the Big tickets

Santa has come and gone and we're still here, cleaning up the after math and enjoying the presents that he and his elves {a.k.a. our family} spent all year putting together. We've had tons of laughs with sweet family and friends, lots of food, and spoiled with yet another "greatest Christmas ever".

A review of a few of the big ticket items:

Looks like I won't be doing that B&E {breaking and entering} to get my own computer after all.

I might even get to blog more often, even when I'm traveling for work. BIG Yay, ya'll ;)

{Thank you, dearest husband.}

You may even start seeing a few video clips from up since getting this handy dandy camcorder.

{Don't worry, though. I can't stand my annoying voice on film, so I'll try to be seen and not heard if I must be in the shot.}

It's super tiny!

And who could forget Nick's new Stihl gas-powered weed eater?

I sure do hope he can look as cool as this guy while using it.

We've also got lots of fun memoribilia to finish the theater room in the basement including a large, candy-apple red popcorn machine, as well as an electrice fireplace to finally cover-up the big bare wall in the basement and add some warmth to the cooler temps while hanging out down there.

I simply can. not. wait. to get it all put together and then, of course, to show it off to my true blue bloggie friends.

Last, but certainly not least, we must remember what is sitting in the driveway, delivered one week before Christmas and making this girl just a tiny bit giddy:

It's love♥

Mine is actually a pearly white instead of the silver pictured and I MUST get around to taking some pictures of it and giving you the offical tour.

I honestly feel like I just won the superbowl.

Let's pretend I just did.

Looks just like me, right?

"Stephanie, this year, you've celebrated your one year anniversary with the man of your dreams, bought and moved into the house of your dreams, graduated pharmacy school and began the career of your dreams, now you're jetting around town in the car of your dreams... What's next?"

We're going to Disney World, babyyyyyyyyyyyyy!!!!!!!

We fly out tomorrow to spend a few days in the magic kingdom, including, what I'm expecting to be, the best New Year's celebration I've ever been a part of!

Won't be back till 2010!

Happy New Year's ya'll!

If I could give each and every one of you a gift this Christmas...

#1 It might just be the gift of snow!

Notice anything new?

No, not the background, though that is new. No, not the cute little buttons added throughout the site.

See anything else?

It's SNOWING!

Not sure if it's snowing in your neck of the woods, but if it's not or you could use some more, let me direct you HERE to learn how to get this awesome addition for your blog.

{I added this cute little feature at 12:30 last night and thought it was so cool, I brought the laptop to Nick, already in bed, to show him. It really excites me that it's snowing on my blog!!!}

And FYI - I was surfing other blogs last night and was redirected to "Shabby Blogs" after trying to figure out where someone got their super cute background. Well, I'm in love -- and this isn't some advertising scheme. The creative little lady who runs this blog has no idea I'm writing about her - but her FREE stuff is amazing and I stole lots of it. Of course, I'm also super grateful to her for showing me how to make it ♥snow♥!

#2 If I could give each and every one of you another gift this Christmas, it would have to be Scentsy!

{Again - I know there's lots of prooduct placement in blogworld and this is NOT one of them. I just sincerely love this stuff !}

Scentsy is a home frangrance company that is taking over my home! My favorites so far: the plug in warmer which I easily move anywhere in the room without having to find a table to set it on or even from room to room, the car candles - love the "at home" smell when I'm living on the road, and my favorite frangrance right now with the holidays upon us, Cinnament. Yumm-O.

I still want to order a travel tin too for my many hotel stays and to put at my station when I'm at work. Scents, good or bad, can change my whole outlook at the moment and BOY do I have a sensitive nose!

It doesn't hurt to try and provide that great atmosphere of delicious smell whenever I possibly can. My friend, Ashley, turned me onto Scensty and I'm forever grateful! If you're interested, I know she would be appreciative as well if you bought through her personal Scentsy website.

#3 I made these little personalized ornaments for all the technicians in the pharmacy where I spend the majority of my hours during the week - which happens to be the busiest CVS in the entire southeast - and when you happen to be a freakishly busy pharmacy, you have to have LOTS of help. I mean LOTS. I mean, we have 16 technicians and are always looking for more. If you're familiar with the pharmacy world, you know that's a BIG number when it comes to technicians. YEAH, we're b.u.s.y.

So onto the ornaments. They're simple but personal and at leeast I think they're darling. I'd love to make one for each and every one of you. Personalized, of course. Ya know, in my dream world.

Some were pink, some were originally silver then spray painted black, but all were shatterproof. That is a very important detail you do not want to forget if you're going to be fidgeting around with ornments and most likely dropping one from time to time.

My supplies: sticker letters, some super glue, sticker rhinestones, and bunches of ribbon.

All the glitter and hot pink made me want to keep it all for myself, then I remembered the spirit of Christmas and how it's better to give than receive and all that hooey and kept on truckin' with the crafts.

I tied a wire ornament hanger in a circle on the ornament, which is used later to anchor the ribbons on the top.

*Nextly*, I super glued the letters in the center.

{They were stickers, but they weren't going to last without the glue}

Threw on some rhinestones...

...and tied 'em up with lots of ribbon.

Voilà!

They're not much, but when you have 16 people to buy for, not to mention adding several more for some of their kids... well, options are limited.

Let's pretend you got one from me too, K?

#4 Last but not least, I'd love to send you all some cookies, which would leave less in my kitchen and lessen the chance that I will own zero pair of pants that still fit me in 2010.

They may be baked from store bought dough, iced with store bought frosting, and sprinkled with commercial Christmas sprinkles but they are YUMMY.

Good enough for me!

*******

Instead of sparkly gifts and tasty treats, all I really have is this Christmas wish for YOU:

 

You all deserve so much for sticking with me through my ups and downs, offering lots of encouragement and sweetness through your comments, and for basically, just being lovable YOU! I'd love to give each of you a little something, but all I can really offer is a wish and prayer that you and yours find an over abundance of health and happiness in the new year. I would ♥love♥ nothing more than just that.

Have a vErY mErRy ChRiStMaS with lots of goodies, friends, family, and LoVeLoVeLoVe.

Tour Our Home - Christmas Edition

It's too late for the Nester's Christmas Tour of Homes, BUT it's definitely NOT too late for Christmas {less than 5 days to go!} and it's NEVER to late to share with you, my friends ♥

Not many words necessary for this tour, I'll let most the pics do the talking. As you can tell on my little neglected blog, I'm not feeling very articulate lately. But not to worry! My spirits are high, we're still living the dream, and I'm even zipping around town in a cute new crossover that I'll have to share some pics of with you all very soon =)

NOW: Onto the tour!

The bedroom:

The garland on the headboard has inspired me to keep some type of appropriate seasonal garland up there all year long. We'll see what I can come up with in 2010.

HA! To think I had my mom deliver one of her old 7" trees to me this year with hopes of flocking it and plans to place in our bedroom. This cheapy fiber optic tree that I use to put up in our

dorm room should tell you that some plans don't always pan out the way you want.

The color changing lights, the plastic ornaments and star topper, along with the very sweet detail that this tree rotates, all combined make me smile and know that I will always find a space for this piece of cheap nostalgia in my home each Christmas.

The living room:

Nick and I would both like you to pretend that he is not in this picture and that Hendrix's Santa sweater was not thrown over the side of the couch. Sound good?

Instead, notice how we wrapped our 'summery' canvases on the wall. I love it!

The dining room:

The kitchen:

.

The story behind these ornaments here.

I got the "How'd you do that?" question from several folks about these mid-air dangling ornaments.

Look close! You may be able to spot the fishing line and clear thumb tacks pushed into the ceiling.

My mother-in-law came up with another great idea to add for next year; ribbon! I could hang them with ribbon or just tie it around the tops of the ornaments. Decisions, decisions.

Hendrix's puppy tree(!) in the eat-in kitchen

I love my Santa cookie jar! Too bad the cookies get eaten too quick for him to hold any!

{As I'm currently munching on my 134th cookie.}

The basement, a.k.a. man cave:

Nick's sports tree.

And I would be remiss if I didn't show you our outdoor lights:

Just kidding! Did you think we'd really go through all the trouble to put lights ON THE LAWN?!

For real this time:

They're a little blurry, but I hope you can spot all of our window scenes, as well as Santa at the North pole!

Haha. Just kidding again. These were just a couple of the houses on our street. You should know we only did white lights {boring!} and only got a couple of trees done and some wreaths on the garage lights. Nothing exciting enough to brave the cold and the snow to get a couple pictures of which. Hopefully, we'll get a lot more done on the outside next year. Still, I doubt it will be as exciting as the previous pictures =)

Thanks for visiting and Merry Christmas to all!