A few of my favorite things

Thought I would post a few items that I received for Christmas that I am so excited about!

The best part of Christmas for me, anyways, is trying to find THE gift that makes the receiver thrilled, excited and hopefully surprised. 

Jim and I spend many hours discussing and looking for that perfect gift(s)for each of our loves.

But, in turn, I am also thrilled, excited and so humbled at Christmas time that my loves have done the same for me! 

This family of mine seems to find 

(even with all of us on a tight budget!) 

what things I just will swoon over :)

Thank you, my sweethearts. I love you.

I had the most wonderful Christmas, and the best part was having all of our kids home with us.

The second best was watching you all open your presents from me (and Dad).

And the third best?

Feast your eyes on the Top Ten:

 A new coffee mug. 

I am very particular about what I drink coffee out of. 

The mug must not be too big, too thick, or have an unwieldy handle.

This one is perfect!!!

 A Home Goods gift card! 

Woooooohooooooo!!!

Feeding my obsession.

 A beautiful orchid. It's so lovely.

I hope I don't kill it.

 

 I have wanted to try to make my own yogurt for quite some time.

Can't wait to test out this baby.

 A super soft, deliciously fringed scarf. 

Divine.

 I am mildly obsessed with The Pioneer Woman.

Have been wanting her cookbook for a LONG time.

I even made her cinnamon rolls for Christmas!

(running back and forth to my laptop to check the recipe...lol)

 Hands down, the best disposable razors on the market.

 It is hard to imagine how great slip-on slippers are when you have had booties previously.

 Now, my French Onion Soup will be served in style, baby.

Not just an ordinary mitten.....

 A texting mitten! 

Way way cool.

Earrings with both silver AND gold.

I love them all!!!

And I love all of you!!!!

 

 

 

It was a Very Merry Eve & Day...

 We began our Christmas Eve by attending Saint Bernard's 4pm Mass.
The church was packed (we arrived 30 min early and got the last seats!), and the spirit was full. We sang lovely Christmas Carols, and blessings flowed. Father Rick ended the Mass by putting on a hysterical battery operated Santa hat and handed out gifts to all the children in attendance.

On our way out, we stopped to peek at the creche outside the church....

We were delighted to see my brother

 

and his family waiting for us when we got back. Molly and Rebecca helped Taylor with appetizers, while I made Pomegranate Martini's for Lyndsay and I :)

We nibbled on appetizers while opening presents...

 Scarfs for Taylor; a new nonstick pan for (mountain man) Joe.

 T Shirts for Dan...

 Taylor gave Joe at least a month's worth of coffee from Kevin's Coffee and Starbucks...

 Lyndsay opened a much needed Lowe's gift card for her and Dan from Joe, while Dan got sleepy just thinking about all the home improvements Lyndsay has planned...

 We ended the evening as usual..with Jim reading The Night Before Christmas from a really awesome new book this year.

 Christmas morning found us sitting in front of a blazing fire, pulling fun surprises out of our Christmas stockings, and ooing and ahhing over our breakfast: 

Homemade Cinnamon Rolls from Pioneer Woman

and an Egg Strata that was soooo delicious.

Taylor made this scarf for Lyndsay...beautifully knitted from someone who just learned to knit a couple of months ago!

Dabi (my mom) loved all of her gifts, but especially the head massager!

 Joe loved the head massager too!

After breakfast we headed to Jim's sister's house for more present opening and dinner.

 So much fun being with family for the holidays....

 

 As of Christmas morning, our mountain man Joe was gone, replaced by collegiate Joe :)

 A VERY merry time was had by all....

Pre-Christmas Randomness.....

 To begin our random holiday post.....

Listen to Amazing Grace choreographed to this homeowners Christmas lights....

 Pretty cool, huh?

 If you are looking for some very cute gift tags...I found these reindeer ones here:

  I just printed them out on white cardstock, but you could even use printer paper if you wanted to.

 Having family over Christmas Eve, and we traditionally do just appetizers and desserts.

Baked Brie en Croute is a MUST; but I have been looking up some other fun appetizers too.

Spent the day yesterday making a boatload of homemade biscotti....

 Speaking of cookies...take a look at what this true genius/artist did with a bowl full of

cookie dough!

Click here 

Remember me talking about buying gold letters a while back at Restoration Hardware?

I had an idea for them when I saw them and here it is, below...

 The kids Christmas stockings have always been way too small, so I picked up some huge wool stockings at Bennington Pottery last weekend.

I looooove them.

LOTS of room for fun stuff.

My angel was looking rather plain, so I dressed her up with some fresh greenery cut off the bottom of our Christmas tree. (Yes, we finally got our tree! Pictures below)

 I did an impromptu photo shoot yesterday with Taylor and her two friends K. and H.

Aren't they so cute?

I picked Taylor up from college the end of last week and did a little shopping in downtown Burlington.

There was LOTS of snow, lots of slush, but lots of cute things to buy...

 We were lucky to have Taylor's friends K. and M. with us in Burlington...it made for a fun day and night.

Lots of beautiful homes are decorated for the holidays in Burlington.

 We also had K and M's mom's with us :)

We had dinner at a restaurant with a cozy fire in the lobby, which was wonderful and welcome after walking from our hotel to the restaurant.

Burlington is COLD, and it was snowing. Hard. 

(did I tell you that already? Ya..it was, and I didn't have boots! I mistakenly thought that if CT didn't have snow, then no one did..hahahahha)

Taylor and M strolling down Church Street.

 Took some pictures of the glass displays in the window of Bennington Pottery...

 ...and the ornament display at the front register.

Taylor thought this poster was awesome..lol.

Since Joe was home from college by the time we got back home, it was

finally time to go and get our TREE. Hooray!

Taylor and Mikko drove the truck.

 While Joe and Jim searched for trees, Taylor and I had fun.

Still looking...

After much debate, we found one we could all agree on. 

(either that, or we all just got cold, and the next one we saw we said "that one!")

Hauling it back to the truck..

 Joe and Tay (with Mikko riding shotgun) were in charge of delivering the tree home safely.

Off they go...

Until next year....

Next step, once you get it home, is Jim's least favorite part of a live tree.

Fitting it into the stand.

Ugh.

But Joe helped, and it went pretty quickly.

  Jim and I quickly hung the lights,

and got the angel ready for the tree topper.

She used to have a staff she carried, but that was lost several years ago.

We still love her.

Joe carefully adds her to the top...

 ...and next is the fun part...ornaments!

Meanwhile, I experimented with bokeh....

All is calm, all is bright....