CHRISTmas....

So this year - being our first Christmas being married, I wanted Ross and I to buy each other's stockings -Something that reminded us of each other. I really didn't think Ross was really all that into it but he called me about an hour later and said that he already ordered mine. So I had to go searching for what reminded me of him. I looked through TONS of stockings. Hockey ones, Russian ones, Big Green Tractor ones, Jack Johnson ones, Big, small, short, long. You name it. But I finally found the right one and he surprisingly loved it. It was from this etsy seller.

His is burlap - Eco-friendly. :)

I loved mine. Of course -Vera Bradley. Who wouldn't. My sweetie knows me very well. :)

We also got our personalized Christmas ornament. We really want to make this a tradition every year. Something that symbolizes the "big" thing that happened in that year. So obviously, this year was us getting married. I thought it was adorable. A pain to pick out, but totally cute.

(it's kind of a dark picture, but it's a bride and groom in a car-looking at them from the back)

I also wanted to blog about this holiday -What it means, how we should celebrate and what we should remember on Christmas day and all through the Holiday Season. I don't do blogs about my feelings usually - because to be honest I don't like thinking about my feelings. They confuse me at times, so I just choose not to talk about them. But I felt like this was an appropriate time to tell all the people out there (or my sisters, my mother in law and any other random people that read this) how I feel during the holidays. I feel a HUGE amount of gratitude. Gratitude for my family and friends. For the experiences that I've been through - Bad and good. For the blessings that I have received and for the freedom that we all should cherish. I think about all that comes along with this time of year - Cold weather, which always makes me think of warm homes - Family, which always helps me get passed how wacko mine can be and really understand and appreciate everyone of them - thinking about the past year, all the hard times that I've been strong enough to get through and all the good times that I've been blessed with. AND most of all. Jesus Christ. I wish I thought about him more and that's why I wanted to do this post. To show my appreciation to him for his life and for the sacrifice that he made for all of us. So that we can have family, friends, love and happiness. And also so that we can live with him again. He helps me get through my hard times and he helps me enjoy my good times even more. So let's all try to think about him and his life - and try to not think about our own as much this year. Think of others and always remember what he gave so that we could have what we love.

Merry Christmas Everyone! (or happy holidays to my Non-Christian readers)

Cathy (& Ross)

The Tree of Life....

I wanted to post about my birthday and our Christmas decorations, like I promised. I had such a great birthday. My husband completely spoiled me all day and then made all the food for the birthday party. His family drove 3 hours and my family drove 2 to spend the evening eating, talking, and celebrating my birth. It was very special to me and I appreciate everyone that came. We all had a lot of fun.

Here's the Coccadots cake - SOOO good :)

Here's all the food -

I was completely spoiled.

Here's the loot -

My sister Michelle got me a sewing machine! I am very excited about it actually. I haven't had the time to actually set it up yet but after the holidays I have a few ideas of what I can do with it : )

My sister Caroline got me a sewing kit, with

thread, pins, needles, and a pin cushion in a REALLY cute carrier.

My in laws got me the Micheal Buble Christmas album along with a scrap booking idea book. Which was awesome because I wanted to start a wedding scrapbook soon. They also brought done a Christmas ornament that Dave (my father in law) had as a child. We love it.

My parents and little sister got me a nice yankee candle and some M&M's - Coconut flavor (my favorite)

My co-worker Andy gave me card with a Subway gift card. He's know's me very well :)

And my amazing hubby surprised me with this.

Totally surprised! And he got all the "fixings" for living room shelves that he's going to make. (Blog later)

Here's our tree and a few other decorations. I wanted to keep things simple so we decorated with blue, white, and silver. (We didn't get a lot of pictures)

From this -

To this -

We also added a little Christmas cheer to our "tree of life" as my Dad would call it.

Hope everyone is loving the cold and the crazy drivers!

Happy Sunday.

Cathy

Greek Keys....

I wanted to share a picture of our new Dining Room rug :)

I'm kinda obsessed with this pattern!!! Someone stop me....I already want a pillow for my couch and trim on our curtains. This might be ugly. But I'm in love.

I also wanted to give you a sneak peak of our very subtle Christmas decorations.

We actually bought the tree yesterday but because (apparently) Ross doesn't do that without hot chocolate and eggnog, we didn't decorate it until today. So we'll have that posted later along with other decorating that we did.

*Ross has been busy getting ready for my birthday party tomorrow. I'm actually pretty excited. I don't know if it's because a big portion of my family and all of Ross' family will there, I'll be 21, or that Ross ordered a Coccadott's cake! So many things to look forward to.


*My brother Brian came down for some training this week and stayed with us. It was alot of fun. But now he knows how busy and boring Ross and I are :P. We had Caroline and the boys over for dinner the other day so we all could hang out. The boys and I made Sugar Cookies. They loved it. A little too much :)

Side Note: The "Lunch Box" worked perfectly. Actually we've been continually doing it and we've saved so much money by not going out! We're geniuses.

Lastly, I wanted to do a special post before Christmas about the true meaning of this holiday and what it means to Ross and I. It's easy to forget what this season is about when you're busy with finals and buying gifts, eating and decorating. So I wanted to take some time to remember just that. So look forward to a post about that as well. Now that school will be out for a month maybe I'll get around to posting pretty regularly (?!)

P.s. It's Decemeber, NY, 20 degrees outside....... AND still no snow. What the crap?

Hope you're having a wonderful holiday season!

Cathy