Candy Cane Christmas Decorations 2014

We have been crazy elves in our home for at least the last month. My only excuse for the early decorations is that Christmas is happy whether the decorations are hung before or after Thanksgiving. The lights, the garlands, the elves (my favorite obviously) have just been too cute to keep hidden for another month.
I don't know about you, but in spite of my efforts to look something like this with my Christmas duties...

I always end up feeling like this....

Always reaching for the ummmm...cider? Until I can pull it together and look more like...

I'm cool. I'm calm. I'm collected. Haha! So not all the time, but I do only drink apple cider in this house. I mean, we all know the strongest stuff is hot chocolate anyway (homemade with Hershey's Cocoa Mix, yum!).
Joking aside, I don't like rushing to hang my decorations, and make Christmas cards, and wrap presents, and make Christmas crafts. I want all of that to be fun. With everything already out, I can take my time with our cards and work on projects when I want, and bake cookies around all of my decorations and music. Christmas time just seems more exciting and relaxing when the decorations are already in place. As for Thanksgiving, I like seeing the trees out for two holidays especially now that I don't get to enjoy my parents decorations every day like I did when I was home. This year is especially exciting, too. It will be our first Christmas in our house- our new home!

We have multiple trees, so I thought I might spread the Christmas cheer out a bit. With our very large dining room, I could not wait to set out all of my dishes this year. I noticed most of them are candy cane themed, so I talked Justin into buying a third tree for the house and decorating the room in candy canes!

Totally not posed! just fell out of the box like this. :)

We sort of bought the table with the house. The last owners left it behind, so we brought it in from the shop outside and put our other table in the back room for the holidays. I had already preplanned the decorating a bit, and because I didn't want to buy new chairs just for two months, I found these cheap red party chair covers on Amazon. I covered our regular chairs and voilà- Christmas dining room table and chairs!

Sorry for the blurriness! This is the best picture I have from the 1st night.

My elf collection on top of Justin's desk! This is some of my antique picture collection at the bottom!

My desk area- Christmas Style!

We have outlets in the dining room that for one reason or another were placed half way up the wall. It is great for ironing, but terrible for Christmas decorating. I had already planned on putting this tree in the corner of this room, so the best solution was to place Justin's mystery gift (nice & tall to keep him guessing) in front of the outlet while the tree is kept in place! Of course, it only bothers him more not to know what is in the package since he has to unplug the lights every night. Bwahahahaha!

At night time!

At night, we turn on all of the Christmas lights in the house and open the dining room curtains. Since we don't go in there at night anyway, we don't lose any privacy. I plug in the tree to let just a little bit of our inside decorations add to the outside lights!

How about you? Have you started decorating your home yet?

The Great Santa Claus Debate

Sweet friends, our weather is finally feeling amazing! I am struggling to find my sweaters and long sleeves each morning and I LOVE IT!!!! In the past month, we have celebrated our 1st Anniversary, spent a full day shopping with my brother and sister, and, yes, decorated our home (both inside and out) for Christmas. Sorry, I just could not wait any longer. I love Christmas. Don't know where I get it from *clearing throat* (Mommy, maybe?).

I don't know about you, but I feel like Justin and I are still making our own place in Christmas traditions. There are so many that I brought from my family last year. They work well for Justin and I and I love being able to share some of my favorite Christmas traditions with my husband now. That said, there are some traditions that can not take place just yet that we have been considering a lot lately- one example is Santa Clause.

Now I don't know about you, but I grew up with Santa Claus at Christmas time. Even after finding out about his "true identity", it was a fun tradition in the house. (Oh, the pleasures of having little brothers and sisters!) Ever since then though, I have heard a hundred arguments revolving around him.

No, we don't have children yet, but Justin and I both seem to find our time now the perfect time to decide. Personally, we like the idea of Santa Claus for our future family. I would be lying to say it isn't partly fueled by some sentimentality for a favorite childhood memory ourselves.

For Justin- "Yay! Because it was a lot of fun when I was a kid, and I want it to be a lot of fun for our 

                     kids too."

Okay, so I didn't try to kill Santa...just screamed bloody-murder until my parents "saved" me.

For me- I agree completely. While I probably gave more than one mall Santa reason to down an advil bottle for a few years in a row, I loved setting out cookies and the Santa glass of coke and making reindeer food to throw in the yard on Christmas Eve night. I even liked keeping the secret a secret for my parents with my brother and sister. He was one more happy part to Christmas time.

We weren't stingy with the cokes when Santa came on Christmas Eve!

Maybe that is it for me- Santa was a part of Christmas time. As for Justin and I, we want him to be a part of Christmas time for our family too one day.

I know one of the greatest complaints I hear revolves around the horror stories of parents who told their children the truth and suddenly distrust clouded their senses and they didn't know what or if to trust even their parents ever again. Maybe that does happen with some children, and while I have theories, I have to be honest- this never happened with me. When my parents told me, I was disappointed, but only in the fun disappearing a bit. Truth be told, I was still excited for Christmas and I was still excited to watch my sister be excited. I never doubted that I could trust my parents and I learned to take pleasure in the excitement of others.

Overall, I look back and think it was an incredibly sweet gesture on my parents part to give us that excitement for all of those years. The budget was tight back then and yet they still gave us those memories. They let a cheerful (though fictitious) character take the credit for a mountain of gifts and a stocking full of little favorites when they themselves were the "elves" slaving through night after an already late evening of family dinners and gift openings at home. Our Santa worked long hours at a power plant to come home and work in his freezing, cramped work shop in the backyard more than one year in a row. Our Mrs. Claus managed dinners, holiday flus, extended family drama, baths, and household affairs on a daily basis only to spend Christmas Eve in a mixture of Barbie boxes and paint acrylics on hope chest and doll houses. Nevertheless, we woke at 3 on Christmas mornings to quietly scan over Santa's delivery in the darkness, sneak back to our beds, and "wake" again at 6 with parents who were full of smiles and hugs and taking pictures like nobody's business. We were dressed quickly in matching outfits, loaded into the car, and visiting relatives for much of the day and they never showed frustration. My very realistic parents could have taken Santa and the elves as a moment to explain the unrealistic possibilities of time, travel, and supply and demand, but they didn't. They kept their lips sealed tight and adorned themselves in what can only be described as the perfect mixture of Christmas spirit and love. Isn't that what it is all about though.

Christmas isn't and, in my opinion, has never been a time built on the realities of the time. It isn't the time of the year when you all sit around and discuss the failings of Hollywood, the continuous downward spiral of literacy in our education systems, and the ups and downs of economics. It is supposed to be a time to remember and celebrate hope. Hope didn't come at the beginning of the world, when all was perfect and Eve had yet to listen to a certain serpent. It came when all seemed lost. It came when so many felt lost and hopeless. God gave us His Son at a time when all hope must have seemed lost; when no one expected it, and yet their hearts must have cried for it. Sound familiar? To me it does. No matter where we look these days, someone always seems willing to fill us with fear and to cover whatever happiness we have with doubt and sadness. I am not saying we should ever avoid reality, but at Christmas, if at no other time, it seems to me that everything changes. You don't just accept reality with all of its painful truths, but instead work harder to find and encourage the hope and the love that still remains in this life.

I don't know about you, but here the weight of the summer air vanishes and I can breath again. The lights may not shine on every home, but whenever you find them, can you not help but smile in the randomness of their appearances. No tree is the same, no home decorated alike, no Christmas meal exact. Bells ring at storefronts with children tugging at their parents sleeve to let them put something inside much like they do with fountains throughout the rest of the year. Secret Santas are not in short supply, because secret gifts are given and kindness extended among strangers.

But I digress...

Santa does not bother me because for me he is a mere part of Christmas. He was a real person, one who was known to have extended secret gifts to those in need. Since when do we not recognize people, both past and present, for the admirable examples that they leave behind. The mystery of Santa Claus may only last a few short years in childhood, but the excitement remains long after. For most of history children have grown up with the myth, then the truth, only to follow suit and gift their children with the same memories. No matter the world's affairs or the countries, not even the economy's ups and downs, has ever seemed to cease the excitement of Santa. If nothing else, Santa Claus is a prime example of someone who gives without expecting anything in return.

This is just my opinion. Time seems to have forced me to seriously consider just why it is he doesn't bother me at Christmas, and why exactly we want him to be a part of Christmas in our family one day. If I've been to wordy, I might suggest you read the famous editorial "Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus" from The Sun which has been read for more than a century now. If you would rather, search for "Yes, Virginia". It is the cutest 30 minute movie on the article. Netflix is even carrying it at the moment. Either way, the editor's response is priceless even in today's age.

How about you? What do you think about the Santa tradition? Do you have any memories of him from your childhood?

Our Engagement Story

So I have a list...somewhere...nearly full of blogging ideas. The problem is that it is no where to be found at the moment. I don't know about y'all, but when I have writer's block, I do anything, everything, but write. The first thing I generally do is read. That said, sorry, Lindsay, but your blog got me to thinking.

Of all the memories that I have managed to log in the last 8 months, I am sorry to say that I still have a lot of catching up to do. When we were dating, engaged, first married, I thought of nearly every day and every moment as one to blog about. I don't know about you though, but our dating/engaged days were long ones. They always seemed to start in the afternoon and end around 9 or 10 at night at least. By the time he left & I showered for the night, I was worn out and ready for bed. I failed to write anything on my old blog, but all the while promised myself "Once we are married, I'll write all of this down." Then came October 19th, and a week later we were in our 1st home and Mr. & Mrs., and had horrible internet service in our apartment building because in our budget we didn't feel the need to make room for the higher quality internet service w/ the higher price tag. It worked for a while. I've nearly forgotten how bad it really was to be honest. Then (oh, and this was exciting), the company my husband works for decided to start paying our internet bill since Justin has to work from home a lot. Can I get a "Hooray!!!". It was a natural progression from there.

Internet Service = Blog = Logging Memories

ALL of that said, there are still a lot of memories not shared here yet and one of those is our engagement story. I know I have explained how Justin and I met on Match.com, wrote back and forth for about 3 weeks, and then met and, well, haven't stopped talking since really. Stepping back, I think it surprises us both how quickly we fell for one another. I know to anyone who doesn't know us, you would think we must make random, quick, spur of the moment decisions like some people breath air, but hopefully you will believe me when I say that it is not either of us. Sorry y'all, but I was the kid that would sooner sit out a game than play and risk getting hurt. (Okay, I really need to stop with the sports metaphors now. Especially since I am so not athletic.) Back to the story...

Justin and I never shied away from telling one another what we expected from our future husband and wife, even early on in our dating. At first I was admittedly cautious about talking about it, but Justin encouraged me that he wanted to know, and in fact had his own ideas. Somewhere in time the random "When I get married..." comments became "When we get married". It seemed an obvious turn of events in the future, not only to us, but to our family as well.

I can remember having a terrible cold in April 2013. It lasted longer than usual, too long for either of us. At the end of it, Justin came to a craft party at work one night with me. We sat in the breakroom waiting for everyone else to finish up for the day. He mentioned buying my birthday present and how he had a few ideas. I proceeded to tease him into giving me hints. When the hints became "something shiny", "something you will wear every day", "something you wear on your left arm", my laughter changed into nerves. All things taken into account, this had to be a ring he was talking about. After the party, we walked to Sonic for dessert. Again, he mentioned my birthday gift. He kept saying he wasn't sure I would like it. I promised him that it was exactly what I wanted. Then he said it. Right there, in front of everyone. "Okay, so you will be okay with getting a watch for your birthday?" I'll admit it was the best save of my life as I quickly attempted to hide my surprise and embarrassment with assurance. I drove home that night ashamed and embarrassed by my mistake. I worried I had become like the wedding-hungry crazy women you hear about in the bridezilla articles in the paper. At the same time, when the embarrassment subsided later that night, I realized I was actually disappointed. I really wanted to marry Justin... and then I worried he just may not ever ask.

Fast forward 1 week- we were walking around the mall. We had no where in particular to be, just wanting the exercise, when Justin asked where I wanted to go next. I told him I wanted to go look at the jewelry (aka Claires, Icings, etc.). We were about halfway through the mall, when Justin began pulling me towards Kays. I was surprised, and not wanting to give into anymore crazy engagement ring ideas, I pulled back and laughed. I told myself he was only teasing and even when he tried once more, I just laughed and kept us on course for Icings. I can remember him saying he thought we should look in there for something, but I was determined not to be bit again by the dream bug and ignored any signs I noticed that he may be serious. Looking back, he seemed a little surprised, but being the sweetheart he is, he let it drop.

A few nights later we were all visiting Daddy at work. My sister and brother and I were sipping on Sonic shakes while my parents talked up front. All of a sudden my parents turned around and asked "So, when are you and lover boy getting married?". I didn't know whether to laugh with excitement because "Yay, my parents think we are getting married!" or sad because "Dang it! I don't know.". So instead, I stumbled over words, spitting out only a couple of nearly inaudible excuses of why we weren't engaged and why I didn't know when or if we would be. My parents (having heard the mall story earlier in the week) pointed out that men may play about a lot of things, but looking for engagement rings with their girlfriends is NOT one of them. I felt crushed. Nothing like your loved ones confirming the IDIOT stamp you find on your forehead sometimes. I sulked for days, praying that I hadn't dashed all opportunities of marrying Justin.

One week later- I had been working with one of my favorite supervisors throughout the day. She knows our business like the back of her hand, but she also treats me like a niece. We had finished business and were catching up. She asked me if Justin and I had been making plans yet. I immediately fell into a rush of inaudible explanations of what I knew, didn't know, couldn't explain, when I stopped myself and looked up. I can remember saying clear as day and without worry for the first time in days "We are getting married one day, I just have no idea when that will be exactly." When Justin and I went to dinner that night, he was asking me about our visit. I told him how she had asked about us and when he asked what my response had been, I said it again with the same confidence I had found earlier in the day. I can remember this really sweet, tender smile coming across his face just then, but I, in my infinite stupidity, began to panic and worry I had said something I shouldn't have and that he may have been upset. When I got home that night, I paced my room, thought out loud for a little while, and then sat down at my desk. I had every intention of apologizing for what I had said and explaining, but then I saw it. Justin had written me just minutes before. Inside his email he told me how happy it had made him to hear what I had said, along with a few other very sweet words. I was relieved and happy...and very confused as I again realized I had NO idea when or if he would actually ask me.

Justin and I met for dinner two nights later. I could tell he wasn't himself the second I got in his truck. As the night drug on, he got worse. He was snippy and fussy. Nothing was right. Everything bothered him. His sentences were made up of about 4 words at best. By the time we got back to my car (that I had bought the day before), I had given up on cheering him up. To be honest, I was pissed. I had gone from surprised, to hopeful, to apologetic, to sympathetic, to annoyed, to GO AWAY YOU ANNOYING STRANGER. When he suggested I show him my new car, the last thing I wanted was to sit with him any longer. Still, I said sure because I had no good excuse (I just didn't say it nicely.) When he got in the car he proceeded to tell me how nice it was and asked about a few buttons and lights. I was short with him. I mean really short. Next thing I know, he is staring at the floor mat, the radio, the door handle, the radio again. Every time his eyes rested on me, they would dart off again and he would open his mouth to say something and then stop. I had had just about enough and was about to tell him that when he started talking. Y'all, my husband's voice had never been so low up until that point. For once, it wasn't filled with the excitement and laughter I had heard for the past 4 months straight. Instead, it was serious, very serious, and a little nervous. All I can remember him saying is that he had been thinking about our future for a while and he knew he wanted to marry me. He then said he wanted to marry me soon. Then he said very soon. Then he said he wanted to marry me before New Years. Then he said he wanted to marry me before Christmas. Then his words began to rush a bit as he pointed out I had said Christmas was my favorite time and he wanted us to share it together as a husband and wife. All I could think to do was nod and say yes quietly after every sentence. It all sounded good- so completely wonderful and good. 

I went home surprised and happy and completely at peace. At the same time, I wondered if being engaged felt like being engaged because I felt nothing of the sort. It felt like we had just titled something that maybe had already been. I wondered how I was supposed to tell my parents & what to tell them. Somehow the running straight into the room and exclaiming it out loud like I had always imagined didn't seem to fit. I think it all came out after mentioning we had had some talk and we were getting married and we were looking for a place to live after we got married. (Yeah, super clear announcement after your family already knows you are going to marry the man you say you love, right? *So I needed to buy a vowel or two.*) When the announcement was made a little more clear to my parents they welcomed it with open arms. They had a quiet dinner, not so much to plan a wedding as it was to welcome Justin officially into our family. It wasn't until the end of the meal that Daddy became serious and mentioned the engagement. He went on to tell Justin that I wasn't of little consequence to my mother and him and then, for the first time in my life (that I know of anyway), threatened to kill anyone who hurt me. *Just touches your heart when your daddy puts a glimmer of fear into your future husband, doesn't it.* My parents are quiet people. They are sweet and beyond patient and loving unlike anyone else I know. They made a quiet life for us, in a close group of 5 people that couldn't function properly without one in the group. We laugh hard, feel with each other, and speak sarcasm fluently like nobody's business. What can I say? I have an awesome family. That night, my family welcomed Justin into that group with open arms. It was pretty great, and the next day I officially felt engaged.

We ordered my ring and had it resized soon after that fateful proposal in the car. It took too long for me, but then again somehow it just didn't matter when it came to my thoughts on our engagement. I wanted my ring so everyone could know what we did, but I still felt engaged without it. It wasn't one of the fancy proposals I dreamed up. It was real and it was perfect...even with all of the mess ups and nerves and mood swings surrounding it. I later confessed my engagement ring blooper to Justin. He later admitted he had planned to propose on my birthday in Jefferson, Texas, but wasn't sure he could wait. He also admitted he had been serious about looking for the ring at the mall that day, and had been upset when I didn't want to. He had also debated on whether or not to ask me after I'd practically said forget it at the mall. That said, my confession at dinner had apparently been all the assurance he had needed in order to propose and he had known I would be worried about having told him, so he had intentionally rushed to write me that night before I could apologize. As for the sour mood on engagement night, he hadn't noticed. He blames nerves, seeing as he had no idea how he was going to tell me what he wanted to tell me that night.

How about you? Any engagement memories to share?