Christmas Traditions

Don't worry - we'll be setting up our REAL tree this weekend. This was just our place holder :)

I love-love-love Christmas time! I just cannot get enough of any of it - it is seriously the high light of my whole year. My family is big on traditions and I wanted to share some of those with you today.

The season starts off with photos with Santa! My birthday is the 16th, and since my first birthday, I've gone to see Santa on my birthday - at least then we know what day it was and can usually figure out our ages. Here are a few samples:

Back in the golden days when I was an only child ;)

My 21st Birthday

Last year's photo before dinner in town 

Next, my sister and I always open each other presents on Christmas Eve. I think we started that forever ago just because we were too anxious to wait until Christmas morning :) Then she and I slumber party somewhere. We usually to stay in the TV room in the basement because Mom and Dad needed to unload presents in peace, but now we can crash down there and watch 24 Hours of "A Christmas Story" until we fall asleep.

We always go to the 11 o'clock service at church, we call it the Midnight service, and we always sit with our friends we grew up in the church with. (We are usually punchy and get in trouble with our parents for goofing off.

And on Christmas morning, Bonnie usually wakes us all up before 7:30 and the kids open their presents from Santa before rotating around the room and giving the parents a turn. While we're unwrapping, Mom is usually popping the  monkey bread and breakfast casserole in the oven before we head to church for a late lunch/early dinner with the community.

What sorts of traditions do you have?

XX - C

Bedroom Organization

I love our new apartment - I do. It's an old house, with two upstairs apartments and two downstairs. It's a long apartment, but 14 foot ceilings, 10 foot windows, granite countertops, all new appliances -- the owner did a great job with the renovation.

There are "3" bedrooms and one bath - and when we divided up rooms, I got the smallest "room" by default. (Emily had only lived in furnished apartments, and to keep her from having to buy too much furniture  we have her the room with the most built in shelving. Bonnie has a queen size bed and a huge dresser, which would never fit into my room.) So, into the 8x14" room I went. (It would make the most perfect office, really, but for now, it's my room.)

It's not a huge deal really - we spend all of our time in the living room anyways, and plus, my room stays the warmest because it's so darn small. Assuming that was how the rooms would play out, I had mentally downsized my furniture before leaving our last apartment, and it played out fairly well. Lots of my furniture ended up in the living room and hall way - but we're still working on all of that. But here is a look at what I'm working with:

Here is my room (and Avery keeping me company.) I'm hoping for new curtains for Christmas, but you can see I wasn't exaggerating on the dimensions of the room. It is small, but feels cozy when I'm there.

Since my room doesn't have a closet, I invested in a garment rack to use instead. I've always kept my closet organized, I wasn't worried about it getting messy, and I kinda like the way it looks. I found one at Wal-Mart for super cheap and it does exactly what I need it to. I did purge a bunch of clothes before the move though and took them to a local consignment shop.

I'm lucky that I inherited my grandmother's dresser, so I have lots of storage. It's high, but I'm able to keep my jewelry box there and it holds lots of clothes. (I do need to find a new home for those knick-knacks though. The clutter drives me nuts.) (You can also see where I re-purposed a drawer as a shelf for the wall - currently it holds my Logan memorabilia - ticket stubs and what not.)

I have a small night stand I stole from Granny's house as well and painted navy to match my bed. That area is a little crazy, but it's just enough room for what I need it to hold. You can see I have a frame with a photo of me and Logan in Chicago last summer:

and my Army Scentsy warmer:

This is my shoe storage (sorry for the sneak peak at my foot!). First of all, I'm not a big shoe girl to begin with - I like to stick to the basic, classic choices. My Dad built me this under the bed storage a long time ago, and we've always nick named it the "shoe coffin." But, as you can see, it works perfectly for what I need. And they slide neatly under my bed.

So that's a sneak peek! I like to keep my room VERY clean, and with a smaller space, I'm keeping it even neater. I feel like I'm back in college, but then again, in 261 days I'll be getting ready to move into a house with my husband, so it's not so bad :)

Enjoy! XX - C

Recap!

Sorry for the hiatus -- I was out moving Logan down to Fort Benning for him to begin his Basic Officers Leadership Course. I'm definitely sad about having to transition to a long distance relationship, but it's all a part of the military lifestyle and relatively not that long.

Logan will be back in Virginia for the holidays, he'll go home to Indiana for a few days, and we'll do New Years Eve in Atlanta. He'll head back into training, but I have a copy of his schedule. There are some days he'll leave for the field on Monday and I won't get to talk to him again until Friday night, and those weeks will be hard, but I know we'll be OK.

He'll graduate from his BOLC course on Apr. 9 and I already have the 8-10 off from work to go down and see him. That also gives me plenty of time to save up for a plane ticket and rental car - that 10 hour drive yesterday was NOT very fun.

Hopefully that gives him April to get into Airborne and start Ranger School in May. Since he's AG, he'll probably only recycle once or twice, which means he should be good to go and moved onto his base with plenty of time to spare for the August wedding :)

I hope everyones week is going well!

Engagement Photos!

We just got our engagement photos - I wanted to share them!
Logan wore: a hunter green thirst from Ralph Lauren, Levi's, and a blue button up and a navy pull over from Old Navy
I wore: an orange and a blue dress from Gladiola Girls, and leather boots from J Crew
All photos by: Mahalo Photography