Christmas Recap.

My Christmas was better than I ever could have imagined. We spend Christmas Eve with family friends. We went over there and had a big lunch, exchanged presents, played some games and then headed off to church. Christmas Eve service is probably my second favorite of the year after Good Friday, there is such a sense of peace and calm, absolutely amazing. 

This year I decided to start a married tradition of drinking champagne with our toasting flutes from our wedding and opening our presents to each other on Christmas Eve. It was great to have that time to ourselves and have those moments. I can see them being even more special as we get older and have kids and the alone time doesn't happen as often. I get so excited thinking about how our Christmases

On Christmas morning we spent the day with my Mom's family. Each year we get matching PJ's and this year we went with snowflakes.

One of the gifts that I was most excited for was tickets to the Pacific Rim Championships for gymnastics. I'm a big gymnastics fan (even though I never did gymnastics) and I watch all of the meets online and follow all of the National Team on social media. This is an event that is happening in my state and gymnasts from all over the world will be there. I'm super excited to be able to see these athletes competing in person just a few months before some of them will be at the Olympics.

I also gone a ton of other awesome presents, cute sweaters, booties, earrings, and a bunch of stuff for our apartment/future house. I am so blessed to have been able to spend this day with my amazing family and be given so many wonderful gifts. I hope everyone else had just as wonderful of a Christmas! 

Weekending: Winter Break is here!

We have reached winter break, can I get a hallelujah?

Unfortunately the weather wasn't cooperating and while we were supposed to travel to my in-laws on Friday after school, we had to wait until Saturday morning because the mountain pass was closed. It opened on Saturday, but the roads were super snowy and it was a terrifying drive. Thankfully we made it here safely.

I did some last minute shopping with my sister in law and picked up a few stocking stuffers for C. I am trying really hard to make our first married Christmas a memorable one and I think it's going to be great.

Today we are celebrating with his family and exchanging gifts. I love all of the things that we got them and I can't wait to see them open them all. It's been a relaxing few days here with his family, but I'm excited to go home to our apartment and enjoy the last day before Christmas! We have a full Christmas Eve and Christmas day, so I am excited for the festivities to begin!

Linking up with Meghan! 

Christmas Card Reveal 2015

Last year I saw so many awesome Christmas cards and I made the decision that this year I would make sure we got really good ones. I had been planning to go with MINTED and even though I told myself that I could splurge on them, when the time came to buy them I just couldn't justify it.

We ended up ordering them from Snapfish after a free trial where we got to order 5 cards.

 I liked the quality so I ended up ordered all of ours from there. I got a white back so that I could write a personal message on the ones that I wanted to, and I paid to get our address printed on the envelope. We changed the design and this was our final product. 

It was so much fun sending these out and hearing from friends and family as they received them. I love Christmas and I look forward to making sending Christmas cards a tradition. This is our first year, but you can bet that next year we will be doing it again! :)

Linking up with Mary and Macy! 

Weekending: On the go.

This weekend flew by, typical! It was a little too packed for my liking, but I made it through and managed to take a nap on Sunday afternoon.

Friday night we went to my Aunt's house to celebrate my Grandad's birthday. He's 82, I love him so much. This was him being goofy. 

On Saturday, C and I slept in until 10:30! I couldn't believe it. I don't even remember the last time I slept that late. It was glorious. I had a lazy morning cleaning our apartment, shopping, and wrapping Christmas presents. 

Saturday night was our staff christmas party. I have an awesome staff and we had a blast relaxing, chatting, and doing things outside of school. It's so nice to get away and not be surrounded by students and stress. It was a lot of fun. 

Sunday after church we had a work day at the student farm. I had some quality time with my lambs and pigs. :) 

We went to lunch with my college roommates at the Cheesecake Factory. YUM! It's always good catching up with these girls who I spent every day with for two years. I am blessed to have friends as good as them. 

I took a nap Sunday afternoon && just relaxed to get ready for this week. I only have one night meeting so that means it will be a lot easier than last week.  Two weeks until break! 

Linking up with Meghan!

My Christmas List.

We are only 20 days from Christmas, can anyone believe it?! I have put together a few of the things that I am hoping to find under the Christmas tree. I also love gifts that are totally out of the blue and surprising so I am looking forward to those as well. :) 

Phone case

I got a new iPhone 6S a couple of weeks ago (thanks, hubby!) and now I would love a new case to go with it. Right now I have an otter box which isn't very stylish, but it will protect my phone. I'd love some pretty ones to alternate it with. 

Make up Brushes 

I am not good at buying things for myself, especially make up brushes which can be so darn expensive! I asked my mom for some and I  know she's been shopping at ULTA so hopefully I will be getting some. 

New TOMS 

These are my favorite for work when I want something comfy, but also a little dressy. I have black glitter ones that are pretty worn out now so I would love some gold ones which work perfectly for our school spirit days when we wear purple and gold. 

Booties! 

These are one of the things I always thought I would never be able to pull off but surprise, I can and I love them. I'm hoping for another pair this year. 

There really isn't much else that I am hoping for. Clothes are always great, scarves, accessories, etc. and I am not picky about those. I honestly have so much 'stuff' and am so blessed that I really don't need anything. I am hoping for a lovely Christmas with my family, that everyone is in good health, and that we have another great holiday filled with laughter and joy. 

What is on the top of your Christmas list? 

Friday Favorites: December!

Happy Friday! Can anyone believe it's already December? I know that I can't. This year has been flying by and while I've been in the Christmas mood for a while, now it's actually Christmas time! 

Favorite Song: I have been playing Christmas Pandora in my classroom and this song came on which I really enjoyed. It's fun and upbeat, plus she has a wonderful voice. 

Favorite new clothing item: I just bought this top to wear to my staff Christmas party on Saturday. I'm going to pair it with leggings and booties, I'm excited. I love the color and the little bit of sparkle! 

Favorite thing about this week: All of my black friday orders are starting to arrive. I am amazed at how fast things are arriving, I love it! 

Favorite Verse

Two weeks until Winter Break! 

This week has been so busy and work continues to be stressful and overwhelming, but I feel like I have a good handle on things until at least break. I can use that time to get myself together and make a plan for the spring. I hate feeling like I'm stretched so thin that I don't really do a good job at anything. Hopefully that won't last much longer. Thank goodness for this weekend. I don't think I would be able to keep my sanity without them. 

Linking up with Amanda!

Wedding Wednesday: Receiving Line

I read a lot of articles about how to greet guests at your wedding and receiving lines get a lot of debate. We opted to do one and I ended up being so thankful that we did. Here's three reasons why we went for it. 

We wanted to eat dinner. I read so many stories about  couples who don't even get to eat the meal that they paid so much for. While we didn't eat much, at least I got to taste the food and have a minute with my new husband before the rest of the reception happened. 

We wanted to make sure we saw everyone. There were some friends of our parents attending the wedding and we wanted to make sure that we were able to see everyone and thank them for coming. I've been to weddings before where the bride and groom had the best intentions of getting to every table, but it didn't happen and then they felt terrible for not saying hello to everyone at their own wedding. 

We wanted it to be quick. I knew that time would fly by during the reception and I didn't want to be obligated to spend a lot of it going from table to table. 

Ours was a little untraditional, we did not include the family or bridal party, it was just us. We stood at the door that connected the cocktail hour space to the reception room. About halfway through cocktail hour we opened the doors and greeted everyone as they went in to the reception. It was a quick hello and hug to everyone as they walked in. We had seen all of our family the night before at the rehearsal dinner and we knew we would be dancing the night away with our friends. We spent a little longer chatting with people that didn't fall into either of those categories and it worked perfectly. We were ahead of schedule and it only took about 20 minutes to get all 125 guests through the 'line'. 

It was totally worth it for us and worked for our wedding perfectly. 

Are you for or against a receiving line, what did you do at your wedding? 

Linking up for Wedding Wednesday!