Christmas Cards

I love everything about Christmas Cards.... picking out the perfect family photo... looking back at cards from previous years... eagerly checking the mail each day in December... and most of all, picking out the perfect card.

This year, I thought about combining Nora's birth announcement with our family Christmas card. I ultimately decided to do two separate cards, but had I decided to combine them, I would have chosen one of these two cards from Tiny Prints.

Wintry Bliss Simple Border

The Christmas selection at Tiny Prints is really good this year. Here are a couple of my favorites:

Sweet Watercolor

Candy Cane

Joyful Script

I have not made my final selection, but if I end up picking one of these and you are on our card list - act surprised!

** This is a sponsored post. Tiny Prints is going to hook me up with some awesome holiday cards. **

Christmas Cards 101

Ok, so now Christmas is over and you have probably quit receiving fun cards in the mail everyday. If you are like me, you loved to display these cute cards all season long.

But, now that it is time to put away the Christmas decor, what do you do with the cards? I hate to part with all of the beautiful photo cards that people send us, so I hold onto them.

Instead of just stashing them in an old shoebox, I keep them in a scrapbook album.

I have all of the cards grouped by year, as well as one of our cards from that same year.

This album is on our shelves and it is so much fun to look at all of the cards from years past, plus it is a great way to remember what your card looked like that year.

And now here is my question for you.....

How many years do you send someone a card without getting one in return? And I am not talking about your dear Aunt Sally that has never sent a Christmas card her entire life. I am talking about people that you know send cards, year after year.

I am thinking 3 strikes and you are out. Or, is that too generous?

Cooking Christmas

This year, Santa was very nice to me. The majority of my gifts revolved around a cooking theme which is just fine with me.

This avocado pitter/slicer is a great gadget. I used it tonight for the first time and it made slicing the avocado a breeze. This will definitely be used a lot in our house.


I have yet to try out this Ebelskiver pan. What -- you have never heard on Ebelskiver pancakes? They are light and fluffy pancakes that are usually filled with jam. I also got the recipe book to go along with it. There is a wide variety of recipes -- from sweet to savory. I am getting hungry just thinking about them.

And today is New Year's Day... Happy 2010. Last night we celebrated NYE in a very responsible / parental kind of way. We had a family game night with some friends and were home in bed by 1. And as far as resolutions.... I am just going to aim to get rid of the baby weight. I think it is going to be the death of me.

***New pictures on Baby M ***

Inversion Fun

No, these pictures are not upside down. The people in the pictures are!

Me (below)

My dad recently bid on an inversion machine at a silent auction, in the hopes of it helping out his back..... well, Christmas Eve Eve at my parents house was spent hanging upside down! Who cares about the benefits the machine has on your back - we wanted to see who could hang upside own the longest!

Mr. Accountant (above) My younger cousin (below)

My brothers girlfriend (above) My brother (below)

My twin brothers (above and below)

and yes, you can drink wine upside down.

Holiday Lessons Learned

I hope everyone had a very merry Christmas!

Here are a couple of things that I learned over the holidays:

1. Let Martha Stewart be Martha Stewart.

As much as I love Martha, I am going to let her stick with creating the holiday cards. I started off with a great idea, but ended up with a coffee table covered in paint pens, glue sticks, paper cutters, photos, and scrapbook paper. After work I am going to stop by Crane's and pick up next year's cards and eliminate the headache for next year.

2. Things appear bigger online.

Kind of like the mirrors on cars - things may appear closer than they actually are ---- things online may appear larger than they actually are! Specifically, jewelery. Two rings are being shipped back tomorrow, to make room for these lovely David Yurman bracelets. I have learned my lesson.

3. Budget...what budget???

Mr. Accountant decided we should set a very reasonable budget for our gifts to each other this year. I tried to stick with the budget, while Mr. Accountant did not. I could try and say that I was upset with him for going over the decided amount, but as soon as I saw the package and learned that my gift was from the jewelery store where they know us by first name, I was delighted. (No picture yet.... will take one of the necklace and post later.) The Foo Fighters tickets I got him are great, but jewelery always wins!

4. It is fun to give AND it is fun to receive.

My mom has taught me many great things, one being how to give a great gift. I like to give things that someone would love, yet would not go out and purchase for themselves, something that is a surprise, something that is thoughtful, something that the recipient wants, but never realized they wanted. This year, I was extremely happy with how all of my selections turned out - there is nothing like seeing the look on that persons face when they open THE GIFT!

His place becomes OUR place

The lack of posts over the past week has been due to moving. After being married for a month, we decided it was about time to move ALLLLL of my stuff into his place. It is absolutely amazing how one can accumulate so much stuff in such a short period of time. I am a product whore, but not until I had to share the bathroom with someone else did I see the ridiculousness in having 10 bottles of half used hair serums, gels, creams, sprays, volumizers….. etc. All of those bottles are now in the trash! There is no need for me to have John Freida Sheer Blonde volumizer – I never have had and never will have blonde hair. I am going to begin trying to curb my addiction to hair products. All I end up using is the same thing everyday; therefore all of the excess is gone! It felt kind of nice to trash all of that stuff last night.

There is nothing like having the in-laws over to dinner to make you get your butt in gear to finish unpacking and decorating. (They are coming over tonight) I decided this was just the push we (I) needed. So, for the past couple nights we have been up until almost 1 unpacking, organizing and last night we put up the tree. After realizing that I suck at putting on the lights I decided that this tree is going to the dump after Christmas. No more messing with a tangled mess of lights for me. (I love the smell of real trees, but my allergies disagree with the smell of real trees)

Crate & Barrel has the cutest stockings and tree skirts… and now Mrs. Preppy and Mr. Accountant have the cutest stockings and tree skirts.

I have been collecting ornaments for years… but not just any ornaments. They are all round. Any material. Any size. Any color. But they all have the be round!