These are a few of my favorite things...

This Christmas was filled with family, and that was my absolute favorite thing!

Aside from the good quality time that we got to spend visiting and catching up, here are a few of my favorite gifts I received.

1) One of my favorite songs for Christmas goes a little something like this...."IIIIIIIIIIIII want a hippopotamus for Christmas, oooonly a hippopotamus will doooooo", and this year I GOT A HIPPOPOTAMUS!!!  My husband did good this year :)  With a little help from my friend Sarah who ran into this little guy and gave Eric the heads up on where to find him.

2)  I love shoes.  Shoes shoes shoes.  Any season, many styles, I am a sucker for shoes.  My family knows it too.  These are from my mom, mother in law and sister in law.  My feet really love Christmas :)


You can see here 2 pairs of TOMS (most comfortable shoes ever), Sheplers cowboy boots (amazing), nude patent leather heels that I have been needing (Payless), mocassins (American Eagle), and some rand-o brand of fake Uggs (my favorite kind of winter boot, I like to call them Fuggs).

3) I love anything that is embellished.  Big jewelry, anything with a crazy pattern or added bling, you get the point.  Eric and I were strolling through the mall to finish up our shopping on early December and I saw a small kiosk with all these pretty ear warmers and said "hey if anyone needs an idea of something to get me, tell them about these".  He never did end up doing that, but low and behold I opened up a package at my parents house and BADA BING!   Thanks Mom!  P.S., my mom is one of THE BEST gift-givers in the history of the world.  She is also responsible for the pink cowGIRL boots seen above, and those were also a surprise that I knew nothing about!

Baby it's cold outside

Hi everyone!  Long time, no post.  So here goes:
Merry Christmas!
Happy Hanukkah!
Happy New Year!
If you celebrate another type of holidays, fill in the blanks Happy _____ to you and a Merry _____ too!

We spent some time with both of our families, on their respective sides of the state, for our Christmas, with plenty of driving, but THANKFULLY none of the bad weather hit while we were en route.  Some travel days/times needed revisions, but everyone got where they were going safely.

I will be back sometime this weekend to do a re-cap of some awesome gifts from this year, (hint, I got 5 pairs of shoes and a hippopotamus).
 I will also share some snaps of our nephews just having the grandest time in their pjs, running around like the wild little men that they are!

Until then, here are some snippets of our time off and our journeys.

 Here's a not-so-great self portrait of us at my parent's house, the light isn't quite right, but who is that stud?!?!  And where did that chick's bangin necklace come from?!?!?!

Whoa!  How excited is this guy???  Look at his face!  And he doesn't even know what's inside that box yet, he just knows that it is a huge box, aka stage, aka trampoline, aka diving board. 

Hereon the left, you have our street and front porch, the morning after we got home.  Luckily, we had decided to leave a day early to avoid driving in it. 
Right - Our drive back was clear on the ground, but full of snow covered trees.  So pretty!