Scenes from Christmas

Here are some of my favorite parts of yesterday.

Twinkling lights in the tree at 6:30am.

The hot chocolate bar I did for Christmas dinner. Complete with a donut hole "snowball" tree, tons of candy and flavor mix-ins, and my pretty new ramekins from Seth's mom.

This little guy. Spending quality time with our only nephew and his deep melting eyes.

More later. For now, I have lots of sleeping in, candy eating, puzzle making, Seattle wandering, rain listening, book reading, and general pajama lazing to do in the next few days. So until I make it back here, I hope you all have a lovely holiday.

*amber*

Family Christmas Party

We had my family down for a little Christmas party before we left Utah for the holidays. 

For the table centerpiece, I used a pine wreath and layered in lots of green fruits and mixed nuts. To me, nothing says Christmas like the lushness and scents of fruits and nuts. Pomellos, green apples, pears, limes, and artichokes. 

We did fondue for dessert because it's easy to prepare, delicious, and more conducive to lingering around the table and fun family time.

Plus, it meant no bake time! 

I was feeling a bit under the weather last week, so I didn't really make much food, but the store-bought previously made stuff worked out wonderfully. I usually love to make everything myself, but it was nice to not have to spend hours in the kitchen! This was a yummy cranberry cream cheese ball from the store.

And a white vegetable lazagna from the frozen section. It only took a couple of hours to bake, rather than hours and hours of prep to make my white chicken lazagna.

My mom brought this salad which is one of my absolute favorites. And we finished it all off with pomegranite sparkling cider. Mmm...

I wrapped the presents for my family with simple brown paper. I'm with Julie Andrews when it comes to brown paper packages tied up with string. 

I decorated each one, for my mom, sister, and brother, to reflect their unique personalities.

And finally, my mom totally spoiled us with piles and piles of gifts! I was shocked. We got some great things and are so thankful for all the thoughtfulness!

Now we're in Seattle with Seth's family for a week. I love being able to spend Christmas with both of our families and the fun traditions we each bring. It makes Christmastime that more special.

*amber*

Pretty Paper Ornaments

As mentioned before, these ornaments were so stinkin' easy. I realize I probably should have posted this earlier as Christmas is only two days away, but it's such a quick project, there is still time!

Here's how I did it.

First, I had all of these wallpaper samples from Anthropologie. They had awesome patterns and I wanted to make something out of them. Then I realized they would look amazing on our tree. So I carefully removed them from the backing paper. 

Each sample was four inches wide, so I cut them into one inch strips.

Then all I had to do was figure out the different configurations. I used three patters for each ornament. The outer ornaments stayed at their original six inches in length. Then I took of 3/4 of an in for each inner layer. So the inner-most is 1.5 inches shorted than the outer ones. I actually used a patterned card stock for the inner layer to give it more structure.

Finally, I met up all the ends, stapled them, hole punched, and added some little crystals I had for some bling.

And voila! It's as easy as that! Then hang them on your tree and enjoy.

*amber*

We Decked the Halls

Can you believe it's the eve of Christmas Eve! It has come so quickly, but I can't wait for the festivities to begin! We finally found some time to bring some Christmas cheer to our home before we left for Seattle. I loved the results. They made our house feel so cozy.

 Our beautiful tree.

Our ceilings are too low for a real topper. So I mad this one out of paper. 

I made these fun paper ornaments and love them so much. Might do a how-to later. They were so easy.

Our nativities on the piano.

Sweet little wood nativity, a basket of pine cones, and that's our real tree topper!

 The Willow Tree nativity and a rusted tin tree.

  

My deer and jinglebell candle holder from Z Gallerie.

Even our tv got dressed up for the occasion!

I covered our ottoman with this sweater fabric to make it more cozy. 

Our stockings were hung by the front door with care. 

Our "mantle". With a Moroccan lantern, starfish, and little boots.

I didn't get around to making our new stockings, so the dollar store ones made a reappearance. 

The trees in our bedroom needed some festive cheer.

 And finally, Christmas cards from those we love.

Merry Christmas! I hope wherever you are, your days are merry and bright and full of people you love.

*amber*

Christmas Morning

Wow, I made it through finals and, as usual, my body decided to shut down immediately after. Shut down as in needing at least 14 hours of sleep a day and still being tired. Still kind of feeling it,  but we are leaving to Washington in 3 days, so we're trying to get as many Christmas activities in here before we leave. Can you believe we're in the one week countdown to Christmas?!

Yesterday we had our Christmas morning. Seth and I surprised each other with some great gifts. I haven't had a traditional Christmas morning at home for a few years, so it was awesome to have that special time together.

Weirdly, this was one morning where Seth was super awake and peppy, and I was soo groggy. It's usually opposite. I guess he just likes getting presents :)

My man is a MAJOR reader. He reads more than anyone I know. So he got lots of new books. And almost all of them were thrifted but in perfect condition. We're excited to read this Catherine Hepburn autobiography.

He got me new fuzzy socks! Because my feet are always freezing.

The complete series of Jeeves and Wooster. It's a hilarious British series staring Hugh Laurie (aka Dr. House) and Stephen Fry. They are hilarious together. If you have Netflix, look up A Bit of Fry and Laurie. It's amazing.

A cozy new sweater from H&M.

Finally found a chambray shirt I liked! Comparable to the J. Crew one I liked for $70. We were about to buy it when I discovered this very similar one at Old Navy for $25. Score!

Music Polaroid tshirt.

He was so excited!

The Rolling Stone Illustrated History of Rock & Roll.

Mmm... Vanilla Body Butter Duo from The Body Shop.

An interesting book about Google. For my techie.

Tech gloves! Their length made me feel fancy and old fashioned.

But the patches on the index finger and thumbs let me use my iPhone without taking off my gloves! My cold hands are very grateful.

Searching for the next gift to select.

Good choice! He was so excited, he started reading immediately.

See that smile?? That's when you know Seth is REALLY happy. This is the newest book by his favorite author.

My new floral/wire/almost anything sheers! And lots of gum.

New Christmas ties! Gold paisley and forest green silk. 

Some new running tights for exercising in the cold. Ok motivation, feel free to kick in any day now...

American Nerd. For my nerd. This book is awesome. It explores the phenomenon of the "nerd" stereotypes. So awesome. What can I say, I like nerds! (That is him pushing up his glasses even though he's not wearing them... haha!)

New photo editing software! He got a great (as in a complete steal) deal, and this should be great until I can afford the Adobe suite.

Opening the biggest one.

A little shelf! This is for above the sink so we can prop up my iPhone and he can watch tv shows or movies while washing dishes. He let slip that this baby would motivate him to do dishes more often. Done and done.

Checking out the stockings. Which I forgot to stuff until a few minutes before we started. So there wasn't much...

We each got some oranges.

He got a new scarf.

Doesn't he look like Despicable Me???

And I got a sample of the new Burberry perfume. I'm sure I'll get better at stocking stuffing someday.

Then we practiced juggling with the oranges.

And Seth surprised me with these! Red and green pancakes for Christmas. How cute is he?! Usually I'm the one thinking up things like this. He denies he can pull off fun ideas but this proves it. Thank you for getting up early to cook me breakfast babe. The next party we have is all you.

*amber*