Pack your patience

Tomorrow P and I are driving up to Ohio to spend the holidays with his family. As has been the tradition for several years we will be giving our friend Jenny a ride so she can meet up with her family. This year we will be joined by several million travelers who are expected to be hitting the roads on Saturday for the holidays. So as my lovely friend Erin said to me earlier this week, we will pack our patience and enjoy the ride! Hope everyone has a safe and magical Christmas!

Weekend Recap

We had a great weekend kicking off our Christmas celebrations! On Friday I met Aubrey, my Maid of Honor, for a day of shopping, pedicures, and lunch. It was so wonderful to spend quality time together catching up. In some ways it is hard to believe that 2013 will mark a decade of friendship but in many ways, it feels like we have been friends forever.

On Saturday, dad and Sheila took the train up from Norfolk for a festive weekend. After we picked them up from Union Station, we came back to our apartment for some light snacks, beverages, and to exchange gifts. Dad and Sheila would get their "big" gift on Saturday night (although they already knew what it was). P and I received the Kate Spade toasting flutes we registered for. We love them and can't wait to use them on April 13th!

Then everyone changed and freshened up and we headed out for an early dinner at District Commons. This is a fairly new restaurant near GWU's campus - the food and service were excellent. After dinner we headed to the Kennedy Center for dad and Sheila's gift - Irving Berlin's White Christmas! This is one of my all-time favorite Christmas movies and I've been looking forward to the performance since we bought the tickets in October. The show was so wonderful and really captured the spirit of the original movie.

P and I before dinner

On Sunday we headed to Georgetown to show dad and Sheila the church where our wedding mass will be held. Afterward we had a delicous brunch at Clyde's and then walked around Georgetown. Then we headed to the Christmas Market in Chinatown. While Sheila and I did a little shopping (we showed lots of self constraint!) the guys enjoyed a few beers at a nearby restaurant. Sheila and I joined them for a drink before coming back to our apartment to gather their things and take them to the train station.

All four of us had a great weekend and it really put us in the Christmas spirit!

Silence and Support

Hugs and Prayers

I feel I would be remissed if I didn't acknowledge the tragic event that occurred in Newton, CT last Friday. My heart is devestated by this tragedy and my mind is trying to make sense of how another horrific shooting has occurred. I feel grateful for the hugs I was able to share with family this past weekend and those I will give this weekend and next week. While many of our lives will seamlessly move forward to holiday celebrations over the next week, let us not forget to keep the victims and their families in our prayers.

Versary

This week P and I will celebrate two exciting "anniversaries" (get the post title now? clever, right?).

The 17th marks when we started dating eight years ago at Penn State. And the 20th is the day he asked me to marry him last year. We won't do anything crazy to celebrate or exchange gifts. Just a quiet dinner at one of our favorite restaurants and a nice bottle of wine to toast our love and and the excitement of our upcoming wedding!

Apartment Christmas Decor

Living in an 800 square foot apartment can be challenging for many reasons. That is no exception when it comes to Christmas decorating. We don't have a fireplace mantel to hang our stockings with care. Furniture usually has to be adjusted quite a bit to make room for the tree. Adding touches like garland can be difficult without a stair banister to wrap it around (like my mom did). In addition to finding places around our apartment to add holiday touches, there is also the challenge of storing the holiday decorations. Fortunately our current apartment has a little storage unit on our porch that is just the right size for our two large tupperware containers filled with decorations.

Since we have both lived in apartments since college, we have had plenty of experience decorating for the holidays but each new apartment has its challenges. Since this is our first year in this apartment, I thought I would share a few pictures of how we have decorated. Hope you enjoy or maybe even get inspired!

Last year I picked up this cloth garland from Target for $3. This year I hung it across the large window in our living/dining room and using small clothespin, we are using it to display Christmas cards.

Without a fireplace, we have to get creative with where we hang our stockings. The past few years the stockings hung off a window ledge in our old apartment, this year they fit perfecly on our new bookcase.

Patrick and I pick up our Christmas tree from the same greenhouse in Alexandria. This may be the biggest one we have gotten yet but I love it because there is plenty of room to hang all of our ornaments. Each year we pick out an ornament to commemorate a memory, this year's ornament is the maple leaf in the center of the tree from Quebec!

Our Christmas corner with the tree, Christmas card garland, and bookcase with stockings (sorry it's so dark)

I also like to add a little garland to our half round table. It's a nice added touch of green with lights. I wrap the garland in a string of cranberries and in the back you can see a vase fillede with fake cranberries sticking out.

Since Last Time

We have been very busy getting ready for the holidays and wedding planning. I did not intend to have such a long gap since my last post but so it goes. Here's what I have been up to since Thanksgiving:

• We trimmed the apartment for Chistmas (but I haven't taken any pictures)
• Tried on and purchased P's tux for the wedding. I told him he looked like a groom!
• Completed hand making all 40 of our Christmas cards. While I enjoy doing this task each year, I think 2013's Christmas cards may take a break from this tradition

Cookies and hot chocolate while making cards. You can see a little of our tree in the top left!

• Received our completed wedding invitations - they look AMAZING! The shop we used through Etsy closes for the holidays which is why we got them so early but now we have more time to stuff, seal, and stamp them before we send them out in January.
• Tested out a Pinterest recipe for a cookie decorating party that turned out super yummy

Crescent rolls stuffed with spinach, shredded mozzarella, and feta - YUM!

• Traveled to Richmond to celebrate Elizabeth's birthday and visit with my sister, Amanda

Happy Haladay party with two of my sisters!

• Attended the 4th annual cookie decorating party with some of my favorite DC/NOVA ladies

A few of my decorated cookies

• Scheduled my first dress fitting and cake tasting for January - it seems cruel that they fall within a week of each other! Fortunately the dress fitting is first!

This week will be equally busy with each of us having happy hours, more Christmas shopping and wrapping, a visit with my MOH Aubrey on Friday, and a much anticipated weekend with dad and Sheila in DC! Tis the season!