Visit with Santa

Some of my oldest and longest friends took their little one and a half year old twin girls to see Santa this past weekend... It turned out to be a very interesting trip for Mom and Dad to get them on his lap.. and not too long to get them off of his lap, as well. But there was a picture to capture the memory.

Our Christmas Decor

This is our first Christmas together as a married couple. This is our first Christmas together in our house. Last year, we had just bought our home and before anything else was moved in, our Christmas tree was up and the mantel was decorated. Needless to say, I love the Christmas season and being able to decorate!


We out our tree up two weeks before Thanksgiving so that Taylor would be able to enjoy the tree before he left to go out of town. I love ornaments. Since I was little, every year my mom has given my sister and me an ornament to add to our collections. Over the past three years, I've decided that I wanted to start more of a collection of them and I have started picking one up whenever I travel somewhere. It's been something really special to collect with Taylor over the past two years. We added 6 more to "our" collection this year. I'm going to post about our ornaments next week. It's something too special to only mention it. I will have to show them to you and let you see why it's so special to me. That post to come next week. Here's a look at our tree:


The next thing that I wanted to add to our Christmas decor this year was something that I had seen in a Pottery Barn catalog back in late October. The "HO HO HO" letters came from Hobby Lobby and we spray painted them red so that they would show up better off of our shelves. I love the way that it turned out!



Our stocking hangers are one of my favorite gifts that we received at our Christmas Shower when we were engaged. I love decorating for the Holidays so much that I wanted that to be our first wedding shower last year. It's been so much fun getting all of those things back out again this year. If you need dishes and platters to entertain with this time of year, chances are that I have enough for both of us. I picked up two more stocking hangers this year so that one day if I were to ever need them, then I would have them already and they would match. Hopefully we won't need more than 4. hahaha I know, I'm looking ahead to Christmases in the future but I just want to be prepared and for everything to coordinate. Our stockings were also a gift at our shower that I love.. they are so simple and classic. Miley got a stocking from World Market that she loves. She'll be excited about her treats that SantaDog is going to bring her!




I really wanted an advent calendar last year but never found one at the right time that I really loved enough to get. But two weekends ago as Mom and I were walking around in Target, I spotted this one of "gifts" and couldn't not have been more excited about it. I love it next to my favorite green trees! Bet you can't guess what is inside of the gifts? Give up? Candy Cane Kisses, of course! :)



Our foyer table has a simple glass mosaic candle holder and the cute present plate to put our keys on. The candle holder is from Kohl's and the plate is a gift from our shower.



Our wreath was from our shower also but it's also from Target and I want everything from this part of their Christmas collection. I love the colors and the way that it looks from the street.



This little tree is in place of my flag for right now. Also a gift from our Christmas shower. It ties into the "look" of everything so perfectly.




So that's a little peek into what our house looks like at Christmas time. I hope that you enjoy decorating your house for Christmas as much as I do. I'll post a picture of our table set with our M. Bagwell Simply Christmas china soon. I told you that I loved our Christmas shower.

Dear Mommy,

While you were at work today, I got really bored.  Remember that pillow that Daddy put in my house last week to help me stay warm while you were gone to work all day and I had to stay outside?  Well I decided that it would be fun to see what was inside of it.  I ripped it open and found this white, fluffy stuff that I have seen inside of a few of the stuffed animals you have bought me... after I rip them open, too!  The more I looked at it, the more that I thought that it could be SNOW!!  (You know, like around your Christmas Village that I pulled around the living room a few weeks ago?)  Then I decided that you would love to have a White Christmas so I spread it all over the yard for you, see?!?!  I knew that you would love it and let Daddy know right away how sweet I was!! 

Love,

Miley

Taylor is back out on tour. He left early on Thursday morning and will not be home until December 21. He was home for over 6 weeks so Miley and I are having a hard time adjusting to it being just the two of us again. We went to Monroeville this weekend to stay with my parents. They had their "Living Christmas Tree" performance Saturday and Sunday so I wanted to be able to see what they had been preparing so hard for. It truly was something special and cool to see 60 people in this "tree" with just their heads peeping out from the branches singing beautiful Christmas carols. 

Our next few weeks at home leading up to Christmas are eventful but not too hectic. I'm cleaning the house and preparing to take a few pictures so that you can see what Christmas looks like around the Price house. 

I went grocery shopping once I got home this afternoon and found my favorite holiday treats. Hershey's Candy Cane Mint Kisses.

  

It's Sunday night... one of my favorite nights of television so I'm curled up on the couch, finished with my mom's potato soup for dinner, and now I'm enjoying my favorite holiday treat. I'll post more tomorrow. Go get a Hershey's Kiss and enjoy, too! :) 

Our Black Friday

Since I was posting from my iPhone the past two posts, I figured that I needed to get on my computer and fully explain what Black Friday looked like for my mom and me.

We woke up at 4:15 am, showered and got ready to hit the stores. We stayed up until 12:45 am so that we could map out our shopping plan by the sales and what we knew that we were going to need to get during the early hours. The list was pretty long. But we arrived at Target by 5:15 am and waited in line for 45 minutes until the doors opened. It was still too dark outside for my camera on my phone to take clear pictures of what the lines looked like. We were halfway down the side of the building with the rest of the line wrapped around the parking lot and down in front of a few more stores. The security guards that they had posted were guessing that there were somewhere between 500 to 750 people in line when the doors opened at 6:00 am. Mom and I were within the first 100 in the store. I raced one lady to the back of the store. Apparently she thought that I was headed to the toy aisle like she was. Not yet, lady.. we haven't made it to that step in our lives yet. I was actually going to the cases on the aisle with all of the iPods. My step dad is getting one for Christmas and Target had the best deals during Black Friday to get one. $145.00 + a $15 gift card to Target. So we waited in line in the electronics for 20 minutes and we were back in our car, getting away from the craziness of Target by 6:20 am. I wish that I would have been able to get a picture of what the lines looked like. The line to checkout in the front of the store was unbelievable. We decided to go back on Saturday to get a few other things that we knew would still be there when we came back. It was time to head to another store.

The next stop was Kohls. Only a few things on our list but we ended up getting great deals on some new dress shirts for Taylor. Plus we received $30 in Kohls Cash for me to go back and spend tonight, I think.. just as long as it's before Dec. 6. I believe that it will be towards some accessories for my Christmas Village. :)

We needed a little pick-me-up so we headed to Chick-Fil-A for coffee and chicken biscuits... then on to Home Depot to get some things for Taylor. He'll be happy to open up his gifts on Christmas morning.. and will be so surprised!

Next was Shoe Station where we were able to use our coupons to get a little off of the things that we needed to get.

On the Costco.. and this was unbelievable actually. There was hardly anyone there yet because the doors had just opened when we got there at 9:00 am. First we ordered my mom's Christmas cards.. all 150 of them and it only cost $42.00. She was in shock and so excited about the way that they turned out. We picked those up, grabbed the holiday stamps and checked out. If I can scan one tonight, I will and post it for ya'll to see.

Then there was Belk (men's and women's stores) where we found amazing sales on some clothes. Along with a stop to Bath & Body Works to get a few Wallflowers that were on sale as well. 

After that, we came home and hurried and got ready for dinner before Mom, Jack, Taylor and I went to the Shakespeare Festival to see A Christmas Carol: The Musical. It was soooooo great but Mom and I were about to fall asleep during the play since we had been up since 4:15 am. 

I did do a little online shopping at bestbuy.com on Thursday since you were able to get the sales before the stores opened on Friday morning. I actually did a lot of my shopping online this year and everything has come in but one thing that should be here on Monday. Other than that.. everything is wrapped and under the tree..