Welcome 2013!

Did everyone have an excellent New Year Celebration?

We went over to Lisa and CJ’s house (a couple from our small group).  We ate Mexican food, played card games (well, I was a bit preoccupied with the LSU/Clemson game…sadly, my team lost), and rang in the new year together.  It was a lot of fun. 

Then, we made doughnuts for our first meal of 2013, because they are good luck and super delicious.  :)

The one on the left is a Baked Sugar Doughnuts.  The one on the right is a Pumpkin Glazed.  Both were pretty good, although I would have to say the Cinnamon Sugar was my favorite.

In the past, I have made New Year resolutions.  One year I blogged every day for a year.  Another year, I didn’t blog at all.  Last year, I embraced no resolution, just living a life with intention.  That’s what I plan to continue to do this year.  I may go more into that on a separate blog post.

I already have way too much going on this month, which I think is a sign that 2013 is going to be quite a busy year.  Maybe I should make a small resolution to find time to relax!  Hah!  :)

Did anyone make any new year resolutions?

Five Years

I want to tell you all about my New Years Eve Celebration, but first…I gotta tell you about last weekend.

Five years ago, I married my sweet husband.  We have had a lot of ups and downs, but we have grown closer to each other, learning more about each other and loving each other even more.  Our trip to Europe was our real celebration for our anniversary, so I figured our actual anniversary would just be a quiet night at home.

Or so I thought.

Michael was off on Friday.  I had to work.  So, he was running errands, taking my car to get the oil changed, things like that.  Then, he came home and told me to pack an overnight bag.  That was all he told me.

We got in the car and our first stop was the iPic theater near our house for a showing of Les Miserables!  iPic Theaters are the kind of movie theaters that serve fancy meals you eat during the movie.  I had a turkey, bree and apple butter Panini.  It was really good.

Les Miserables was the first musical I watched in a theater when I was in high school.  My parents took me to the Fox Theater in Atlanta.  We sat in the nosebleed section, and it was amazing.  I fell in love with all of the songs.  Fall of Rain is probably my favorite.  The movie was amazing as well.  Anne Hathaway made me cry, as did Fall of Rain, though that song makes me cry anyway.

After the movie and dinner, we headed to our hotel room for the night.  We stayed on the very top floor, and the view was amazing.

The next day, we did some shopping, and then headed to the Perot Natural Science Museum (my husband got tickets several weeks ago.  Apparently, he has been planning this for some time).  The museum was so fun!  We watched a 3D movie on ancient sea monsters.  Then, we went through the exhibits.  I loved the dinosaur fossils, and Michael’s favorite part was the energy exhibit.

Another exhibit showed newly named specimens, two of which cracked me up.  There is a mushroom named after SpongeBob Square Pants (which  makes the scientific name sound hilarious) and a monkey called a Sneezing monkey.

After the museum, we ended the trip with a dinner at El Fenix.

On our wedding night, we couldn’t get into any of the restaurants around our hotel because the Trans Siberian Orchestra was playing.  So, we ended up eating at Taco Bell.  Now, we try to eat Mexican food at some point around our anniversary (usually at Taco Bell, but not always) to remember.

Michael did an excellent job surprising me.  It was a wonderful celebration of our marriage and life together.

Christmas Weekend Events

Friday night, Michael and I attended one of Michael’s client’s company Christmas party.  We went with one of the partners at Michael’s firm.  It was a lot of fun, even though I only knew two people.  I love seeing how much respect his clients have for him.  Plus, it was a great reason to get all dressed up.  :)

Here is a video tutorial on my hair.

Then, on Sunday night, we had a Candlelight Service at our church.  I love singing with this group of people.  We have such beautiful and talented voices at our church!  Plus, I got to sing with one of the girls in my small group.  We were representing in the alto section.  At the end of the night, Michael surprised me with a dozen roses.  Seriously, I am truly blessed in the husband department.  :)

Did anyone else do any Christmas activities this weekend?

Christmas Gift Idea for Friends

During this holiday, I love making special gifts for our small group.  This year, I made each family a cookie mix to enjoy.  It was a great gift for this group since we all share a love for baking (seriously, the desserts at our small group are amazing-to-die-for-goodness).  You can find the recipe here.

I bought all of the supplies at our local Walmart.  The store sells these canning jars at about seven dollars for twelve.  I took the list of ingredients and multiplied it by four to fit our group.  Then, I used the assembly line method to fill each jar.

After the jars were filled, the fun of decorating begins!  Each year that I’ve done a mix, I have attached the recipe differently.  This was favorite so far!  I threaded each recipe and tied it around the jar, then I tied a ribbon above the recipe. The ribbon was lined with wire, so it was easy to manipulate.

I love these because they are fun to make, and they can be made whenever it’s convenient for that person.

What kind of gifts do you give your friends?

Christmas Travel – Airline Edition

Every year, my husband and I fly to my company’s headquarters for the annual Christmas party.  It’s the one time of the year that I am guaranteed to see my coworkers in person (and one just announced she’s pregnant with baby #2!).

The middle picture is of me with my friends, Danyelle (right) and Audreona (Left – who is expecting!).  On the right, our boss is reading Twas  a Night before Chrismas.

Organizing for a shorter flight is quite different from the longer flights (like to Europe).  I keep some things the same, but since the flight is much shorter, I probably won’t bring my eye shades or ear plugs.  Here’s what I brought for the short flight this past weekend:

Jerzee definitely missed us when we were gone!

We left later on Friday night, so I knew I would be going to bed as soon as I got to our destination from the airport.  The outfit on a shorter flight should depend on what you are planning to do once you get there.  Since it was a late flight, we were going to be headed to bed soon after arriving, so I just wore some comfy yoga pants and a t-shirt

Headed to our car!

When we got back, we were going straight to our small group.  That is why I chose jeans on the ride back instead of yoga pants, with a slightly more festive Christmas-colored shirt.

One of my favorite magazines, plus the book I’m reading and my journal!

Even though the flight was short, I still like to bring some fun distractions to pass the time.

What do you bring with you on a quick flight?

Christmas Shopping (Culling the Christmas Chaos Series)

Before I went shopping, I made out a list of what we were getting everyone on a note card (one for family, one for friends), then I made a list of everything we needed to purchase from those lists.  We made a route to all the stores we needed to hit so that we went in a circle.  It was a great time to go shopping since the lines weren’t too long at this point.  I even got some clothes to wear at upcoming parties at JC Penney and we got those adorable pins.

We did a lot of online shopping as well, and my husband came up with a great idea.  Since we are traveling this year to visit family, we will order some gifts online and ship them to our destination for Christmas.  We are going early this year (since Christmas is weirdly on a Tuesday), so we will have time to wrap the presents when we get there.

I finished all of my shopping this week, and all I have to do is wrap them!  Now it’s just parties, travel and baking left before Xmas!

Christmas Cards (Culling the Christmas Chaos Series)

Christmas cards can be stressful.  There are the pictures to take and envelopes to address.  Here’s what we have done to try to cull the chaos.

This year, we used a picture from Europe, but most years, we just have a friend or family member take a few in November.  It’s more about who is in the picture than how perfect the picture can look.

In the past, we have used both Walmart and Shutterfly for our cards.  Walmart is less expensive, but Shutterfly gives you the option to mail them out from their site.  It really depends on which stress is more stressful for you (and if there’s a sale).  The quality of the card never really matters much to me, since in a year it will be obsolete anyway.  :)

Also, we limit the number of actual cards we buy.  We would never want to leave anyone out, but most people share their card on Facebook now, so we tend to only send the physical cards out to our family and closest friends, then share a virtual one with everyone else.  Since that list doesn’t change much from year to year, it’s easy to keep up with their addresses.

Do you send out cards this time of year?

Christmas Tasks (Culling the Christmas Chaos Series)

I had a lot of things I had to get done before the Christmas season started.  Here is how I organized those tasks last week.

First, I looked at my calendar to what I could do this week so that I wouldn’t be overwhelmed in the weeks to come.  I wrote all the different tasks for this week alone on a note card. I divided the number of tasks by the number of days I had to accomplish them.  This particular week, each day would have 2 tasks (it doesn’t always divide evenly).

I included Put Up Xmas Decor to remind myself what I was working towards!

Every morning, for 15 mins or less, I decided which tasks I wanted to tackle, usually picking one bigger task and two smaller ones.  Some tasks (like cleaning the house) were broken into several days to accomplish, but having the lists in front of me help me see the bigger picture while working out all the details.

On Saturday, we were able to just focus on decorating for the holidays.  Having that goal at the end of the week really motivated me to stay on task.  We had a lot of fun decorating the tree, turning on the tunes, and lighting the candles to usher in the Christmas season.  :)

The stockings were hung by the chimney with care….

Culling the Christmas Chaos

When it comes to planning and organizing any event or holiday, the first thing I do is schedule a planning time.  For Christmas this year, that fell on the last Monday of November (the 26th).  This is when I look at the calendar to see what is already there, and what I will need to accomplish each week of December.  I do this with most months, but this month seems easier to me because there is an ultimate goal or theme in the Christmas season.

Google Calendar is my favorite tool when planning! (notice my office Christmas tree!)

At this point, I knew what weekends were already booked with travel and parties, so I needed to break up the errands and to-dos among the weekends that were less busy.  This past weekend, I knew we wanted to put up the Christmas decorations, get Christmas cards out, and get most of the shopping done.

In order to keep this blog short (which I’ve been attempting to do lately), I will cut each of these weekend goals into a blog post, which I will be linking in my new page on Organization.  Enjoy!

Thanksgiving

Today is Thanksgiving.  What is the first thing that comes to your head when you think about this holiday?  Is it turkey?  Family?  Traditions?  An attitude of gratitude?

This month, I have been posting a picture a day of blessings in my life, some were a little silly and some a little more serious.  I’ve had to take a reprieve from the daily postings because I don’t have my camera connection with me at the moment.  I’ve been feeling guilty, not posting like I was.  My stress level was rising.

Then I stepped back to look at what I was doing.  I was treating gratitude like a trendy commodity.  There is nothing wrong with being thankful for what you have, but it was all about the presentation.  It was about the clever words and perfected pictures.

I will probably catch up with my pictures this month, but hopefully I can keep this thought in mind.

My thankfulness should be more than a 30 day list of blessings.  It’s more than lip service on a Thursday afternoon.  It’s about my words and my actions.  It’s living a life of continued gratitude.  And it’s something I am still learning every day.