Christmas... 2013

Well 2000 miles, 8 family Christmases, and 8 short days later, we're back from our lovely stay in Alabama. We had such a great Christmas, and I'm so thankful we got to spend it with our families!! We got back late Sunday night and were quickly reminded how COLD it is here! It was 3 degrees when we woke up yesterday :/ But as much as we enjoyed our time, and as much as I miss our families, it does feel good to be back "home"
Our first stop and first Christmas celebration was with my dad's family in Huntsville. We were about an hour late {we did have a 9 hour trip to get there, so I think everyone understood ;)} so it was kind of short and sweet, but it was good to see everyone!! We left Huntsville and drove to Z's parents's house in Tuscaloosa. Sunday was spent relaxing, eating Taco Casa, baking, and enjoying dinner with both of our families! Monday, I spent the day with my parents and visited with one of my besties and her fam. It was a really great day. That night we had our second family Christmas with Z's extended family... Tuesday {Christmas Eve} was spent with Z's family. Z and I even had some time with his grandma at her house "going down memory lane". It was really sweet! We woke up Christmas morning at Z's parents'... and then we had our annual Christmas Day marathon ;) Z's grandparents', my Nana's, and Z's Mimi's. We are SO blessed, and we loved getting to see so much of our family on such a special day! We woke up bright and early the day after Christmas to head to my parents' house in South Alabama. We spent a few days there and celebrated Christmas with them. It was a really fun, relaxing end to our visit... including shopping, seafood, a trip to the movies, baking with my mom, and homemade gumbo... simply the best! We left early Sunday morning, dropped my brother and his sweet girlfriend off in B'ham, met up with Z's fam for brunch, and then made a very long drive back to Chicago! Whew! It was a busy, wonderful week celebrating the birth of our Savior and all that He has blessed us with!!!
Here are a few pictures to recap our visit... {I wish I had more!!!}

 
And now we're off to celebrate the last day of 2013! Come back tomorrow for a post highlighting what a great year it has been ;) Happy New Year's Eve!!

Happy Birthday Dad!!

Happy birthday to the best Dad any girl could ever ask for! I am so blessed to have such a great Daddy. I love him more than words could ever say.
 I am definitely wishing that we were already home so I could celebrate with you, Dad! I love you and hope you have the very best birthday!!!

Happy Monday!

I'm off work today... so it's a happy Monday, indeed ;) I don't know if I've even blogged about my new teaching role at my little school. Starting in January, I'll be lead teaching in the pre-k classroom! I'm really excited, a little anxious, and pretty busy getting ready to switch classrooms! Also, I had to use up my personal days before our Christmas break, so I took today off... no one really likes to work on Mondays anyways, right?! What's on my to-do list on this day off??? Well, I have a little shopping left to do, a lot of wrapping left to do, laundry and cleaning to get ready for our trip next weekend, and some baking for my small group party tonight! I also have the rest of the Today show to watch and a big cup of coffee to drink ;) Plus, it was only 6 degrees when Z left for work, so I didn't hate the fact that I was cozied up on the couch with TWO blankets, ha! Hope you have a lovely Monday as well!

Winter Wonderland, Home Alone, and a Little Thriftiness

Are there really only ten more days until Christmas?! Stop.the.madness! We have been crazy busy, and I don't see that changing anytime soon ;) But that's okay with us! We're excited to head back to Alabama next weekend to spend Christmas with our families... can't wait!!! And we're also excited for the warmer temperatures when we get there ;) It has been SO cold here lately. We haven't had a day above freezing in about ten days... brr. Last week, my class only got to go outside one time, and we go out as long as it feels like at least 20 degrees. Like I said, it's been COLD! Friday was better, it reached the mid twenties {so we got to go out!} And it actually felt so much better, ha! Crazy how warm 20 can feel after a few mornings of 5 or below!!
Anyways, besides the cold, we also got more snow. {That part I don't mind too much ;)} It snowed ALL day Saturday, which made for such a cozy day at home! {I do prefer weekend snow days since school is never canceled, haha} Here are a few pictures of our winter wonderland...

Our poor car!

Our neighbor's steps...

All bundled up!

The little shrubs in our front "yard" were completely covered!

We did venture out Saturday night with our friends to see Christmas lights. But not just any lights, we set out to find THE HOME ALONE house!!! And we weren't the only ones either, ha! There were quite a few other cars doing the same thing we were... taking pictures ;) It's in a beautiful suburb of Chicago, about 30 minutes away. The houses in this neighborhood are fabulous, to say the least. {The home alone house even looked kind of small compared to the surrounding houses!!} It was pretty fun to see it in real life. We wanted to get out and get a picture, but it looked like they were having a party?! So we just snapped a quick one instead...

Merry Christmas, ya filthy animal!

Moving on... I've mentioned before about my love for Trader Joes. Well, every time you buy something there, they use doubled up paper bags, {Not sure whey they always use two?!} the nice sturdy kind. And I  never want to throw them away. So we have quite a stash of Trader Joes paper bags. What to do with all those bags?!! Wrap Christmas presents, of course! ;)

I saw a few pictures on Pinterest that gave me the idea... plus our crazy abundance of paper bags. So this year I only bought a few pieces of scrapbook paper and some yarn, and we are reusing our Trader Joes bags! And I really like how our gifts turned out!! So if you ever have an abundance of paper bags, you can always use them for wrapping paper, ha! Hope you have a great week friends!

Snow Day and Other Randomness

Happy Monday! We had a wonderful weekend. SO cold, but good. Friday evening I took the train to meet Z downtown near his work. We met up with some friends at a restaurant down there and then headed to the Christkindle German Christmas market! So much fun!!! It was FREEZING! But, thankfully we were bundled up, and we enjoyed some hot mulled wine. It was nice to get back home and thaw out though ;) Saturday we had a super lazy morning. It was nice to lounge around in our warm pjs. Z helped me do some online Christmas shopping for a few people on our list, and then we headed out to do a little more shopping around our apartment. We grabbed a Starbucks first, because shopping is always better with coffee ;) {especially when it's 20 degrees!} Later Saturday night we made a homemade pizza and headed to our friends' apartment to watch some football. It was a bummer that we weren't watching the Tide :/ but oh well. Sunday brought more cold weather and some SNOW! We took the bus to church since it was too cold to walk. It started snowing while we were in church and didn't stop until late last night! So pretty! If only we got snow days off of work around here, ha! Here are a few pictures from our snowy day...

Waiting for the bus after brunch with friends... Brr!

Our snowy street

There were a few inches by the time we went to bed

In front of our apartment this morning

It didn't snow anymore today... but it is still so cold. It was 24* when we woke up, and that was the warmest it got all day. I'm a little afraid this might be a long winter!
In other news besides the weather... I feel like between now and when we head home for Christmas is going to be CRAZY! This week we have our "pageant" at school where the kiddos perform cute little songs for their parents, etc. And next week we have a Holiday party at work and a work related volunteer engagement {that is required, ha} plus a Christmas dinner with my small group and lots of Christmas lights to see, gifts to buy and wrap, and movies to watch with Z ;)... I guess that's what you call "holiday hustle and bustle"!! Hope you have a great week friends!

It's Beginning to Feel a Lot Like Christmas...

Okay so it really doesn't feel like Christmas to me!? Somehow Thanksgiving is already over and it's December. We had such a great trip home seeing family for thanksgiving... it went by way too fast! But we loved every second {except for maybe that last second of the iron bowl game :/ but we won't talk about that..} So now I guess it's time to get in the Christmas spirit! Last night we went to get our Christmas tree. I had started thinking that maybe we just shouldn't get a tree this year. We're only going to be here for about three weeks before we head back to Alabama... and we do live in only 600 square feet... but alas it just wouldn't be Christmas without a tree ;) I really wanted to get our tree from the cutest little tree stand on the corner down the road. I swear it's straight out of a movie... {This is a terrible picture of me, but it kind of shows the cuteness...}

 Well it turns out that trees there are expensive... The teeny tiny ones were $55! So we headed to Home Depot {where we always end up getting our tree, ha!}. We looked at the normal size trees, and decided they would completely dominate our apartment. And then we found this...

The perfect little tree. It was priced at $24, which we thought was a pretty good deal. And then when we were paying for it, it rang up for $14!! A perfect little cheap tree ;)

And I think it fits in just right! I can't wait to decorate it... it should be interesting to see how all of our ornaments fit?! Haha!!