My Christmas Loot!

I'm not sure how I'll muster up the strength to leave my robe and cozy bed to go back to school in a week's time. I have gotten way too comfortable waking up around 9am and then lazily curling up with a book and some breakfast in bed. Oh the joys of being a teacher with some time off.

Anyway, Mason and I had a lovely Christmas. On Christmas Eve, we went to the Candlelight service at Marvin Methodist Church in Tyler and then afterwards over to my Aunt's house for some appetizers and wine.

{Mason, me, my brother Connor}

Being that currently there are no small children in my family, (my youngest cousin is 14) we took our time waking up, which is nice, but makes it not feel quite like Christmas morning. We did not even put out cookies for Santa this year. Sad. We quickly made up for this, however, with the excitement of opening up tons of presents.

Here are a few of my favorite gifts that I received:

1.) Hot pink and white houndstooth print scarf - Sample House (from Mom)

2.) Grey tee with sequined embellished sleeves - Gap (from Mom)

3.) Laura Bush book with book light (from my sister Claire)

4.) Champagne flutes - Crate & Barrel (Mason's mom gave me 4, my brother Connor gave me 2)

5.) Cookbook stand - Stein Mart (from Mom)

6.) Pink house shoes - Old Navy (from Santa/Mom)

7.) Gianni Binni metallic clutch - Dillard's (from Mom)

8.) White ski headband (from Mom)

9.) Tory Burch flats - Tory Burch (from Mason)

And that is only some of the fun stuff that I got this Christmas. I am a very lucky girl and am thankful to have such a generous and thoughtful family.

What was your favorite gift this Christmas?

Merry Christmas!

I have so enjoyed my winter break thus far! Sleeping in late, working out, shopping, baking cookies, naps, falalala... I even finished reading the book "The Help" that I started back in August but just got around to finishing! It is soo good by the way. I also attempted to make Peppermint Bark. That was a disaster... I do not have the knack for melting chocolate apparently. I'll stick to baking.

So today, I'm packing up Santa's sleigh and heading down to Tyler with my mom to spend Christmas Eve and Christmas with the fam! Then on Christmas Day, Mason and I will drive to Houston to celebrate with his brother and parents!

Don't you just love the holidays!?

Anyway, hope you all have a very Merry Christmas! And a Happy New Year! But, I'll prob post again before that because hopefully, I'll have some news to share, maybe, possibly, fingers crossed! ;)

Dashing through December

Oh my stars! Christmas is less than TWO weeks away!?!? Where did the time go? This little elf really needs to get it in gear if I'm going to make this a December to remember...

Here's what has been keeping me busy so far this month...

A fun holiday weekend out on the town with friends:

Winning 3rd Place in the Door Decorating contest at school!!!

We drew "Deck the Halls" as the theme for our door! :) I thought the roaring fire and the stockings hung by the chimney (with care) were a nice touch! ;) Here are some of Santa's little helpers (my 4th period class):

This weekend we attended Mason's company Christmas party at the Gaylord Texan Hotel and got to go to the Charlie Brown ICE exhibit!

The entire exhibit is carved out of ice and they give everyone stylish parkas to wear to keep warm - since the average temperature is about 8 degrees!!! Burrr!

They also have ice slides! Here is Mason going down one!

I have also been doing a little holiday shopping here and there at the malls mainly (gasp!). If you know me you know I HATE going to the mall during Christmas, especially on Saturdays, but since I don't have time during the week, I have had to bite the bullet and just go for it. Surprisingly it has not been as awful as I had imagined. Here is a pic of my sister Claire and I before journeying out to the Galleria yesterday.

As you can see there has been plenty keeping me busy this month! Only one more week left at school until I have two weeks off for Christmas break... hallelujah!

And the thing that is really helping me pass the time.....

... visions of sparkly diamonds dancing in my head! ;)