One of the hardest things about living in a city where none of your immediate family lives is celebrating holidays alone. Luckily for us, although our family is scattered all over, I have a surrogate family from one of my best friends from college who lives in the same town as we do. We celebrated Easter this year with them which was awesome, since we have both known each other pre-husbands, pre-kids and pre-adulthood.
Our kids have basically grown up in each other's lives and it is great watching them have a friendship now.
Here is what she wore for Easter (pre-Easter egg hunt)...
Old Navy lavender shrug
GapKids ruffle dress and sparkle pom pom shoes
Sorry for waiting so long to post these! So thankful to be able spend my favorite holiday celebrating the resurrection of Jesus with people we love.
I am determined to get some blogging done before the baby arrives, so here goes with some way overdue posts!
For the second year in a row, I attended a cookie swap a few weeks before Christmas, but this time I had the privilege of hosting it in our home. If you have never been to one of these, get a group of friends together to do it! It is super easy to host and there is minimal clean up afterwards (my kind of party!). Valentine's Day is a perfect excuse to do something like this...
As guests came in, they saw their bags for taking cookies home at the end of the evening as well as a welcoming message on my DIY chalkboard (thank you, Pinterest).
My dining room became cookie central for the night. For the month of December, we did a fresh cedar garland nestled with votives (carefully, because of the fire hazard) and fresh clementines. I used fake greenery to decorate the white buffet and the doorway and banister.
We decided to vote on a favorite cookie this year, so as people came in, they wrote their cookie name on a numbered card. The beginnings of the cookie arrival...
This was our Christmas tree, which we just took down last week. I figured we should bring a February baby home with a tree still up.
On a table in our foyer, I displayed the various Christmas cards we have had over the years.
Outdoor lighting leading up to the house are below. I always get a little sad when the Christmas lights start coming down, since it always makes your house look less welcoming during the cold winter days.
Still loving the lanterns!
Have you ever attended or hosted a cookie swap? Do you think it could work for a bridal shower or even Valentine's day?
Here is what the Kid and I wore for Easter Sunday. I like the idea of doing coordinating outfits without being completely matchy-matchy. This year we did grey and yellow for our colors of the day.
We had a pretty craptastic first half of 2010. If you have been following the blog for a while, you know the details. If not, here is a quick rundown (with the crappiness starting in late 2009):
Late 2009: A death in the family and a relative miscarried for the second time.
January 2010: My mother-in-law suddenly passed away and we had to travel to Nigeria unexpectedly for the funeral.
February 2010: A good friend from med school was killed in a car accident. A good friend from college's husband was diagnosed with esophageal cancer. Snowmaggedon 2010.
April 2010: All of the money we had saved the previous year started hemorrhaging out of our account because of a tree falling on our old house in Pittsburgh.
May 2010: The Nashville Flood. My husband gets into a car accident. He was okay, the car was not.
June 2010: We bought a used car that was a complete lemon and hemorrhaged even more cash that we didn't have for months on end.
There was more, including divorces, separations, health issues, layoffs, work stress, etc.
But then I looked at what I had at the end of the year:
A God who loves and provides and is always good, even when I don't understand His version of goodness.
Our health.
A roof over our heads.
Food in the fridge.
A bright little girl who is probably going to bankrupt me by going to Harvard.
Jobs that we love that continue to pay for housing in two different cities.
Family that love us.
An ever-expanding circle of friends who have become our surrogate family in Nashville.
Despite the incredible amount of heartache last year, it was also a year of abundance and joy and provision.
How did 2010 treat you? Are you bidding it a fond farewell or telling it "don't let door hit ya where the good Lord split ya"?
Since I posted about the kid portion of Christmas a few days ago, here is what the grown ups did for Christmas this year.
First of all, you know you have been together too long with your husband when you start buying each other the same gift for Christmas. MrDrama and I accidentally got each other Kindle book readers. It's not an iPad, but considering how addicted I have been to reading it, I'm not complaining! I was surprised at how thin the Kindle is. And it's super easy to download to the device.
And I got an aquamarine necklace which is just about the same color as the waters on the beach where I will be reading my Kindle (I know it was a stretch, just play along) during...
A trip to Jamaica in the spring with my husband!
I've never been, but I am looking forward to spending some time being pampered by the staff at the Ritz Carlton. Readers, if I were a rapper right now, I would be popping bottles of Cristal and spraying the champagne everywhere. With at least a couple of backup dancers and my name in neon lights.
As I mentioned before, we had a nice low-key Christmas. Here is how the first part of our day went down.
I will miss you, Christmas tree.
And we had the first white Christmas Nashville has had in 17 years.
So we needed a little bit of this to warm up...
When the Kid finally woke up and looked outside, she was bewildered at the sight of snow on Christmas, exclaiming, "Christmas came!".
One of the favorite gifts was a kid-friendly digital camera from the grandparents...
And a Sorry! game, which she proceeded to trounce all of us with.
And a great furry hat from Lands' End.
We also enjoyed Skype-ing with family and hanging out in our pajamas until 5 pm. Except for the Kid who had several changes into three different princess outfits during the course of the day.
A friend of mine (the same one who designed my daughter's birthday cards) wrote this on her blog a week ago and I couldn't think of a better way to write a blog for Christmas. So I got her permission to copy her blog entry.
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One of the interesting things about living in Nashville is that everyone is a musician, aspiring musician, or (like me) horribly untalented but loves music. I have a songwriter friend who wrote, a few years ago, a beautiful song that I always love singing this time of year. Unfortunately I don't have a link to her recording it, but it's on the Internet by other artists out there. The lyrics are incredible.
See the Virgin is delivered
In a cold and crowded stall;
Mirror of the Father's glory
Lies beside her in the straw.
He is Mercy's incarnation
Marvel at this miracle!
For the Virgin gently holds the
Glorious Impossible.
Love has come to walk on water,
Turn the water into wine,
Touch the leper, bless the children
Love both human and divine.
Praise the wisdom of the Father
Who has spoken through His Son.
Speaking still He calls us to the
Glorious Impossible.
I always wonder how realistic gift shopping is for adults. I mean, for my daughter is easy to shop for. If it is sparkly and purple and has something to do with princesses or art, it's a winner! She sort of believes in Santa Claus, but like I was at her age, is a little skeptical about the whole idea and told me point blank that only God is everywhere (mission accomplished!).
For adults, I really think unless someone really knows you and lives with you all the time, it can be really hard to buy something for other adults. Which is why I pretty much write out a list of suggested items each year and let MrDrama select what he wants to get. Please don't tell me I am the only woman who does this for her significant other...
Here is what is on my list. Obviously for financial reasons, I will probably only get one of these, but a girl can dream...
iPad. Yes, I have bought into the hype. I will probably regret not waiting for the new version, but whatevs.
LV speedy Epi leather purse. I am not a huge fan of the obvious logo brands and would rather go for a more subtle version by Louis Vuitton. I know this would be a completely gratuitous purchase that would feed plenty of mouths in a developing country somewhere, but I rarely apologize for a little vanity. Let me say that I do my part (away from my fashion addiction and saving for a house).
Aquamarine jewelry. Before we start planning for another kid, I would love to get something with my daughter's birthstone. I am thinking a cocktail ring or studs.
Immersion blender. Once a food geek, always a food geek.
Silhouette Cutter (I will confess that I already bought this for myself!). I look forward to experimenting on this. I got this through a discount on Centsational Girl's blog and I have a bunch of ideas brewing...
A trip to somewhere warm. It has only been cold in Nashville for a few weeks and I am already over it. Call me a wuss, call me a sucker for the diagnosis of Seasonal Affective Disorder, whatever. Just realize that I need sun. Stat.
I will say that this has been one of the most stressful pre-Christmas seasons that I have had in a long while. A few years ago we did a no-presents Christmas, which was pretty awesome. Last year, we had a low key first Christmas in Nashville with just a few events.
This December, however, has been a culmination of multiple stressors:
We've been incredibly busy. We are lucky to have such a great group of friends and so many things to do, but man, all of the holiday parties and running around takes its toll!
We are STILL trying to figure out what we are going to do with our yet unsold house back in Pittsburgh (the recession bites, big time). Rent it out or lower the list price and just take a loss? Ugh.
We want to buy a place down here, but I get hives at the thought of having two mortgages. We could do it financially, but not very comfortably.
Baby fever. I've got it bad. We're considering trying for Kid #2 and trying to time it to jive well with schedules. Because kids and trying to get pregnant are always so convenient.
Financial stresses of all of the above. Gotta love the six-figure med-school loans.
The regular busy-ness of wintertime illnesses at work keeps me hopping and tired at the end of each work day.
Feeling the end of the year run-down. I always get insomnia and general crankiness with lack of sunshine and cold weather.
Missing my regular workouts with Zumba and running is not doing my waistline any favors.
But... there is a light at the end of the tunnel (relatively). I have an extended and much-needed break coming up and NO PLANS for Christmas. Sweetness. Come on, Thursday at 4:30 pm!
Before I let the holidays pass me by, I figured I have to post about our tree and my recently discovered way to simplify gifts wrapping and to make Christmas morning go a little more smoothly.
First the tree...
This year we I decided to go for a silver, gold and red theme for our main tree. I still have grand plans to turn our Christmas cards from years past into mini framed ornaments for the tree this year. We'll see.
This is our gold and brown tree from last year, if you want a comparison.
As for gift wrapping, I spent an inordinate amount of time (much to the Kid's chagrin and whining) trying to pick out wrapping paper. However, I had an revelation in the middle of Target about wrapping paper and I figure that you might want to hear about the "Great Wrapping Paper Miracle/Epiphany on Aisle 23", as I am calling it. Here are the realizations that I had.
Pick the least "holiday-ish" wrapping paper that you can find, which for me was this damask, patterned paper which I got in both black and red for $2 each. That way, when the holidays are over, you can still use it to wrap birthday and shower presents.
Instead of gift tags for family, assign a bow color to a particular family member. For us, red is the Kid, gold is MrDrama, silver will be me (there is a conspicuous predominance of red and lack of silver and gold so far under our tree).
Don't bother with premium wrapping paper, unless you really want to spend twice as much on something that will end up shredded on the living room floor. It's the same reason I rarely spring for fancy envelopes.
The silence of your child can be bought with promises of marshmallows.
So the last of my Little Black Dress series is not really a dress but a trousers option for those who aren't into wearing dresses. I realize that some of the dress options may not work for every body type, but I do believe today's outfit can be flattering on anybody.
Or if you live in an area where it gets really cold and dresses aren't always feasible.
