Friday, November 30, 2012

decking the halls

The Christmas season is in full swing in the Ridley household.  We officially kicked it off on Thanksgiving.  After all of our stops we went home, opened a few bottles of wine & whiskey, invited a few friends over, & watched Christmas Vacation, a tradition that Joe & I started a few years ago.  We had a ball all weekend decking the halls for our favorite holiday.




We started a new tradition this year & got a real tree.  Joe's family has always had a real tree, I grew up with a fake.  For some reason this year I gave in & decided it was time to try a real one.  I was hesitant, I wanted to wait until we built our house & moved to the country, it felt more appropriate to have a real tree there, but I am so glad that I changed my mind.  So Sunday we ventured out to Holockers Tree Farm, cut our tree, then came home drank mimosas, decorated our tree, & watched Christmas Vacation, again.  I absolutely love our tree.  We ended up with a Fraser fur, easier branches for hanging, smaller needles that make less of a mess.  It turned out so beautiful & amazing & fit perfectly in our new living room. 


Joe dragging our perfectly shaped Fraser Fer

drinking mimosas on our Christmas themed champagne glasses

my cute felt garland found on Etsy here


the finished product!  i love it!

I also completed a few fun Pinterest projects this weekend.  Usually a Pinterest project consists of me going out, buying the stuff I need, then never doing the actual project.  This weekend & ended up getting 2 done.  Thankfully my friend & I went to Hobby Lobby & got trapped there for half an hour because all of the Christmas decor was 50% off & there was tons of cute stuff!  I am so proud of myself for my accomplishments.  The first I tweaked, I found this project & decided to put the jingle bells in my hurricane candle holders rather than on a tray.  The second project, I also tweaked.  I found that using the glass in the frame helped it hang flush against the wall.  They both turned out great. 

cookies were also a Pinterest recipe


I can't believe how fast this year flew by & how quickly Christmas is coming.  Only 20 more days until we leave for Minot!

Saturday, November 17, 2012

the best way to spread Christmas cheer is singing loud for all to hear

Totally getting into the Christmas spirit lately, my husband does not allow any decor, music, movies, or talk of Christmas until after Thanksgiving, but I am already full of holiday spirit!  




Music:
The Elf soundtrack of course so many classics & fun songs, I especially love Baby It's Cold Outside, Pennies from Heaven, & Santa Baby!  A Charlie Brown Christmas is one of my other favorites, it's a jazz album & it's completely relaxing.  Last but not least for now, Bob Dylan's Christmas in the Heart.  Let's face it, Bob Dylan is a classic, he may sound like he's had one too many eggnogs, but it's still a great album.




Movies:
I haven't started watching any Christmas movies yet, those I will wait to start until after Thanksgiving.  Top favorites, Elf, Christmas Vacation, White Christmas, Just Friends, The Grinch, The Muppet's Christmas Carol, to name a few.  

Decor:
Couple things I'm excited about, a real tree is in the works for this year.  Joe grew up having a real tree his entire life, his parents still put up a real tree, I've never had the pleasure of having one, so this year were going to give it a try.  I'm afraid Frankie might try to pee on it...  we will see.  My new Scentsy Owl Warmer with several new scents, all winter themed, Eskimo Kiss, Snowberry, Silver Bells, & Festival of Trees.  My Yankee "Christmas Eve" candle, another necessity.   



Some other random holiday stuff I'm pumped about, I picked up some Sam Adams White Christmas today at the grocery store I can't wait to try it.  My best friends Ugly Sweater party is December 8th.  It's such a great party, I went to her house yesterday and she was decorating already, she has more Christmas decorations than anyone I know.  Her party is always a blast. 


Joe and I are going to be breaking tradition this year & it will be a first for both of us.  We are actually going to be traveling to Minot, North Dakota from December 20th thru the 26th to spend Christmas with my bestest friend & sister-in-law & Joe's brother, Jon & their kids.  We are extremely excited.  We're planning on doing some last minute Christmas shopping, lots of drinking, eating, movie watching, playing, & laughing.  It will be a great time.  I've never had a Christmas where I could just stay in my PJ's all day & do nothing.  My parents were divorced when I was two so I've always had lots of places to go between Christmas Eve & Christmas Day.  Pretty pumped about that.  

And last, but not least, my very favorite thing during the holiday's is gift giving.  I've already gotten the majority of my shopping done & I'm pretty excited about the gifts were giving this year.  Of course I can't reveal anything on here until after Christmas, but I have to toot my own horn about for my awesome gift giving abilities.  




 
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