Christmas Weekend and a Few Highlights

Did everyone have a good Christmas? I have to say I had a pretty relaxing, uneventful long weekend. Five whole days off! And I'm a little sad it's almost over and it's back to the grind tomorrow. Trent and I really didn't go anywhere, except to our family's houses on Christmas Day. It was so nice to have a few extra days off, though! We stayed in and had a movie marathon. I watched several newer movies that I had never seen yet - Gone Girl, If I Stay, This is Where I Leave You, What If, and Moms' Night Out. They were all really good! I seriously recommend every single one of them.

We were somewhat productive though, too. We cleaned out the pantry/closet area and took the recycling out, and I did some laundry today and washed two loads of dishes. We also (I think) decided where we want to go on our honeymoon! It's taken us a long time (this might have been the hardest thing yet to plan for our wedding), but I think I have finally gotten Trent on board with one place - Jamaica. We are looking at one resort in particular and I'd like to book soon, so I'm hoping that Trent doesn't look at any other places in the mean time. ;) He is the worst at committing to one vacation spot! Crossing my fingers, and working at this one!

In other wedding news, I bought our tickets to a local Bridal expo at the end of January. I went to this same one last year with Haley, and this will be the second wedding expo I've attended since I've been engaged. This one is the biggest one of the year, so I'm hoping it is worth our time and we get something useful from it! We'll be looking for a dress for Haley afterward. First time looking for her bridesmaid dress! So all in all, things are continuing to come along in the wedding planning front.

Now, time for some highlights from Christmas. I didn't take many pictures at the relatives' houses, so these are of Trent and I opening our gifts Christmas morning!

Except the photo above - it's our piles of presents to each other by the tree. This was after we had opened our one gift each Christmas Eve. Trent had to work that night, so I set up our presents ahead of time to open the next morning. :)

This was one of my favorite gifts this year! A hanger for my wedding dress from Trent. Just like the one that I was wanting (I think it's from Etsy). It is absolutely perfect and will look amazing in pictures with my dress. Here it is up close:

Trent also got me a few smaller things, like this laptop cover for my Macbook Pro! Mint green just like I wanted!

I got Trent a new battery-powered razor, lots of new movies, some new gloves, a Chicago Bears hoodie, a Twin Forks cd..and the biggest present of all, a new laptop!

It's not a Mac or a Dell, or HP, it's a Chrome book by Toshiba. But it had good reviews on Amazon, and his old laptop wasn't even turning on anymore, so I figured he needed something that he could at least go online, and watch movies on. For the price I think it's a pretty good deal, and he had tears in his eyes when he opened it, he was so surprised!

We had a great Christmas together, and were completely worn out by the end of the day! After going to Trent's aunt and uncle's in the afternoon, and my grandma's at night, eating a ton of food and opening a ton of presents, we were officially exhausted and ready to rest the next few days.

Now it's Sunday night, and it's back to work for me tomorrow. Trent's lucky and doesn't have to go back until next year. (Well...January 2nd). I have three days, then I'm off New Year's day, and back to work again Friday! Not as nice as this week, but at least I have New Year's to look forward to!

Astrology Decor Post Round-Up

Hi all! I'm creating this page to round-up all of my past Astrological decor posts from this year. I had tons of fun creating these posts and picking out my favorite decor items based on each sign of the zodiac. If you're a Libra, Gemini, Scorpio...doesn't matter! All the signs are here and I've picked out some items and rooms just for you, so check it out! Just scroll down and click on the text link for your sign.

I'll also be including a button on my sidebar linking to this page, so it's easy to find in the future. Enjoy!

Decor for Every Sign

Aquarius (Jan. 20 - Feb. 18)

Pisces (Feb. 19 - Mar. 20)

Aries (Mar. 21 - April 19)

Taurus (April 20 - May 20)

Gemini (May 21 - June 21)

Cancer (June 22 - July 22)

Leo (July 23 - Aug. 22)

Virgo (Aug. 23 - Sept. 22)

Libra (Sept. 23 - Oct. 22)

Scorpio (Oct. 23 - Nov. 21)

Sagittarius (Nov. 22 - Dec. 21)

Capricorn (Dec. 22 - Jan. 19)

Note: For those of you who would rather just scroll through all of these posts at once, click on this link to see all of my posts labeled "Astrological decor" (Including this one). Hope it provides you with a little inspiration!

Merry Christmas, 2014

Merry Christmas to all of my fellow bloggers, readers, friends and family! I hope everyone has a wonderful Christmas today, and you are spending time with those you love. We have a busy day ahead of us today. I will surely share with you the many more holiday festivities that have yet to come in the next week! For now I hope each of you are staying warm and cozy in your homes, sipping on some hot cocoa and opening endless amounts of presents by the fireside. (Doesn't that sound nice?!)

Wherever you are, may each of you have a very Merry and Joyous Christmas and make lots of happy memories. 

xo,
Whitney, Trent, and Saleen

Christmas Eve Thoughts and New Memories

Merry Christmas Eve, again! I'm back again with a few more miscellaneous Christmas photos and a few more random thoughts. I've been blogging so much more since I've gotten my new laptop a couple of months ago. Aren't you proud?

Right now I'm sitting here watching Christmas Vacation and listening to my new Taylor Swift 1989 cd that Trent got me for Christmas. Trent had to work from 7:00 to 1:00 tonight, so he had to leave and I'm all alone at the house! (With Saleen of course) Before he left though, we took a few pictures in front of the Christmas tree and each opened one present. (the T. Swift cd was mine --totally love it)

We're not exactly experts with the camera timer, but these were the best shots we got. Not half bad, right? We were kind of in a hurry because Trent had to head off to work, so Saleen wasn't in our "family pics" this year. She did get to open a gift though (some doggy treats).

We each opened one present each tonight. I got Trent the two Expendables DVDs he doesn't have yet - to watch while he's doing security tonight. :) Trent so lovingly wrapped my T. Swift cd in a Eggo McMuffin box. He knows I hate even the smell of those things. So tricky there....

Loving my CD so far though. It's totally 80's sounding. And so catchy.

We didn't get too many pics of Saleen opening her present. Most were blurry. She's such a blur of a dog most days. Three second attention span, I tell ya!

So glad we could make a few new holiday memories today, even if they were pretty brief. I'm sure we will be busy as ever opening more gifts and spending time with family..oh yeah, and stuffing our faces with food as usual!

On an unrelated note, I have to say I am so elated about this weather we've been having this winter. It's been in the forties the last few days, and this was the weather forecast for the week this morning:

For some of you this may be chilling cold, but the fact that it's the end of December in Illinois, these are the temperatures, and we haven't had any snow pretty much the whole month - and there is no real snowfall expected anytime soon - makes me a pretty happy girl right now!

If you lived through last winter here, you understand. So far this winter has been the opposite of last year and I hope it stays that way for a while. I know I had my share of rants at the beginning of the year over the horribly cold and snowy winter we had. This post that I made back in February pretty much sums up how our weather was throughout the whole winter. So, in short, I'm hoping not to have those rants this year. And of course I'm grateful to have just mildly cold temperatures this winter. :) OK, that's the end of my weather spiel!

Merry Christmas everyone!

Living Room Photo Change-Up

Is it really Christmas Eve? So excited! Let's talk decor for now, though. If you are familiar at all with my photo frame arrangement in the living room, you know it changes all the time. With the seasons, with new art I decide to create, or just when I get something new and frame-worthy. In this case, it was the latter. I got several prints of our Engagement photos. And I thought they deserved to be hung up on our walls.

Of course I love the new arrangement. It's unique and completely us. 

I added some other pictures around the living room, too. I already had some extra frames laying around that I hadn't found a place for yet.

Oh, and I hung up an 8x10 of us. The first 8x10 we've ever had. I hung it above the couch where my medallion from Hobby Lobby was hanging before...

 

...It's a little high though. So, I need to find something else to hang right below it. I don't know if another one of our engagement photos will work, or a print of some sort. I figure next year after we get married, we can hang one of our wedding photos under it instead.

In addition to new frames, I've been thinking about getting a new couch a lot lately, since we really need one! The cushions keep falling out, and we need a larger one with more sitting area. We've looked a little, but we'll have to look more after Christmas.

Is everyone ready for Christmas tomorrow? I've been lighting candles and sipping hot cocoa this week (along with redecorating)...oh, and watching lots of movies. :)

Merry Christmas Eve!!

Early Christmas Fun with Family

Two days until Christmas! Anyone else counting? :) I'm working today, and then I have the next 5 days off! So excited! This past weekend Haley and Dan were down, and we had a good time hanging out, eating, opening presents, and playing Christmas BINGO with my mom's side of the family. We even stopped by Grandma's for a few minutes, too.

We all had a good time competing for sweet prizes during Christmas BINGO. Lots of Hijinks ensued.

And after the rest of the family left, we watched Haley and Dan open their presents from a couple of our aunts and uncles, and Grandma.

It's always an experience going over to my grandma's around Christmas time. Every square inch of her house is decorated in red, green and tinsel.

I think that apron was Dan's favorite present yet this year.

Trent and I exchanged presents with Mom and Dad before our actual Christmas get together with my dad's side of the family. We got lots of goodies. 

And Mom and Dad got some gift cards and...our engagement photo!

What a good lookin' pair. Hope everyone has a happy extended holiday weekend! I'll be back tomorrow with a little decor post. :)