create the life you love

Christmas Day

We had a late start to our Christmas morning .. the parents were up bright and early, as always, but the boys later. A nice little perk as your children get older! With this being the first year with our oldest living on his own (although just 10 minutes away) as well as late sleepers .. we planned a brunch with gift opening and dinner to follow in the evening.

 

Mimosas!! .. with a breakfast casserole, cinnamon buns and of course bacon (bacon-lovin' boys)

Dinner was our traditional Christmas meal : beef tenderloin with bernaise sauce, cheesy, smashed potatoes, roasted broccoli, sweet potato casserole, spinach salad, rolls, red velvet cake and other dessert treats.

Our tree ... complete with NO lights! Just a few days before Christmas, ALL the lights went out. A bit of hysterics from me. Since none of my guys are handy men (to say the least), we had problems with fixing it. No luck what so ever and no white lights to be found in the 4 stores that I looked.

 

My 'holy' tree in the living room .. nicely lit!

Radko Tree

 

Lilly tree in my office

 

I didn't do a good job of picture taking during gift opening  .. photos throughout my home

 

 

 

Two of my crazy boys with their cracker 'treasures' ..

you see how much they LOVE posing for me??!

 

 

Christmas Eve

 

After church we had our annual Christmas Eve dinner at Enzos.

Dan & I have been dining there since we were dating .. for over 30 years now!

My handsome men

And since they are so handsome ;), another picture ..

another family (good friends of ours) also at Enzos ..

Santa was here ..

My Goddaughter

A little Christmas gift giving with my darling goddaughter ...

 The 'boys' love Bridget and joined in with opening the gifts

And little Lilly :) ..

And the back of our card ..

 

Since this is Connor's last year at Ole Miss (and the fact that this was the only photo I had of the entire family), we used our pictures from The Grove.

Merry Christmas!

A child is born to us! A son is given to us! And he will be our ruler. He will be called, Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Eternal Father, Prince of Peace.

Isaiah 9:6

 

Parties!

So many parties this Christmas season .. I have had something every night for over a week straight.

Many of the parties have been girls 'only' get togethers, including a small soiree I had with some good friends.

Completely forgot to take pictures, except for a few before the girls arrived.

 

This is my book club Christmas party .. the guys were invited too and no book discussion, just partying!

Connor is home! Dinner out on Park Ave.

And, I may add .. every night has been a party for him since home.

Catching up with old friends!

Bear boy and friends.

They all came over prior to a party on our street (another family of 3 boys).

Big Murph and myself in this picture

 

Mother - Daughter Champagne Party!

My sweet friend, Sharon invites me even though I am daughter-less.

All college girls and their mothers.

So much fun and the girls are sooo sweet to me!!

 

With Leigh, having a little bubbly! ..

Really just posing for the picture ;)

 

We attended a few other parties, but I didn't take pictures, and ...

tonight we are off to another party - a pig roast!

Wrapping it up!

Long time, no posting! I have been crazy busy with Preppy Paper Design orders, as well as gift wrapping for others. I love to wrap, so this has been a pleasure! Now I need to start on my own gifts .. on the schedule for today (along with so much more to do)!!

My photos are all so terrible .. the settings were all off.

For my goddaughter ..

LuLu!

I mentioned a month or so ago about my new exercise of choice .. The Bar Method. I have been going 4-6 days a week now since the first of August and am still loving it. Along with my obsession with 'the bar' is my big obsession with Lululemon. Hands down, the best quality and most comfortable exercise wear, in my opinion. I was a former Nike lover/wearer, but have completely converted to Lulu. 

Some of my favorite pieces -

The Wunder Under Crop .. I have a few pairs of these and have even worn the plain black as leggings with boots and long sweater. 

(love the little ruffles)

 

(again, love the ruffles around the shoulders - I am wearing this right now, never mind that is is 8pm and I've been in my exercise clothes since 6:30am)

The only thing that was missing at Lululemom was the color PINK ... but much to my delight, they recently added quite a few pink pieces .. so I just had to buy myself a few Christmas presents.

I even love Lululemon's Groovy Thong ;)

'Tis the Season!

This was LAST Sunday .. and the tree is yet to be decorated. Griff was a big help .. he helped with getting the tree in and then bringing in all the many, big rubbermade boxes (while DCal 'directed'!) But .. that is just about all that has been done with our Christmas decorating. We did manage to get the outside finished (thank goodness for our yard men who do my trees every year). I am just so busy with my business and struggling to keep up. Not complaining - it's all good and I appreciate all my many wonderful customers. I have also been working for a friend of mine, who has a shop here in WP .. she is keeping my busy too! Going to try to rally and get this tree done tonight.

My little pink, Lilly tree is up in my office where I am spending most of my time lately ..

 

And, just catching up here on my blog ..

A photo (not very good - darn Nikon coolpix, I am not at all happy with) of Bear's birthday dinner at the CC .. minus the birthday boy who dashed before the picture taking. Griff was wishing he did also ;)

My goddaughter and her Advent calendar from me ..

 

The cutest reindeer topiary!