“These Are a Few of My Favorite Things…”

Happy late Thanksgiving and merry early Christmas! It has been a hectic two weeks at our newly wedded household, in part because we actually weren’t at our house for most of it! But before I get to all of that, here are some pictures with holiday cheer:

I spent the week before last back home, as my love had to go on another business trip. It was so great to have a week to catch up with my mom and sister, help my mom decorate the house for Christmas, and to do some extra Christmas shopping! My mom has two big trees; the first one is a gold themed tree that is filled with pretty ornaments, picks, and ribbon; the second tree has all the sentimental ornaments, the ugly crafted things that my sister and I made to go on the tree over the years, the special trinkets to commemorate trips and events, and basically everything else that doesn’t go with the gold theme tree. They both turned out gorgeous this year! Once my love came back from his trip, we spent two days back at our house where I prepped the food I was bringing to Thanksgiving at both our families’ get-togethers. I ended up making these candied almonds, two versions of this peanut butter chocolate fudge, and a few cheese and cracker trays. It was all so yummy! Once back in Indiana, we enjoyed relaxing with both families and eating far too much food. We even squeezed in some family pictures before my sister had to work two horrendous Thanksgiving and Black Friday shifts (I, on the other hand, enjoyed NOT having to work retail those days for the first time in five years!). 

 
Once we were back home again, I unloaded all the treasures I had thrifted and found. The striped rug and gold pillows are from Ikea, the plaid sheets from Target, and the rest my mom and I hunted down in the surrounding thrift stores and flea markets (the guest room pictured above is still a work in progress, but I love these new sheets!)

Last night my love and I began setting up the outside of our house with our Christmas lights- I cannot wait until it is all finished! We are going to have the most festive house on the block :). Here is a picture I snapped last night before we realized our need to buy more extension cords to connect all of our plugs:

I also have begun one of my favorite things… wrapping presents! You know the old adage “it is better to give than to receive”? Well I love gifting presents more than I do getting them, and making them extra pretty makes me extra happy. My next post will showcase just how much wrapping I have completed already, as well as some tips, so check back later this week! (Update: Check this out for my Christmas wrapping pictures and some tips!)

Family, food, festive decorating, finding treasures, fixing up everything from the yard to presents in Christmas spirit; these are a few of my favorite things.

That concludes my quick catch-up and excuses for being absent from my blog lately. I am hoping that absence will change! I have so many exciting ideas and posts in store- now its just a matter of making time to share them all.

How was your Thanksgiving? What are some of your favorite things of the season? I would love to hear about them in the comments!