Friday, December 30, 2011

yummm.

how i spent my holidays.

besides the obvious time spent with family, and catching up with friends, this holiday has been very relaxing. having some time off has given me the opportunity to sit down and watch a movie with marcus (rare - during normal life we don't have anytime to sit on the couch at the same time, for more than an hour), start and finish(!) a few books, and curl up with my favorite magazines. 
watching...I am so glad santa left midnight in paris in my stocking. watching it transported us back to our spring vacation in paris, and reminded us how magical and wonderful the city of paris really is. 
reading... I finished sarah's key in just a couple days because I could barely put the book down.  it is a unique story that focuses on a little jewish girl in france. her life gets turned upside down when thousands of jewish families are taken from their homes during WWII. this book makes it easy to envision the conditions of the war, and the descriptive writing can make the book hard to read at times. however, it is a wonderful and fulfilling story. santa also left the guernsey literary and potato peel pie society in my stocking, which I have just picked up and started reading. 
relaxing...a perfect relaxing day to me is waking up for early morning yoga, and then heading to the gym. coming home for my favorite fruit and yogurt, and curling up with a latte and my favorite magazines. this day happened once over my holidays, but it's once more than I thought it was going to happen. perfect. 
 

Wednesday, December 28, 2011

before christmas.

here is a little peak of us preparing for christmas. the hustle & bustle before christmas prevented me from sharing this earlier, and now that I am on holidays until new years it has been hard to be motivated to do anything but read & sip tea all day. 
 david & marcus being brave and very patient with my detailed instructions for setting up the perfect christmas light display. I was a little upset when we discovered that absolutely no one carries the old style christmas lights  - the clear ones, my favorite! I think a house looks so classic when only clear lights are used. I can't stand the LEDs, but I had to deal with it this year. although, admittedly the 'warm white' color has grown on me. 
kassie also being very patient with me. 
our blue & silver christmas tree, with the newest additions - an eiffel tower & a diamond ring. pretty perfect to represent our year. thank goodness for my parents who donated their old imitation tree to us last year. as grateful as we are, the tree has seen one of it's last christmas'. I'm thinking a pre-lit white imitation tree next year - with gold, silver, brass and white ornaments. 
I tried my hand at being a little more creative with wrapping paper & ribbon this year. I have collected a lot of inspiration from pinterest, and stocked up on wrapping necessities after christmas - so next year's gifts will be even prettier. 
new cushions for the front room couches, a little upgrading to marcus' bachelor pad. thank-you grandma for being a wonderful seamstress!
two items that I forgot we had purchased last year after christmas. it was like christmas morning when I opened the storage boxes to find our new stockings &  eiffel tower stocking hangers. 
we are off to sun peaks to ring in the new year with family & friends. christmas day photos & new years photos to come when we get back. happy new year! xoxo

Sunday, December 25, 2011

merry christmas.

merry christmas! xoxo

Thursday, December 22, 2011

gift wrap.

grey likes weddings really is a gift wrap guru. this year I think I improved on my gift wrapping skills (pictures to come!), but they are no where near the genius of these sparkly, glittery, jeweled & broached packages. the combination of lush fabrics, royal blues and greens, copper sparkles and jewels is one gorgeous and festive combination. next year, I think I will be searching for sparkly broaches, rings, earrings and necklaces to wrap around packages. the packaging is a gift in itself. lovely. 

Wednesday, December 14, 2011

oh christmas tree!

we started a family tradition this year - the hunt for the perfect christmas (real - not fake!) tree. a perfect tree to our family is one that is big enough and strong enough to hold years of family ornaments. my brother and I have been getting an ornament every year for christmas since we were babies, plus anything my parents have collected over the years - that's a lot!

we found the biggest and fullest tree standing all on it's own, like it was waiting just for us. 

we left the heavy lifting to the boys!
marcus & I have a imitation tree, but we are so lucky we get to enjoy a real tree (and the smell!) with my family on christmas day! sometimes it just doesn't seem like christmas if you don't have the christmas tree smell. counting down the days  - 10 more days, can you believe it?