Christmas Stockings

When my brothers and I were born, my grandma made us each a quilted Christmas stocking. Maybe it's because I grew up only ever seeing these homemade ones, but these are really the only ones I like. Whenever I go to other people's houses, or look at stockings at the store, none of them seem right to me. Last year when we put up the Christmas tree, we bought some cheap stockings from Target just to have something to hang, but I really didn't care for them. So, this year I decided to make us some! I found a pattern (via pinterest, LOVE that site!), picked out some fabric, and got to work yesterday morning.

The first few steps were easy. Cut the outer pieces, lining, and batting, using the pattern, make a quilt sandwich, quilt the pieces together however you want (I did straight diagonal lines on mine, and followed the pattern of the squares on Tony's), put the pieces right sides together, sew a 1/4 seam around the edge, and flip right side out. Around this point I was feeling so proud of myself because this project was turning out to be pretty simple. Then I got to the band at the top and got incredibly frustrated because the directions were not very clear and I could not for the life of me figure out how to get these pieces sewn together. I had to take a long break and come back to it later. Once I googled directions and saw a picture of what the directions were asking I realized how simple it was. Took me just a few minutes to finish them up from there. yay!

Here are the finished products. All I have to do is add our names to the top. Hopefully I'll be able to finish that up tomorrow. I think they turned out pretty nice if I do say so myself! :)

 My stocking

Tony's stocking

Christmas Vacation

I am SO excited about Christmas break this year!

One of Tony's good friends, Kyle, and his wife Jacky, rented a super fancy RV to take a 2 week trip to Colorado over Christmas break (I'm talking multiple bedrooms, heated floors kinda fancy). The four of us went to the gun range yesterday, and then out to lunch afterwards. At lunch, Jacky and Kyle invited us to join them for a leg of their trip. So, I spent the evening coordinating with Jacky, and working out flight arrangements with my dad to make this possible

I was already going to be in Denver the 22-26th for Christmas. Now, instead of flying back on the 26th, Tony is going to fly up to Denver to join me (thanks Dad for getting my flight changed, and using the miles to get Tony to Denver instead!), and we are going to meet up with Jacky and Kyle in Breckenridge to spend a few days playing there then road trip back to Texas in the RV with them! I'm so excited! I get to see my family for Christmas and go snowboarding with them, AND I get to go on an awesome road trip with friends. I seriously cannot wait for Christmas break now! So much fun ahead! :)

Christmas Kitten!

Look what T bought me for Christmas!!!

I have been talking about how much I want to get a kitten for months now; so today, T took me out to look for the perfect one as a Christmas present. When I found this sweet girl I fell in love with her! She's just beautiful :)

She's about 4 months old, and has already had all her shots and been fixed. She's such a cool kitten! She is incredibly sweet and cuddly, would rather curl up on your chest than be anywhere else, but is feisty and loves to play as well. She spent the afternoon crawling all over me while I edited pictures, and then finally curled up in the nook of my arm to nap. *sigh* I love her already!

I'm so excited I have 2 full weeks to stay home and play with her all the time. Best Christmas present ever! :)

Oh, I named her Maisie.

Thanks T!

Online Shopping

This was the year of online Christmas shopping and after this I will NEVER go back to shopping in stores again! I literally bought every single present online and had it shipped directly to my front door. I never had to get dressed, and I never had to leave the house. It was SO worth not having to deal with the crazy holiday shopping crowds. Plus, I got all my shopping done in just one day because I didn't have to go a million different places. Why have I never thought of doing this before?!? So stress free! I have never had all my shopping done before Thanksgiving ... it's just amazing really!

The only real problem I have found with getting my shopping done so painlessly and early this year is that now I keep wanting to buy people more things. I guess this isn't really a problem, but I'm spending quite a bit more money than I would have otherwise. Oh well haha

4 more days until Christmas break! YAY!!

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

I'm pretty much obsessed with Christmas. Most years I have to try extremely hard to hold off busting out the Christmas music until at least November. Not after Thanksgiving mind you, but just November in general. Well, Tony being the good friend he is, gave in to my obsession and went shopping for Christmas decorations with me last night. We bought a small tree, lights, ornaments, and lights for the house. Then we spent the evening decorating the tree while listening to Christmas music. It's so pretty! I haven't had a tree at home since I moved to Houston so I'm pretty thrilled about this.

I think the cats are pretty thrilled too. Something about the glow of the lights must attract them because they have just been taking turns laying right next to the tree, and sticking their heads inside it.

So far, no ornaments have been knocked off and the tree is still standing. We'll see how long this lasts haha.

It's better to give ...

For Christmas, I made this for my mom:

By made, I mean I took the black and white pictures, bought a frame, picked out a mat, had it cut to size, then put it all together. I think it turned out wonderfully!

It took FOREVER to find a picture for the letter "m" (seriously, I drove around for something like 4 hours one day just trying to find something that would work), and I had a heck of a time finding a frame that would be long enough, but not too wide either. But, in the end, it came together nicely (I actually wanted to keep it for myself I liked it so much haha!).

I was pretty excited to give her this; I was sure she was going to love it. Sure enough, she's called like 4 people already this morning and explained it to them in detail. I love when you give someone something that you know they really love.

I did good this year :) It is definitely better to give than receive (that's not to say I didn't like receiving all the wonderful things I got this morning too hehe).

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas Everyone!

Have a blessed day :)

Luke 2:8-20

And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night. An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shown around them, and they were terrified. But the angel said to them, "Do not be afraid. I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord. This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger."

Suddenly a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel, praising God and saying, "Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to men on whom His favor rests."

When the angles had eft them and gone into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, "Let's go to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has told us about."

So they hurried off and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby, who was lying in the manger. When they had seen him, they spread the word concerning what had been told them about this child, and all who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds said to them. But Mary treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart. The shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things they had heard and seen, which were just as they had been told.

Lights

Christmas = Love

Christmas Music!

I noticed in the past couple days that Christmas decorations are going up everywhere. I'm not talking about just putting out Christmas stuff for sale, I'm talking about full out Christmas decorations everywhere. The first place I noticed it was in the shopping center by Randalls. It wasn't long before Target had decorated, I heard my first Christmas music in Family Christian bookstore, and then driving by town center today I saw they have their Christmas trees up down the road. I cannot tell you how happy this makes me! I love Christmas, it's so magical. Although, every year I still long for the days of a white Christmas in Colorado, but that's okay.

I figured that since the world was starting to decorate for Christmas, I could start listening to the music. Today I busted out my first Christmas music of the season and it put me in the best mood. My car CD player is now stocked with Sounds of Christmas 1, 2, and 3 (Thanks to Jenn!), Josh Groban's Christmas album, and Mannheim Steamroller's Christmas album. LOVE IT!

I'll hold out until after Thanksgiving before playing Christmas music in my classroom, but it is with great pain, I promise.

By the way, if you haven't heard Josh Groban's Christmas album your life is not complete. I'm not kidding. This was the first CD I have purchased from a store in something like 8 years. After I bought it and put it in my car, I ran some errands. Half an hour later I went back and bought as second copy for a friend because it is JUST THAT GOOD.

I could marry him for his voice. haha Let me put it into a little perspective for you: the way I feel about his voice is very similar to the way I feel about Ryan from The OC ... you know, when he has the curl ;-) mmm