Oh what fun!

Some of these are still in the mail on their way to our friends and family, but in the meantime, I needed to share our Christmas cards this year... 

Usually we just send one, but this year we had such an amazing opportunity to send the silliest card in our history (but couldn't chance sending this to work colleagues and older family friends) that we had to go with an option 1 and option 2. :) Option one shows us as we REALLY wish our life was all the time... you know, perfect-looking.

We're smiling! Everything is perfect! We look fantastic! There's snow and a sled for goodness-sakes! 

That's not to say that we're not smiling an awful lot of the time and that we don't have an incredible, amazing, really blessed life together, because we do....

But let's be honest... no one's life LOOKS like that 100% of the time. Which is why card #2 makes me so happy.

I mean, in real life sometimes you have the most fun when you're zooming downhill at 30mph heading straight for some super scary-looking brambles and you have no idea how to steer the sled. Everyone knows it, but the ride is so fun that it's totally worth the crash at the end...
Or maybe in real life you have the most fun when things mostly just aren't going right, and you have no idea on God's green earth where you're heading but that's ok, because you're a team and you've got each others' backs and you figure things will turn out just fine..

Or maybe real life's fun because you've made a crazy choice that will change things forever for the two of you (like having a baby) and you're both hurtling toward that new phase in life without a CLUE of what it really means, will look like, or bring into your family, but you keep heading that way because it just feels right and the anticipation and uncertainty is BEAUTIFUL and what life is all about.

Regardless of which possibility resonates with you, Option #2 captures what I feel like our life really feels like these days.  The photo is terrible, we look ridiculous, but Oh, What FUN! :)

Happy New year and Happy Christmas, and ALL other holidays this season from me!

news!

I just realized that I never shared LAST year's holiday card with you! gosh. it was so belated that it was a new year's card... It was clearly a bigger sign of how the year was going to go for me...especially when it comes to blogging since my last post was this summer about my trip to San Francisco. gah.

The good news is that I've already placed our Christmas card order for this year! Once they come in i PROMISE I'll share them. I think we've really outdone our awkwardselves this year...get ready.

I also wanted to share some pretty big news... (which is also incredibly bloggy-belated) we've bought a house and are expecting our first BABY in March. It's pretty crazy to think about that I was actually already expecting when I wrote my last post. True story, I had some serious initial anxiety about becoming a mother and whether or not I was ready...but once we heard our little one's heart beat for the first time I was absolutely and totally overjoyed. I didn't expect to feel so strongly about the heartbeat, but it was so magical and surreal. Anyway, although I'm totally not ready (the nursery is a wreck, I have NO idea how to change a diaper, I can't even imagine how little sleep we're going to get) I'm also totally, one-million percent, knee-deep in excitement and joy for his arrival here in the real world.

in other news, at this point I'm ENORMOUS, y'all. I look like there's a beach ball under my top. In fact, the doctor said (and I quote) "my goodness! you definitely should have pushed back a bit sooner from the Thanksgiving table!" and I thought, "you should have kept your mouth shut if you don't want me to punch you in the face." if you don't believe me about my new look, check out the photo below taken only 2 weeks ago...

Truly, although it's so crazy that we'll be parents, Boone and I are over the moon about all of this and've been working nonstop to get everything ready in the new place for our little guy. I'd promise to be better about posting here, but with a new little one, I'm just not sure how that's going to go. Wish us luck and look for the Christmas card soon! (and maybe some other fun updates depending on what life throws at me)

Smooches.

Holiday wishes

Y'all, we had the most amazing Holiday season. We got to spend tons of quality time with our families, found a church (finally), hosted a fun dinner party, sang Christmas carols, mastered the art of the Prime Rib (coming soon on Mess of Greens), went out on the town dressed in black tie, had a great New Year's Eve in Jackson with dear friends, slept in, and got some great down time together. What's also pretty fantastic about this holiday is that we both love our jobs and what we get to do every day so much, that we're actually excited to go back to work, and ok with the holiday coming to an end. I know... I'm pinching myself because I feel so thankful and blessed. We had so much change and adventure in 2012 (the everglades! moving to a new town! 3 promotions!) that I'm looking forward to a 2013 where we settle in, put down some roots that will keep growing deeper, and celebrate lots of other people's happy new beginnings with our nearest and dearest friends (babies! weddings! home-ownership!)

Here are a few photos from our happiest of holidays, and here's wishing you a 2013 that's as filled with joy, adventure, merriment, love, and peace as our 2012. :)

Smooches.

she's making a list (part deux)

my list got longer before it got shorter, but the good news is that i'm on the downhill slope as we countdown to hosting our VERY FIRST big holiday.

design and order Christmas cards
get a tree
wrap presents
laundry
make stockings
make + deliver peanut butter balls
buy gifts for the work secret santa
mail Brett's family their gifts
decorate tree
CLEAN everything 
  - sweep
   - mop
  - vacuum
   - dust
  - clean out toilets and bathtubs

  - scrub the kitchen

  - laundry 

create arrangements for bookcases
plan menu for Christmas morning + Thursday night
  - grocery shop
  - make cheese grits

  - make spinach cassarole

  - marinate venison

get a new outfit for cocktail party/nye
finalize boone's present
finish wrapping gifts
address and mail Christmas cards

honestly, with all of this getting ready i've not really taken time to prepare myself for the spiritual side of this beautiful, joyful season. how are you preparations coming?

merry and bright!

this is the christmas card i designed that I mentioned in yesterday's post ... i could hardly sleep last night because i wanted to share it with you! i know it's no award-winning minted design, but considering i used microsoft publisher (no adobe photoshop in this house!), free fonts, and got them printed on moo, i'm pretty pleased. We took the picuture last week when it snowed (in mississippi! in early december!) and the bayou looked really pretty. these light trees decorate the bayou and downtown, so we thought it'd be fun to take a picture around them. unfortunately, the snow and damp air got the best of my hair, but maybe no one will notice... ;)

anyway, merry merry!

she's making a list...

did i tell you my folks are coming up to see us for Christmas? I know....hosting a holiday is a really grown-up thing to do, so we're feeling really excited about it and a little nervous about getting everything pulled together. i made a list and have been checking it twice (or thirty two) times a day to make sure i don't forget anything.
on the list since Sunday:

design and order Christmas cards
get a tree
wrap presents
laundry
make stockings
make peanut butter balls
buy gifts for the work secret santa
mail Brett's family their gifts
decorate tree
CLEAN everything
create arrangements for bookcases
plan menu for Christmas morning
get a new outfit for cocktail party/nye
finalize boone's present

i finally finished the Christmas cards today, and I LOVE them. ;) I figured out that I had publisher on our PCs and that I could use that to create a less homemade-y postcard than the "haaaay" one...so i did.
in fact, i placed our order with Moo only minutes ago while boone put all the lights on our REAL christmas tree. that's right, folks. we've got a real tree. sure, there are only 2 weeks until Christmas, and sure, we JUST got the tree, but you can bet we're going to enjoy the hell out of it from now until then. ;)

and last night i made 5 burlap stockings... one for my mom, one for my dad, one for boone, for me, and one for smidge.

;) they aren't the fanciest things, but I MADE them, so i'm feeling pretty awesome about it.

 

 

i only have about a zillion more things to make happen before now and next Thursday when my family comes, but i. am. relentless.

what do you have to do to get ready for the holidays?

thanksgiving traditions...

i think i've told you before that boone's mom is a big tradition-maker and -keeper around the holidays. there's always the soup supper at Christmas, and the harris poll after thanksgiving dinner. there are always beignets christmas morning, and we always make peanut butter balls (buckeyes) together as a fam.

my side of our family, though isn't really big on the idea of "traditions" for the holidays. as a child, i tried to instigate an all-family macy's thanksgiving parade watching tradition, but that devolved into "biz turns on the TV to the parade but no one watches it because they're in the kitchen drinking bloody marys and cooking" tradition. ;) as an adult, it turns out that i like this "tradition" much better.

 and although we don't call it a"tradition" we are ABSOLUTELY, FIERCELY loyal to the foods we eat each thanksgiving day. if you try to change the family cornbread dressing in ANY way, someone will DEFINITELY have a hissy fit. and oyster gravy, two kinds of cranberry sauce, my grandmother's  yeast rolls, and the most amazing smoked turkey must be SOMEWHERE on the table, or someone's getting shanked (or anviled?).

we're going to be with boone's family this thanksgiving, and i'm planning on keeping my own personal holiday tradition of adding fordhook lima beans to the menu, and i'm really excited about the harris poll. I've been thinking though, now that we're all adults, maybe we can make our very own tradition of watching the parade with bloody mary's?

what thanksgiving traditions does your family religiously, ferociously keep? what ones do you want to add?

vintage photos of the macy's thanksgiving day parade from macy's, google, and life magazine.

hay, it's christmas card time...

hey friends...

having the weekend off has given me time to get some MUCH NEEDED holiday planning done, including starting to design the christmas postcard (see here for year 1 and year 2).

but, the thing is, i need your help. unfort. we haven't taken many good photos of the two of us this year, and can't really come up with anything great to use. the ONLY idea we've got is this, taken from an autumn trip to a corn maze and hayride.

so, to help me, i need to know if you think these are funny, or if you think they're lame. it's been a creativity-lite year so i really can't tell.
cast your votes below. (honestly, we may have other options after thanksgiving, but right now, this is all we've got. therefore, my dears, if it's only sort of lame, we may still send it, but if it's terrible and super lame, well, then, we'll do some serious re-thinking). THANK YOU, sweet friends.

mardi gras! (a little early)

 my WHOLE life (well..my whole adolescent life) i had mardi gras themed birthday parties. last year, i went all out and made a king-cake from scratch, and so this year i thought i'd bring back the old b-day tradition JUST SO i could make a kind cake. ridiculous? yes. fun for me? yes. with this in mind, THIS WEEKEND we're throwing a big b-day mardi gras soiree at our house, complete with king cake, beads, gumbo, red beans and rice, and hurricanes (plus wii karaoke and a bonfire) jealous? well, don't be! you're invited! as long as you dress like this:

 

we're starting to cook tommorrow...and i decorated monday night. when was the last time you had a themed party? what kind of party would you have?

images from imgspark.

to 2011!

happy new year! we've been celebrating it with our wonderful, sweet friends from atlanta. we danced the night away friday night and yesterday i made sure we all ate blackeyed peas, pork, and cabbage for good fortune in the new year. plus we watched all the football in the world (or all i could stand)... it was such a perfect weekend and has put 2011 off to a great start. how did you celebrate NYE?

did you get a new year's kiss?

i hope so. :) hope 2011 is a lovely year for you!

merry and bright!

we're home safe and sound with my parents...the christmas tree is up, we went to the best christmas party in the southeast, we've been singing carols, and we've been cooking and wrapping presents frantically. it's wonderful! another christmas tradition at our house is to have a family meltdown, complete with tears and hugs all around. (we can check this off of our christmas list, too. hooray.)

because i'm trying to spend every moment i can in the real world with my parents and boone (and i bet you are doing the same with your fam), there's not much time for a post today...but here are a few super fun christmas links as a gift to you!

you and the little ones can track santa on his travels!

the ipad can make christmas even more festive?

my favorite tv chefs share their favorite holiday recipes and they look GOOD.

i wouldn't mind spending christmas day in paris..

extreme santas. really, really extreme (this one's basically from my hometown!)

my fav tv show does a christmas episode..

getting carded....

hey darlings!
all my teachers have the holidays off, so things slowed down for me a bit friday which gave boone and me enough time to wrap presents, make peanut butter balls (his mom's special Christmas treat) and mail Christmas cards. i designed/ordered them ages ago and i've been dying to show them off, but felt like i couldn't before we mailed them out. now that they're in the hands of the U.S. Postal service i'm ready to share them (of course i accidentally deleted the final image, but this is pretty much* what they look like).... what do you think?

ridiculous? totally joyful? silly? a slice of the delta? i hope so! what do your holiday cards look like this year?

*the cards actually ended up saying "wishing you the joy of a mississippi snowball fight" :) 

superhero sweet potatoes!

one of my all-time favorite foods is the sweet potato...when i start talking about all the ways i love to eat them i sound like bubba from forrest gump talking about shrimp. in fact, my first year in graduate school i made a new friend, craig, who had just moved to the south. somehow, somewhere he also discovered the excellence of sweet potatoes and so, for his birthday that year i made a sweet potato feast... sweet potato fries, brazilian stew, casserole with marshmallows, and a sweet potato, spinach and g nut and special sauce dish were all on the menu.

anyway, i was playing around on the interweb today while boone and his folks watched football and found this fantastically exciting article. did you know that my favorite starch is being used to battle malnutrition in mozambique and other african nations. another thing to be thankful for!

there are a few other s-p related articles out there today...want to learn more? click here, or here.

oh...and here's another thing i want to share... an old friend's semi-new investment...a sweet potato butter business. want to try some? read about it here and buy it here.

images here and here.

thankfulness...

well my darlings, happy happy thanksgiving day! please know that i'm incredibly thankful for so many things this year...and one thing on my long list is you. yep, really and truly. so many of  you are real-live friends of mine who have taken care of me through thick and thin, and others of you make my day because you've decided to read my just-for-fun blog, which is really kind of you since there are so many other better blogs out there you COULD be reading.;)

so, thanks. thank you, really.

i'm also thankful for boone, for his love and patience every minute of every day. and his support through the dark, dark, difficult month of october.

and my mom and dad, who really and truly are the best parents in the world!

for the teachers of the Mississippi Delta, who work their pants off because they love their students and believe that their kids deserve excellence.

for carrie, scott, and our four beautiful nieces...for giving us the chance to see another side of the world AND giving me the opportunity to be an aunt. it's an opportunity i've ALWAYS wanted.

i'm thankful everyday that we have employment, insurance, a house, reliable cars, and food on the table (much more than we need) when so many don't have these things. and I'm thankful for the people who are working to secure this for everyone.

and all the people willing to give their time and lives to help others.

and for our new neighbors who have been a bigger blessing in our new town than they will ever realize.

for new life...new, beautiful babies with pink pink pink fingers and toes. florence and anne harrell, i'm talking about you.

and, while i'm at it...let me be serious for a moment.  i'm thankful for massaman chicken, the new harry potter movie, gypsy the stray cat who comes to visit us weekly, the interweb, beautiful grey delta days, and charlaine harris trashy novels. ;)

what are YOU thankful for?

photo from here.

in lieu of letters to santa...

so, boone's mom LOVES a tradition. LOVES them. She has them for all holidays, but christmas is the one where she feels super strongly about them. their family eats the same meals on christmas day (beignets) and christmas eve (soup) every year, they bake a birthday cake for jesus (so fun and sweet!) they watch a charlie brown christmas, and they ALWAYS fill out the harris poll on thanksgiving. the harris poll is basically and really fun way to write a christmas list...plus it's a neat way for us to reflect on the year and share things about ourselves with the rest of the family.
every year the poll asks different questions, and this year, because we're not going back to NC for christmas, we took the poll early so we could take our gifts to NC when we go. i thought you might enjoy seeing the questions and asking them of yourself. happy reflection!
1. Something unexpected I accomplished in 2010. 

2. Something challenging I hope to accomplish in 2011. 

3. It doesn’t cost much (Mom’s $30 rule), but I wish I had it. 

4. It’s worn out and I need to replace it.

5. A good book I read in 2010. A book I would like to own.
6. My favorite place to shop online? In the store?
7. I worry about...
8. Please don’t make me eat...
9. But always have.... to eat.
10. I hope my children will remember be for my...
11. My favorite season is...
12. It’s a little costly, but I would like to have...
13. I will always remember...
14. When I cook, I like to make... Wish I knew how to make...
15. A movie I saw this year that I consider a “keeper.”
16. I have a lot of stuff, so I’m going to get rid of...
17. Shoes or clothes person?
18. My idea of a good party?
19. It’s time to do more...
20. To help others during 2011, I will
21. Something I will do for the environment during 2011.

you can't go home again?

last month's halloween mix give-away was so fun that i think wishfulfillment needs to make it a more frequent happening.

since thanksgiving makes me think of heading down the highway to see my parents, snuggle in my childhood bed, and eat perfect, warm, comforting food, i thought a mix about going home would really get me in the mood for one of my fave holidays.

so...are you in? leave a comment by tuesday, november 15 with a song that reminds YOU of going home. I'll choose the winner by drawing a random number and will post them here on wednesday the 16th!

brainstorming...

LOTS has been going on in my world recently... but one of the most frivolous things that's been occupying WAY too much space in my grey matter is the question "what are we going to be for halloween??"

we've been through at least 6 different ideas in two weeks, but I haven't had much time to actually plan the costumes, making the best of our ideas prohibitive. If you're still looking for a costume idea, here are a few we considered...

dolly parton and kenny rogers (I REALLY wanted this to happen but i just don't have the outfit to pull it off this year.)

a firewoman and a fire. (boone has a fireman's suit, you know. and we have a lighter)

max and carol

and because we had the most costume pieces that involved the least amount of construction we're going with...

captain jack sparrow/william turner and elizabeth swann

boone is going to look pretty good, ya'll. ;) who doesn't like a pirate?

what do you think? what are YOU going as for halloween?

trick or treat...

in the spirit of halloween I made a playlist to make you look over your shoulder and dwell on the morbid....though i'm not convinced that it's complete, which is why i want your input. the most original suggestion in the comment box by next Monday wins a cd copy of the mix!
tricking and treating...
1. run devil run- jenny lewis and the watson twins
2. this devil's workday- modest mouse
3. halloweenhead- ryan adams
4. black betty- ram jam
5. 51 phantom- n. ms allstars
6. maxwell's silver hammer- the beatles
7. hotel california- the eagles
8. is there a ghost- band of horses
9. prison girls- neko case
10. people got a lotta nerve- neko case
11. i killed sally's lover- the avett bros.
12. nobody knows- dave matthews & emmylou harris
13. little sadie- tony rice
14. oliver james- fleet foxes
15. friend of the devil- grateful dead
16. thriller- mj


what do you think? scary enough?

****************
btw: if you comment, please leave your email address too so i can let you know if you win! :)