Decorate Yourself

These earrings always make me heart melt. I came upon Catbird, a brooklyn boutique, last year while walking to the subway after student teaching. I often find myself daydreaming of re-walking the streets of new york and Catbird is one of my frequent stops. I can not count how many times I walked through their shop in person. Now I settle for perusing their web-cite and blog.

You can read their blog here. These ladies always make me wish I had millions to spend. All of their merchandise is genuine which I find refreshing in our consumer world. Check them out, but beware - you will want everything.

Our First Christmas

Chris and I decided to celebrate our Christmas in Ohio a week early so that when we return from visiting family we will already have things cleaned up. Also, we really wanted to be able to share the spirit of Christmas just the two of us.

We chose Saturday morning to be our mini Christmas because it snowed ALL Friday night! Not only did we get to wake up to a white Christmas we also fell asleep between a roaring fire and beautiful tree. Bliss. Bliss. Bliss.

Winter Poem:

Ev-er-y winter we scamper about, gather wood, wrap presents, sing carols out loud

We open up boxes, bring in a tree

decorate cookies, drink coco, snuggle clo-se-ly

Pine in the air filling our lungs, fire in the place toasting our buns

Throughout all the world there is no place to be, that is as quite as special as near stocking and tree

-rm

The Best Way to Spread Christmas Cheer...

... Is singing loud for all to hear!

Photo from my mom's Christmas decorations

(Get it? singer sewing machine - singer on magazine)

Cant wait to be home for the holidays! So far this season I have experienced two rounds of spontaneous caroling, keep it coming!

Six Geese A-Skating

Have you ever seen a Goose fall on its Caboose?

(Sing this to the tune of the children's song "down by the bay")

This is just a small clip of a hilarious day watching a gaggle of geese glide across the frozen pond in our "backyard".

...and if geese don't give you a giggle maybe this kid will

enjoy

A Paper Plane in a Pine Tree

We have been very lucky this holiday season. between generous family donations, my thrift shopping, and a little creativity, we have been able to deck the halls and make this apartment our home.

Chris and I drove five minutes (yes you read me right only FIVE minutes) down the road to a tree farm to saw down our tree. We figured our first christmas needed a fresh tree. Plus it is the perfect time because there are no pets or small beings to mess with it ... the only downside was the family of jumping spiders I discovered while decorating ...

When it comes to ornaments on your tree, it is well known that your first year can be a bit skimpy. When my brother got married my sister and I were still young, so his beautiful wife invited us over to make ornaments with popsicle sticks, glue, and lots of love. I believe some of our masterpieces still hang on their tree today.

For our first tree, I had picked up some shining glass balls at the base thrift shop and we were pleasantly surprised with the Christmas cheer passed onto us in ornament form by our families over Thanksgiving break. I look forward to the day when we get to pull out the ornaments and tell each of their stories. Right now I will share one of them with you. Two of our favorite handmade ornaments make our hearts soar with pleasant memories each time we look at them.

These paper airplane F-16s were lovingly thrown at us as we left our wedding reception rather than rice or birdseed. Somehow I stumbled across a how-to paper airplane F-16 video in the wedding planning process and proceeded to cut, fold, tape, and stamp until I had a few hundred prepared. I am so happy that we have found further use for them! (and thanks to those who helped me fold!)

Thanks also to my ADORABLE nephew who picked up each airplane after it was thrown, we still have dozens of them ... any ideas for other uses?

You will be visited by three ghosts ...

This haunting image is actually a shot from my bridal portraits. Normally I don't associate our wedding with spooky stories, but in the eighth grade I played the ghost of Christmas past in our middle school's annual production of A Christmas Carol and I love how this image reminds me of it. I also love the image because to me it is spiritual. It reminds me that although I find myself physically out of the theatre from time to time, it is where a part of my soul lives. It was taken at the Alley Theatre in Houston, Texas by our wedding photographer Joe Cogliandro of J. Cogliandro Photography whose focus is artistic storytelling.