days merry & bright

Christmas holds so many magical memories for me this year. Not only did the holiday come on the heels of an amazing vacation that left me blissfully happy and relaxed and appreciative of my little home and family, but I also made an extra effort to be sure my celebrations were intentional and meaningful to me. I had been bursting with this need to cozy up and hibernate in my own space, to make it twinkle and smell like a forest of pine. Christmas decor was a top priority for me, and I couldn't be more pleased with how my apartment transformed from cluttered and claustrophobic to wintery and whimsical.

I'm grateful that I was able to have the time off work to saturate every day with not only prepping for the holiday but experiencing the holiday season. For me, that meant incorporating a lot of corny, classic Christmas stuff into my days, like the Christmas Pandora station streaming constantly, and watching Christmas TV specials both old (How the Grinch Stole Christmas, Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer) and new (Glee, Community).

Here are some highlights of my Christmas this year:
-picking out our tree at the Robinson Tree Farm
-new stockings for Cameron and I, classic stockings for the kitties, candycanes, cinnamon scented pinecones
-hot chocolate outside in the snow
-crafting an imperfect but lovely winter wreath out of some spare boughs given to us at the tree farm plus some berries, bits, and baubles
-annual Christmas Eve screening of It's a Wonderful Life at the Broadway
-annual Christmas Eve viewing of A Charlie Brown Christmas at home
-our first ever Christmas family portrait/Christmas card sent (more on this later!)
-walking down the street to see the lights at Temple Square on Christmas Eve
-ornament gift exchange Christmas morning (his: a paper mache red dragon; hers: a golden bedazzled giraffe)
-being able to spend Christmas Day with both our families, and all of the thoughtful gifts we were given
-playing Harry Potter Clue (Crabbe & Goyle in the owlery with the portkey!)
-10 family members all gathered around a Macbook "Face Time"-ing with my new baby nephew, like an Apple commercial come to life

Hoping your holidays, too, were filled with peace and joy!

the big three: a holiday sampler

Christmas (this is actually Christmas 2009):












-Christmas Eve at Cameron's grandparents'
-Christmas Eve night and Christmas morning at home with the kitties - the first Christmas ever I've woken up in my own home! (i.e., not at my mom's)
-Kitty Christmas gifts and ornament exchange
-Christmas day visits with both families and all the collective cuties

Halloween:






-Popeye and Olive Oyl homemade costumes, gathered day before/day of party (and before The Office episode where Jim & Pam jacked our idea!)
-Fruitless search for pumpkins to carve on Halloween day
-Came down with the flu just as we were settling in to watch the Rocky Horror Glee episode and some classic horror films

Thanksgiving:




-dinner and post-dinner Bingo game at Cameron's grandparents'
-Tofurky
-first time I've eaten yams. I liked them!

I've been getting really into Christmas this past week and offering a play-by-play on my Twitter. I avoid Christmas all year and then it's five days of all Christmas, all the time. It might be driving some people crazy but it's really made the holiday feel special for me this year, and is a great counterbalance to the gifts-gifts-gifts that consume the rest of the holiday. (Who needs gifts when you've got a twinkling fir tree in your apartment, and are crafting wreaths and paper snowflakes and hanging stockings and listening to 15 different versions of "Baby It's Cold Outside"?)

See you on the flip side!

beauty all around

Hello, blogland. I am freshly home from my Zion vacation and in that blissful "home" state of being completely enamored with the little things - piping hot pizza fresh out of the oven, being woken up early by a hungry kitty and reading blogs (a whole week's worth!) in bed while the sun rises and the boyfriend and the kitties are still fast asleep.

I plan to blog a lot in the next two weeks, and wrap up 2010 with a neat little bow. However, there is also the strong possibility that my best intentions will be for naught, and I'll leave you high and dry again while enjoying the holidays and all their trappings instead. Isn't that always the dilemma? Living life versus documenting it? I always find there's too much life to be lived.

Before I dive into the personal stuff, I thought I'd share some of my favorite things from the internet over the past few months.

This video grabbed me by the guts and didn't let go. It's my absolute favorite of all the depictions and documentations of marriage I've seen reading blogs over the years (and you may take my word for it that that's a lot.) Via Design*Sponge




This kid is swiftly becoming my favorite kid on all of the internet (and I think we all know there are a lot of kids on the internet.) As truly weird and bizarre as it is to gasp and squeal at pictures of someone else's kid who you've never met and whose mom you do not know, how can you help it with this little guy? If you think this kid is half as cute as I do, do yourself a favor and click over to this post of his first haircut in its entirety. Again, just a flawless documentation of a significant life moment that this little family will get to enjoy forever. I love it. Via Oh Happy Day

Many of you will have already seen The Ballerina Project, but man am I a sucker for a good ballerina photo. (Speaking of, I am so excited to finally see Black Swan this weekend!) A few of my favorites below.




Breathtaking. Via a whole bunch of blogs I read - Kate, Naomi, Joanna




And finally, beautiful images from the series Swim & Steam by Damien Peyret. Shot on Polaroid in Reykjavik, Iceland, where Cameron and I hope to visit someday and spend some serious time soaking in those pools. Via The Impossible Project

time travel

My mom and I are in Boise awaiting the arrival of my newest nephew with my brother and his wife. I have to say, I am loving this use of time off work, which, living close to most of my immediate family, I don't often get to experience. Being a family member's house guest - sleeping in, lounging about the house in cozy socks and under blankets, reading and interneting all day long to my heart's content, snow falling gently outside through all the picture-windows in the house, enjoying a cup of tea next to the twinkle of their Christmas tree. No particular place to be or tasks that need completing, no destination but the couch and the kitchen table. It suits me.

I thought this might be an opportune time to share photos from my last trip to Boise, in the summer of 2009. Hard to imagine a time when jean shorts and swimming in an ice cold river were the Boise activities of choice, but let's journey back there together, shall we?