Merry Christmas to ME!

I had a fantastic Christmas, ya'll! I mean, really. REALLY. My husband is always so good to me but especially at Christmastime. :) He loves surprising me with stuff and this year was no exception.

The main thing was my gorgeous handmade jewelry box. For about the last month and a half or so, I've not been allowed in the workshop. Well, I haven't been allowed to look in the workshop, for that matter. Top-secret stuff and all that.

THIS is why...

Is this not absolutely beautiful??  My.husband.made.this.  For.me.  He never ceases to amaze me with his skills and talents.  I can't tell you how many times I've told him how proud I am of him.

He got a few photos of me with it on Christmas morning...

But that's not all!  Well, that was PLENTY for me but THIS is what I found when we got home from Lexington Saturday...

A brand new kitchen table and chairs!  I TOTALLY didn't see this coming.  No, Jeff didn't make this himself (although he COULD).  We saw this set at Sam's when we were there recently and it was severely marked down, peeps.  I mean, it was a steal.  But we were there for something else and decided not to get it.  But I SO wanted it!  I mean, I really, really wanted it.  Jeff did, too.  This style is exactly what I've been wanting.  And it was so cheap.  But we didn't get it.

Little did I know that my husband had other plans.  God love him.  :)  While we were out of town, he had one of his friends come in and set it up so it would be set when we got back into town.  I was SO surprised!  REALLY surprised.  And so happy!

I hope that your Christmas was just as blessed and full of fun times and love from family & friends as mine was.  My prayer is that your new year, 2010, will be just as full of blessings and love.

'tis the season!

It's time once again for my annual Christmas decorations post. As is usually the case, I've had my decorations up for awhile and have taken photos here & there of different things. And I'm just now getting around to posting them. Better late than never, I guess.

I have a couple of *new* things this year so I really only took a few photos of those things to share. This photo shows a paper craft that I picked up here for only $5 -- I thought it would be a fun thing to create myself to put out for Christmas. I think it's really cute and I had really hoped that it would last through Christmas and maybe for a few years at least. However, I've been observing it slowly come "unraveled" -- by that I mean, every day there are a few more ornaments that have fallen off the slowly lowering "branches" and the ornaments themselves are slowly separating (they are just 2 stickers stuck back to back). I just keep *fixing* things here and there but I can't imagine how I'm going to store the thing until next year. We'll see.

My tree is not new however the beautiful tree skirt underneath certainly is. I have been looking for a few years now for just the right tree skirt -- something that fits me and my style and more importantly, my tree's style.

Yes, my tree has style, peeps. As if you couldn't tell, duh. :)

So when my mom & I were out shopping the day after Thanksgiving this year, we came across this tree skirt that is SO me, and it very nearly screamed to be chosen to go home with me. And so it did. Go home with me. It's hard to see in the photo but the lime-ish green has small "scrollies" all over it and the red & white parts are kind of like Santa's hat -- velvety and all that. Isn't it perfect?

Also, I would be remiss if I didn't point out the BEAUTIFUL bow that tops my tree this year. I typically have a gold star on top but this year my mom made this bow for me with ribbon we found on our shopping spree the day after Thanksgiving. Is it not the prettiest thing? She's so talented. :)

The other thing I acquired this year was this sweet little wire tree that my mom picked up for me "because it's your colors and it was just, well, you". My mom is just the best. :) Cute, huh?

I hope you guys are getting everything all ready for your Christmas gatherings without all the stress that inevitably comes with the season. I, for one, have been trying to really keep my focus on what Christmas is all about and what Christ really did when He came as a baby in the manger all those many years ago. May you be blessed this Christmas season!