Hawaii Bound

Tomorrow we leave for Hawaii.  Yes, Ireland and Hawaii in the same year, we will never be so lucky again.  We leave early tomorrow morning and don't arrive till late on Christmas Eve (Hawaii time)....so we have a long day ahead of ourselves.  Before we meet up with the rest of the Newman family in Hawaii, Andrew and I celebrated our own Christmas last night.

We started off with a few glasses of wine, and then opened gifts from each other...

Have you heard of Small Fires Press?  They are located in Memphis but have an etsy shop where they sell journals and awesome stationary. I got Andrew a journal with the map of NC.

A tandem bike case! I dream of riding one of those with Andrew one day....I don't think he is excited about that.

I got this necklace, in gold, off Etsy.  Isn't the wrapping beautiful?

The giant zebra head Andrew got me from Anthropologie.  Look at that face, Boone is so frightened! 

After we opened gifts, we headed to Bari for a fancy Italian dinner.  We had drinks, and tons of food.  Andrew, I had a wonderful second Christmas with you!  Have a Merry Christmas readers and Malaka Liki Maka!

Bad Boone

Here is what Boone did while I was at work last week.

Photo booth

Here are some pictures from our Christmas party that I thought you might like .....

Christmas Chaos

Sorry it has been so long since my last post!  The Christmas festivities have taken off in Memphis, leaving me struggling to keep up.  The bakery has been crazy, the magazine finally went to print and sadly the 2012 Redeemer Christmas party is over (our big church party).  All wonderful things in my life...although they have added to the stress of the season.  With Christmas Eve only a week away, I finally have some time to relax, get my life in order, and just enjoy the holiday festivities.
So for the next week, I plan to do something dedicated to Christmas each day!  I will start off by purchasing fabric today to sew a tree skirt for our tree.  Not sure how this project will go...I'll keep you posted.

Here's what has been going on in my absence from the blog.  We'll start with decorating our tree and making homemade ornaments.  Crafty or cheap?

 Welcome to the hot chocolate and egg nog party...

Winter cleaning and yard sale time..

Thanksgiving Trip

Our Thanksgiving trip was a whirlwind!  We arrived at my parents around noon on Thanksgiving.   We ate an incredible meal with my parents, two brothers and cousin.  After sleeping for a few hours in a food induced coma, we headed to the movies to see Lincoln.  Have you seen it?  The acting was impressive, but overall, the movie was just OK.

Friday morning, I went shopping with my mother to hit up some Black Friday sales and purchased these boots.  I love them and got them for 50% off!  We were also able to spend Friday afternoon with Andrew's mother and grandmother.  Eating lunch, and chatting the afternoon away, we had a wonderful visit with his family.

Most of our time in Charlotte was spent driving through the city and looking at different neighborhoods.  We are considering moving back to Charlotte this summer, so we wanted to find an area where we could see ourselves living.  It was amazing how busy our trip was!  From driving around, to quick visits with friends...it was a exhausting but well worth it!

Underground Adventures

FINALLY!  Andrew and I just arrived home from our Thanksgiving trip to North Carolina.  We just spent 10 hours in the car....
While I was away, I had a guest blog post published on the bakery blog. It is all about our recent experiences at work. To read more, check out the Muddy's blog!

Thumbin' My Way into North Caroline

Do you know the song Wagon Wheel by Old Crow Medicine Show?  I'm sure most of you have heard it before.  Andrew and I love the song, simply because it mentions a few of the states and cities we have lived in.  Whenever we drive back to North Carolina for the holidays, this song is usually a staple.

Well we started a new tradition this year.  Andrew heard an idea from a friend to buy a new CD, or music of some sort, whenever you go on a big trip...this way you always associate that music with your trip and it helps to create memories.  Great idea right?  I tend to struggle with remembering things, so I really love this idea!  When we went to Ireland, we purchased the new CD from Of Monsters and Men.  Today we leave for North Caroline, so we chose this CD to accompany us on our long, long drive.

Pictures to come from our trip, and Happy Thanksgiving!

Pomegranate Party

Here is what I did this morning...

I de-seeded one pomegranate, and I'm moving on to my second.  Fresh Market Pomegranates are the best!

Marge

This post is dedicated to Marge, my former roommate, and how she came to be. When I moved to Memphis, almost two years ago, I moved in with two girls named Molly and Morgan.  About two weeks after I moved in, it was Morgan's birthday.  I felt the need to get her a gift, but had only known her two weeks...what do you buy for a person who you have only known two weeks?  Well, I was meandering around an antique store on the day of her birthday and found Marge!  It was destiny.  I just knew that she needed to be apart of my life the moment I saw her.

That night, at Morgan's birthday dinner, I gave her Marge and she LOVED her!  Well actually, she thought it was a weird gift at the time, and thought I was also weird.  But now she loves Marge and can't even remember life without her.

So here is the game we play with Marge.  As roommates, we constantly hid Marge around the house for the other roommates to find.  If someone went on a trip, Marge would magically show up in their bag.  She loves to travel back and forth between our homes, now that we live apart, and she loves to celebrate special occasions!  Thanks for all the laughs Marge.

Marge was waiting for me when I got back from my honeymoon

This is the night Marge entered our life!

Dinner this past Tuesday, Morgan just got engaged!!!

The ring

The man. Jonathan and Morgan we love you!