Catching up

So things have been very hectic at work right now so I haven't found much time to do anything but that. The only reason I found time right now is because we are stranded in Detroit trying to make our way to Maine for the holidays. Even with that I didn't finish and am just now getting back around to finishing this.

First of all let me start with the fact that I LOVE CHRISTMAS TIME!!!!! It's really my favorite time of the year. Sean, on the other hand, not so much. I'm trying to convince him though. So in my convincing, the first thing we did was decorate the house. I have tons of decorations (but I've decided I need more but don't tell Sean) so the first step was to get them all out. I usually do all of this on my own but it was great to have someone help me as most of the big stuff is in the attic.

Here's all decorations before we got started.

Here's the after picture - the living room.

The kitchen - don't look at all the different colors on the wall, I was trying to pick paint colors (the big reveal post to come soon).

Last year, when I did my after Christmas shopping, I got these giant wreaths. Sean put them up - power tools and all. I was very impressed. No, Duke didn't change colors, we were dog sitting. I love how they turned out but I think we're going to put lights on the other two for next year. Currently only the middle one has lights.

Now that the decorations are up it was on to the Christmas cards. Sean loves to write up the yearly recap for the Christmas card. Our printer was out of ink so he ended up needing to go somewhere to get them copied. I had to go out of town for work so Sean actually ended up stuffing and addressing all the Christmas cards. Sorry if you weren't able to read your own name or there were multiple scratch throughs on your envelope. I guess it was paybacks since last year I wrote them all in the car on the way to Kansas for Christmas.

Speaking of going out of town for work - my last trip actually took me to Kansas City! I always love it when we go there because I get to see my brother, Ashley and Maddy. It made me a little sad though because Maddy wasn't so sure about me. That's the drawback to not living near your family. By the end of my time with them she had warmed up to me and was blowing me kisses bye, etc. My hotel was in the Plaza and it was great to get to stay there and see all the Christmas lights - so amazing!!! The one bad thing about my trip is the car I got from the rental place - a Toyota Prius. It's one of those Hybrid thingies - HORRIBLE. It was really poorly designed and I didn't see any gas savings. If you want to hear all the things about it just ask - I'll spare you here.

We did a White Elephant exchange while in KC with the team I'm on. The rule was you weren't allowed to spend any money. Essentially you had to find something around your house to "regift". It was so much fun. I actually got something from Tamara to give. I ended up with a "cooking with wine" cookbook. I was excited about it!

I also love Christmas because I love to bake goodies. Our Christmas Bunco is always so much fun because we do an ornament exchange. This year we also did a cookie exchange. I found a recipe for Chocolate Potato Cookies. Yes you read that right, they had mashed potatoes in them. I found the best thing ever at the store - frosting in a can with a fancy tip already on it. It sure made the process faster. They turned out pretty good. While I was at it baking these I decided to throw in some other goodies. This actually became quite time consuming and took up pretty much my entire weekend. I was going to wait and make the rest of it in Maine but then I remembered the kitchen in Maine compared to the one in Texas - Texas won out! I love that kitchen!!! Since I was busy cooking away Sean came to the rescue again. He actually wrapped all the presents and helped me clean the kitchen as I was going. I love my husband - he's the BEST!!!

We also got logs for the gas fireplace in Texas and painted inside the house. You'll have to wait for a future blog for before and after shots of that. Now that it's done I'm really wishing I had done it earlier as it makes such a difference!

That should pretty much get you all up to date for now but there's a ton more posts to come as I'm sure the holidays will spark lots of thoughts on the first year of married life.