Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Monday friends!  Matt's has been working weekends for the last two weeks so my days are all messed up.  Besides the fact that Natalie and I spent the majority of our day yesterday in pajamas which is more common on the weekends, I thought it was Monday all day.  I feel a little off.  It could also be all of the Thanksgiving food I stuffed myself with all weekend.  I'm in need of a food intervention.

We headed down to Indianapolis Wednesday evening and spent all day Thursday at my parents' house celebrating with my in laws and my family.  We had so much fun and so much food...and it was a super fun day filled with lots of love.  

 

I made this Pumpkin Spiced Cake with Maple Cream Cheese Frosting and it was so yummy!  I ate the leftovers for breakfast for two days.  Yep.  That was only the beginning of my sweet issues.  I think I may need to give up sugar.  After Christmas of course.

To say that my mama loves her granddaughter is the biggest understatement of the century.  They had such a great time together spreading the love.

Until Natalie got a hold of my brother, her bestie.  These are probably my favorite pictures ever. 

After dinner we played some games, drank some wine, and played Just Dance.  In that order.  Which explains why my moves on Just Dance were less than stellar.  Or perhaps it's just that I can't dance.  Either way...complete and utter suckage on my part.  

We headed back to Cleveland on Friday and stopped to get our Christmas tree on the way home.  It's Natalie's first Christmas this year so we're soaking in all of the experiences together as a family.  Can you believe how nice the weather was?  I mean, last year it was so cold and raining.  This year girl didn't even need a coat!

Saturday I hosted my very first Thanksgiving for a group of our friends and their kiddos.  We had an absolute blast.  I forgot to take any pictures because I was rushing around all day prepping the food and such but I did manage to snap a blurry phone pic of the cupcakes I made.  Happy Turkey Day!

Christmas Time Is Here...

Ladies, I did it.

I successfully secured the most gorgeous, beautiful, fullest, tallest, most fabulous Christmas tree of all time. And you know what?

You don't get to see it just yet.

Ha!

I'm a big believer in real trees. I always had them growing up and I want to carry on the tradition of fresh smelling pine in my own home. Matt...not so much. I will admit, it is a lot of work getting a real tree. You have to deal with needles all over your carpet, watering it, disposing of it in the New Year, and attempting to finagle the stump to fit the tree stand. But to me, it's totally and completely worth the hassle. Plus, I told Matt when he asked why we had to get a real tree, "Jesus is real so we need a real tree." Obviously.

I did compromise on one aspect. Instead of traipsing out to a Christmas tree farm to cut down our own, we tried Home Depot. Um, utter fail. They only had trees 8 feet tall and I wanted one that was taller. Plus, I am a little bit of a freak about the fullness of the tree...and most of their trees were already wrapped up therefore not allowing me to see their fullness. I was heartbroken and my Christmas spirit was low. But Matt convinced me that we should just go back to the Christmas tree farm we went to last year to see what they had. And that's exactly what we did. And it is where we found the most wonderful tree in the whole wide world.

It is 10 ft. tall! Eek! The star almost touches the ceiling of our house and it is absolutely perfect. Oh I just cannot wait to show it to you!

The rest of my weekend was spent decorating our house inside and out with Christmas cheer. We watched Elf whilst decorating the tree. It was perfect. My dear, sweet husband helped me every step of the way and it was lovely.


The next two weeks are going to be filled with Christmas baking galore, several cake orders, house guests, but most importantly (and remind me of this later, okay?) fun! Having the tree just makes Christmas time seem all that more real. I love this time of year!

And I promise, I will be back later this week to tons and tons of pictures!!