Holiday Cheer

Griffing family Christmas 2011 recap:
1. built a gingerbread house complete with inappropriate but humorous gingerbread residents
2. successfully navigated a Christmas Eve trip to the mall (NEVER AGAIN)
3. had a Modern Family marathon (mom's new favorite show)
4. watched Monte Carlo (thought it would 2 hours of my life i'd never get back but actually ended up liking it - i have a girl crush on leighton meester.)
5. listened to plenty of old and new Christmas music
6. stuffed our faces full of steak, potato fries, buttery rolls and cranberries
7. gained 10 lbs indulging in a 4-layer Christmas birthday cake
8. had a sister sleepover on the floor of Olivia's room on Christmas Eve
9. attended midnight mass
10. had the traditional Christmas Eve screening of Miracle on 34th Street
11. cheered on the Thunder as they defeated the Magic
12. indulged in Christmas morning cinnamon rolls, bacon & OJ
13. laughed our butts off as Charley adjusted to his new "big boy" bed
14. had an at home manicure session (i should start doing that for a living)
15. relaxed and basked in the glory of a 5 day break and enjoyed my time with my beautiful family

It was a wonderful Christmas and I can't believe it's over! Where has December gone? Where has 2011 gone?? It is December 29th and I am confused as to how that is the date. This year flew by so fast. Tomorrow I'll be headed to Birmingham for New Year's Eve and I'll be back Monday!

See you in 2012!

Ginge

One of our big traditions is making our annual gingerbread house. Ordinarily it would have been done a lot earlier, but because Nikki and I don't live at home anymore, we had to wait until we were all together. But I have to say, we outdid ourselves with our masterpiece this year, especially with our little gingerbread peeps. We have a very different style of decorating than our engineer father - he once used tweezers to make a window pane out of sprinkles. We have a more "Jackson Pollock" approach as Olivia literally threw mini M&M's at her side of the gingerbread roof. As usual, I spent more time eating the candy and licking the icing spoon than actually decorating. Gimme a break, it's Christmas.

Charley spent most of his time groveling and begging for treats.

We all thought our little gingerbread people were pretty hilarious. Yes, we are that immature. It's the small things in life.

So thankful to be at home for the holidays surrounded by my wonderful family! Count your blessings and thank the Lord for the things you have, instead of thinking about the things you think you need. That's definitely something I have to work on in 2012.

Merry Christmas!

The Stables

Home for the holidays and taking full advantage...got to spend a little one on one time with the parentals tonight when they took me out to dessert. Two years ago, at Christmastime, the whole family drove up to Guthrie (a small town about 20 minutes north of my parents' house) to look at lights and we ate some delicious pie at this place called The Stables Cafe.

I've dreamt about it ever since and tonight, I got to go back. Had some chocolate cream pie that was to die for and got to catch up with my mom and dad and fill them in on my life to date. Also, we attempted to make butter by shaking a little container of half & half for about 30 minutes. It did not work. But it entertained us for 30 minutes.

I had the cream pie, mom had the pumpkin, and dad had the original apple and cinnamon pie. They also have the coolest decor...it looks like an old time antique shop threw up in there, and of course this time of year, it's filled with garland, little white lights, and mistletoe. I die.

Countdown

Busy counting down to one of the best holidays and a trip to see my favorite guy (well second favorite, dad always comes in first).

New Years Eve: a fresh start, new beginning and clean slate. New resolutions, new challenges and new things to look forward to. Can't wait to see what 2012 has in store for me. Although I'm not looking forward to the fact that I will no longer be able to say "oh yeah, i just graduated last year..." but will have to say "i graduated 2 YEARS AGO" or "i graduated the year before last." Geez I'm getting old.

Good night y'all!

Kisses & Disses

I've come to the conclusion that I'm a terrible blogger. But I'm going to take a page out of one of my fav blog's book and give out kisses and disses for the things I'm loving (and hating) lately:

kisses:

1) CHRISTMAS!!!


2) new purchases, thanks to a gift card to the mall. Too bad it was in my pocket for less than 2 hours before it was spent. Sorry my receiving it just so happened to coincide with J Crew's 30% off EVERYTHING sale. Don't blame me, take it up with headquarters. I'll be wearing that sparkly number for NYE :) (tip: picked that one up at Gap on super sale - they had a ton, go check it out!)



3) a sweet card from a sweet boy



4) sparkly nails



5) only thing better than sparkly nails: gold flecked nails (please Santa, bring me some "Meteor Shower"!)

6) puppies, my favorite



disses:

1) colds, yuck. I've been drugged up for the last 3 days and yet the amount of snot filling my head hasn't decreased at all. sorry, that's gross, but if I have to suffer through it, so do y'all.

2) the real world not having a month-long Christmas break. major diss.

3) Christmas scrooges

very blessed this holiday season to have a wonderful family who put up with my antics most of the time and support me all of the time, friends who have become like family, an incredible job, and my health (except for the cold). i'm thankful for every single person in my life and consider myself very lucky to have the life i do. i love you all!

happy holidays my friends, i'll be back soon!