Christmas at Our House

It's no secret that I get really, and i mean really, into Christmas. My family and I always have had an extreme dose of Christmas cheer running through our blood. This year was a wee bit more special to me because I got to decorate our new house with all kinds of Christmas fabulousness.

There are so many great Christmas decorations out there I want to add to my rustic/country collection, but this year I added just few Christmas trees for table decor and Kev and I added three artificial trees. I got a little carried away with five trees in our new home, but they make everything so much more homey and comfortable. I love our house at night with all the pretty clear lights...love love love!

Here is what our house looks like this year

Hope you are having a very merry Christmas season so far! 

(and i already dread the day i have to take all of this down......waaaaah. I may regret those five trees at that time) 

Home Tour: The Office/Den

This room had me at hello - it's right off of the entryway foyer and one of the first areas you see when you walk into our home. 

The french doors, beadboard, natural light and crisp/serene fill to it was love at first sight. 

We immediately wanted to make this an office area/den/reading room. 

We kept this space airy and light with some country-chic accents and we enjoy every moment in it. 

I could spend hours in this room reading, blogging, pinning, instagraming, online shopping or just having quite time. 

Take a look around

What we did - new carpet and that was it!

We left the paint the same - we love the all white look in here

Desk and Chair - Pier1

White accent chair - Havertys 

Burlap Pillow - Houseby JSD in Lexington, Ky

Accent pillows - home goods and Target

Lamps - target and homegoods

Shelf - local antique store

Misc Decor - homegoods and hobby lobby

Coat Rack - Bed Bath and Beyond 

Let it Snow, Let it Snow, Let it Snow

The Northern Kentucky/Greater-Cincinnati area got it's first big December snow of the season and it was no joke!

Friday through Sunday were were dumped with rain, ice and almost 6 inches of snow in our back yard....talk about a winter wonderland!

Kev and I hibernated all weekend long and it was beyond perfect. We originally had plans to be out of town for a Christmas charity event, but due to inclement weather, it was postponed. We made the most of our weekend and curled up in our house with lots of sweat pants, online Christmas shopping, hot apple cider, turkey chili, hot maple toddy and cinnaclove nut crunch candles, apple pie with vanilla ice cream, a couple of movies and lots (and I mean LOTS) of Christmas tree decorating.

I love being on house lock-down in the winter. Nothing better on a cold night than being curled up on the couch with my hubby, the doggies, a wam homemade family quilt and some cider. Sounds like a little slice of heaven to me. 

Not only did we love the gorgeous snow days, but clearly the doggies did too. Uggie would snow "plow" for hours if we had let her. And Bailey is our little polar bear...the snow almost camouflages him, especially at night.

It's the little things this weekend that made me count my blessings.
Happy Monday y'all! 

Nashville Getaway

November 2013

The weekend before thanksgiving Kev and I had planned a mini weekend in Nashville to continue our anniversary celebration. We then found out this gal was also planning to be there the same weekend to celebrate her 30th birthday. It was a no brainer that we would celebrate together. And we celebrate we did! Kev and I had such a good time with them...as we always do! 

Kev and I headed to music city friday afternoon and first stop on our list - The Loveless Cafe. Our fave!

Kev had the best bbq turkey breast I have ever tasted. I had fried chicken with hashbrown casserole and southern green beans. Yum! We then split a piece of pecan pie that was to die for.

After our food coma kicked in, we headed downtown to our hotel.

Nashville was CRAZY that friday night. There were so many people in town for the George Jones Tribute concert....every hotel downtown was sold out. Kevin and I had toyed with the idea to get tickets to the concert, but decided against in earlier that week as we had tickets to the Opry on Saturday. 

I semi regretted not buying tickets when I realized how many country music legends were going to be singing George Jones tunes. 

The good news was that they were playing the concert downtown on big projectors and movie screens. All of Broadway was shut down for the event.  We headed to Broadway to catch the show outside....brrrrr was it cold. Then low and behold the crowd parted, the angels sang and this sweet man out of nowhere approached us with two free tickets to the concert! Say what?!?!?!

Kev knew how bad I wanted to go so it was a no brainer! 

4 hours of George Jones with A list country music starts. I was on cloud nine!

George Strait

Alan Jackson

Eric Church

Brad Paisley

Martina Mcbride

Vince Gill

Tracy Lawrence

Dierks Bentley 

Kid Rock

Garth Brooks and Trisha Yearwood

Charlie Daniesl

Clay Walker

The Oak Ride Boys

Blake and Miranda

Craig Morgan

Thompson Square

Travitss Tritt

Rodeny Atkins

Patty Loveless

all singing the best of George Jones 

My country music heart was so full. Hearing Alan Jackson sing He Stopped Loving her Today was a bucket list moment for me. 

Saturday morning we had brunch in midtown at Jackson's, followed by a little day drinking on broadway...which is my favorite thing to do in Nashville, btw.

I swear that city sings to my soul. 

Dana and her hubby, Chris, met us at the hotel Saturday evening and we had planned a birthday dinner celebration at Merchants. The fried green tomatoes were the bomb! 

After dinner, we killed some time on Broadway checking out the Saturday night bands before we headed to the Grand Ole Opry show at The Ryman. Chris and Dana had got us tickets - they are sweeties those two. We are absolutely obsessed with out friendship with them! We are 4 peas in a pod :-) 

At the Opry - it was more Vince Gill, "Deacon" from nashville and Lee Greenwood to name a few.

Sunday morning we had brunch at The Southern. Which was AHHHMAZING! Dana had recommended it and we will be going back. The baked oysters were to die for and Kev's chicken and waffles were so yummy too. A must for our next Nashville trip. 

We stopped for a photo op on our way back to the hotel before we said our goodbyes. 

Counting down till the next time we can go back to music city! Love that town! 

Thanksgiving 2013

Our thanksgiving was fabulous and full of love, family and of course food. 

This technically was our first thanksgiving as hubby and wifey with our families....last year we spent thanksgiving in St. Lucia on our honeymoon. 

Back on track here..... we got a late start to our travels due to my job in healthcare that never acknowledges the holiday season....arrrgh, but headed to Kev's parents' house Thursday afternoon. 

We spent Thursday evening with his family and woke up early Friday morning to head to Eastern KY to my momma and daddy's house. 

Thanksgiving at my parents has always been super laid back and it's usually just my nuclear family - me, momma, daddy, kev, baby brother and our grandmothers. It's one of my favorite holidays. There is hardly any stress, we just stuff ourselves to the point of elastic sweat pants and sit around the living room fire. Heaven! 

This thanksgiving was special because we are so thankful for my grandmothers' health. It's been quite the year for them and we are so blessed to have more time with them. Although I know our future holidays with them are limited, especially my sweet granny who is approaching 90, I tired to cherish every second with them. They are pretty special ladies in my world.  

Here are scenes from our weekend:  we spent a lot of time together doing talking Christmas lists and plans, watching the Hunger Games for the first time,  family trip to the movies (including sweet Mammy) to see Catching Fire, playing with the doggies (all FOUR of them) and spending time on the couch doing absolutely nothing. It was a great visit and a perfect thanksgiving. 

So thankful for family!