Getting in the Christmas Spirit

This month as been a whirlwind of fun! I have lots I want to share with you, but first I wanted to show you our Christmas decor before it's actually Christmas! Then I hope to be back blogging more regularly - iPhoto please work!

Last year I just couldn't get into the Christmas spirit around our house and we didn't even put up a tree. We just didn't feel like dealing with it since we were in a small house and didn't know where to put it, plus we had a 4 month old rascal of a puppy. I know, we were scrooges! But this year has been a 180 for us. I've been really embracing and enjoying the season. Ryan and I put up decorations inside and out the Sunday and Monday after Thanksgiving, I've been listening to Christmas music in my car, and (for the most part) I've felt ahead of the game on gift shopping and wrapping. Maybe it's also because it's our first Christmas in our first home. Or the snow we had last week. Whatever it is I'm liking it and I'm excited to have our own Christmas at home on Christmas Eve Eve. We'll be opening our stockings, cooking dinner, sipping wine (and hot cocoa) and relaxing by the fire. Then we'll be off to Huntsville to spend the rest of the holiday weekend with our families-- wahoo!

Our Christmas tree still all wrapped up in her home for the holidays

In previous years we've had to buy skinny-mini trees since we would take an end table out of the living room to make room

This year I asked for the fattest one they had!

All decorated!

The stockings were hung by the chimney with care

Now it was time to sit back, relax and cozy up by the fire

Other Christmas touches around the house...

It's snowing!!!!

See!!

Sadie was loving it

Merry Christmas to you and yours!

Lord, in this holy season of prayer and song and laughter, we praise you for the great wonders you have sent us: for shining star and angel's song, for infant's cry in lowly manger. We praise you for the Word made flesh in a little Child. We behold his glory, and are bathed in its radiance.

Be with us as we sing the ironies of Christmas, the incomprehensible comprehended, the poetry made hard fact, the helpless Babe who cracks the world asunder. We kneel before you shepherds, innkeepers, wisemen. Help us to rise bigger than we are. Amen.

Master Bath Re-do

Oh I am so excited to show you what we've been working on recently. We found a vanity that we LOVED at one of our favorite shops around town - Nadeau. We were looking for a furniture-looking vanity and knew we wanted a marble top... then we saw this beauty that had it all wrapped up into one.

They had only gotten 2 of these in the store and one of the marble tops had broken, so we knew we had to decide fast if we wanted the 'good one' or not. We went home that night to measure the space and left a voice mail after hours saying "we'll take it!". That night I picked out and ordered a pretty little sink to go on top, a slick new faucet and a new light fixture. And the very next day we went to pick up our new vanity, and that is how the master bath re-do got underway. That next weekend we made our way to Lowes to pick up the supplies to cover the tile on the walls with beadboard and of course wood for the chair rail, corners, etc. We grabbed some primer and white tile paint and got started!

But first let me remind you of the very blue...

BEFORE

Only slightly better, this is how we've been living with it...
BEFORE

The process of putting up beadboard over tile was not as easy as we imagined, and it took much longer than we expected since we obviously couldn't nail into the tile. So one week and 10 tubes of Liquid Nails later...

And I am so proud (as usual) of my hubby and his awesome house renovating skills. He is a miracle worker! He did everything (well I helped a little, but probably was just more in the way) in this bathroom and the only thing we had to pay someone to do is cut the holes in the marble top for the drain and faucet - AWESOME!


One more time...

BEFORE

AFTER

We still have some tweaking to do, i.e. raise and center the light fixture, touch up the paint here and there, re-silicone the shower perimeter, and paint the shower tile solid white (we're digging the blue floor after our transformation so that will stay!). We are LOVING our new master bath!