Christmas

I'm finally posting pics of my Christmas decor. Better late than never right? I'm warning you now, my photography skills leave a lot to be desired. This is my big tree in the living room.

There's no ribbon or mesh & that's because I completely forgot until I was midway through decorating it. I still like it. Here it is at night.

I know I'm partial but I really love my tree! Especially, at night all lit up. This is the 8th Christmas for this tree. It's 9 ft. & prelit. I know a lot of people complain about problems with their prelit. I LOVE mine. If a light goes out, they don't all go out & you just pop in a replacement. I did something this year that I never do.

I'm not using all of the same paper. I had several different rolls of paper & none were enough to do everything so I decided to suck it up & use all of it & then next year I can go back to matching. I've used up almost all of what I had. I've banned myself from buying any Christmas decor this year. At least before Christmas. I've succeeded for the most part. Here are two exceptions.

I LOVE big ornaments! I got the snowflake & the ornament below at Royal Standard.

Next up is the tree in my breakfast area. This tree is decorated with ornaments that we buy on vacation & I fill in with red, green & silver.

It's hard to get a good pic because it's in the corner. I put the nativity scene on the server in the breakfast area.

I think I'm going to put it on my mantle next year. I'd planned to do that this year & didn't remember until after I'd finished the mantle. I think I need to make notes when I think about this stuff! Part 2 coming up tomorrow.

I'm linking to Thrifty Decor Chick's Holiday Home party!

Toodles!

Coming to you live from....

My sofa. If you check back tomorrow at this time I'm willing to bet I'm still here. That potential sinus infection I spoke of Friday looks like it's becoming a reality. I got some steroids today so I'm hoping this will be gone sooner rather than later. I've got lots of stuff going on this week, an eye doctor appt., a Christmas dinner, a Christmas party, a hair appt. & I must get my nails done sometime this week. No time to be sick.

Friday night was my office Christmas party. I managed to medicate myself enough to enjoy it. The party was at my boss' house which is AHHHMAZING!!!!  Custom built, 7000  sq. ft. of pure amazing. Seriously, completely gorgeous!

Saturday, I was not feeling so great & all I did the entire day was wrap gifts. It took me the entire day and YES, Dean's gift is still missing. I'm beginning to think it's not in the house. Thankfully, if that's the case I'm not out a lot of money. It was one of his cheaper gifts!

Sunday we went to my parents & hung out with them & Logan. This is one of Logan's favorite past times.

He's playing boats. The blue comforter is his water & the quilt is his boat ramp. If you sit in the "water" he's quick to tell you to "move, that's the water".  He loves this dog that our Godchild Lane gave him.

Logan's a dare devil. He also has a one track mind. Everything has something to do with a boat. At one point he was sitting sideways on the dog pretending like he was fishing & he started yelling "get the net!". Can you tell his mama & daddy spend a lot of time with him fishing at the camp? It was so funny!

Last night I went to Mass. That didn't work out so well. In the span of about 20 minutes I had 2 coughing fits. You know the kind that causes your eyes to water like crazy & make your nose run? All while sucking on cough drops to make sure it didn't happen. The ridiculous part of the whole thing is that I hadn't coughed at all before that. I finally gave up & came home. Hoping God gives me credit for making an effort! The more ridiculous part? I didn't cough again until I laid down to go to sleep. So annoying.

Toodles!

Aliens & Problems

I'm thinking the two go hand in hand. You know I was never an exerciser. Now I am. I was never a runner, never wanted to be a runner, always said I would never be a runner. Now I am. Well, sorta. Not at the moment due to the hip. It's doing good but if I've been on my feet for a long time I start to limp & I don't even realize it so I haven't started running again yet. Not only was I not a runner, I started C25K in August when it's somewhere around 150 degrees in Louisiana with 1000% humidity. I always talked about people that exercised on vacation. I became one of those people. I never drank coffee & didn't know what a mocha, latte or any of that other stuff was. Now, I love a latte & even like mocha's a little. I pretty much gave up my Dr Pepper habit. I had one Wednesday for the first time in weeks.  I decided awhile back that the only logical explanation for all of this is that aliens have invaded my body. Really, what else could explain it? Moving on to the problems. First off, Starbucks.

This is a postcard from Starbucks. In case you didn't know (I didn't for a long time) if you buy a gift card & put money on it you can register it online & if you use it to pay you gain stars & move to different levels. I don't know all the details but I know that it enables you to get a free drink of your choice for your birthday. They send this postcard in the mail. I never received mine. I emailed Starbucks & told them I didn't receive it & they said they'd mail me another one. I'm pretty sure most normal people wouldn't have emailed them for another card. All you SB drinkers out there know that they're not cheap & a free drink is like gold! I think they made it worse because they kept sending me emails saying "you're free drink is on the way" "you'll receive a postcard in the mail within 10 days" & then nothing! Yesterday, going home from work was awful. Traffic was horrendous so I was very excited when I got there & saw that my postcard had arrived!! So this morning I stopped & got my free Chai Tea Latte. You know what's even better? You can get any size you want. Venti please! The mixture of that with the Mucinex I'm taking (think I'm getting a sinus infection) isn't going to allow me to sleep until sometime next week probably.

My next problem? I can't find one of Dean's Christmas gifts. When I say I can't find it, I don't mean it's a hot gift item this Christmas & nobody has it. No, I mean I've already bought it & I hid it & I can't remember where I hid it. This is totally ridiculous because I didn't need to hide it that well because Dean isn't a snoop. I could tell him, "hey, I have a Christmas gift for you in that drawer over there" & he would never look. I hid it with his birthday gift. Or at least I thought I did. Apparently, when I got his birthday gift to wrap I hid the other gift somewhere else. Why? I have no clue. I've been looking for it for 2 weeks. I don't know where else to look. So, I think the aliens have taken over my brain......

Toodles!

I'm Done!

I'm completely finished with our Christmas shopping!! Dean & I took off work today to finish up. We left a little before 8:00 & were home for noon. We were at Target early so I had one of these cups of greatness!!

Chai Tea Latte please! Before we went home we had lunch in the food court at the mall. I had Chick Fil A & even a Dr Pepper. I haven't had one in weeks. It was all delicious!!! I miss eating unhealthy crap!
Typically, when we Christmas shop we end up buying for ourselves too. There are so many good sales it's hard not to! For instance, I got this sweater at The Limited.

It was $70 but sweaters & accessories were 40% off! I plan to wear it with boots & leggings. I also got this ring.

It's stretchy & I love it!! Plus, that put me at $56 & I had a coupon for $15 off a $50 purchase. What a deal!! I really love this ring!!

I also downloaded this today.

Do y'all like Buble?? It's so great!! Love, love, love!! I think my fave is his version of Ave Maria. We also ended up with a football which is kind of random but believe it or not there have been times when we've needed one! I also did a Walmart run. I very rarely go there for obvious reasons. I managed to get in & out without my Christmas spirit being ruined. I don't feel quite as guilty for my junk eating today because I did make it to Yoglates.

In other exciting news, we are now a whole house DVR household! Woo hoo! I just thought the regular DVR was awesome in a box. This is going to be amazing! It's the little things right??

Toodles!!

That's the day we'll throw up.....

I promise you that sentence was uttered at my house Saturday night! The SEC Championship game was Saturday afternoon & we had friends over to watch. After a shaky start LSU came back & beat Georgia. We're now 13-0 & going to the National Championship game to play Alabama. Annoying. I don't like Alabama. I don't like Nick Saban. Nobody asked my opinion though.

After the game we transitioned from a football party to a "Cruise Excursion Planning" party. That's where it got interesting. We were discussing which days would be where & we decided to do "Salsa & Salsa" in Cozumel. On this excursion they teach you to make 7 different salsa's & they teach you how to salsa dance. It's also open bar. While we discussed this our friend Matt announced "that's the day we'll throw up". It sounded like that was a goal of his. I personally believe the goal should be NOT to throw up but hey, whatever floats your boat. We're also going to zip line. I can't wait for that!

Yesterday, I met the girls for my friend Vicki's birthday lunch. HAPPY BIRTHDAY VICKI!!!! We had lunch at Coyote Blues which is a mexican joint. I'd never been there before & it was DELISH! They have this really yummy green sauce that they bring out with the chips & salsa. After lunch Allison & I went to this great store we have in town, The Royal Standard. I haven't been in awhile. They sell all sorts of gift items.  I did not succeed in getting out of there without buying Christmas ornaments. I only bought 2. They were big jumbo ornaments & I love them. I don't plan on buying any other Christmas decorations! Really.

Toodles!

Happy Friday Y'all!

I actually had to work 5 days this week & let me tell you, I don't like it one bit. Yeh, I'm grateful to have a job & all that but it doesn't mean I have to like being here. Thankfully, next week is only 4 days.

I can't get over that December is here. Time has flown. We're only 79 days away from our Mardi Gras cruise. I can't wait!!

So, y'all know about my love for Starbuck's. It started out with just iced green tea but then I discovered the greatness of the chai tea latte. Soooo good. I like the caramel brulee latte too but I prefer tea. My sis-in-law Lydia has a Bosch thingy that's like the Keurig & she loves it. She told me I need one but that I need a Keurig because they have more tea variety. I'm not sold just yet. I don't know if I'd use it enough to justify the price. Then I saw this one.

This is a mini Keurig & it's only $99. Then if you buy it at Bed, Bath & Beyond you can use the 20% off coupon. Not a bad deal at all. Then Wendy forwarded me this blog post. OMG, Starbuck's makes K cups now! Then I find out that Tazo tea does too!!! So, now I'm really wondering if this is something worth investing in. I'm going to wait until after Christmas to make a decision because who knows what Santa might bring.

Completely off track here but I just heard on the radio that today is Britney Spears (or Brit Brit as I refer to her), 30th birthday. 30? WOW! Yes, I'm one of those people that like her & felt sorry for her during that whole hoorah with the weird boyfriend/manager guy. So, Happy Birthday Brit Brit!!

Toodles!

I Won!

Awhile back I entered a giveaway on Christine's blog & I won! It was a $50 credit toward anything of my choosing from the Novica website. I've banned myself from buying any Christmas decor this year so I decided to use my credit for something Christmasy. Apparently, everything on the website is hand made. There are lots of pretty ornaments. I received my package in the mail over the weekend. I LOVE getting packages! Look how pretty.

I love the ribbon! When I opened it this was inside.

I wasn't expecting such pretty packaging. These are the ornaments I chose.

 It was a set of 6. The gold ones are on my big tree. The darker ones are a deep brown with hints of burgundy. I have them hanging on the doors of my china cabinet & they look really good with the wall color in the dining room. Thanks Christine!

Toodles!