christmas eve. the good the bad & the ugly

yesterday started out great

but in an effort to keep it real, i'll give you the whole story.

savannah received a large packet from the honors program

at UGA

inviting her to their program!!!

that's huge.

obnoxious mom alert here

please forgive me

but supposedly 2% of students are actually invited.

so proud of that girl!!!

we got all ready to head out to our church's Christmas eve service.

took pics with each of my girls

which is a rarity in itself!

the weather was beautiful & in the 50's...my kinda winter i'll admit!

the service was great but ran a bit late.

no biggy right?

so we stopped in to waffle house for a quick bite.

which turned into the dinner from hell.

which honestly is not the usual drama at waffle house

(& yes tesha, i do eat at waffle house!)

we waited & waited & waited

only then to be served the wrong food.

it was ridiculous.

one of the girls accidentally spilled cherry coke all over dan.

& i do mean, all over dan.

i snapped at one of the girls on the way out.

got in the car & tried to simmer down.

i was the one  in charge of my disposition

not waffle house.

just all that & pms on the same night, not a good mix.

came home

at 9flippin30

feeling the night slipping away

did two loads of laundry

( for said cherry coke drenched clothing)

took a hot bath & realized i needed to adjust my 

crappy attitude.

the girls were resilient 

& inspired me to choose a happy disposition.

we hid the pickle ornament in the tree

& timed each of them as they searched for it.

the winner being able to open the first gift

on christmas morning

& choose their favorite bag of candy.

caroline had declared her domination only to be shut out by big sissy.

a little consolation cup of milk & we were back in business.

on a serious note,

my heart has been completely full of thoughts & prayers for

my sweet friend edie.

( click on hyperlink to read her story)

she lost everything in her home as it burned to the ground a few days ago.

her family is safe

& i rejoice in that.

however, my heart is broken for all she lost.

i can't imagine.

i described edie to my family as an amazing woman.

she is a historian , making the simple moments in her home magnificent.

a family practice physician who recently left her practice to stay home & raise her family.

she does all things

& does all things well.

gorgeous, intentional, brilliant, spiritual,amazing mom.

she has been a huge inspiration to me.

please remember her in your prayers.

ps....i just looked outside & its snowing!!!

a Christmas miracle in Atlanta

i may prefer my 50 degrees but snow on Christmas is magical

Merry Merry Christmas to each of you
your comments, emails & friendships have blessed me immeasurably!!

xo

have yourself a merry little christmas

Luke 2.14

Glory to God in the highest heaven

and on earth

peace to those on whom his favor rests.

my prayer is that you have a wonderful holiday season

that your home is warm & full of joy

that your heart overflows with love

& that you find peace

Merry Christmas

with love

me

i've shared this before but couldn't resist one more time.

if you're local please come join our church as we celebrate His birth

christmas eve at the gwinnett arena

(here's a clip from last year)

Little Drummer Boy from gfc.tv Videos on Vimeo.

a december evening

i'm that girl.

the one that usually has the tree down by Christmas evening.

it pains me to admit this to you

but as much as i love our home decorated for Christmas

(& i start working on decorating our home mid november)

i love it all cleaned up just as much.

i'm not bah humbug.

promise.

however this year i love love love love the tree

& how its glow reflects on the hardwoods.

it's magical.

really it is.

& i doubt seriously i'll take him down saturday afternoon.

maybe sunday

but definitely not saturday afternoon

in an effort to capture some of the nighttime glory

sans flash

( i am now a converted never user of the flash . i am that girl too)

i switched my white balance to tungsten

& jacked up my iso to 1600.

clearly i still have much to learn to perfect shooting in basically the dark

forgive the blur

as i shoot on aperture priority , still haven't mastered shutter speed.

( coming january 2011)

however i thought they turned out fun

(rounded the corner & found little bit playing with the nativity. precious)

so i told caroline that i wanted to capture brinkley sitting in front of the tree.

alone.

no offense of course.

however being the lover that he is, if you move, he will follow.

so we had to be sneaky.

back up slowly caroline

i don't think he's on to our plan

atta girl

keep backing up

just a little more

that's it

good boy brinkley

yeah

i'm definitely not taking it down saturday

merry merry merry Christmas to you

xo

a little more of december around here

i feel like i have so much more to share before Christmas day

so hold on to your seats as this post may be a bit all over the place!

first of all i must tell you something funny.

i have received a few emails / comments from readers wanting to know why dantheman

isn't in the christmas card.

well....

niether am i!

i'm not sure whether i should be sad that someone would think i'd send a card with everyone in the family

except my honey

or flattered because someone thinks maybe one of the girls was me!

either way...too funny.

to be honest, my face ( and dan's) has only been on the big card

maybe twice.

so please don't think i'm a meany & left off my sweet man!

if you're looking for a last minute quick gift idea

try whipping up some of darby's cinnamon honey butter

seriously delish!

found my little tiny jars at kroger

& cute tags from my sweet friend melissa

years ago when the girls were young

we painted this platter for dan's parents as a gift.

each year when she would pull it out i regretted not making one for myself.

this summer as we packed up their home

we came accross many christmas items,

 many of which i'm certain she forgot she even had.

this one nearly broke my heart

as now

it is mine after all.

this will be dan's first christmas without both his parents.

i know it will be a bittersweet holiday for my tender hearted man.

smk & her sweetiepie under the mistletoe
(snagged from her facebook account)

& one with  her bestie too

i love nativity scenes

maybe i should keep mine out all year.

world's softest tshirt ever

has become a frequent player in my wardrobe

my three favorites literary series

 in order

are

harry potter

chronicles of narnia

& lineage of grace

this book is filled with 5 novellas of  women in jesus lineage.

i will need to do an entire post on this book

amazing

i highly recommend it!

speaking of narnia

(another topic deserving of it's own entry)

i'm also re-reading voyage of the dawn treader

we thought the movie was fantastic!!!

the spiritual connections between aslan and our heavenly father

are beautiful & powerful

we take our christmas drinking cup inventory seriously around here.

we especially love the starbucks collection

that is growing rapidly

remember when i told you i've bought nothing new this year.

well i caved.

these cute little cups from target

made the cut afterall

picked up a couple of these at tjmaxx

some festive tervis tumblers from a fun friend

these are my most absolute fave santa mugs.

a dollar store score from years ago

there may or may not be over a dozen up in my cabinets.

a little best friend gift giving time

( i know i feature smk frequently...but since she's heading to college...one day soon...i am capturing all the fun memories possible)

a little father daughter time

after daddy arrived home late one evening.

thought it was so sweet she didn't want him to be all alone.

madison grace all glammed up for her christmas party

which included a horse &buggy ride through old town norcross.

charming little town for sure!

she is my resident shoe lover

( & yes her eyes really are that blue)

a favorite centerpiece that reads

'twas the birthday of a king'

super fun ornaments from a super fun friend

it will be a sad day in january when i pack these pretties away

was thrilled to be featured on the Holiday with Matthew Mead blog

wow.

seriously you are a rock star reader indeed if you hung in there for that!

xo