My newest addiction

Christmas came early at my house. That's allowed to happen when it's a gift you give yourself.

Well...I can also thank a bonus from work and credit card reward points for this:

I have long wanted one and there seemed to be no better time.

Do I know how to use it? Uh, not really... yet.
Am I a good photographer worthy of an amazing camera? Nope, but I think I can learn to be decent.
Have I spent numerous hours during my week off trying to figure this thing out and taking pictures of anything and everything around my house? You bet.

"Wait...I thought you had a tree."

Recently I posted pictures of my (mostly) finished living room area. At that time I wasn't able to show the wall with the fireplace because it quite honestly was a total mess on that side of the room. Mostly because I had just brought up boxes of Christmas decorations from the basement.

This past weekend I was able to finish unpacking those boxes and added a few new things.


Most of the decorations are things I already had. A few were given to me by my mom. Though tempted every time I've been shopping these past few weeks, I've tried to avoid buying too much more for a few reasons: 1) I don't really need more; 2) I'm trying to better respect my own pocketbook these days; 3) I'm also trying to avoid the hyper-consumerism temptation in today's world and 4) by not buying more I can keep a few extra things out of the landfills.

This weekend I had second thoughts regarding my resolve to not buy more when I had a few friends over. We had pulled in chairs from the dining room for more seating, and after sitting for a few minutes one of my friends looked around and said, "Hey wait... I thought you said you had a tree."

Yes, this three-foot tree was hidden when someone sat in front of it.

Oh well. On any ordinary day you can see it all, and it's Christmas cozy to me.

25 years

We three have been friends that long.


I love these girls.

Tradition

For as long as I can remember my family has traveled for Thanksgiving every single year. In my early days it was to Tennessee at Grandma and Grandpa's house. Then when they moved to a much smaller house in South Carolina (at a time when our family was getting much bigger) we started going to random cities. For the first few it was Pittsburg, but then we ventured out. A lot of years it was keeping it fair to geographic distances, some years a city near someone in the family, and other years a truly random city that someone had suggested.

We've been to Chicago, Cleveland, Cincinnati, Knoxville, Detroit, New York City, Philadelphia, Buffalo, Indianapolis...just to name a few.

I've always had a hard time explaining this tradition. Whenever I tell someone who doesn't know me well of my Thanksgiving plans, they ask if I have family there. Nope! We all stay in a hotel, Grandpa takes us out for Thanksgiving dinner, no one does dishes, and no one has to have an over-crowded house. We also have two other traditions that are main-stays - bowling and Chinese food/pizza on Friday.



For the past few years, as the family has continued to grow, it has gotten harder for everyone to get there each year. And this year was one of the first that my immediate family decided to stay in Grand Rapids. But we had to keep the tradition alive! Friday brought us together for bowling and then pizza at my parents' house. Not the same as spending the holiday with aunts, uncles, cousins, and grandparents. But still a fun time.

Love these kiddos...