wrap battle...

 

One thing I love about Christmas is the giving part.

 

I love to shop.

 

I love to buy gifts.

 

I'm addicted to that part of Christmas.  And one of the best parts, for me, of giving, is the presentation.

 

 

A picture of my gifts under the tree...

 

 

 

 

 The precious animal paper was a gift given to me from someone who knew how much I loved to wrap.  It is so loved.

 

Our big theme this year was 'woodland'. 

 

Story of the woodland: every year my husband and I shop after Christmas for the next years paper, etc.  My husband fell in love with the woodland paper at World Market.  Me, not so much.  I spent most of the year toiling over how to make this paper pretty and special. (call me silly, doubt my words, but I promise you, I probably spent 347 hours thinking about it) Enter wooden tags idea, which my husband made.  Enter die-cut ribbon, which I found at Michael's. and of course, top it off with a little paper raffia.  BOOM!  

 

 

 

Close up of my favorite tag.  The opposite side said the name of who the gift was for.

 

Naughty and Nice was the paper theme I picked last year.  Cute, but I have to hand it to Justin, the woodland really does have that extra something special...

 

 

Another shot of our packages, oh, so pretty.

 

We're headed out to shop for next year's paper.  And we will be stopping at World Market because we saw earlier this year that they had woodland again and we're hoping to grab a few more rolls for next year.

 

So, my advice to all of those bargain shoppers headed out today to prep for next year's packages: Let your husbands pick a few rolls of giftwrap.  They may end up being your favorites next year.  And, if not, they're 70% off anyway.

 

 



Christmas update.

Merry Christmas!!

 

 

 

What you don't know is that the above and below are both possible Christmas card pictures that never mailed out.

 

Alas,  Merry Christmas from myself, the husband, Lilly and J.

 

 

 

We've had a lovely Christmas at home with family. 

 

This month has meant a lot of travelling for us.

 

Here's a picture of our travels last week (Ah-mazing):

 

And our travels this week:

 

 

Bleh, it was cold in Philly, yet WONDERFUL in the DR.  We really loved our mid-cold vacation and I got sick as soon as we landed in the US. More to come on our Dominican vacation.

 

We returned to lots of really sad and heart-wrenching news, and have spent a lot of time talking, praying and dealing with it all.

 

Nonetheless, it was a happy Christmas.

 

What did you do for the holidays?  Any traveling?

 



I'm still alive.....

October and November have tried to suck the life out of me. 

But they lost.

I will survive.

 

There have been some major changes.  I'm trying to stay optimistic.  I'm looking for the bright side.

 

And, with all the downs, there certainly has been a lot of brightness in my life.

 

 

My sister had her twins.

Boy: Daxlee Sabo

Girl: Bodie Flynne

They are perfect.

And they are a miracle.

 

Which means...

 

 

Justin is an uncle.  For the first time. x2.

 

Also...

 

Justin turned 30!

Lots of people showed their love for Justin and I think he was overjoyed.

We had a bar crawl.

Which was a blast!

 

 

My BFF's came to celebrate Justin's 30th.

We've been best friends since elementary and middle school.

And every time I see them, I remember why.

 

We also had 2 perfect Thanksgivings.

 

One with my family, which just grew by 2.

 

 

And then later on with Justin's family

 

 

 

We are packing for the Caribbean.

We'll be there for a few days next week and I can hardly breathe I'm so excited.

Just one day at a time until then.

 

 

And I want to be a blogger.

So, I'm coming back.

I promise you and myself.

 

But until then, here's some baby adorable-ness.

 

 

They wear precious baby clothes and hats with ears.

Little snuggle bears.

 

 

They snuggle.

Lean on me.

 

 

Bodie likes her hand above her head. She always wiggles it out somehow.

 

 

And Daxlee thinks I'm number one.

 

 

I'll be back with a better post soon.

Like I said...

I promise.

:-).