CHRISTmas.

Source: Uploaded by user via Sarah on Pinterest

i realize i have been MIA for the past few days. i have had to make a lot of decisions recently and have had to take a short hiatus from posting. i have made those decisions and i am happy to say that my blogging will continue. however, it will not be until after Christmas. i want to take this time to enjoy the ones i love. i am working thru saturday and then will make the travels home to be with my family.  all of my decisions have caused me to be stronger in my faith and i am excited to celebrate the true REASON FOR THE SEASON this CHRISTmas. 
i look forward to catching up with you all after Christmas. wishing you and yours the happiest of holidays.

a picky tree picker

i spent pretty much all weekend with Andy, which was nice because i won't see him all week long. we got to do lots of Christmas's things and got a lot accomplished too. Saturday morning i worked like usual, the day was so pretty that i decided  to go on a quick run. running isn't my favorite of things but i do enjoy it most days and i was happy to have the time to do so. 

after my run, i got cleaned up and went to meet Andy so that we could go Christmas tree shopping. None of these trees were for us, but it was still fun to pick and find out yet another thing about my bf. he is picky. look at the form in the below photos. he took much more time than me to pick the "perfect" tree. but he did it. and needless to say, two people are going to be very happy with their trees this year.

we spent the remainder of the afternoon and evening decorating said trees and ended the night watch Duck Dynasty. yes, we have jumped on board with the beards. they are freakin hilarious. you should jump on board too.

Sunday was started with Sunday school and then we had a Sunday school Christmas party afterwards. there was quite the fussing over the white elephant gifting. (all the boys wanted the academy gift cards). we had a lot of fun and ate some good food too. after the party, we went back to my house and put together our homemade Christmas gifts. i am so excited about some of the items we are giving, and knowing that i wont break my budget by doing so (a more detailed post to come). 

all in all it was a great weekend, a short weekend, but a great weekend.

don't forget to enter the giveaway going on over here.

you could win a new blog design!! 

it's my first ever, so be dolls and enter!

a vintage kind of Christmas

Currently I just can't get enough of looking at vintage Christmas decor. I really want to find some glass Christmas balls that I can start to use year after year. Right now my tree consists of ornaments that have been purchased in the past two years, ones that were cheap, or just matched the overall color scheme of my tree.  I LOVE the colors in all of the ones below, as I am much more of a blue/green/pink girl than all that red. Red just doesn't go well with all that I already have.  The following Etsy Shops have had the best ones so far, and  I just can't decide if I should buy some over the internet or look around and find some local. Grandma Gingers Closet An Unexpected Journey Market Fresh Vintage Retro Vintage Bazaar via via via via via What are your favorite Christmas decorations? Are you all about new? Do you like the old?? Be sure to go check out all of these Etsy shops.  I am trying more and more to buy from small businesses, because I have started my own.