GO TA BATHROOM!!
Charities!
She's a witch...I hate her!
Five months of bills!
Oh, I don't even KNOW half these people!
Oh, who's got the toilet paper, huh?
Get a flashlight...I blew a fuse!!
And finding a Christmas tree"

Oh, I'm not even going to lie. The pain of the Christmas specials is that my DVR only allows me to record two at once, and so there's at least one entire channel at all times that I have to avoid and that means I'm missing important Christmas movies - my favorite.

"The twelfth thing of Christmas that's such a pain to me:
Singing Christmas carols
Stale TV specials
"Batteries Not Included"
No parking?!?
WAAAAAAAAAAH! WAAAAAAAAAAH!
Charities!
Gotta make 'em dinner!
Five months of bills!
I'm not sendin' them this year, that's it!
Shut up, you!
FINE! YOU'RE SO SMART, YOU RIG UP THE LIGHTS!!!
And finding a Christmas tree "

I know people were bitching this year when Oldies 103.3 started playing Christmas Carols the weekend after Veterans Day but I'm not going to lie, I started checking every day since Halloween. For some people, we wait all year to hear these songs & the earlier they play them, the better!

Oh, how I love Christmas time!:)

The Most Wonderful Time of the Year

I love Christmas. It is my favorite time of the year. I love the music, the lights, the gifts, the trees, the snow... I even don't mind the shopping, to a point. I just think Christmas - for me at least - holds so many traditions, things that have stuck in the family long after other traditions have fallen by the wayside. This year is our first Christmas in our home & I could not wait to start decorating. The week before Thanksgiving, I was ready.
Thanksgiving night, at midnight, I headed to the outlets in Kittery with my aunt. We got there right at midnight & shopped until around 4am. I got just about all of my Christmas shopping done. When I got home at 4:30, I figured why bother going to bed? So I headed out to Target and WalMart. By the time I got back home again a little before 8, I was pretty much finished with shopping. I had a few things to order on Kohl's online and a few gift cards to pick up, but that was that! Easy as pie!:) I spent most of Black Friday in front of the TV watching Christmas movies & wrapping gifts while recovering from basically pulling an all-nighter. Over the weekend, I did most of the decorating as well.


My mom really wanted to decorate my bay window this year, so she & my daddy came over during the week to get the window set. I still need to add a few finishing touches before I can post pictures of that. I like it though. Very cute:).
We had to wait until this past weekend to get our tree. Every year we cut down our tree at the Ingraham Christmas Tree Farm in West Newbury or Georgetown or Amesbury - somewhere around there. The weekend after Thanksgiving, my dad had to work so we waited until this weekend to go & get the tree. Of course, last weekend the weather was beautiful and 60 & this weekend it was pouring & freezing with a snowstorm on the way. On Saturday we had to meet with our wedding photographers in the early afternoon so Christmas tree finding was put off until around 3... and by the time we go to the tree farm, it was closed. I was very sad that we didn't get to cut down our tree this year, but we still found an adorable little tree at the garden shop at Hilltop. Since we've determined the sunroom to be our Christmas Winter Wonderland, the tree had to be a little shorter than usual. Lucky for us, the one we picked out was the PERFECT height.
We put lights on the tree & decorated it with all of our ornaments & proceeded to decorate the whole room. I love it. :)

Happy Turkey Day!

Happy Thanksgiving! As per usual, our holidays are crazy. We bounce from house to house. This year, we were thankful to only have to attend two Thanksgiving feedings, a brunch at my mom's house and a turkey dinner at his mom's house. It is always nice to be around good family and friends and for that, I am eternally grateful..

Cupcakes

My beautiful cousin, Tiana

Dominick telling Pops secrets

Angelina Ballerina

Dom, on Uncle Tony's bike

Dominick & Tiana

Dom & Ang

Cory, Dom, & Angelina

Angelina & Dominick

Giving Thanks

Now is as good a time as any to share the many things I am thankful for...

1. My fiance, Matt, who is my best friend. I can't imagine my life without him.


2. The brother and sister I always wanted... and was lucky enough to find in school.

3. The most wonderful, loving, giving parents in the world.

4. Friends and family that make me happy to be around them.

5. My job, my students, my co-workers.

6. My beautiful home.

7. My smart, sweet godson, Cory.


8. That my parents live only a few streets away and are here whenever I need them.

9. First Tuesday Book Swaps with good friends, good foods, and good reads.

10. The opportunity to become an AmeriCorps, where I learned so much more than just how to build a house.
11. My South Carolina Seacoast family... who did much more for me than I ever expected and showed me true southern hospitality when I needed it most.
12. This problem I have in which I have more friends than I can count on one hand.

13. My health.

14. Friends that are farther away than I'd like but here for me when I call.


15. Christmas Eve traditions at my parents' house.


16. Having met and lost someone so wonderful that they showed me what I deserved & what I want... leading me to Matt.


17. Having had the opportunity to complete a Bachelor's degree and a Master's degree in the past eight years.

18. The opportunity to see true love and know what it is and why it's worth finding.

19. Having so many wonderful children in my life who constantly make me smile.


20. The giggles, the pitter patter of their feet on the floor, the clomping of dress shoes, crocodile tears, the cute comments, the honesty of children.

21. My life. It's not always perfect, but I love it.