We wish you a Merry Christmas!!

Our girls talked to Santa, and he told them that he is very busy today. We hope he comes to visit you tonight while you have visions of sugar plums in your head!! Merry Christmas from our family to yours!!

Happy Anniversary!!

Today is a special day for me and my best friend. We are celebrating our 3rd anniversary. I am so blessed to have such a fabulous man that wanted to be my husband. He is supportive, kind, patient, full of morals and ethics, funny, trustworthy, generous, hard working, loving...on top of that he puts his faith in God. We are absolutely two peas in a pod. He "gets" me as we usually are on the same wavelength with most anything. He makes me laugh every day. There is no one on this earth that I would rather spend my time with. Although we have had our fair share of disappointments in these first few years of marriage, we have worked through them together, and we are a much stronger couple because of the things that we have been through together. I hope that I have a chance to spend many more years with this man as I cherish every moment that I have with him. I love you, Mike. Happy Anniversary!!

This was the best day of my life!!

I tried to "be in the moment" as I said my vows. Those vows were spoken from the bottom of my heart.
The church was so beautiful with over 200 poinsettias, the lighted trees and the string quartet. Oh, I can't forget the good looking bridal party!!
Why were we laughing as we signed our marriage license? Maybe we were just smiling big because we were so happy.
A close up of the newly married couple
Look at those poinsettias. It is such a fabulous time of year to get married!! We didn't have to buy any flowers for the church other than the bridal party flowers. One of Mike's members allowed us to use their RV as our transportation to the reception. This is one special RV, and we were so thankful that we had a chance to borrow it for a little while
Our first dance was "Eternal Flame" by the Bangles. Strange choice some might say, but it has been "our song" since we first started dating. Yeah, we started dating that long ago. We might only be celebrating our 3rd wedding anniversary, but we dated (with timeouts) for 17 years before we married.That cake. Holy cow. White chocolate amaretto cream center, buttercream frosting topped with white chocolate fondant. It was not only beautiful, but it was delicious!!
This was in front of the club as we were getting ready to leave. It was such a fabulous night. It went by so fast, and I would give anything to do it all over again. Maybe we can someday?? Want to renew our vows in Hawaii (our honeymoon location) in a few years?? Or we could go to Bora Bora and stay in an overwater bungalow with glass bottom floors?? A girl can dream...
...I know I dreamed about this day all of my life. It was everything I dreamed about and more!! Thank you for marrying me, prince charming!!

Get your Glow On!!

I am talking about getting my glow on over at www.chic-critique.com today. I have found a product that will help my pasty skin look a little shimmery in my holiday dresses. Please go check it out and leave me a comment so I know you visited. I actually posted on November 11th and November 25th too, but forgot to blog about it. If you have the time, read those posts too and leave a comment. My comments have been down, and I'm not feelin' the love. Like the economy, I need a little boost. I would link to the actual posts, but I don't know how!!! Can anyone help me with that?? How can I actually be a part of a blog like www.chic-critique.com and not know how to do that??

Thanksgiving and a week of decorating

Although our group was a little smaller this year, we enjoyed having Thanksgiving at our home once again. We don't play around. We feast. We had so much good food...appetizers, smoked turkey, thick ribeyes, tons of sides, and pumpkin cheesecake with pecan praline topping and homemade whipped cream. Wow!! It makes me want to go back in time and eat it all over again.

We like to gather in the kitchen to eat appetizers while the other food is in the oven. We had both of Mike's pros Chad and Luke plus their wives Sara and Clark, our next door neighbors Debbie and Jeff and our other neighbor Tiffanie whose husband is in Iraq (thank you Gabe for working to keep us safe). We missed Daniel and SuSu since they were on their honeymoon. We also missed Michelle and Melanie as they went other places this year.

Chad and Jeff got the turkey carving honor. Messy. As long as I don't have to do it, I'm happy!!
Mike loves sharing our feast with the "house of dogs". Everyone is allowed to bring their dogs, so we had 5 pooches who were looking for any kind of scraps that they could get. Sara and Chad also brought them a container of "pupcorn" which they snacked on as an appetizer before they got the steak and turkey scraps. Spoiled much??

After our tradition of going around the table to tell what we are thankful for and saying the blessing, we enjoyed our amazing feast!! Thank you God for this good food and time with friends!!

We started decorating the weekend after Thanksgiving. I'm still decorating. I know...give me a break. I haven't decorated since 2004, so I am a little excited to decorate again. We have a 9 foot tall fake tree in our family room and a 7 and a half foot tree in the guest bedroom that is on the front of the house. Many of you don't believe in fake trees, but I have bad allergies, we have saved a lot over the years since a 9 foot tree every year would really add up and I have the best smelling Balsam Cedar diffuser ever made hidden behind my tree. Since the tree had not been out of the box since 2004, we had some issues. After a trip to Home Depot, then WallyWorld, then Lowes, then Lowes a day later, we finally have two completely lit trees, 2 large wreaths (one on the front of the house and the other on the back covered porch), 2 topiaries for the front porch and garland for the top of the dining room hutch. Like I said, I have been a bit excited.

Ali decided that she would help us with the tree. I think all her work wore her plum out.

Mike was so excited to help me fluff the 5 strands of garland that would go into making the big garland on top of the hutch. He was so excited that I think he fell asleep while he was fluffing.

Mike stood on a step stool or maybe it was some piece of furniture and the topper was put in place...

...stay tuned for pics of all the decorations in their proper places.