It's Beginning to Look a lot like Christmas!

Nathan and I have made great strides in the area of decoration classiness since last Christmas. Last year for our Christmas tree Nate grabbed his hatchet and insisted we chop down a tree in the mountains instead of buy one. So we did just that and set up our tree by constructing a makeshift stand out of a a free red bucket and tied it to our swamp cooler. This year we actually bought a tree from home depot and got a real stand to go with it.


For ornaments, I convinced Nate to make old school paper snowflakes with me. Nathan is actually kind of awesome at making paper snowflakes. His were actually better than my own. I struggled with the whole folding thing...




I also made a star out of cardboard and tin foil to top our tree! Classy? Maybe not..




Last night we had a bunch of people over to decorate Christmas cookies with us! Decorating a ton of Christmas cookies with all colors of icing, piping bags, and sprinkles was something my family did every year. I missed having all my Mom's classic Christmas cookie cutters but found a bin of 30 holiday shapes that will have to be my go-to Christmas cutters!










Nathan with some of our neighbors!

The Holidays Begin!

Like so many others, this is my favorite time of year! Nathan and I had a fabulous start to the holiday season with a trip back to Virginia to see my family. I went out early to go to my friend Danielle's wedding. We have been best friends since we were 9 and it was so great to be a part of her big day! I loved her gray bridesmaid dresses and will definitely be wearing mine again. My favorite part of the whole day was getting to drive too and attend the sealing with my Dad. He is just the best and the LDS Washington D.C. temple is beautiful!







I spent the rest of the weekend after the wedding just hanging out with the family. For those of you who don't know swimming in the Northern Virginia area is HUGE! My little brother was in a swim meet that lasted all weekend. I got to see him swim a few events and he is quite the breast stroker. Better than I ever was, that's for sure!


Nathan flew into Virginia on Tuesday. He was really happy to have to weekend to himself because he has been working on classes to get his MSFS (master's in financial services... kind of like a CPA but in the insurance world) and had to study and take a final for one of the classes that weekend. My brother Sam and his wife Erin also came up for Thanksgiving day. It was the first time the whole family has been together since my wedding!

My cousins Brooklin and Brian came over for dessert with their kids!

On the Saturday after Thanksgiving we went hiking at Great Falls Park in the Maryland side. It was so beautiful! I am secretly trying to brainwash Nathan into falling in love with Virginia. It think it might be working...







Last weekend I went up to Utah to go to my best friend Jessica's bridal shower. It was so great to see all my old college friends! I have the best friends. Her shower was a ton of fun and I got to be her assistant for taking bridals on Saturday morning! We are looking forward to the wedding on December 19th! Other than that I am starting my new job at a company called NatureGen on December 14th. So I am doing all those little things I need to get done like blog, see the dentist, and send out Christmas gifts this week. Wish me luck!