Christmas 2012

Christmas this year was different than any other Christmas I've ever had. When I was little, we'd drive the 2 days to Canada and spend the holidays with my extended family. When I was in college, I'd go to my parent's house on Christmas Eve and spend a few days with them. Last year, our first Christmas after we moved, we drove back to Missouri and spent equal time with both of our families. This year, due to the fact that Keegan ran out of vacation days because of the wedding and honeymoon, we had to stay in Mississippi.

Christmas morning was just us. We put on some festive music and opened our presents from each other. The whole thing lasted about 20 minutes, far from the hours and hours it normally takes with my family. The rest of the day was spent cleaning the house for the next day when my family would be making the trek down to see us.

On December 26, my mom, sister, and sister's boyfriend came down to spend a few days with us. They had never seen our house, in fact, sister's boyfriend had never been to Mississippi. Unfortunately my youngest sister was having some *ahem* problems, so my dad had to stay back in Missouri with her. Even more unfortunately, my mom came down with the flu (not the stomach flu, thank goodness) the day they drove down here. It wiped her out for the remainder of the trip and by the end, sister's boyfriend also got it. With Keegan just getting over a nasty cold, 3/5 of our house was sick. We spent the days lazing about, watching movies and playing card games.

 

We were so lucky to have Keegan's parents give us one of their extra dining room tables as an early Christmas present. This allowed us to host a proper Christmas dinner when my family came down instead of pizza which was the original idea. And yes, we moved the t.v. and boxes before company arrived. 

Entryway decorations. 

I planned on making our stockings this year. Unfortunately I didn't get around to them until Christmas Eve Day and that's only because Keegan was demanding (nicely) that I got them done so he could stuff my stocking, which meant they weren't around long. 

Ornament from Keegan's college 

Ornament from my college 

Adorable winter birdie that my mom gave me in 2011

Engagement ornament #1

Engagement ornament #2

Ornament from our honeymoon in the Smokey Mountains  

Ornament made by a local artist that was given to my from my boss. 

Keegan's mom has gifted us these handmade ornaments (pictured above) for the last two years. They're beautiful and I hope that it continues to be a tradition.

 

We still can't find a tree topper that we like, so Bendy Santa had to do this year.

Tree. Obviously. 

I'm not going to post pictures of our guests for privacy sake except for one. 

In September, my sister gave me a bunch of her old swimming t-shirts (we both swam competitively for years) so that I could make her a t-shirt quilt. I finally finished it two days before they arrived (shhhh) and she was thrilled with it. I think it turned out pretty cool if I do say so myself. 

Even though this Christmas was a total 180 from other years, it was still pretty awesome. I missed my dad and sister a lot, but, I must admit, it was nice not having to travel anywhere for the first time ever. Maybe we'll start making Christmas in Mississippi a new tradition? 

How was everyone else's holidays? I obviously haven't been around much, but I hope to catch up on blogs soon. 

Blogger Day of Silence for Sandy Hook

Unimaginable

As I type this, my heart hurts for the families affected by the shooting in Newtown, Connecticut. I can't believe that someone would go into an elementary school, somewhere that is supposed to be safe, and kill innocent children. At the time of this blog post, it seems that 27 people were killed, 18 of which were kids.
My heart goes out to all the families that were touched by this horrible tragedy. I hope that one day, the children involved will see school as a safe place once again. Hold your loved ones a little closer tonight and keep those families in your thoughts.

I Hate Clothes Shopping

I'm sure some of you are going, "What?! But you're a member of the female race which means you must love to shop!" Ya.....not so much. I've always considered myself to be a bigger girl, even when I was a competitive swimmer and using up more calories per day than I could shove in my face.

Of course, looking back at pictures, I was a healthy, normal-sized teenager (I'm the one in the white tank-top)

Oh what I would do for that body again....

Anyways, since I was always a bigger girl, especially after I stopped swimming, shopping for clothes has always been a pain in the butt. Shirt and tops I can normally find ok, but jeans are my nemesis. The last time I went jeans shopping was when we moved down to Mississippi and I found two pairs at WalMart that fit (and yes, that was two years ago.) 

Since I've lost about 15 pounds due to the medications I've been put on for my PCOS (which you can read all about on my other blog, Baby Makin'), I noticed that I had a terrible case of saggy butt syndrome in my jeans as well as a rip in one pair that could be potentially embarrassing if it gets any larger. Last weekend, Keegan and I were planning on driving to the next biggest town that has a Target, so I figured I'd do some quick jeans shopping. 

While in Target, I grabbed two pairs of jeans, one in my current size, and one in the next size down. Going into the fitting room, I had a vision of slipping the jeans in my current size one, realizing they were way too big and being able to fit in the next smallest size, or even better, two sizes down! I mean, I had lost 15 pounds, that must count for something, right? 

That plan went down in flames when I tried to put on the jeans in my current size and I couldn't get them up past my thighs. After that, I was done. I quickly put on my old jeans, walked out of the dressing room and put the jeans back on the rack. Keegan asked me how it went and I told him the jeans were too expensive. 

In my head, I knew that brands fit differently. I knew that the trend these days are for girls to wear skin tight jeans (not my personal style.) I knew that I was trying to squeeze myself into a pair of Levi's and if I just tried on a different brand, I would probably find some that fit, but I was done. All the emotions from years past of trying on pair after pair of jeans and finding nothing came flooding back and I felt like the 15 pounds I had lost had been for nothing. 

What's funny is I ordered a couple of shirts and a pair of PJ pants from Old Navy during their Cyber Monday sale at my current size, but they're all huge on me! This was the kick in the pants that I needed to prove to myself that my weight loss has been a positive thing and something to continue working on. It also proves that each and every brand will fit differently. (By the way, I think us girls should band together and make clothes manufacturers give us some consistency in clothing sizes. Anyone else agree?) 

Unfortunately my jeans that had a rip in them have gotten worse by the day, so it looks like I'm going to have to put on my big-girl pants on and head over to WalMart to try and find another pair this weekend. Going to WalMart two weeks before Christmas probably isn't the smartest idea, but the only other store in my small Mississippi town is Belk, and I feel like they're ridiculously over priced. I'm just going to struggle through, find a pair of jeans that fits no matter the size, just to hold me over until I'm done with this weight loss thing. 

I've made a promise to myself to stop focusing on the size of my clothing and focus more on how my clothing fits. Shirts that were once too tight on me have become looser. I have saggy butt syndrome in my jeans. Things like this make me realize how much weight I have lost and are the push I need to continue doing so. 

Maybe one day I'll enjoy shopping for clothes. 

Finally! + A Blog Giveaway

Since Thursday, our internet has been out. It kind of amazed me how lost I felt without it and how much I actually use it once I'm home from work. Guess that says something about this generation, eh? Anyways, we had a technician come out today to see what the problem was. Want to guess? The entire problem was caused by a bent wire. The wire that hooked up our modem to the internet was so badly bent that it entirely cut it off. I actually felt sorry for the guy who had to come all the way out to the middle of nowhere just to fix a bent cable.

But, I'm happy that we got our internet back on this day specifically because Becky from Mrs. To Mama is hosting an amazing giveaway with four other ladies. The prize is worth $643 and it would be an awesome way to kick off December for whoever wins. You could hop over to her blog and enter, but if you don't, that just means that there's a better chance for me to win!

I hope that everyone has a great weekend!