merry christmas

whatever your happiness is, i hope you're overwhelmed with it on this day.

our beautiful christmas cards were by Orange81.

happy birthday, kate!

today is my beautiful niece, kaitlin's birthday. she is the wonderful age of 5 today - here is one of my favorite photos of her from christmas 2005:

happy birthday, katie bug :) 

cute vs. creepy

sometimes there is such a thing as too much christmas spirit...i mean, i admire all kinds of over-the-top decorations: yard art, roof art, christmas-themed carousels and even the little snowmen painted as the members of KISS (yes, i saw that last weekend). but this is just a bit much. and by a bit much, i mean super creepy!

have you ever seen such a thing?! i was taken aback and proceeded to bring my coworkers to see it because they didn't believe me. could you imagine being those children?? would you be embarrassed? impressed? how much do you think those cost?! wow. just, wow.

on another note, i am heading south to be with my family for christmas! we've packed up and prepped roxy and are ready to hit the road.  after christmas we will be taking a road trip to colorado for some getaway time before next semester starts back for stephen...i have a couple of posts lined up, but they are sparse so i will have to make up for it upon my return!

xoxo

...stockings are hung by the records with care...

our inventive little way of hanging stockings since we don't have a mantle

and of course, since we live in texas

i also have the cajun night before christmas - it's a true classic and tradition to read every year. do you have any traditions for the holidays?

tidings of comfort and...

some fun images 1. from our neighborhood walk 2. from an adventure in fort worth.

what are you doing this weekend? i'm going to attempt to finish my christmas shopping...only a couple of things to get here and there. then we're going to take a tour of the highland park christmas lights, they looks so beautiful while i'm driving through so i can't wait to see them in full effect!

i hope your weekend is marvelous and well, joyful!
xo

still holding on

some beautiful colors on our walk yesterday...you'd think it was early fall here!!

...and who is that there?? it took me a few looks at this pic to see my little scruffamuffin in the window :)

the christmas card that might have been

we decided to finally do a picture for our christmas cards this year, only issue was trying to get a picture of all three of us! stephen and i took roxy on an amazing little walk to find some great scenery for our photo...and not five minutes into the search, my camera battery died. lucky me, i had my film camera with us, but you never know how those will turn out until you develop them! so, while my mom was in town and we were all dressed up for the theater, we had her take a picture for us.

cute, right? minus roxy's crazy zombie eyes!! i said i could try and fix it, but stephen was also displeased with the fact that his tie is out of place (silly boys). oh well! we did end up using one of my film pictures, and you'll see that on christmas - something else to look forward to, right?!

a little tree cheer

remember our (almost) perfect tree? well here he is, is all his christmas-y glory:

he is adorned with my grandmother's antique ornaments, which i love. they are so classic.

 

 

 

 

the tree is bringing some much needed joy into our living room, and i finally got roxy to stop drinking the water out of the stand. hope your home is feeling cozy and joyful.

xo

i spy with my little eye

while on our walk yesterday, roxy and i took in all the beautiful decorations in the neighborhood.  then this really caught my eye

it's santa! just hanging out on this balcony.

he was pretty cute but almost seemed like he was creepin'.

i can't express how happy i am for the weekend.  hopefully i'll get some shopping and wrapping done but who knows, i may end up just cuddled on the couch with roxy, some hot chocolate and christmas movies. i'm such a creature of habit.

hope you have a fabulous and productive weekend...or a lazy one, whichever you prefer :)

xo

you've got a little something...

i snapped this pic of roxy on sunday while we were lazily lounging and watching football all day (our new sunday usual). she had no idea that feather was there for the longest time and we were just cracking up! i'm pretty sure it was floating around after escaping one of our couch pillows.

hope that puts a little smile on your face

xo

you could be a farmer in those clothes

when we visited stephen's family in tulsa over thanksgiving, i was very excited that his mom wanted to send us home with fresh eggs from her chickens.  i even got to get eggs out of the coop after they'd laid some! i'm not a country girl by any means, but i am definitely one for the freshest of the fresh and cruelty-free products. here are some fun shots from that adventure:

all in all, we went home with nearly two dozen eggs (she'd been collecting/saving them for us for a little while). how nice would it be just to hop in your back yard and have fresh eggs?? so fun.

bonus points if you know where this post title is from :)

step into christmas (movies!)

so after my terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day yesterday, i needed to think of things that always cheer me up.  top of the list? christmas movies. i don't know why, but any time of year, any kind of movie remotely related to the holidays really makes me feel so much better. when i curl up on the couch, there are a few that are my absolute favorite christmas movies:

these are definitely ones i can watch over and over again. now, one of my absolute favorite christmas stories is "a christmas carol," and while i love the movies, i much prefer to read it. also, i really like to watch harry potter movies during winter...not sure why, it just seems to fit for me! so the next time i'm feeling down, i'll make myself a snuggle (hot chocolate and peppermint schnapps) and curl up on the couch with rox and watch one of these! what do you do to get back in the spirit?? do you have a favorite holiday movie?

(thanks to nina for inspiring this post)

case of the mondays

it's just one of those days. they don't come often, but when they do, oh they're bad.

i need to crawl back in bed and have a do-over.
as my mom always told me, if you don't have something nice to say, don't say anything at all.

so, until tomorrow.

(photo from we heart it)

forgetful friday

sometimes i forget where i put my camera cord, by sometimes i mean at least once a week. i also sometimes forget to go pick up my pictures when i'm using my film camera. let's not get into the long, long list of things i forget (including, but not limited to, keys, cell phone, and extremely important cooking ingredients). just a little flighty i guess! maybe i'll remember to look this weekend so i can show you all my great new pics!

in the meantime, here's some love from around the web

joanna is starting her 2009 gift guide today - so excited!

this set on flickr makes me feel all warm and cozy

a holiday cookie exchange...yum!

i'm adding this shirt and these tights to my wish list today...too cute for their own good

dailycandy is dropping dallas, this makes me very, very sad.

now this looks like my kind of camping

one of my favorite dj's remixed my favorite song of the moment - just amazing! (see the original song/video here)

glamorous holiday inspiration

(photo found at we heart it)

have a wonderful weekend!!

xo

snow!

well it snowed today in dallas, if only for a minute.  it was gorgeous and fun while it lasted but that wasn't very long at all. if you're not from or familiar with the region, you should know it hardly ever snows here, and when it does it's usually some wintry mix mess of a storm (which makes for fun commuting, considering everyone panics at the thought of ice).  today was different, there were big, fat snowflakes and it seemed like the ground would be covered at any moment. alas, it has been much to warm here for snow or ice to stick to anything.  so as i type this, it is already sunshiny outside and merely looks like we had a little drizzle this morning. however, i came across the cutest picture on twitter from dallas morning news.

how cute is he?! roxy wouldn't step a paw out in that mess, but this little basset is apparently much braver. hope you all are having a cozy day.

xo

the hunt for the (almost) perfect tree

for the first time since moving to the big d, we decided to get a real tree this year for christmas.  so stephen and i braved the streets of dallas to hunt for the perfect christmas tree, or something like it. we found this little guy (ok he's not really little, but was definitely bigger than our ol' reliable 3 foot fake tree!)

i was in love, can you tell?

and we managed to fit him inside our car!!

 

now, that was an adventure!

we've got him all set up and decorated, but i don't have any good pics yet so i'll have to post them later.

do you get a real tree? have you started decorating?? i just LOVE the holidays.

i am thankful

so very thankful for all the love in my life. my family, friends, work...everything.

especially these two

they light up my whole world.

happy thanksgiving :)

xoxo

cheesecake!

we are hitting the road this morning, heading to tulsa for family time and thanksgiving! stephen and i made a delicious white chocolate pumpkin cheesecake last night.

first layer, just cheesecake topped with white chocolate chips

then the rest of the cheesecake batter mixed with the pumpkin mix

and top it off with more white chocolate chips

and voila!

ready to bake, set, devour. i'll give you a full report on whether or not it was delish.  hopefully it will live up to the hype!

we will also be making our new favorite broccoli gruyere gratin (using this recipe, so delicious!).

what are you making for thanksgiving??

family time

on sunday, we took a nice little walk around the neighborhood, went to grab some fresh groceries and made a most delicious breakfast (for which roxy endlessly begged...and eventually succeeded). 

we stopped to smell the roses

listened for squirrels

took in the fresh fall air and beautiful sites

and laughed. we do that a lot.

it was a most beautiful day.

holiday goodness

can you believe the holidays are literally around the corner?! this is definitely my most beloved time of year (really anytime between october and february...love it).  there are a few things that really get me in the holiday spirit:

1. baking - i love to cook & bake anyway, but there's just something about baking when it's chilly outside (i say chilly cause lord knows what we have in texas can't really be considered cold...ha!)
2. lights - at shopping centers, in neighborhoods, anywhere. there's just something so romantic about those little twinkle lights.
   
3. holiday outfits - for christmas parties, dinner parties, even thanksgiving stretchy pants. i love it all!
4. decorating - stephen probably is less enthusiastic about it than me, but i just can't help myself
5. christmas music. (and yes, i've already started listening to it)
6. roxy in sweaters - she actually likes wearing them because her little body gets so cold! we have a few really cute ones, and a couple of new ones...will show you those soon :)

i stumbled across some cute holiday items while "window shopping" online

mistletoe & bow hairclips from kate spade and mrs. klaus sweater from urban outfitters. how cute are these?!

oh i just love the stuff they come up with for the holidays.  what gets you in the spirit??

superdog

when i see this picture of rox, i hear the superman theme in my head.

she is quite the super dog.  this pic is from her old favorite walk at the historic cemetery in downtown dallas. she looooved chasing those squirrels in there. hope you have an enjoyable day!

oh happy day

i'm wishing the happiest of happy birthdays to my wonderful husband today.

he makes me the luckiest girl in the world.

love you baby. it's gonna be a great year!

xoxo

drop something

so november is (already) here...oh wait, i mean it's already the middle of november! where does the time go?  at any rate, this means lots of holiday cooking and baking for us, and lots of this scene from roxy:

patiently awaiting for us to drop any little morsel on that floor. and lots of us tripping over her in our tiny kitchen. this weekend i'll be baking the first of hopefully many delicious desserts for thanksgiving and christmas! hope you enjoy your weekend.

xo