Christmas!!

Oh my goodness, how is Christmas over already?!  This month has seriously flown by. 

Earlier this month I flew to CA for a few days to surprise my brother for his 40th birthday!!  It was SUCH a quick trip, especially since I still had to work because I'm completely out of PTO for this year!  But my boss was nice enough to let me switch around some work-from-home days, and she was totally ok with me heading to CA to be there to surprise my dear brother.  I got in very late Wednesday night (I left after work), and then I had to work on Thursday and Friday, and then Saturday we had a surprise party for Brad!!  And then I left very early Sunday morning.  It was a whirlwind trip!!  Trips to CA always go by way too quickly, but this one was wayyyyyy faster than any other trip!! 

The night of the 22nd (Saturday) we hosted a party at our house, so that whole day we were cleaning and prepping for that.  We were exhausted by the time the party started!!  It was a really fun time though, and it was really great to have people over to our house for Christmas!!  We've never done that before!! 

Sunday (the 23rd) during the day I did a bunch of Christmas baking (3 kinds of cookies, plus fudge), and Kevin met up with his friend from high school that lives in L.A. now, and he was just home for the first time this year!  Sunday night Kevin and I got to hang out at home together, so we watched It's a Wonderful Life and Miracle on 34th Street (the old one, NOT the new one... I can't stand the new one, but the old one is one of my favorite Christmas movies!!).  Kevin and I had not seen It's a Wonderful Life in sooo many years, and we both really loved it this time around.  It was SO great!!  I feel like I never appreciated it when I was younger... Maybe it's one of those that you have to be a bit older to fully appreciate. We also made some pasta and homemade alfredo, and had a lovely evening of relaxing in front of the fire while watching movies :)  It was perfect! I'm so happy we got some time for us. 

Christmas Eve Kevin and I both had to work all day, but after work we drove over to Kevin's parents house and spent the evening there hanging out with Kevin's family.  Christmas morning we were able to just hang out at home and have a nice relaxing morning.  We made cinnamon rolls for breakfast!

We have watched a LOT of Christmas movies!! Here's our list:  Scrooged, Bad Santa, The Grinch (Jim Carrey version), The Grinch (old cartoon version), Santa Clause is Coming to Town, The Year Without a Santa Clause, Rudolph, Frosty, Elf, National Lampoons Christmas, Muppet Christmas Carol, Mickey's Christmas Carol, Die Hard (it counts!!), Love Actually, Prep and Landing (thanks Lizzy and Claighton!!), The Man Who Invented Christmas (it was pretty good!), Miracle on 34th Street, It's a Wonderful Life, White Christmas, The Holiday, Home Alone 1 and 2, and Charlie Brown Christmas. That's 23 movies!! 

I was terrible about taking pictures, so I'm sorry this post is picture-free!  This weekend we're going to Longwood Gardens to see the lights, so I'll take pictures of that!!  And I'll do the Bucket List update too :)  Love you guys!!!

Christmas is Coming!

You guys!  I'm getting so excited for Christmas!  I can't believe it's only a few weeks away!  I feel like October, November, and the first bit of December have all gone by SO quickly! 

Our house is looking VERY Christmasy, and I'm loving it.  We went and got our Christmas tree on December 1st, and we decorated it that evening!  We also put our lights up on the house that day because we actually had pretty good weather.  Here are some pictures of our tree and our inside decorations!  I'll take some exterior pictures soon. 

Here's our Christmas glasses and a few little plates and bowls!

Here are all of our Christmas mugs!  So many good ones.  There's a Homer Simpson one for McGee right in front there, and we both love the Bumble one of course, and I love that adorable Mickey and Minnie one on the left!  

Some gifts made by the amazing Lindsey! 

Here are a few of our pillows!

Our fireplace!  This makes me so happy!

Some decorations on a side table, including an adorable picture of my nieces when they were little! 

Our tree!!  I think this is our best tree yet!!  I love it so much, and it makes me so happy. 

I've worked on making a few Christmas presents this year!  I'll try to show some pictures of some others later, but here's one I made for my Uncle Jim!  He loves A Christmas Story. 

I also made a Bucket List for Christmas! I have SO many movies I want to watch this year, but I will just tell you them as I watch them because it does not fit nicely on the list!  So far we have watched Bad Santa, Scrooged, Elf, and the Jim Carrey version of The Grinch!  So, 4 out of 24! :)  We are going to have a fun month!!  Here's my Bucket List: 

Love you all, and I hope you're having an amazing December so far!!

Quick Thanksgiving Recap!

Wow, November seriously flew by SO fast!!  That was crazy!!  Kevin and I went to CA for a week to have Thanksgiving with my family, and OH MY GOSH we had such a great time!  We went to Sacramento twice to try to see some friends and family, and the rest of the time we hung out in Oakdale and had a really great time!  I love being at the ranch - It's so peaceful and relaxing!  And Thanksgiving dinner was AMAZING of course - Wow can my mom cook!!  It was delicious.  I loooved getting to spend some quality time with my family, and my nieces are growing up way too quickly!! It was so fun getting to hang with them. 

Here's my parents' sweet dog Maggie!  

I never posted about our Thanksgiving decorations!  Here's a bunch of pictures: 

 I'm sorry it took me so long to post about Thanksgiving!  Crazy.  I'll do a December post soon!!