Christmas Archives - Page 4 of 5

I Believe in Secret Santa!

December 13, 2012 by Susan 6 Comments

Hey ho ladies and gents! I am home!

I had full intentions of blogging from Switzerland. I brought my new camera and my laptop, as well as all the plugs and cords and convertors a girl needs… then I got there and realized I needed to enjoy absolutely every possible minute with my family that I could. So I decided that blogging would wait until I got back to America.

It was a great trip… and to be completely honest I really wish I was not home yet. I am still suffering for a horrible case of jet lag (despite the fact that the Swiss are just a mere 6 hours ahead of us, I have basically become nocturnal…) and I miss my family terribly.

I have tons of pictures, fond memories and cheesy stories (legit swiss cheese… and bread…) to share with you. But guys, you will just have to wait another day for that.

Why?!

Because I just got my Blogging Secret Santa gift and it left me in tears.

For those of you who did not take part in this awesome exchange, here’s how it went down. I randomly found out about a blogging secret santa on a blog. I signed up. I forgot about it. I got a reminder email. I stalked a blog. I bought her a warm present (it was a scarf) and her daughter a Minnie Mouse calendar (not knowing they were heading to Disney for vacation!). Then I sent the package her way. All the while, my amazing, too-good-to-be-true Secret Santa was doing the same for me!

And let me tell you - my Secret Santa has NAILED it. She must of scoured my blog for hours upon hours. Or maybe she just winged it. Either way the girl left me literally crying in my living room.

Let me preface this by saying that coming back from Switzerland, each and every time, is one of the most difficult things I ever have to do. I leave my best friend and some of my favorite family members. I cry when the plane takes off from Zurich, and when I land in Virginia. It has been a rollar coaster even more so this time for reasons that I cannot currently discuss… but I promise, maybe next week, I will share them with you.

Anyway - I am always sort of hesistant to do Secret Santa Exchanges because I always feel like I receive the short end of the stick when it comes to the gifts. {One time in 3rd Grade my Secret Santa gave me a Dollar Store Barbie Doll with no hair and ugly clothes. Secret Santa was never the same.} But to open up a present that was so incredibly perfect for me, at such a perfect time… I believe again!

Secret Santa, whomever you are… thank you. Thank you so much.

From left to right… Toys for the Cats, Toy for the dogs, a coffee mug with hot chocolates, chai tea, nail polish of various colors, holiday wine glasses, wine trinkets, and a sweet card. (I’m pretty sure my Secret Santa went over the $15-$20 limit…)

So let’s break this present down a bit, shall we?

Not only did she think about Chloe and the 2 Cats but she included SPARKLY tissue paper. I LOVE anything that has to do with glitter or sparkles. High five there Santa.

Nail polish. I just recently decided I needed to save the salon money and start painting my nails myself. I was literally JUST THINKING before I opened this package that I wanted to paint my nails red and green for the holiday, but I didn’t have any green paint. Sweet! Let’s make these colors even more awesome… Not only do I adore sparkles but I bleed purple as a graduate of James Madison University. Purple and gold will always have a special place in my heart. This Santa TOTALLY rocked my socks off with JMU nail polish colors.

You really must think I am making this up, but I promise I wouldn’t lie about something so marvelous. I LOVE hot chocolate with mint. And when I am sipping on a caffeinated tea you can bet your bottom dollar that it is a chai tea.

The card. She bought this at a farmers market. Yes, that scores points. But I am sitting here feeling bad about not being in Switzerland anymore and I get this card that looks like Europe and it has snow and mountains in it. As I was driving around Virginia today I reflected on how much I missed getting snow every day while I was on vacation.

Last but not least… if you have read my blog at least once, you know I love wine. How stinkin’ cute are these holiday wine glasses and wine charms?! I will definitely be using them next week at my party!

Okay Secret Santa… Whichever awesome blogger that you are… thank you so very much for this awesome present. You did a spectatulr job and absolutely, positively got me into a happy mood. You went above and beyond the call of Blogging Secret Santa Duties.

Now send me an email and tell me who you are so I can creepy stalk your blog and we can become best friends.

(Oh, and about Switzerland… I am thinking I will spend all of next week photo bombing y’all… but how about a sneak peek or two?

xoxo

Ornament Swappin’

December 2, 2012 by Susan 6 Comments

Hello Ladies! I hope this blog post finds you all in the midst of a lovely weekend. Why I am starting this post as if it is a business email is well beyond me. How’s this instead…

What up par-tay peps?!

I have to keep this one short and sweet as I have a 7am flight (which means I have to be at the airport no later than 6, leave my house no later than 5:30, wake up no later than 5… ) to head to Switzerland!

Today we are linking up because a TON of us awesome bloggers participated in an Ornament Swap to kick off the holiday season!

I received an awesome box of goodies from my girl Stephanie over at Icecream to Belly Rings.

Not only did she send me ornaments that were specific to my blog! (2 Cats and Chloe!!!)

She also sent me a bunch of other holiday goodies!

Thank you thank you thank you for all of your thoughtfulness! I loved my ornaments and all the goodies!

Head over and check out Stephanie’s blog… but you can also head over to Sybil’s blog Piece It All Together and see what I sent her in California!

In the mean time chickies… I need to get my butt in gear, pack my suitcase (which is totally full of christmas presents… I’m not sure how Santa does it! Here’s hoping I don’t get stopped in customs!)

I will catch you on the flip side (of the ocean!) Switzerland here I come!

December Recap!

January 5, 2012 by Susan Leave a Comment

Blogging… turns out to be more like a job sometimes. I love it though. Even though I spent 2011 with a follower count of a whopping 9, this is still my space to be me, share my projects, and all the goings-on in my life! I have made it one of my goals to actually attempt at growing my blog this year. Any advice on this? Since I got pretty slack (not to mention sick for a couple weeks) towards the end of the year I decided I can’t let the new year go any further without doing a holiday recap! (Plus I know my aunt in Switzerland does love the photo updates!)

My holiday festivities began with the 3rd Annual JMU Christmas dinner in Williamsburg! It is always great for all of us to get together and chat over a delicious meal. This year we decided to go to a place called Food for Thought. The food was great, but the wait time was HORRIBLE, even with a ‘fast pass’ reservation. Normally I take a few pictures of all of us, and have the waiter take one or two of the group, but this year that didn’t seem to happen. So how about a couple shots of an adorable one year old eating a lemon instead?! Sounds like a fair trade to me! (This was actually Claire’s second year joining us!)

We had our usual progressive dinner the week before Christmas too. I just love going from house to house, seeing everyone’s decorations, eating their food, and spending quality time with some of the people I love the most! This year the route was mapped out a little better than past years. We started with Appetizers at Jean & Lou’s house, Salad at my parents house, Dinner at Bob & Teresa’s house, Dessert at Nana’s house, and then Drinks & Gifts at my house!

The week before Christmas I was invited to attend the Governor’s One on One Christmas Program in Hertford, NC. It is always great to see how much the program grows every year, not to mention how many great kids are involved in it! This year was a special year though. They did a little tribute to my grandfather (who started the organization) and to my grandmother, Narnie, for always being supportive. It was really touching to see all the hard work the kids put into the presentation for a lady they didn’t even know.

Christmas was nice this year! My roommate invited me to church with them the week before the holiday. I really needed that. It helped me get into the spirit of the season even more. A couple days before the holiday I packed up my jeep and my walkie talkies then headed up to Northern Virginia. Walkie Talkies you ask? Michael and I caravanned up there. They worked out GREAT as we spent most of the day stuck in traffic on 64 and 95. It was a nice couple days up there though. I finally got to meet his sister and her family, and spend some time with some of Michael’s friends too.

I drove home on Christmas Eve. Somehow it only took me 2 hours and 55 minutes to get from Alexandria to Chesapeake! Apparently I was going at the speed of reindeer! Christmas was quite in my parents house this year, but it was nice. We had a nice (PALEO!!) Christmas Eve dinner, watched a couple movies and headed to bed at a decent time. The next morning we did the normal gift opening thing. I got several nice things this year! Pearls from Michael, and a smorgasbord of things from my family (see the pink hat with the light below?!). After unwrapping it was time for Christmas Breakfast! Half of it was paleo friendly… the french toast casserole… not so much.

Oh! And a few Christmasy photos from around my house this year…

My favorite -EASY- project of the season!

Caitlin & Chloe in their Christmas Jammies!

My mantel all dressed up for the holiday!

My neighbor’s Charlie Brown Christmas Tree that I LOVED!

The real tree that Caitlin and I picked out, carried home, decorated, and loved all season!

So there ya have it friends and family! I may be a couple weeks late, but you got your Christmas recap! Stay tuned tomorrow for the New Years recap! It includes winning a lot of dollar bills, fishing in ski clothes and cooking a paleo meal for my entire family!

Cold Turkey Christmas Ramblings

December 28, 2011 by Susan Leave a Comment

Every single Christmas I get sick. I don’t even have to be unhealthy, and I will get sick. As I have gotten older it seems that my Christmas Curse has not necessarily shown up on Christmas Day, but it definitely appears before the new year. To recap, I have experienced hives as a little child, flu and strep throat as a middle and high school student, migraines and colds throughout college breaks, and so on… I remember arriving in Switzerland the day after Christmas one year in college and quickly catching some variation of swiss strep throat. My aunt’s way of solving this was to send me outside, bundled up, to go sledding in the deep snow. (And don’t forget about the “bear shit” they eat over there!)

This year I was fine. FINE I tell you. By 2 o’clock on Christmas Day I commented to my parents that I felt dizzy and not quite right. Ever since, I have been sick. Sick with a cold, fever, stuffy head kind of thing. I sound like a man and it’s obnoxious. I have been pumping my body with vitamins and medicines like they are candy! But spending time at home has done me some good. Paper work has been accomplished, reading and new year planning has begun, and I am all caught up on my DVRed shows! (I am so glad I watched the last two top chefs rather than just deleting them!)

I am sorry I haven’t posted a blog recapping Christmas yet. To be honest, I haven’t even uploaded the photos from my camera yet. I will make an attempt to have that done by tomorrow. All in all it was a good Christmas. Despite the fact that the Christmas post hasn’t been posted, I have been pondering it all in my mind. It FLEW by. There is so much build up and things to do before the big day arrives… and then… it’s over. I am sitting on my couch right now, wrapped in a blanket, in the glow of my Christmas tree with no presents underneath it. It looks so bare and sad. Pretty sure I am not good at the cold turkey thing. When it’s over, it’s over. Let’s talk about Christmas music! It’s been on the radio since before Halloween, and then, the day after Christmas it’s gone! GONE! Does anyone else feel like we should at least play the Christmas music until the end of the year? I would sacrifice half of October and November if we could have an extra 6 days following the holiday.

Okay… I am pretty sure it’s time to take some more medicine and pop a frozen pizza in the oven. (I only have a few more days before I am back on the paleo bandwagon for the long haul so I better enjoy this pizza while I can!) Thanks for reading my rambles! I will leave you with a couple photos and one last round of my favorite Christmas song! Have a terrific night!


Nana brought me homemade soup, leftover stir fry, orange juice, and cookies!


She is only slightly worried about my health - she really just wants food!

“Do they know it’s Christmas?”

Sparkly Wreath - the replacement.

December 21, 2011 by Susan Leave a Comment

Last year you saw the awesome purple and gold wreath I made for Christmas to replace one that was several years old. Some how… and I am not sure how… that awesome wreath has gone missing this year. I have looked just about everywhere for it, in my house AND my parent’s house. It’s gone!

Which only means one thing… Time to make a new one!

This year I decided not to make another purple and gold replacement, just incase the old, missing one shows back up. I went to Garden Ridge once with Michael in hopes of gathering some sort of inspiration. I collected a handful of ornaments and ended up putting them back because I just wasn’t getting the right vibe. I went back with my mom, and put more of a thinking cap on. I pondered colors schemes, or themes, or just things that I liked - when it hit me, I LOVE things that sparkle! (But seriously, what girl doesn’t?!) I decided to go all out with this wreath and use only ornaments and decorations that had glitter and sparkles on them!

Here’s the photo montage courtesy of my iphone:

The plain wreath with decorations everywhere on the table.

The first thing you have to do is decide ornament placement.

I hot glue the ornaments on the wreath before adding the ribbons.

Wrap some hot pink ribbon around the glittery, sparkly wreath and you are in business!! I also added some jingle bells that I got 70% off at Michaels with some gold yarn-like material.