I know that December arrived last week, but let's face it -- this week feels like the real start to the holiday season. We spent the weekend decking our halls, finishing up our Christmas shopping <praise hands!>, and wrapping all the gifts to stack under our tree. We are guaranteed to be wearing family Christmas pajamas with hot chocolate in hand for the next twenty days! I'm so excited for this week on the blog -- I have such fun posts to share with you guys. Come back tomorrow for a full recap on everything we've done in November (along with our monthly infographic!), on Wednesday I'll be sharing my final gift guide of the season (hello, hipster husbands +a Wardrobe Wednesday link up), Thursday will be a bonus style post full of holiday ideas and on Friday we're sharing ...
Christmas
Holiday Gift Guide | Stocking Stuffers
Warning: Affiliate links appear in the following post. Although shopping our holiday gift guides won’t cost you any additional dollars, it might earn us a small commission on any purchases made using these links. We appreciate your support of our favorite brands. Happy Holidays! xo Much like Easter baskets, stockings are one of my favorite things to shop for all year! My mom always put so much thought into our stockings and still packs a pretty mean sock on Christmas morning. I know that different families treat holidays differently and I have plenty of friends that go the candy only route. For me, it's an opportunity to add a few things the girls already need (like toothbrushes and hair ties), alongside other items that we might typically avoid (play doh, anyone?). I tend to shop for ...
Lights Up at The Summit | 2016
I know it isn't even Thanksgiving yet and I should probably keep my holiday shenanigans to myself (at least for another week), but I couldn't help myself! Not to mention the family posts have been few and far between for the last several weeks (thank you moving and unpacking), so I thought it was time to pop in with something a little more family-centric. For the second year in a row, Ella's dance team was invited to perform in a parade at our local outdoor shopping center to usher in the holiday season. They have a huge lighting ceremony right before Thanksgiving, along with a parade, faux snow, and fireworks. She has had plenty of extra practices the last several weeks and was finally ready to show off all of her hard work this past weekend. It made for a crazy Friday afternoon, since ...
Holiday Gift Guide | Readers
Warning: Affiliate links appear in the following post. Although shopping our holiday gift guides won’t cost you any additional dollars, it might earn us a small commission on any purchases made using these links. We appreciate your support of our favorite brands. Happy Holidays! xo I know what you're thinking: why does every blogger have to share a copious number of gift guides leading up to the big day?! There are so many gift guides out there, but it seems that every guide I come across is for a demographic I don't understand, at a store I'm not familiar with, and for a price point I'm never going to be comfortable with. Can I get an amen? I thought I would put together a few guides over the next few weeks for categories of gifts that I love and at price points that normal people can ...
A Little More Christmas
We are so fortunate for extended families who live close by AND we celebrate with them the day before and after Christmas, so we aren't fighting to get everywhere in a single day. We love doing Christmas breakfast three days in a row and seeing all of our favorite people. On Christmas Eve, it's off to Nana's we go. We had Chic-fil-A chicken minis, cinnamon rolls, sausage balls and mimosas. Ummm, it was delicious and the mamas may have laughed way too much. These girlies love each other so much and posed for pictures all morning long. This was Sophie's, "hey, why don't you take a picture of me?!" face. These mermaid tails were pretty much my pride and joy. I found the pattern over at Modern Vintage Designs and my mom was so sweet to spend four hours helping me whip them up. Since ...
A Letter to Christmas
Dear Christmas, You are so, so sweet. Every year you come racing in and leave us in a cloud of excitement and twinkle lights and expectation. Every year we anticipate your arrival like little kids and are left sad and lonely when you make your way out. So many times this year I engaged strangers in conversation about Christmas and I left every conversation feeling like they weren't ready for you yet. There was a sense of dread about the impending holiday season and I can't even imagine what that must be like. We waited for you with bated breath. I will miss this view: our cozy (read: tiny) living room filled to the brim with fresh evergreen and glowing lights, every inch of floor and furniture piled high with Christmas gifts, family movies on heavy rotation and endless plates piled high ...
Merry Christmas
His name shall be called Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Isaiah 9:6 ...
Pesky Little Elf
On November 30, my girls went to sleep with no complaints and a smile on their face. They suspected that our elf, Scout, would show up the next morning and they were so excited. When I went into their room that morning, they immediately asked me if I had seen him. I hadn't even looked for him yet, so we talked about where he might be. I thought I heard something, but the girls didn't and so we went about getting ready for school. A few minutes later, Josh yelled out that the doorbell was ringing. Ella gasped and launched herself out of bed. It didn't take her long to realize there was no one at the door, but she did find this brown paper package (this was a huge win for Scout, but it did prompt all sorts of questions about the hour of delivery, timely doorbell ring and the lack of a postal ...