Thoughtful Thursday

Christmas Traditions (New and Old)

 

Christmas is my favorite holiday and I love all of the excitement leading up to the big day. I want it to be a magical time for my children. I have been thinking a lot about all of the traditions that I had as a child and I want to continue them with Sally. I wanted to start a list so that I wouldn't forget any. Obviously some of these are for when she is older and can do more things.

1. Listen to Christmas music

2. Make ornaments

3. Do an Angel Tree

4. Have a Christmas movie night with special treats

5. Decorate cookies

6. Make gingerbread houses

7. Take family pictures

8. Have a special dinner and drive around to look at the lights

9. Go downtown to see the tree at the Peabody

10. Visit a living nativity

11. Go to a Christmas tree farm and get a tree for us to plant in the yard after Christmas

12. Go to a Christmas parade

13. Visit the botanic gardens

14. Go to the Enchanted Forest at the Pink Palace

15. Make a card for a soilder

16. Have a date night and go shopping

17. Watch the Polar Express and then drive around in the car with hot chocolate

18. Decorate the tree (Sally will have her own)

19. Make New Years Resolutions and open them the next year

20. Drink apple cider and give Sally a pedicure

21. Go see a play or to the ballet

22. Open one present on Christmas Eve...pajamas!!

23. Visit a local town square

24. Have a holiday party for friends and family

25. Bake a birthday cake for baby Jesus

26. Have a special Christmas breakfast

27. Elf on the Shelf

28. Give Sally a new ornament every year

29. "Elf" the neighbors with homemade treats

30. Host a favorite things party for girlfriends

31. Read a different Christmas book every night

Some of these will probably not get done every year but I think this is a good list to start out with. Did I miss anything? Is there an amazing tradition that your family does? I want to hear about it.

Old Navy Sweaters

As part of the Old Navy Style Council, I recently had the opportunity to review some super cute Old Navy sweaters for Crowdtap.

Before heading to my local Old Navy store, I scouted out the sweaters at oldnavy.com. These were my favorites:

 

After actually seeing all of them in the store I was a little overwhelmed....there were so many choices and they were all cute! Solids, stripes, polka dots, animal prints...check out those cute critter ones!!!

 The best thing about Old Navy sweaters is that they are super comfy...so soft. I didn't see any sweaters priced over $30 either so that made me happy too.

Meredith and I took a few to the dressing room and here we are with our favorites, She loved this striped pull over sweater and I chose an aqua colored cardigan....you can't go wrong with a cardigan as a teacher!!

 I also walked out with a sweater dress, two holiday party dresses and two pairs of cute flats (green and blue). Old Navy has some really cute stuff right now. Check it out online or at your local Old Navy store. We really enjoyed getting to do this sample share. Thank you Crowdtap!!!

Meredith and I were compensated from Old Navy and Crowdtap with a free sweater but these are all my own opinions. 

Want to join Crowdtap?? Click here.

Citrus Lane Coupon Code!!!!

I LOVE Citrus Lane. We have been members for almost a year now and the boxes never disappoint. If you have ever thought about joining, now is the time. You can get your first box for only $12.50!! Want to join, go here and enter in the code "TAKEHALF".

Thoughtful Thursday

WILW

I feel like it has been months since I linked up for WILW...not that there haven't been things that I loved. Here are a few favorites this week:

{one}

Seriously??!! How excited was I when I saw a Hello Kitty sippy cup and paci's at Target??  I had to get them for Sally's stocking!

 {two} 

We ordered the stools for the kitchen island and I will pick them up next weekend when I do a Nashville shopping trip. They are from World Market.

{three} 

I am so excited to announce that I finally decided on a theme for Sally's first birthday. It's sneaking up on me ladies...only two months away and with the holidays upon us I wanted to go ahead and get the invites ordered. I found them on Etsy. Here is a sneak peek:

{four}

I love the fact that Christmas is coming up so soon! I will be off work for two weeks and we have a lot of fun things planned...including a trip to Minnesota!!

Weekend Wrap Up

 

Happy Tuesday everyone!! We had a wonderful weekend.

*On Friday we went to pick out our granite slab for the kitchen and then got dinner at Mellow Mushroom. Later we came home and put Sally to bed and then cleaned the den. We watched a movie and went to bed pretty early. I'm shocked at how tired I am on Friday nights. Teaching all week wears me out and it doesn't help that it gets dark at like 4:30. I have never been a big sleeper....but this daylight savings time makes me want to get into bed early every night!

*On Saturday we got up and started putting up the Christmas tree, garland, and all the fun decorations. I had wanted to put everything after Thanksgiving but we had a layer of dust covering everything due to the kitchen renovation. It makes me so happy to finally have most things in place. We put everything up when Sally was taking her morning nap, so when she woke up we showed her all the decorations. She was in awe of all the lights and colors. Joe and I had a fancy party to go to on Saturday night so we got dressed up (and forgot to take pictures!!) and Sally had a babysitter.

*On Sunday we were lazy in the morning and then Joe went to watch the Vikings play and Sally and I went to Target to get stocking stuffers. 

Our kitchen is slowly coming together. I cannot wait to post pictures when it is all done. Christmas decorations pictures coming soon!!