Hey guys! I wanted to pop in on this lovely thinking out loud Thursday before signing off for the rest of the year.
Because…it’s almost Christmas!!
I’ve said it many times, but jeez, has this holiday snuck up on me this time around.
In an effort to be more present (but not for more presents, har-har), I’m taking some time off the bloggy-blog to enjoy this special time with my family. I still plan to post occasionally on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter, but I want spend this time making memories and enjoying the few days off work that I do have.
Before I go, I thought I’d share some light-hearted Christmas confessions with you guys…
Christmas Confessions
1. I relentlessly tease my husband for being our very own Clark Griswold, but secretly I love his child-like exuberance for Christmas decorations and his diligence to set up the best display on the street.
2. For all but one or two of my years Earth, I’ve left milk and cookies “for Santa.” And now that I have a child of my own, I don’t have to stop doing it! It’s fun being a kid at heart…
3. I’ve gained 2 pounds since November. Guess it’s the wine, cookies, and candy…oh well. It is what it is (refer to this post for why I don’t fret about it).
Christmas is for eating ALL THE FOODS…including my salty + sweet snack mix!
4. As much as I love receiving Christmas cards in the mail, we totally didn’t send out any this year. Oops. I promise we’ll get some family photos scheduled well before the holidays next year.
5. I love the idea of giving gifts—especially when I am able to completely surprise one of my loved ones with the perfect gift—but I absolutely hate, no, loathe, the pressure of holiday shopping. Plus, my family members are SO DIFFICULT TO BUY FOR!!! (I’m talking to you, dad and Mark!)
6. I think I’ve mentioned this before, but my favorite Christmas gift was a hardback copy of Pride and Prejudice from Mark. It was a few months after we started dating, and he “rescued” the book from his flooded home after Hurricane Katrina, knowing that I was a Jane Austen fan. I will always cherish that book—and the relationship that it symbolizes.
7. We didn’t really do any Christmas shopping FOR OUR ONLY SON until 2 weeks before Christmas. It’s not because we don’t love him, but it’s just hard! How do you shop for a child who already has his own toy store at home? You’ll be happy to know that he will receive plenty of special gifts—and LOVE—this Christmas.
See? Gifts! We do care about him…. 😉
8. I don’t like fruitcake (do you?).
9. I do like coffee with Bailey’s Irish Crème and a candy cane for stirring—it’s more Christmas-y to me than cider or mulled wine.
10. One day I want to experience a real white Christmas. Whether we visit the mountains of Tennessee or take a vacation to NYC, I want the snow!
11. My favorite Christmas movie is Love Actually—but I’m also a huge fan of Elf. Always makes me laugh.
12. I’m stealing this idea from Peanut Butter Fingers, but here are some of my favorite Christmas ornaments. Some are fancy, some are just plain silly, but they all represent a special time in our lives.
- “Our First Christmas” as a married couple <3
- Tabasco (because it’s the ubiquitous southern hot sauce)
- Penguins (Mark and I just love penguins and these 2 are supposed to be us)
- “You should read my blog” (no explanation needed)
- “Number 1 gymnast” from my level 4 state meet! Since Mark kept a couple of his childhood ornaments, I convinced my parents to give me this one.
- Peabody ducks from our “babymoon” in Memphis when I was pregnant with Bazooka
- “Baby’s First Christmas,” even though we have like 5 first Christmas ornaments (we were over-zealous), this one is my favorite because it includes an early sonogram image of our little dude.
- Iggy! This was our sweet Iggy’s first Christmas ornament. Now we have a couple dachshunds on the tree, but this one is special.
I hope those of you who celebrate have a beautiful, bright, and MERRY CHRISTMAS and a NEW YEAR that is full of many blessings!
#Christmas Confessions + other thoughts... #TOL Share on XSo tell me…
- What is one of your Christmas confessions?
- What’s on your Christmas list this year?
- What’s the story behind your favorite ornament(s)?
I’m not even sure NYC is goign to have snow this year! It used to always be a winter wonderland in Pittsburgh and now it’s never snowing for Christmas. This year the high is 58, what! I don’t like fruit cake, and that Pride and Prejudice gift is so adorable! We packed away presents from Annabelle’s 1st bday in October and are giving her numerous of those for Christmas, ha!
Smart idea with the bday presents! It ended up being 70-something on Christmas day – I could’ve worn shorts and a t-shirt. 🙁 Oh well…
You know, I just have to share one thing that my family does to make shopping for “difficult people” SO MUCH easier. We have an Amazon Prime membership, and one of the features is that everybody is able to make their own wishlist. Throughout the year we just add items that we like to our list, and come Christmas/birthdays, it’s so easy to just check out everybody else’s list and either buy the exact thing off it or get some inspiration. It’s truly a lifesaver when it comes to buying for people like my dad, who’s very specific in what tool-thingy he wants. I know this sounds like I’m being sponsored by Amazon or something, but I’m not! It’s just a really handy tip I thought I’d share.
I actually ended up ordering a couple gifts off my husband’s amazon wish list. We should all do that next year – it really is a good way to track things you actually want. 🙂
One of my favorite Christmas ornaments is my Paris ball. I bought it in France when I helped chaparone my daughters class trip.
Love our Paris ornaments and the memories of that trip! <3
That Christmas sweet and salty mix is right up my alley.
And I’m Jamaican – in my country, we take christmas fruitcake to a whole different level. it would be sacrilege for any Jamaican to say they don’t like fruitcake. Haha.
I bet I could get behind an authentic Jamaican fruitcake, but those processed, perfectly rectangular things in the states? Bleh.
My Mom made these beautiful cloth Christmas ornaments; those are my very favorites!
And I have to confess that I might have gained weight this holiday season, but I don’t weight myself anymore. O_O Is that a bad thing?
Merry Christmas Catherine! I hope it’s a wonderful time with family celebrating Jesus Christ!
Homemade ornaments are the best! I hope you had a beautiful Christmas, Emily! (And it’s definitely not a bad thing.)
I love how ornaments all tell a story. My mum is a teacher and every year she gives her whole class an ornament with their name and the year written on it. And so many of them still have them years later when they bump into my mum.
I still have some of my ornaments from kindergarten! Those are so special – I bet your mom loves hearing that from her old students.
I haven’t weighed myself since Thanksgiving- I’m waiting until after the new year and enjoying cookies in the meantime. 🙂
Good plan! I’m enjoying lots of cookies, too and plan to until they’re gone. 🙂
The best decision we ever made for gift-giving with my family is to draw names for our own secret Santa and only buy for that person. Takes the pressure off! Also, if it makes you feel any better there will be no white Christmas in Tennessee. It’s supposed to be 71 degrees on Sunday ?
Secret Santa is a great idea. I think if my family was larger, we would do something like that. It was totally in the 70s here, too. I’ll take the heat over the rain any year, though.
Love all your ornaments! I don’t have any of my favorite ornaments up this year because… toddler! Our tree is a disaster lol.
I do not like fruitcake. This is so weird but my family gave a fruitcake for a present a few years ago for a white elephant gift exchange. Well, we made it a joke to keep giving that fruitcake – the SAME one – at the white elephant every year. Someone always gets screwed with this OLD gross fruitcake that is from like 5 years ago now. It has somehow still not molded. It’s kind of hilarious though.
I hope you enjoy your time off!
We put all of the “ugly” and non-breakable ornaments at the bottom of the tree for that reason 🙂
That is hilarious about the fruitcake! And disgusting 😉
some christmas confessions: i’ve never seen love actually, never tried eggnog, and don’t like fruit cake either! and i haven’t watched any xmas movies yet!
Hope you got to watch some Christmas movies! And you aren’t missing much by not having tried eggnog. I like it maybe once during the holidays, but then I get sick of it really quick.