Pieces of The Days: Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas to all of my lovely readers! I hope you’ve enjoyed this Christmas Eve with loved ones and that maybe you didn’t have to work! Nate and I spent a lovely day out of town with my Father-in-law’s side of the family, and tomorrow the other side will travel here to Lexington to be with us. I always miss my own family during this time of year (they’re all in Florida!) – but we definitely needed to be here this year. Today was rough but it was good to be with everyone. My Mother-in-law gave all of the kids (Nate and his two Sisters) a recordable book, “The Very First Christmas” with she and my Father-in-law reading it as you turn each page. It was more for the grandkids, but since Nate and I don’t have kids yet I feel that it’s extra special to us. They may never know Nate’s Dad but they will know his voice when he reads that book to them. I can’t think of a better gift! I wish I had something like that with my Dad’s voice on it – but I do have a ton of cassette tapes of him singing – so that’s pretty special!
We’ve been on the go lately! Yesterday was the first real day where we were able to just relax and hang out at home in quite a while. It was a nice day to recover from the tacky sweater party we had the night before with some of our closest friends! It was exactly the laid back, relaxed gathering of just the right mix of friends that I was wanting. A lot of people ended up missing the memo on the White Elephant game, so we made things pretty hilarious by gathering stuff in our house to use for gifts to add to the “real gifts”! An unopened American Idiot CD, a burnt copy of Cheaper By The Dozen, my Earth Girls Are Easy DVD, fireworks, and a stick of gum INSIDE of an iPhone box… a lovely, lovely assortment. I think that the Harry Potter snuggie was this biggest hit and most stolen item! The fireworks were pretty popular too – mostly because everyone wanted to set them off… and so we did. ;] I took some photos with my “real camera” but I haven’t even had a chance to look at them! I’m feeling quite domestic this evening. First, I finished making the beret I started crocheting and then I proceeded to cook brown sugar glazed carrots and my famous (in this household) garlic oregano red potatoes. After that? I baked, iced, and sprinkled some funfetti Christmas cookies. Yeah – they were from a box, so knock a few cool points off for that. BUT, add like 800 cool points for the fact that I created something with yarn. I mean, I’ve made scarves and things like that which are unbelievably easy. But I’ve never tried to follow a pattern or make something specific, so I’m not going to lie – I’m pretty freakin’ proud! My Mom used to crochet all of the time and she taught me, but that was years ago! It’s so fun to start back up an old hobby!I hope you all have an amazing Christmas!! It’s hard to believe we’re so close to the end of this year. I’m really looking forward to that “fresh start” feeling that the new year will bring. Okay… I’m off to watch Duck Dynasty. ;] Merry Christmas, friends!