Christmas & New Years: Catching Up

Ever since Tuesday of last week I've been on break from my blog. I had pre-planned and pre-scheduled posts ready to go for almost every day for the last two weeks. It was so stressful for me to do that, but in the end I found myself extremely grateful. My schedule has been jam-packed and I have barely been home long enough to think … let alone post. As fate would have it, I finally managed to get a break just in time for Justin to return to work. It would seem our schedules completed collided this holiday season.

Nevertheless, I wanted to share with you a few pictures of what we've been up to. None of them are styled, pre-planned, or taken with my DSLR, but they should provide a bit of insight into what our lives have been like the past two weeks.

We were so late getting Christmas cards out this year. Initially we bought all of the pieces and had a plan set in place shortly after Thanksgiving. Justin was going to sew around the edges of the gold cardstock while I cut the trees out, glued everything together, decorated the trees with beads, and used a typewriter to put our return address on the backs of the envelopes. After the card was put together, Justin anticipated embossing a message using a stamp, gold ink, and glitter.

As the days went by and we got closer and closer to Christmas, we minimized our card ideas trying to keep the cards as simple as possible. We were out of town the first weekend in December. Then I found myself working every weekend that month. When I wasn't working I felt sick or we had shopping or baking to do. It was seriously non-stop. Finally, two days before Christmas we set to work on these cards. During my last day of blog posting before Christmas, I was seriously wondering if our cards would be sent before Christmas. Luckily, our ideas were simple and quick enough that we were able to complete everything within a day. As you can see above, we ended up going with a simple bow on the tree (created on accident when I discovered some ribbon from last year) rather than sewing on a bunch of beads (as ornaments). Embossing was far too complicated a process to be put into practice within two days. Instead, I used some cute Christmas stamps and stuck are cards in the mail hoping they would arrive to at least a few of the homes we sent them to before people went out of town for Christmas.

A photo posted on Dec 12, 2014

After Christmas, we did our traditional post-Christmas shopping. Bloomingdales was having a surprising sale offering 50% off clearance items until 1PM that Friday that we took advantage of. As Justin drove from one mall to another I became enthralled with the gorgeous clouds. One minute the sky looked completely overcast … and the next it was absolutely beautiful. I daydreamed of finding a beautiful landscape to take more photos … and instead found myself capturing the beautiful sunset over the highway instead. *sigh*

A photo posted on Dec 12, 2014

As Monday approached, I found myself daydreaming of my break. I had to return to work, but Justin got to enjoy another two days off. Lucky for me, he just happens to be an amazing husband. First, he got up with me and fixed me breakfast both morning before I made the hour drive to Atlanta. THEN he brought me some Starbucks caramel apple spice (cider) making my day that much better. Of course the most exciting part of the day was a game involving nerf guns and chasing 5 kids around the house … until we all got in trouble. *sigh* It was fun while it lasted.

For New Years eve, Justin and I did a sampling of all of the restaurants in Decatur. We started at Figo eating a Caprese Salad and snacking on some bread with a combination of olive oil and balsamic vinaigrette before moving on to a fancy steak and soup at Parker's On Ponce. (I was extremely disappointed since all I wanted was turf, but I inevitably got surf and turf despite explaining to the wait staff that my surf should be given to Justin. *sigh*) Finally, we ended the night at Java Monkey getting me a mint hot chocolate and Justin a tea before venturing off to watch kids for the remainder of the evening.

To make up for our awful New Years eve dining experience (at Parker's), Justin made me an amazing dish from the book Smashing Plates. He fixed a Greek chicken (with lemon and seasoning), greens, potatoes, and garlic bread with a glass of expensive French champagne. It was soooooooo delicious. I've never really had Greek food, but Justin pulled the simple meal together wonderfully. We ended our meal with a bit of raspberry sorbet mixed with champagne as a cocktail. If you have never done that, I highly recommend it. It is simply divine. :)