December

I cannot believe that tomorrow is December y'all. Time is flying by at a ridiculous pace. The holidays are my favorite time of year, it's just hard to believe they're already here! I am so excited to do all my favorite Christmastime things like watch holiday themed movies while burning my holiday themed candles. Who am I kidding? I've been burning my holiday themed candles since November 1st! I've already finished off my Christmas Cookie scent and moved on the Cinnamon Stix. Yankee Candle holiday scents are my fav! I love curling up with a cup of hot chocolate to watch a movie and have one of those scents burning. You know you have a favorite holiday candle :)

Next week I'm going to get going on my Christmas shopping. I'm super organized with it this year, rather than simply making a list to highlight (I love highlighting!) I've created a spreadsheet with names, items and prices. A bit nerdy, but I really want to keep track of how much I spend at Christmas and start comparing each year. The following week will be on to one of my other favorite past times of the holiday season. Gingerbread Houses! I love making gingerbread houses. Maybe it's my creative side that can never outgrow it, but I always try to find something new to add to my little house each year. I've already been thinking up ideas. Yup, I take gingerbread house building very seriously.

Just before Christmas, I'll get to do my all time favorite holiday activity. Drive around and look at Christmas lights. I've been doing this since I was kid. My parents took us when we were young and it's just been a tradition I've kept up ever since. I absolutely love this tradition. Listening to Christmas music and drinking hot chocolate while driving through beautifully decorated neighborhoods is just so magical. I usually try to pick a cold night to make it that much more special, although in Texas, sometimes that's not possible so I just crank up the AC and enjoy my hot chocolate in the "cold" regardless of the weather outside.

I always go over to the parent's house one weekend before Christmas and make cookies with my mom. I love doing this too. My brother and I always decorated the cookies when we were younger, now it's just me while mom bakes them all. The my perfectionist/creative side comes out so it usually takes quite a while, but we always have fun and end up eating cookies in the process. We also bake cinnamon rolls just before the 25th to eat Christmas morning. I love this because when I was kid my mom always baked them and I just watched, now I get in on the action and we make them a little more "ooey and gooey and cinnamony". Did you see what I did there with those awesome culinary terms? I also absolutely LOVE eating cinnamon rolls. Or almost anything with cinnamon really. So, yeah Christmas morning cinnamon rolls are my fav.

Hope you're all as excited for December as I am! :)

xoxo
kris

Turkey!

Thanksgiving really can't be just a few short days away, it doesn't seem possible, time could not have flown by so quickly. But, it has. Last year my holidays, starting with Thanksgiving, were a little shooken up and took a different course than usual. This year, while I'm not getting back to the usual schedule, I am getting to celebrate the holidays in a more normal fashion and I'm very excited about it. Last year, I never really got into the spirit until right before Christmas so it was hard for me to enjoy things- there were a lot of issues going on, none of which will be discussed on this here blog, so hopefully with many of those things behind me I can get back to a slightly different, but more normal routine.

I'm going to help my mom cook Thanksgiving supper on Thursday morning (after I wake up early and go for a nice run since it's going to be like 75 degrees outside). I'm really excited! Since I haven't had Thanksgiving at my parent's house in a while, and she hasn't cooked it in a while, we're trying some new methods. Rather than a huge bird for the three of us we're just doing seasoned turkey breasts and some of the usual culprits for side dishes. I'm also going to roast some of my favorite veggies and make cilantro/lime black beans to mix with them. I know you're thinking "what tha?!" but I love veggies and black beans together and we're just having fun this year. Rather than making desserts, I ordered a pie from my little buddy Jayce when his baseball team was doing a fundraiser with Pie in the Sky Pies in Conroe. They were so sweet to deliver the pecan pie I ordered on Saturday (plus I got to visit with Tami and little Miss so it was a win win). I can't wait to try the pie, it looks super delish! My boys are playing Thursday night against the Jets, so I'll be watching that while I'm being lazy from eating all the food. I'm pretty excited. I'm sure the parents and I will get a game or two of scrabble in there somewhere, it's what we always did on holidays. :)

Something not holiday related, but that I'm also looking forward to, is seeing Breaking Dawn Part 2 on Wednesday night with Isabel. We've been holding out waiting for the crazies to get their fix so the theater is less crowded and ridiculous. I'm kind of over the whole series, but I do have to see the movie just to see it. I know, that sounds silly. I have heard they changed some stuff, specifically the ending so I'm looking forward to that. I'm kind of hoping someone dies or something just to really change things up. We shall see!

I'm working through Wednesday, although the students don't have class Wednesday so it's kind of silly for the University to be open, but oh well. I will be the only one in the office that day so I can play some Christmas music and really enjoy being in the holiday spirit this year. The guys in the office aren't really the holiday types. Anyway, I usually get my fix with the music on the way to work, so I'm kind of stoked to be able to listen to it all day long in the office!

What are your Thanksgiving plans? I am very thankful this year, for many, many things so we'll just leave it at that. I am very thankful. My goal this holiday season is to try and spread some holiday spirit/awesomeness whenever possible. I'm going to start carrying Christmas cards with me and anytime I'm at the store (or anywhere really) and someone seems like they could use a pick me up, the cashier looks entirely overworked, or maybe just another patron who seems overly stressed I will give them a card and hopefully brighten their day just a little. I've thought about even putting a little Starbucks card in a few, for someone who seems like they could really use it. Nothing too fancy or expensive just a little something to let people know there's someone out there that cares. Hopefully this will inspirse some of you to come up with your own "holiday spirit spreaders" or you can even use this one, I don't mind! (plus it's not like I invented it or anything hehe) I think we should all focus on getting back to the holiday spirit rather than just shopping and not really focusing on family/friends and what the holidays really mean.

Sorry, didn't mean to go off on a tangent. Talking about the holidays makes my head spin into so many different directions... maybe I have ADD. haha. Anyway, hope you all have a very fabulous Thanksgiving with your family, friends, volunteering, by yourself, or however you choose to spend this holiday. Just remember to be safe, especially if you have drinks!

xoxo,
kris

Toes in the Sand

Sorry for the lack of posts, I've been uber busy lately! I know that's no excuse, but there ya go. The first weekend in November I spent running errands and finishing up a wreath that was ordered. And by running errands, I mean running around like a chicken with my head cut off getting everything ready for my vacation/destination wedding in the islands! I was so pumped. Obviously, I was so extremely stoked to be part of Dev's wedding but also to go to Grand Cayman and stay at the Ritz? Who would not be ready to shoot out the door for that?! The weather was perfect, other than a front that brought in some major wind for the majority of our trip. But, the sun was shining the entire time and it was beautiful. The ceremony and dinner following it were both held directly on the beach at the Ritz so it was very fabulous, especially with the sunset in the background. Definitely the most beautiful scene I've come across in real life. The rehearsal dinner was on a deck overlooking the water as well. Everything was really just perfect. We spent the days laying on the beach being waited on with drinks and yummy food. The only thing I wish we could have done was visit Stingray City. It was so windy that it didn't work out for snorkeling over there. Oh well, I'll just have to go back in the near future ;)

 

Laying out at the Ritz

The hotel (just one little part) it was HUGE! It went across the street with a sky bridge and everything.

 

Our travel agent was awesome and requested for my room to be near Dev's, and since they received an upgrade, I did as well! We were all supposed to be "garden/resort view" across the street, but we our upgrad got us beach side with ocean views. (and a living room!) :)

 

Dev had the cutest little bags waiting in our rooms for us and they included this super awesome potholder that her mom quilted. Love it!

 

The ceremony was literally right on the beach. They did a great job with simple, classy decorations.

 

Here comes the beautiful bride!

 

Her flowers were gorgeous! (and there's me holding my dress down in the wind lol)

 

The table cloth blew up right when the picture was being taken, after 3 tries, we gave up haha.

 

More amazing beach. Look at that water! :D

 

I have been converted to a beach person after this trip, however, only clear/blue water beaches. So pretty.

 

The last day I drove around with a couple people that were on my flight to tour the island before heading to the airport. The water/beach was so different on different sides of the island.

 

The water was still clear, but not as deep of a blue and no white sand. We definitely had the best beach at our hotel!

 

Here's our little rental car. It was actually very roomy on the inside. The Caymans are Brittish Isles so we had to drive on the left, so different! I don't think I could have done it, thanks Roger! :)

 

While driving around, we stopped at Rum Point for lunch.

 

They had this hilarious sign hanging at the bar, LOVE IT! Having been in the food service industry for many years, I wish I could have said smartass things like this to people often!

 

 

 

Well that's all the pics I have for now. I still have to load my camera photos to my computer, these are just from my ipad. I really loathe loading my outdated point and shoot photos. Maybe Santa needs to bring me a new big girl camera? haha! Anway, hope you're all doing well and fall is kicking off with a bang for ya. I can't believe Thanksgiving is less than a week away! I mean really, where does the time go?

 

xoxo,

kris