family gatherings

What's better than family?

Well, OUR family. We have the best family! I'm not sure how we got so lucky, but we pretty much hit the jackpot. After adding our adorable little niece to the bunch, it has made it increasingly more difficult to be away from all of them.

Which is why our Arizona festivities were that much sweeter! After our time away (just shy of 5 months), a nice reprieve was much needed.

Splitting holiday time between families can be (honestly?) pretty horrible. Luckily for us, this year went smoothly, and everything fell into place without any hassle. We didn't have to torment ourselves over which event or house to choose, hurt feelings, or where to spend which nights and days. There were no family fights or splitting hairs, and in the end, we figured out (to further emphasize my opening statements) that our families are great. And no matter what happens, they help make things easy on us!

Greatest things about Christmastime at home:

Christmas lights!

No matter where you are, there are always great places to drive around and find vibrant displays of Christmas lights. This street in particular is NUTS. We had a lot of fun walking up and down - imagine living in a neighborhood like this! Every garage was themed and expensively decorated, and every house participated in the decked out displays. All in agreement to be fervently awesome.



Number two on the greatest-things-about-Christmastime-at-home list, is pictures.

Kodak moments abound (starting with the tree/wreath shots, which are abundant!):



A little lesser known on the photo op list, is the wrap-blinking-necklaces-around-yourselves-and-smile shot.



There are a million great things about Christmas. While Christmas in Arizona doesn't quite bring to mind drinking hot chocolate by a fireplace (although we HAVE had some cold Christmases in the past, believe it or not), there are other staples. Such as a candlelight Christmas eve service at church.

Or watching dad make caramel popcorn for the millionth time, and it's always just as magical. (I would include the recipe, but there's no way I'm giving that out to the general public. It's sacred. But I'll throw you a bone with some key ingredients.)



While this next issue can be different for everyone, one of the things that was incredible this year was going to restaurants we have REALLY missed, being on the other side of the country! Places like Mi Amigo Ricardos (REAL Mexican food), Little Sombreros, Si Senor (are you seeing a trend here?), as well as Cheesecake Factory and Old Spaghetti Factory.



Now get ready, cause it's baby time. No offense to anyone or anything, but our baby is pretty much the highlight of the world. It is SO fun to be an Aunt and Uncle for the first time, but it's a little hard to do our duties this far away! So we tried to get in as much Abby time as possible. After all, the next time we see her, she will be completely out of this stage...and into the walking/talking stages!



She is so precious. This past Summer, we spent a ton of time with Chris and Amy and little Abby. It's amazing how much she's already changed from that time to now. But it was so fun to be back with them again, and get some game-playing time in, too ;) we had many games of Catan, Dominion and Agricola! (Are we nerds, or what??)



We also got a fabulous new camera for Christmas, so hopefully you can look forward to fun new shots :)

We were really blessed to have so much time at home. I actually wasn't supposed to take off this much time off of work....but it ended up working out okay. Next year, with full vacation days and sick time, we should have a little more leeway! We felt refreshed, and even though we were pining for more time by the time we left, we got to spend a lot of quality time with our families.

Last but not least, we got to spend a very fun New Year's Eve at my parent's house. It was a great way to beckon in the new year, as well as our ONE YEAR anniversary! Hard to believe. We played games, had our annual bonfire, and dad had a giant tray of Sushi ordered (which is kind of awesome, and I think it should be a tradition!) as well as hot wings, and the caramel popcorn balls, of course!



Things got a little crazy, trying to keep the fire going BIG!! People were getting intense.... :)



We then transitioned into fireworks/poppers time!



Our ingenious picture idea:





HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!! :)

In love,

Cait

our first christmas

Merry Christmas, and a Happy New Year to you all!!

I apologize for the lack of frequent updates. Luckily for me, most of the people that read this were able to see me in person over the last few weeks, so the absence of my blogging hasn't been as hard on them!

For the rest of you, my sincerest apologies.



We just spent our first Christmas as a married couple!! I gotta say, I really can't imagine a better holiday season. All of the small things added up to bliss, and the rest of it was just an overflow of the happiness.

The first step was decorating our little place. Such a blast. We got our tree during all the Black Friday sales (a fake, pre-lit tree), and our little collection of ornaments was insubstantial but rather meaningful :)

Our decorating night began with Mac and Cheese for dinner, and some mint cookies for dessert!

When decorating for Christmas, one of the very first things to remember, is that smell is everything. If your house doesn't smell like Christmas, it might as well be July.

Some favorite decorating details:

One of my favorite finds/ideas was our Christmas banner. I had some gold ribbon left over from one of my other crafts, and really wanted to cover up that empty wall opposite our dining table. We found these little Christmas bulbs, and the felt Christmas characters, in the dollar section at Target!

It was really exciting putting up our tree. I have such fond memories of growing up with a decorated house, and mostly a rather magnificent tree, thanks to my dad's year-round ornament obsession that has developed into a gargantuan collection of rather fabulous finds. As much as it drives mom crazy, I hope to have a rather fabulous tree someday, too ;) one ornament at a time!








We put on some Christmas music (a playlist on my iPod that I had made last year) and got to work! We had a lot of fun together. It was amazing to look back on our 5 total years together, and all the Christmases we've shared. Yet, this one is so special and different than all the rest. :) we have a home together.

Our ornament collection was rather fun to lay out. Each one is very special, either hand-picked by us or given to us by loved ones. We also got some "filler" ornaments from Target, classic Christmas bulbs :) but our handful of real ornaments were great. Here are the highlights:





We also had super cute mini ornaments to decorate our mini tree on the dining room table.



We ceremoniously hung our first ornament as a married couple, and decorated the rest of the tree. Luna grew very attached to the three (in the sense that she wanted to destroy it), and we were just one big happy family!



The weeks spent with our apartment all decorated were very fun. Every time we walked in the door, it was a happy sight! And our tree all lit up was so much fun. It was the first thing we did when we got home.

Due to our planned travels to Arizona, Dusty and I decided to have our own mini Christmas at home the weekend before we left. We had gotten a few packages in the mail (from undisclosed patrons), and we had already gotten each other's Christmas presents. So instead of dragging the gifts home to Arizona with us, we decided to have our own "Christmas morning" on December 17th!



I wrapped Dusty's presents, and put them under the tree, along with the other packages we had gotten in the mail. I woke up "Christmas" morning, and went to go downstairs and clean up and get everything ready. When BAM! I go downstairs, and the entire living room is spotless, and everything under the tree is wrapped, including the packages we had gotten the week before :) Dusty had Santa'd me, and he had Santa'd me good.





I had Dusty open his presents first. I got him a lot of small things. I had a few things to give him that I was saving for Christmas at home and our anniversary, but I had gotten him a ton of super cheap and fabulous movies during black friday sales, including Harry Potter Part 1 of the Deathly Hallows, and X-Men: First Class.

 (Is it okay that he was most excited about getting Mean Girls?). He was very happy! We ended up watching Harry Potter later that day :)

Some other treats:



I received an original piece of artwork by Mae Chevrette from my parents. I was so thrilled! It's so beautiful in person, every detail. Check out her etsy shop! I also got a beautiful print from her, "The Love You Make" which I featured on a previous post. I LOVE it. I couldn't believe it :)

Dusty then put me on a wild goose chase around the house to find his gift to me. He video'd me searching for it, and when I finally found it underneath the futon in our craft room, it was a GIANT wrapped box! I honestly had no idea what it was, even though I had listed it on my Christmas list. My brain was not comprehending what could be in such a giant box!



It ended up being the gorgeous work of Blue Bird Heaven, who refurnishes old printer's drawers into jewelry holders! It looks absolutely gorgeous on the wall, like its own work of art with all my colored earrings and necklaces all over it. I've had my eye on one of these for a year and a half! I'm such a happy girl.



Looking around at our trashed living room, full of wrapping paper (and new messes for Luna to play in), we stayed in our PJ's and headed out to iHop for breakfast :) despite the fact that it was 11am already, we had no shame, running to our car in the cold and prancing into iHop with glee.

A very merry Christmas, indeed :)

Hope you all had the same joy!

More Christmasy things to come. Let it be Christmas all year round!

In love,

Cait