2009 December

these are a few of my favorite things

Dec152009

Are you singing now?

… Brown paper packages tied up with strings, these are a few of my favorite things.

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flickr image via here

Because I love blogging so much and I appreciate all of my readers so much, I wanted to do a giveaway featuring some of my favorite things that I’ve talked about this year. Most of the items are for the home and one of the items is for a kid in your life.

1. 2 Kate Spade Holly Heights mugs via One Kings Lane (the mugs only). One in green and one in red. Aren’t these so adorable? Don’t you just want to sip hot chocolate next to your Christmas tree out of these?

holly heights mug

2. An Archipelago Lindenwood reed diffuser. I have these in almost every room in my house and I’m in love with the fresh, natural scent.

lindenwood

3. A Low Country Luxe candle in my personal favorite scent, High Cotton. These are all over my house, too, and I just love them. They burn perfectly and evenly and the aroma subtly consumes your home in just a few minutes. I love it.

low country luxe

4. Last but certainly not least, our favorite Sophie the Giraffe. Or Sophie la Girafe. She’s French, you know? Sophie has been a lifesaver for Hudson this year and she comes in an adorable box. We saved Hudson’s Sophie box because she really is like a collector’s item. She’s a great gift to give to a child in your life if you don’t have one of your own.

sophie the giraffe

To enter my Favorite Things Giveaway…

1. Just leave a comment telling me what would be on your favorite things list.

2. For an extra entry, tweet about this post and link to the giveaway. Make sure you let me know that you mentioned it on Twitter and l’ll give you one extra entry!

3. The winner will be announced on December 22– just in time for me to get out of town for Christmas with my family!

Thank you for being so supportive of me this year and always being such an encouraging group of women. I’m happy to share our lives with you!

Hudson's first Christmas part 1: meeting Santa Claus

Filed Under: Baby, Hudson

Dec152009

Thank you all so much for sharing your Christmas traditions. I read every single comment (y’all left some long comments and I loved it) and really enjoyed reading about your favorite traditions and the way you plan to spend your Christmas this year.

There are so many things I want to remember to do for Hudson for his first Christmas. The hope is also that we will continue to do the really special things every year for him and for our future children.

I realized on Saturday that we had not yet taken him to visit Santa Claus. I’ve avoided those areas at the malls for many many years, so it was strange to think about getting in line to take a picture with Santa again. But I couldn’t let my baby boy miss out on that!

On Sunday after church, we ventured to a side of town (full of chain restaurants, our best mall, and shopping centers) that I rarely go to because I don’t deal well with gobs of people. This is why we never eat at Olive Garden, too. I don’t like crowds and I prefer local establishments. Okay. Enough with that rant.

So we’re at the mall, and we get in line to see Santa. I seriously thought we’d be in and out of the mall in 30 minutes tops. Nope. The line rivaled the line to get on the Texas Giant at Six Flags on the fourth of July. Insane. Line. To. See. Santa.

Then after about fifteen minutes we realized that the line had not moved at all and we started to wonder what was going on. Then we discovered that the camera had broken and no one was sitting on Santa’s lap. Poor Santa. Poor tons of people in line.

(My mom informed me that North Park Mall in Dallas gives you a number when you visit Santa Claus and they assign a time for you to come back. Genius Dallas folk.)

Hudson started to get restless and I just knew that we’d never last long enough to meet Santa on Sunday. So we left. We knew that we’d bring him back, but it made more sense for me to bring him back on a weekday morning when the crowd was smaller. But I didn’t want Todd to miss it.

So Hudson and I got dressed earlier than usual this morning and then we ventured out to the mall again. I never go to that side of town and there we were again!

We stood in a very short line this morning behind a very kind family. Hudson was very talkative and was charming all the people around us. I taught him how to say “ho ho ho” while we stood there and explained to him that he needed to tell Santa what he wanted for Christmas. He was so excited to sit on Santa’s lap. The sweet elf behind the camera even let me take a picture with my own camera after I bought one of her pictures!

When we finished up with Santa Claus, Hudson and I just strolled around the mall (and I didn’t buy a thing). He fell asleep and I enjoyed just walking. I got a Caramel Brulee Latte from Starbucks and enjoyed having some time out of the house. He slept for about thirty minutes and then we went on home.

You think he was happy to be on Santa’s lap?

looking for new traditions?

Filed Under: Uncategorized

Dec102009

Last night I attended an ornament swap and one of my friends asked the rest of the ladies, “What is your annual Christmas Eve tradition?”

What do we eat? Where do we go? What do we do?

I know that many newlywed couples are looking for new traditions and are often torn with whether to begin their own family traditions or continue with old family traditions. It’s hard to come up with fun original ideas, so I was hoping that you could all leave your tradition here in a comment– and then people have a place to find fun ideas for new traditions with their family.

Here’s mine:

When I was growing up, we split Christmas Eve and Christmas Day between my grandparents on my mom’s said and my grandparents on my dad’s side. We had pretty much the same exact meal at both places. We spent Christmas Eve with my dad’s parents, siblings, and all my cousins and we opened all of our presents. Santa Claus came that night to my grandparents’ house and then on Christmas Day we woke up to see what he brought us. Then we packed up the car and went to my mom’s parents’ house where we exchanged more presents and ate again. It was always a lot of fun to get to see so many family members.

For the past three of four years, our new tradition is to eat gumbo on Christmas Eve. Wherever we are. Sometimes we’re in Dallas and sometimes we’re in Columbia. But gumbo is the constant and I love that! We watch Home Alone while we cook and then Christmas Vacation later that night. We also go to church either at our church or at my parents’ church in Dallas. We don’t open any presents on Christmas Eve anymore– although I’d like to change that. The kid in me is still dying to open presents on Christmas Eve!

Some of the other traditions that I heard last night were “taco night,” fondue, crab boil, and a mixure of snack foods.

What is your Christmas Eve tradition?

Hudson is 6 months old

Filed Under: Baby, Hudson, Uncategorized

Dec82009

Dearest Hudson,

You turned six months old on December 5 and it’s so hard to believe that you have been here with us for half a year. Of course it feels like longer than that because we spent nine months prior to that awaiting your arrival in June. These past six months have been the most exciting of my life and it’s hard to even imagine life without you here.

Now that you are six months old, it seems like we have a completely different boy in the house. Everyone told us that six months was a huge turning point, but it was seriously like magic. You were a wonderful, beautiful, sweet baby before, but now, all of a sudden, you have just changed before our eyes. You rarely cry and you spend so much time during the day entertaining yourself and playing.

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About a week after you turned five months old, you began sitting up on your own for long periods of time. What a huge accomplishment! And I know that this makes you so happy that you’re finally able to experience the world around you from a vertical position. You love life and you are happy to express that feeling to anyone you see.

Also, about a week after you turned five months old, your two little bottom teeth broke through your gums. Now those two teeth are completely in and your smile has completely changed. Now when you smile, you’re very careful to move your bottom lip down just enough so you can show off your brand new pearly white teeth! You also jet your jaw out when you smile just to make sure no one misses those teethies. (Yes, mommy has brought out the baby talk when mentioning your “teethies.”) Someday you’ll let us get a picture of these teeth that you’re so proud of!

You love your sweet Boudreaux and Fiona. Boudreaux loves you, too, and Fiona is a little nervous when you reach out to touch her. But our Boudreaux just wants to lick your face until there’s nothing left to lick. He loves you so much! You also got to meet Beaux, who is mommy, Uncle Walker, Poppy and KK’s family dog. Beaux is the best Golden Retriever in the world and we are so happy that you were able to meet him. He’s 12 years old now and may not be with us much longer.

You are loving all of your fruits and vegetables. We moved you into your high chair last week and that has been a great experience for all of us. It’s so much easier to feed you like this and you seem to enjoy sitting at the big table with us. Your favorites are squash and bananas, but you really do love it all.

I took you in for your six month well visit yesterday so you could get your shots and just a regular check up from your doctor. You weighed 22.1 lbs and measured 28 1/2 inches long. You are still off the charts in both height and weight. Your growth has been so consistent and we’re just thrilled that you are healthy.

You talk and babble to everyone you see and you really are such a friendly, outgoing little boy. You’re always so happy to see your grandparents and mommy and daddy’s friends. You especially love your Sunday school teachers. They gets lots of love every week from you.

You have always loved your bath, but now you get to sit up in the bath tub and we let you hang out in there for a long time just so you can splash around. It’s going to be so much fun to get you in a swimming pool someday soon! You have also started responding even more to music. You wave your hands around when you hear a fun song and we swear you’re dancing. I have been listening to a lot of Christmas music in the car, and I can hear you humming very lowly from the backseat and my heart just breaks a little with happiness every time I hear your sweet voice.

Hudson, we are so proud of you. I knew that I would love this stage in your life and now that it’s here I want time to stand still. But I know that you have to grow up and that I will love each moment with you even more than the earlier moments. You are a joy and the best thing that has ever happened in our lives. We love you so much.

Now for the growth comparisons next to our favorite monkey:

5 months (Mr. Short Attention Span)

6 months- a big boy!

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