Christmas mantle

The last two years I have had a lot of fun working on my Christmas mantle!   Its a bit of a challenge to fill in the space because it is sooo long!    This year I went bright and sparkly!  It was a lot of fun!

Things I love about Christmas

One of my favorite parts about Christmas is decorating the fridge with cards and pictures from family and friends!   Most of the time I prefer a cleaner looking fridge, but for Christmas I like to fill it up!

Sadly this year I did not get a card out for us.  I felt horrible about it for weeks and then I finally just had to get over it!   There is always this year right!?

Its a white trashy cousins Christmas!

OK, so yeah, its February, I know but I don't care.  The awesomeness of this party had to be documented on the blog sooner of later!!!

Every year the cousins in Adam's family all get together for a white elephant party.   The last few years we have done the ugly sweater thing, but this year we wanted to mix it up a little bit.   Mission was definitely accomplished!

Here are some of the best/worst dressed couples of the night! (Alisa, hope you don't mind I stole the pictures from you!!)

Carrie and Jason

Rachel and Jordan

Emily and Paul

Julie and Isaac

Matt and Alisa

One of my favorite things about this picture is that you can see just how 'trashy' our backdrop is!!!   We had to have a full length shot just to capture Matt's shoes and socks.    Super Special!

Me and Adam

It took a lot of coaxing to get Adam to even kinda dress up, but he did look pretty ridiculous!

I only wish we would have got a shot of the food table as we had some pretty trashy food as well!   

Can't wait till next year to see what happens next!

Dana Point

In November, we did a little vacation getaway to Dana Point, Ca.   It was a much needed vacation full of rest, relaxing and delicious food!

One of the places we visited was the Mission San Juan Capistrano.     It was fascinating!   So much history and the architectural detail was amazing!

No Visit to CA would be complete without a meal at Rockin Baja Lobster!!   Bucket full of shrimp, lobster, carne asada and chicken.  Oh help I need some more now!!!

 And my absolute favorite thing about visiting the coast, is well the coast!!!  

We took a walk on the beach at least 2x a day every day we were there; day and night!

Anyone have tips on how to make your husband smile 'normal' for the camera?  This is the best one we could get.   I guess I will just keep posting the awkward ones until he cooperates!

Donut Donut!

The annual fall donut party was a blast!   Its one of my favorite things to do every year.  I love coming up with new toppings to try.   This year I added strawberry frosting and cereal to the mix!