'Tis The Season:)

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas! Matt and I had such an amazing week. Sorry this post is so long, but I just had so much I wanted to share! Early last week Matt and I went to Roseville to give some family the Christmas baskets we put together. On our way home we went to look at some houses that had light displays set to music. There were entire neighborhoods that were decorated. It was so much fun:) I took a couple pics of my favorites.

On Wednesday night Matt, Mona, Katie and I went to see The Nutcracker in downtown Sacramento. I had never seen it. Matt's dad got us all tickets as a Christmas present and I have to say it was one of the best gifts ever! We were so close I felt like I was part of it! If you have never seen The Nutcracker you should make sure to see it next Christmas. It was absolutely magical. I loved every bit of it. It made me want to live in Christmas forever!

Here we are at the play. I know, I know my head looks enormous lol.

Mona got me a nutcracker ornament to always remember my first time experiencing the magic:) Wasn't that so thoughtful?

Because we spent Thanksgiving with Matt's parents, we spent Christmas Eve with them and Christmas day with my parents. We had such a wonderful Christmas Eve. We played games and had AMAZING enchiladas!

This is the awesome vintage sewing basket Mona gave me for Christmas! Isn't it so pretty? I love it so much. I needed one so bad and this one is so pretty.

The absolute most thoughtful and wonderful gift I received this year was this amazing painting from Danny, my brother-in-law. I don't know if I've ever been so surprised when opening a gift in my life. It's so gorgeous and is the most perfect gift. It's just this amazing piece of original artwork hanging in the perfect spot in our apartment and I know it will always make me feel so special when I look at it:) By the way, I had zero idea Danny was an artist. Imagine my surprise!

This beautiful tin has a homemade candle inside. I love it. It was from Katie:)

Here's some more wonderful gifts. (I felt like a giddy little kid this Christmas with all these goodies to open!) Fluffy socks, knitting markers and an awesome tape measure! My beautiful cousin Sasha got me this gorgeous locket! It was the weirdest thing because I just told Matt how I really wanted a pretty locket that was round instead of heart-shaped for Valentine's Day! Now he is off the hook cause I already have one!

We got so many new books!! Hooray!

We had a great Christmas with my family as well! I was so happy to be home. It had been like 6 weeks since I had been to my parent's house! My mom still treats Christmas morning like we're little kids:)

This is my baby bro and his beautiful girlfriend, Amy:) Aren't they adorable?

Dad and Mom!!!

This is my grandma:) Isn't she elegant? I hope I look as great as her when I'm 76!

My mom and dad got us this much much much needed bookcase! It is so nice to not have random stacks of books in every corner:) Gotta love IKEA!

My mom and dad also got Matt some things he wanted like a juicer, kitchen sheers etc, and they got me a new hair straightener and vanity light and some other things we needed. This was the year of practical gifts from both sides, which I love because there's nothing like getting something you've been really in need of.

We also got this bathroom shelf from IKEA. I thought it looked totally retro and I love having the extra storage.

Amy and Jordan gave us this card with our gift of enormous delicious smelling candles (always a must-have when you live with Matt;) ). Anyways, this sweet little guy looks EXACTLY like Oliver!!! It was my favorite Christmas card ever!

Oliver got a bunch of little gifts from family too! He's already lost some of them but here he is playing with a few. My mom got him this little wand with a glittery feathered ball thingy hanging on a string and I swear it has not left his side since! He broke the ball off of the string and he carries it with him everywhere. He sleeps with it and everything! It cracks us up:)

My sweet 82 year old great Aunt Melba gave me this blanket. It was my great grandmother's (her mom) and she wanted me to have it because I love yellow:) I am so excited about it. It looks so pretty on our bed and it's just the sweetest family heirloom ever. I love it.

This WAS of my Aunt Bev (we all call her Granny, long story) and my Aunt Brenda, but my Aunt Brenda asked me to take it down because she didn't like it of her so now it's just the basket she's holding lol. They are my Mom's sisters. I didn't even think to take a picture of our Christmas baskets we gave out, but Aunt Brenda is holding her's here:) Matt made peppermint bark and the most delicious pickles and I made dishcloths and strawberry jam. We couldn't really afford to do extravagant gifts for everyone, but we thought homemade goodies were fun no matter who you are!

After dinner and gift opening at my parent's we went to Granny's and had dessert and played board games. It was such a good time. We played the most fun game ever called Pass the Popcorn. I highly recommend it for anyone looking for some good laughs:) Of course, my movie buff hubby won. We also played Apples to Apples, which was even more hilarious. All in all it was the perfect end to a perfect Christmas. What if Jesus would have never been born? I'm so thankful that He was and that He has blessed me with such a wonderful family and wonderful life:)

On the 27th I turned 25... The night before we met my friends out in my hometown, Gridley. We all get together pretty often throughout the year, but we make it a point to see each other during the holidays every year. It's so weird how old we are all getting. We had sooo much fun:) I love my Gridley High Class of 2003 friends!

I'm the blonde one... lol;)

On the day of my birthday Matt and I went and picked up our baby cat at his Grandma and Grandpa's (Matt's parents haha) and then came home and relaxed. It was perfect. Obviously no birthday is complete without a piece of yummy chocolate cake and your favorite chocolate gelato from your honey:)

Early Christmas Surprises!

    On Friday Matt said he was going to run to Dixon, which is about 5 miles from Davis to go get a few groceries. I kept insisting that I would go myself or at least go with him, but he said he wanted me to stay home and continue working on my knitting (I've been like a crazy, yarn covered knitting machine since I totally procrastinated and left a lot to the last minute). I was pretty anxious to get what I had going done so I agreed and he left when he got off work around 4:30. I ended up falling asleep on the couch at about 6, thinking that Matt would be home any minute and he would wake me up. When I woke up at 8:30 and Matt still wasn't home! I called him and he said that he had to help his sister get her car out of 4-wheel drive. Well I'm not stupid so I knew that was total bull! I got really mad and made a big deal about how it has never taken anyone 4 hours to do what he was saying he did and that he better start telling the truth! I absolutely trust Matt fully, but the whole thing wasn't making the tiniest bit of sense. Of course, I didn't even think for a second that he might have been shopping for Christmas gifts because we agreed not to buy each other anything. I automatically thought he had rear-ended someone and didn't want to tell me!
     Matt felt so bad and overwhelmed with questions when he got home that he folded and said he was picking up Christmas surprises. I felt like the biggest a-hole on earth! After he told me it was for Christmas he got really excited and said that he was just going to give them to me now! I obviously didn't object because now I was super excited too! hahaha:)
     He ran downstairs and came back and told me to close my eyes. When I opened then there was a router sitting in my lap. The funny thing about that is I was truly excited because we really needed a new router! hahaha. Then he pulled a box through the front door with a new laptop in it!!!!!! I was seriously so excited I could have peed. Immediately after I saw it he brought in a printer/photo printer! I was like jumping I was so excited. THEN he took out of his coat pocket...... JULIE AND JULIA!!! I literally screamed at this point.
     It was like the best surprise ever because I was not expecting it at all, not even a little tiny bit. I felt like such a jerk for getting so mad. I feel like an even bigger jerk because I thought when we said we weren't getting each other presents we really meant it so I haven't even thought of anything to get him.... I felt so guilty for getting snappy with him when he was out doing all of this for me that I completely burst into full on sobs. LOL! Couldn't he have just said he got stuck in terrible traffic? Men...

Now that I got that long story out of the way I'll tell you about the rest of our fabulous weekend:) After all the surprises and after playing around on my new, 18" screen, AMAZING laptop and printing out photos on the best printer ever (seriously the quality of the photos is better than when I order them off Snapfish or have them printed at Walgreens!) we got cozy in bed and watched Julie and Julia. It was even more wonderful than it was in the theatre. I honestly think that movie is one of the best movies I've ever seen. It is just delightful. I can't think of another word that describes it better. I'm sure you've all seen it but if you haven't drop what you're doing right now and run to go rent it! You wont be sorry:)

I think my favorite thing about this movie is the relationship between Julia and Paul Child. I am always fascinated by couples that are so happy and romantic throughout their entire married lives. What could be more wonderful in life than having years and years of a blissful, loving, wonderful marriage. I hope Matt and I will adore each other always like Julia and Paul adored one another. I read somewhere that they really, truly were like that. Neither of them were the least bit attractive, they looked so funny together, and yet when I look at these pictures I want us to be just like them, ya know? I want everyone Matt and I meet to automatically assume that we are newlyweds 20, 30, 50 years from now.

So Friday was just wonderful and Saturday was possibly even better. We lounged around and napped all day. Saturday evening we got all dressed up and went to see the most beautiful Christmas play I've ever been privileged enough to see! Matt surprised me with tickets a couple weeks ago (he loves his little surprises!) and I could not have imagined how great it would be. The lights, the story, the singing all of it was just over-the-top amazing. It was at Capital Christian Center in Sacramento. The play was called The Singing Christmas Tree: A Merry Olde Christmas!  Our seats were right in the front and center! I really think I have the best husband in the world.... right after Paul Child that is:) Best weekend ever!

One Wreath, Two Ornaments and a Patridge in a Pear Tree

The beautiful and wonderful Sara at Poppy in Love found this gorgeous wreath from KnocKnocking's Etsy shop. She posted about how she wanted to make one with her own flare. I loved it so much that I totally stole her idea and made one to hang in our home this Christmas. I know, I know I hate people like me that steal good ideas... But, isn't that kind of what the whole blog world is about? :) Anyways, I wanted to keep it pretty similar because the original is just simply stunning. The only thing I did differently was use more traditional Christmas colors and just use my own stuff I found to decorate the left side. I am so happy with the way it turned out. It was really easy to do and ended up only costing like $25 dollars in supplies. I had a lot of the stuff so all I really needed were some fun Christmasy balls and leaves, the styrofoam wreath and this pretty bird I found at Target for like $4! I hope you like!

I just wrapped the foam wreath in yarns I liked. I'm not going to lie. This took like 3 hours lol.

I made all roses for the flowers. I used felted fabric, velvet and a little silk for the flowers and some of the leaves.

I had been searching forever for some special ornaments for us and Oliver:) I wanted a first ornament for our new little addition and I also wanted an ornament to represent our first Christmas as a married couple. I found these at the wonderful place I told you about, William Glen! Both of these ornaments are absolutely perfect! I love the little kitty because he totally looks just like Oliver! The bride and groom swans were my favorite thing in the store. I HAD to have them! I was so excited! I've gone slightly bird crazy this year. I love birds!

These Are A Few Of My Favorite Things:)

So I finally got my house decorated a few days ago! These are some of my favorite little things that I've accumulated and, of course, below is our very first Christmas tree! We had so much fun decorating it. We listened to Christmas music, strung popcorn and had hot chocolate. We are probably the dorkiest couple on earth, but we have fun being dorky:) I hope you enjoy looking at our Christmas cheer as much as we do!

(Above is the little countdown that Mona got me the other day! Isn't it super vintage looking and adorable?

I wanted to make a tree that was very old fashioned. I think the handmade ornaments, popcorn and candy canes give it that simplistic look and the balls add a bit of elegance.

I got the pattern for these partridge ornaments at Connecting Threads website. They're like a pretty quilt for your tree in the shape of birds! I've gone slightly bird crazy this year. I love birds. Matt and I made them together. They were super fun and easy and cheap!

We got these pearl lights at Target! Aren't they so pretty? I love them because they look like pearls and then they are big and pretty when they are lit!

I was going to make a tree skirt but I found this one at Joanne's so I just got it because whatever I would have made wouldn't have been this perfect under our tree. I love it because it's knitted. 

Like I said... Total dorks!

So far Oliver has been really good about not getting too crazy with the tree. He likes to knock down the birds on the bottom and play with them but that's okay with me because he's just too cute to get mad at:)

This is my little snowman that my Aunt Bev (I call her Granny) gave me a couple of years ago:) I love his rosy checks and his scarf! So darling!

I got Matt this ornament/magnet last year for Christmas. We put a picture of us in a car in there so it looks realistic haha. 

 Remember these felt snowflake ornaments I got a while ago? They ended up being way too big for the tree so I just put some of them in frames to dress up the wall for winter. I thought they looked cute like this but I dunno...

I got a bag of cinnamon scented pine cones at Raley's and Matt sprayed them silver. I was going to hang them on the tree but I didn't like the way they looked so I put them in the center of our table. They smell so so yummy:)

I found this at Hallmark for Matt a couple years ago. Isn't it just precious? I love it snow much:)