Christmas 2011

Merry (belated) Christmas to you all! I hope your Christmas was filled with family and friends and incredible amounts of happiness! Christmas around here was very different than the usual. We, of course, spent our first Christmas waking up as a married couple in our home just the two of us. It was a lot of fun and full of memories, but different to say the least. Growing up, Christmas was always such a huge event. It included me and my sisters all sleeping together in the same bed Christmas Eve, waking up Christmas morning and hiding behind the hallway door so we couldn't see the Christmas tree filled with our presents, the video camera set to record on the tripod, and music/Christmas parades coming from the television. Having just me and Chuck on Christmas morning was so much more low-key than I'm used to. Chuck isn't used to all the picture taking and memory-capturing.... but he'll learn :) You can't have a holiday without a camera present!

Our tree before the presents were all taken away to give to family!

Christmas morning... bright and early at 9am. And yes, those are matching pajamas :) can you say tradition??

Christmas morning coffee.

And breakfast casserole. Yum.

Chuck and I stuffed each other's stockings with little gifts. Mine was full of Bath and Body Works shower gel and lotion, the movies Lincoln Lawyer and Crazy Stupid Love, and candy. I stuffed his with 2 cigars, pipe tobacco, A Christmas Story (which I absolutely cannot stand... but he loves it. Marriage is about being selfless, right?), and candy.

Opening his gift from me... Ray-ban sunglasses.

So, after our Christmas morning celebration at the house, we skedaddled on over to Chuck's family's celebration where we ate our first meal, opened up gifts, and enjoyed the company of my new family :) Then, about 2:30pm, we hopped on over to my mom's house where we opened more presents, ate more food, and spent more quality time with new family additions. 

ps -- Christmas as a married couple is HECTIC! Too many places in too little time.

anyway... back to my mom's house. Us in front of her tree!

Emily and her new brothers. I'm not sure why Greg is making such a face. 

 Chuck's gift to Emily. It's probably her favorite of all time, but she'll never admit it.

So after our third Christmas of the day, we went bowling! It was random, but lots of fun. And yours truly WON. I tried so hard to document the occasion because, let's just face it, that never happens. But, no. The screen had to go out before I could snap a picture, so now no one actually acknowledges my win. Thanks, guys.

By the end of the day, I pretty much felt like this...

Exhausted and flustered. But so full of happiness, too. Holidays are definitely full of adjustments and time management once two families are involved.. and now, this year, we have had to learn to work around the Abbeys, the Graves, AND the Boggs. Christmas was full of ups and downs, good moments and some sad ones, too, but I'm grateful to have had the holiday that I did. 

Looking forward to many, many more in the future!!

Love you all!

Christmas at the Abbeys!

It's beginning to look a lot like CHRISTMAS! Not so much FEEL like Christmas, considering the last two days have had a high in the 70's... but I think the weather is about to have a turn of events and bring the cold air back. Thanks goodness. I mean, I'm not in love with the winter weather, but a spring-like Christmas is just no fun at all.

So, here in the Abbey abode, we have been decorating for Christmas for a while now. It's taken an entire 2 weeks to officially decorate our tree... we brought it home on the 3rd and I just tonight finished putting ornaments on it. I mean, why not drag it out a bit?! It's mostly taken for.ev.er because we had zero ornaments to even put on the tree. And by zero, I mean ZERO. It definitely made for a pitiful looking Christmas tree. So, for about a week, our tree was exactly that... a tree (with some Christmas lights). The lights helped, and made it almost just as wonderful as a fully decorated tree. You better believe that every time we have been home, that tree has been lit and enjoyed... with or without any ornaments :) But now finally, we have a few ornaments and it's decorated in all it's glory! Over the years, our trees will appreciate the acquired ornaments we accumulate. But for now, it's bare and beautifully ours ;)

Bringing home our first Christmas tree, and MY first real tree ever!

The hubs, stringing the lights like a pro.

Oh Chuck.... by the way, notice my tree skirt :) Still super proud of that sucker.. ha.

Thanks to Pinterest, I made some of these wedding invitation ornaments. Unfortunately, I can't find any extra invitations, so these are all our wedding programs. But I'll be making more as soon as I can get my hand on some of our invitations.

Of course, I needed an "A".

 And the obligatory "First Christmas" ornament. Except it doesn't actually say "First Christmas", but I figure the bride and groom and year is symbolic enough.

"The stockings were hung by the chimney with care..."

Christmas-y den. I have loved spending time in here this holiday season.

It has been such a joy to decorate the house and be surrounded by the Christmas spirit in our first home. The house is still a wreck, honestly... the guest bedroom is a disaster, I don't have storage boxes for my new table in the den to hold all of our books and movies, and there are other things in the house that drive me crazy on a daily basis. But having the Christmas decorations up, the Christmas candles burning and the tree lit up makes me so happy. I am going to be so sad once the holidays are over!

Here are a few more decorations that I've put together around the house.

This sits on our new table in the den.

I made these letters the same weekend I made our tree skirt.

Christmas kitchen towels.

Merry Christmas everyone! 

Christmas crafting

Oh, Pinterest. I don't think you realize how incredibly helpful/addicting you really are :)

A couple months back, I stumbled across an absolutely adorable picture of a linen and burlap Christmas tree skirt that a girl made. I found it on Pinterest, of course, with a blog including instructions and all. Well, during my two days off this weekend, I decided to dive in and give it a shot! And now that it's complete, I'm going to attempt my first "instructional blog"... hopefully it's not too confusing and you can follow along!

You will need:

one old Christmas tree skirt

rotary board and cutter

scissors

long sewing pins to pin the burlap

about 4 yards of fabric (2 of each fabric you use)

glue gun and glue sticks (lots of them!)

First, you are going to cut lots and lots and lots of strips of each fabric. The length of each strip doesn't matter, but the width does. It's actually easier to manage shorter strips, so I recommend cutting them to about 3 or 4 feet in length each. Also, keep the fabric folded and use the rotary board and cutter on the folded fabric. I learned from experience -- it's much easier to cut lots of layers instead of one at a time. I cut mine to 3 inches wide, but 4 inches would be fine, too. I wouldn't cut any less than 3 inches, because you'll need enough to overlap once you start gluing. 

My other fabric was burlap (thanks to Amy for having leftovers from her wedding!), and it was much easier to just use scissors on the burlap instead of the cutter. But, same thing here. Cut to the same width as the previous fabric.

Here's all the cut fabric. You'll need more than you think. This is what I started with and ended up having to cut two more piles halfway through!

To start, use hot glue and simply start folding the fabric back on itself as you glue. 

Here's what it will look like once the first layer is done.

Then, after each layer, glue the second layer a few inches above so that it overlaps the previous layer a little bit. If using burlap, it's easiest to pin the layer and then go back and glue -- because guess what, hot glue burns your fingers as it goes through the holes in the fabric. Also, please excuse my shopping list on my hand. Guess what I was shopping for?!

Here's layer number two pinned above layer number one. Keep going! It's going to get easier the more you do. 

Once each layer is glued, pinned and glued, pinned and glued, etc, you can use some twine and make a tie at the opening to secure it around the base of the tree once it's up.

And there you go! A finished burlap and linen-like (because it's much cheaper haha) Christmas tree skirt!!!! 

I AM SO PROUD :)

Thanksgiving!

There are so many things to be thankful for in this life. Family, friends, friends that are like family, a nice place to call home filled with things that make me happy, a job, my health, the health of those I care for most... just so many things that I can be grateful for every single day. I wish more often than not that I took the time to really appreciate and value each of those things. But, in the hustle and bustle of everyday life, so often those simple things go unaccounted for and are taken for granted. I am so grateful for a holiday that makes me sit back and realize everything I have been blessed with.

This year has been an incredible one for me and my family. We have not only been blessed by each other, but we have gained three ABSOLUTELY WONDERFUL men in our family that we get to call "ours". I have been beyond blessed with not only gaining an incredible husband, but the love of his family, as well. The Abbeys are my second family, no doubt about it. They have seen me grow as a person from the age of 15 and have seen me and Chuck grow as a couple just as much as my family. I am as grateful for them as much as I am my own side of the family. 

We are learning that holidays become super difficult once marriage happens, and now we have to learn to incorporate my family, Chuck's family, and Greg's family into the mix... and all in one year! Not the easiest of tasks. Unfortunately, I had to work Thanksgiving night, so my family got together on Wednesday so we could celebrate as a family before Mom, Dwayne, Emily, Greg, and Amy all headed to Georgia for three days to celebrate Thanksgiving with Greg's family. I am so grateful that the Boggs have opened their arms to us and welcomed us as a whole as a family. This is now two years in a row that they have allowed us to celebrate Thanksgiving with them! I'm just sad Chuck and I couldn't tag along to Georgia. I guess that's what I signed up for when I decided to be a nurse... (have I mentioned that I really really really need a day shift job? Or a normal 8-5 job as a nurse?? Because I do!)

So on Wednesday, we gathered at my Mom and Dwayne's house for a family gathering!

My beautiful Mom in the kitchen.

Sister and brother-in-law. The tennis ball was for Jack, their dog. haha

We will always be "The Graves Girls"

me and hubs.

Pretty set-up table. And just fyi, that's our dining room table. Please, take a moment, and soak that in and realize how big of a deal that is. Normally, that's covered with papers or other items and is hardly in useable condition. Have you soaked in the momentous occasion yet? Ok, good.

The following day (Thursday), Chuck and I drove down to LaFayette, AL, to see Ruth (my grandmother-in-law). We spent the morning/early afternoon with Chuck's side of the family before we had to drive back to Birmingham so I could head in to work that night. It's no fun working the holidays. As much as I enjoy having four days off a week due to working three 12-hour shifts, I honestly think I would give that up and work an 8-5 nursing job 5 days a week if I didn't involve weekends or holidays. But anyways, that's a whole 'nother story in itself.

So, to sum it up, this Thanksgiving I was/am so thankful for...

1. my husband

2. my family, all of it. married in, immediate, old and new.

3. time with my family

4. my health, my home, and my job (as much as night shift may pain me, it's a job nonetheless!)

What are YOU grateful for this holiday season?!