Happy Monday friends! This mama is feeling it after a long weekend at Disney World going non stop. I had such an amazing time with great friends and will recap soon.. but I'm wiped. Haha! Keeping today's post short and sweet. :)
Without further ado, our Christmas card from Dixie Design!
I am so amazingly pleased with how it turned out! I wanted something really classic this year, red and green, timeless. This card delivered. Love our photo by my friend Nicole and I love that I can already imagine next year's card with TWO babies. I'm kind of overwhelmed at how wonderful it is to receive and send cards each year and look at all the precious families. I wish we had known the gender of baby number 2 before sending so we could put little sister but that's okay! :)
Can't wait to see all of your beautiful cards and a huge thank you to the amazing Kristin of Taz and Belly for cohosting with Sarah and I today! It's going to be another fun week of our linkup! XO
Y'all are quite possibly sick of reading gift recommendations online by now, but one last roundup for old times sake. While on the topic of gift guides... I know this is very anti-hustle-your-own-giftguides but my two favorite places to get recommendations are from my friend Emily's gift guides, and from Lee at Do Say Give. Emily's blog is wonderful in general, and Lee specifically talks about gifts and etiquette and has become one of my favorites. Two great sources for if you genuinely have some shopping you have to hustle out. I think mine have a ton of great options as well.. but I thought I would shout out the other two also. I feel like for every gift guide you can glean one or two ideas and then move about your merry way.
I actually got a very hard to buy for family member these gloves. I figure they're one of those things that doesn't seem like a glamorous present but then they end up being so glad they have them and think of how amazing of a gifter you are. Or that's my hope. :)
Thank y'all again for continuing to link up with us! :) And to Erika for co hosting!
Let's remix this prompt to a Christmas WEEKEND in the life.. haha! We packed in so much holiday fun this past weekend that I need to share it all! It was one of those weekends that went by in the blink of an eye. We weren't home at all really, but it was so full of sweet times! I'm going to need to take it easy after two busy weekends in a row.. last weekend and then this Thursday-Sunday I'll be in Orlando on a girls weekend to go to all the Christmas festivities at Disney World. I'm SO excited! Being away from Beau is never fun, but I can't wait to get him a special ornament and have some mama refuel time.
Friday night we had our Home Group Christmas Party. It was SO MUCH FUN! We ate at a place called Pinewood Grill and it was a really jolly, hustling and bustling environment. We had a long table and everyone ordered a ton of food and it just made it really fun. These people are such an extension of family to us and so it was really fun to celebrate another year together.
Thank y'all so much for linking up with us for the first day of The Most Wonderful Time of the Year linkup! I'm so excited to read everyone's posts over the next two weeks.
The best part about entertaining around the holidays is how easy it is to make things feel magical. Low lighting with twinkle lights, holiday flavors, and Christmas music.. the mood is instantly set!
I've hosted some laid back Christmas gatherings, but because we host Thanksgiving we usually end up other places closer to Christmas and New Years... so I'm going to share a few random tidbits. An event we hosted for our home group a few weeks ago, my favorite crowd pleasing holiday recipe, and a few random thoughts. Hodge podge post for you today. :)
On the Sunday after Thanksgiving families from our home group came over for hot chocolate, fudge, cookies, and some sweet time together. The purpose of gathering was to collect toys for a local ministry. We originally were going to make our activity wrapping the gifts, but then they wanted them unwrapped, so we just collected the items for one of our friends to drop off. We had a ton of fun holiday cards printed off for the kids to color and decorate for people in hospitals to receive for Christmas. We found all the information about it on the blog, Momfessionals. It kept the kids really engaged and it was awesome to have them talking about what we were doing. One of my friends' daughters came in with her gifts saying "these are for someone we don't know!!" It's going to be awesome to watch these kids grow in their deepening understanding of these concepts. We had a ton of fun and it was cool to have it for a greater meaning. It felt like a really fun holiday kick off.
I'm dying to host a recipe exchange. I've read tons about them online and next year I just need to get my life together and do it! I have so many good cooks in my life that this is sure to be a hit!
Speaking of recipes.. my favorite holiday recipe. I make fudge every year and it's always a major crowd pleaser. It's also INCREDIBLY easy. Some things just sound like they would be hard to make but this one I can do without thinking.
Combine butter, sugar and evaporated milk into a dutch oven or other heavy duty (deep) pot.
Bring to a rolling boil and boil for 6 minutes.
Remove from heat and add marshmallow cream and chocolate chips.
Stir until it begins to thicken and then add the vanilla.
Stir until it no longer pours from the spoon and spead into greased pan.
I think that any type of Christmas gathering would be a great opportunity for a fun party favor. Whether it's a seasonal soap, tiny present, cookies in a clear bag tied with ribbon, or even just candy canes.. I think this would be a sweet and festive touch!
This is probably and hopefully my least meaty post of the linkup.. I can't wait to read y'alls posts on Holiday entertaining experiences and add some tools to my belt! I'm also having issues with the pictures on my computer.. womp womp! Hoping to get this fixed ASAP!!
Again, thank you for linking up with Sarah and I, and a HUGE thank you to our cohost for today, Catherine!
It's so fun that I've shared wish lists each year on my blog.. they're fun to look back on. So many of those things I've received, a few I've gotten and returned because they're weird (looking at you, fridge coasters!!!) and some are still on my wishlist to this day! I'm so excited that Sarah and I are hosting again this year.. and that we're including Emily as a guest host today!
We've been living life at a slower rhythm around here recently. I've spent a lot less time on social media, and we've been home a ton. It's been so refreshing. Having Ben home for a full week was so wonderful for our family and I already am counting down until his Christmas break. I haven't been feeling super well the last week or so (just pregnancy headaches and fatigue) and so all the nights at home with early bedtimes have been wonderful.
No. 2
I almost felt like people were expecting me to comment on the Royal engagement this week, haha! A few people asked for my thoughts. I'm THRILLED for another royal wedding, especially so soon after the third child of William and Catherine is born! It will be so fun. I love the whole thing. I didn't necessarily have any thoughts about Harry and Meghan as a couple but this interview 100% sold me. They seem very genuinely in love and so I'm really excited to be able to follow them as a couple. I love that she's bringing a biracial background into the family, too. Kate will always be my favorite but I'm really excited to follow along with all of this! If you haven't already watched the interview I would highly recommend.
No. 3
Ever since listening to the episode of The Happy Hour with Jamie Ivey where she interviews Sazan Hendrix, I've followed Sazan on and off. She's having a baby girl any day and I really enjoyed reading her pregnancy reflection blog post.
No. 4
If y'all have read this blog for any amount of time you might remember that I don't drink.. anything. I only drink water and have a few slushes each summer, and a few winter starbucks drinks each winter. But last week I looked at Ben and was like NEED SPARKLING GRAPE JUICE. So I've been treating it like most people treat a nice glass of wine probably. Curling up at night with my good old sparkling grape (sometimes apple grape, very yummy! haha!) and maybe a chocolate and watching tv. It's felt so indulgent and wonderful. For years I've wondered the satisfaction people get from enjoying a coffee, soda, wine, whatever.. so now I feel like I'm getting my fix haha. My friend said she thinks this might be my gateway into wine but I'm not so sure.. I'm sure I'll ditch this habit in a few weeks.
No. 5
Don't forget that next week marks the start of the Christmas linkup! :)
