Decorations

I love decorating for Christmas, because for some reason the home feels even more homey. (Is that even a word?  Well, I suppose it is now.)  It just makes me happy and festive when my house is decorated.

The tree is up, and Nathan keeps "oo"ing and "ah"ing.  So far he's been content to just point at the ornaments, but I know it's just a matter of time until he'll want to play with them, so the breakable ornaments are all at the top of the tree.  Luckily he's still small enough that he doesn't care if it's a big tree or not, so we can still put it up on the end table and have it be mostly out of his reach.

We also got our Nativities out.  Nathan loves pointing at Baby Jesus and the animals.   

And of course there's the cute nativity (on the left) that my mom brought back for us from Puerto Rico.

Ornament Traditions

When Joel and I got married my mission president's wife sent us this ornament with an explanation of a tradition they had in their family with choosing ornaments each year.  Joel and I decided to do the same.  Each year we choose an ornament that has a specific meaning for us.  At first it was a fun way to try to fill up our barren tree, but now it's so much more fun each year looking at all of the ornaments that bring back memories.

We started with these ornaments from our honeymoon in Gatlinburg, Tennessee.  We stayed in a cabin that was Smokey Mountain themed with tons of black bears- hence the 2 ornaments.

Another example would be our glass Hershey kisses.  We bought them at HersheyPark Candylane to remember our time living in Hershey and also as a reminder of taking my Select Choir to sing there every Christmas.

We also try to remember to get an ornament to remember our vacations- this one is from our trip to Williamsburg, Virginia two years ago.

This year Joel and I got a Buckeye Brutus because of our move to Columbus, Ohio.  Nathan's ornament is from the Columbus Zoo, because it's just about his favorite place ever.

Well, enough reminiscing-  I'm off to go sing some Christmas Carols as we decorate the tree.

Potter Review

We went to see Part One of "The Deathly Hollows" last night, and I have to say that it was intense, time flew by, and it did a really good job of sticking to the book.  I'm glad they've decided to split the book into two movies, so that they can do justice to the intricate plot. 
I will say that it was by far the scariest and darkest of the Potter movies yet.  My major complaint was actually about the movie viewers- not the movie.  A family with 3 children (I'm guessing ages 8, 5, & 2) sat in the row in front of us and I seriously could not believe they brought a toddler to this movie.  The poor boy is going to have nightmares for weeks.  It was most definitely not a kid's movie.  I mean seriously- I jumped quite a few times (the snake part, for instance) and it's all about destruction and death.  Why in the world would you take your little children to see that?  Ok- I've said my piece.  The movie was good.  Joel said it was probably his favorite of all the Harry Potter movies, and now all there is to do is wait for the final installment coming in July.  While I'm waiting for that I can enjoy the next installment of Narnia that comes out at Christmastime.  :)

Happy 4 Years!

Today is our 4th wedding anniversary, and what a wonderful, crazy four years of marriage it's been.


Joel had my quilt professionally quilted as an anniversary gift, and it turned out absolutely adorable!  I'm thrilled with the job they did at Red Rooster Quilts.  

My favorite is the bottom border of the hands and feet.  I'll give the final reveal when I finish it and hang it on the wall.  How fun!  Happy anniversary to me! 

Hungry Reading

My husband and I have completely different reading styles.  Joel usually has about 4 to 5 books he's reading at a time.  He reads maybe a chapter from one and then reads a couple of pages from another.  It takes him usually a couple months to finish a book.  His ADD probably has quite a bit to do with this approach to reading.  I am the exact opposite.  When I like a book I read it continually until it's done- usually in 24 to 48 hours (depending on how busy of a schedule I have at the time).  He makes fun of me for the number of books I fly through.  I can't help it though.  I love reading.

This summer I was introduced to the trilogy of books that begins with The Hunger Games.  I instantly fell in love with these books and read each of them in under 24 hours.  They are by far the best books I've read this year.  I told Joel he absolutely had to read them, but he usually tunes me out when I start talking about books (in fact, he tells me he has no recollection of me talking to him about these books whatsoever), so summer passed by and our lives continued on.  Until....a friend this past weekend starting talk to Joel about the books and it piqued his interest.  He started reading the first book Sunday afternoon and finished it the next day.  Welcome to the 24 hour club, sweetheart!  I was shocked, because I've never seen him engrossed in a book like that- ever!  He came down to breakfast this morning with the second book in his hands, and it made me laugh.  He blames me for his addictive reading behavior.  It looks like my baby has come over to the dark side after all. :)
If you haven't read these books I really recommend them.  They kept me biting my nails all the way through to the end.  I confess I wasn't completely satisfied with the ending, but if you get to that point we'll discuss it- I don't want to give anything away!

Fabulous Prizes

 As a participant of the Bloggers Quilt Festival I won a prize!  This is seriously exciting because I never win anything.  I can't think of anytime except maybe when winning a gold fish at the school fair in kindergarten that died on the way home.  I got the Pure Fat Quarter Bundle from Above All Fabric!  It has some really adorable fabric that happens to normally be way above my price range (clearance at Jo-Ann's, anyone?), so I'm going to have to come up with a cool quilt for this fabric.  Oh the possibilities! :)

Sweet Times

A trip to Pennsylvania just would not have been complete without a trip to our friend's new cookie shop.  I was so sad when it opened AFTER we moved out of the state, so it was great to see her and her family and enjoy some amazingly, delicious cookies.  It was a quick drive by, but SO worth it!

If you haven't ever tried Missy's Ugly Cookies hop on over to her website and have some shipped to you today!  I have to say my favorite thing was the pumpkin roll, but in terms of cookies if you love peanut butter and chocolate you absolutely have to try the Pennsylvania Countryside Tango - it blends peanut butter cookie dough & chips w/ chocolate cookie dough & chips. Yum!  It's heavenly!

After our cookie run we came back to Grandma and Grandpa Thompson's home for naptime and some football.  It was the big Ohio State vs. Penn State game.  Our house is a little torn about which team to cheer on since we both have a degree from Penn State, but now Joel's employed by Ohio State.  I stuck with Penn State and Joel went for his new love of Ohio. :)

Dr. Seuss Love

I had been looking for an idea of what to do for the Dr. Seuss quilt I wanted to make for the playroom and then I came across the Country Cabin pattern on Quilt Dad.  The fabrics are completely different and I changed some of the dimensions to fit some of my scraps I wanted to incorporate from previous quilts, but I had a lot of fun making this quilt top.

It obviously needed to go with the rest of the room and also the pillow that I had previously made for the room.  What do you think?  I'm considering sending it out to have the top stitching professionally long armed, because if it's going to be hanging on my wall I want to absolutely love it and not be nit picking about my top stitching job.  We'll see.  I have to convince my husband it's worth the money first. :)  I love you sweetie!!