It is time once again to link up with Kathy and I and drop your confessions!! I have a few holiday confessions for you…
–I have never built a gingerbread house. #deprived
–I have never been ice skating. #deprived
–I don’t really like A Christmas Story. I never watched it until last year so I have no nostalgia with it and well, as an adult for the first time…it is kind of dumb. #idontgetit
–I am like a little kid at Christmas. I get so excited about decorating the tree and watching all my favorite Christmas movies. I cant wait for people to open the presents I got them. I just love everything about this time of year!
–The after holiday blues is a real thing. It is so sad to take down the Christmas tree and know that you have to wait a whole year to feel the magic once again. #christmasisoverblues
–I do love January 1st though. It is a clean slate. Time to make those goals that you have been thinking the last few months an action! #operationeatallthethingsnow
–I love going to the mail box and knowing that maybe a Christmas card will be in there instead of a bill! #billssuck
–When driving through neighborhoods, I like to look in to the windows to see if you can see their Christmas tree lit up. I promise I am not a doing this in a creepy way. #creeper
Confessions in ecard
Your turn!!! Spill all your secrets with Kathy and I!
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I love Elle’s Story Behind the Picture link up!!! Today I wanted to walk down memory lane and share some pictures from Christmas past!
Christmas 1983 – My first Christmas!!! This is my dad and I by our Christmas tree 🙂
Christmas 1984 – This is why I love the cold and snow. Look what I grew up in! I have so many memories of sledding and building snowman around Christmas when I was little. The second picture is my mom and I and this last one was taken in the back yard of our first house. It was located just outside downtown Greensburg, PA. I love to see how the houses covered in snow in this picture.
Christmas 1985 – This is my dad and I. My parents were young when they had me and got married. They didn’t have a lot of money so my dad had three jobs at one time, one of which was being a paramedic. I used to think it was so cool seeing him drive the ambulance!!! I was obsessed with the rescue helicopters that sat outside the building he worked in and he would always take me to see them. The helicopters were named Angel. So there was Angel 1 and Angel 2 and my dad would always let me know which one I was looking at. I remember one time he came and took me out for lunch at McDonalds and a emergency call came in and I got to go on the call with him. I used to think he was a super hero saving lives.
Christmas 1987 – This was my last Christmas as an only child! We had that white Christmas tree until I was in high school. I remember a few years my mom put purple lights on it because purple is my favorite color.
Christmas 1988 – This was Tracy’s first Christmas. I was so happy to have a little sister! I was constantly climbing in to her play pen and nap with her in the living room. I remember the Barbie that I am holding in this picture, it was Perfume Barbie and she came with a little bottle of perfume! And that dress she is wearing used to scrunch up so it could become a party dress!
Apparently, Christmas of 1989 was my rebellious years. Check out my midriff pajamas! This was also the year that my sister cracked her head open just a week before Christmas. My grandma and I were upstairs reading in bed and I asked my sister to bring me some apple slices. She ran back up stairs to bring them to me and tripped over her shoe lace and fell head first in to a piece of antique furniture with claw handles. One of those claws got her forehead. My mom and her best friend were downstairs in the kitchen when it happened and my moms best friend had to drive them to the ER because my mom was too scared. She couldn’t find where all the blood was coming from, it was awful!
My grandma stayed behind with me and I remember crying the entire time thinking that my little sister was going to die. She kept trying to calm me down but nothing worked until they brought my sister back home. She had to wear this nice little head patch for a few weeks.
Later I would joke that she lost some of her brains in that accident….sisters.
Ah yes, Christmas of 1992. The year I became a gamer girl! My grandma bought me a Super Nintendo for Christmas and I was so excited!!! My cousins and best friend had regular Nintendos
One of the famous surprised faces when we came out to see what Santa brought us! I used to love to ham it up for the camera….
Freshmen year of high school. Remember Starter? That was a Starter sweatshirt and I thought I was so damn cool.Michigan? BLEH!!! I only liked them because the guy I was crushing on did. So lame.
Sophomore year of high school, never too old to sit on Santa’s lap!
Junior year of high school. Old Navy performance fleece anyone? So my dad used to call me Dino sometimes. He thought it was so clever to get me a Dino in my stocking for Christmas. During Senior Week, you parents could come in and decorate your locker and my dad is really good at drawing, he drew this huge Dino in a graduation gown. It was actually pretty cool.
Senior year. I always helped out at my dad’s office Christmas party. That year, my mom and I were in charge of the duck game station. Also, you guys remember how big Billabong used to be? Gosh, I loved that shirt!!!
Well that was a fun trip down memory lane, thanks Elle!
The Monday of a three day work week is always so much easier to handle, isn’t it? You guys, I am exhausted! This weekend we were go go go and I didn’t get home until after 8:30 last night. Normally I am one with the couch after like 5pm on Sundays. The good news is I hit my goal steps each day this weekend! Too bad I left my fitbit at home on Saturday. Such a waste of steps, right???
Friday lunch was sushi from Whole Foods after running some errands.
Friday after work we hung out at home and had some friends over. We ordered a pizza and I finished reading my book while the boys played Madden 16.
Saturday we were up and out the door early to get a handle on our Christmas shopping!!! We headed over to The Summit and were there when the stores opened. Let’s just say that Santa was extra generous to me this year 🙂 We got a few other people ticked off the list and were starving by the time lunch rolled around. J Alexander’s Thai Kai Salad for the win!
I curled my hair Saturday all by myself. Miracles do happen! On a related note, how do you all handle brushing your hair out at the end of the of the day without a million pieces of hair breaking? #finehairproblems
We met up with a friend at World of Beer for a quick drink to relax after all the crazy.
Then we met up with Chris’s parents and sister and her family at Crazy Horse for a nice dinner. Hello delicious Filet!!!
Yesterday we were up and out the door pretty early again. I did get a chance to catch up on some magazine reading first though. After some shopping, we had lunch at Chuy’s.
I discovered that Harry Potter Butterscotch Beer exists!!! And resisted the urge to purchase the sugar laden beverage. Maybe next time I will indulge.
We were in search for a hot commodity, apparently. Luckily after like 3 hours of searching, my mom was able to track one down for us and I went to her house last night and scooped it up. Thanks mom!!! While I was there, she passed my grandmother’s trivet and pot holders on to me. As soon as I saw them, memories of my grandmother’s dining room table came back to me. So sweet of her.
I love having pieces like this that bring back such a special time. I will be sure to incorporate them in to my traditions going forward 🙂
And that was my weekend folks!! I ate way too much good food, probably spent way too much money shopping…but we had a wonderful time!!! Let’s just try to get through these next three days at work, huh? Why is the end of the year always so crazy at work? Why do places wait til the last month to get all their deals closed?!?!
Favorite Lust:Since it is basically spring weather here, I need some clothes to wear that look like fall/winter but breathe like spring/summer. What are you all wearing right now to deal with it? This is what I have in mind to get…
I hope that you all have a fabulous weekend!!! We have some Christmas shopping to finish, gifts to wrap, post office needs to attend to and lots of Christmas movies to watch!!!
Today I wanted to share with you some of my favorite things about Christmas!
My Christmas Decor:
Favorite Christmas Movies:
Elf
The Grinch
Home Alone 1 & 2
Family Stone
Miracle on 34th Street
Favorite Christmas Songs:
I have been sharing my favorite Christmas songs every Friday in my Friday Favorites posts for the past month or so now, but I have been trying to share songs you may not have heard so you have some new favorites! My favorite popular Christmas songs area….
Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays by Nsync
2. My Only Wish This Year by Britney Spears
3. All I Want For Christmas by Mariah Carey
4. Trans Siberian Orchestra Christmas Cannon Rock
5. Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas
Favorite Christmas Traditions:
Christmas Past
1.When we were younger, my sister and I used to exchange our gift to each other on Christmas Eve. It was supposed to “hold us over” until Christmas morning. My parents always hated how early we used to wake them up so we had a pact. Whoever woke up first would go to the other’s room and crawl in bed with them and goof off until it was an “appropriate time” to go wake up our parents. Usually we would wake up around 3 or 4 am and we would try and hold out until 6:30 to 7. My mom would stay in the room with us and my dad would go downstairs to set up the camera. I will share some of those gems with you next week when I link up with Elle for story behind a picture!
2.I have always loved stockings! One of my favorite things used to be to go through mine. My mom would always put the lifesaver story books in them and little toys and candy when we were younger. Once I got to be a teenage it was filled with cds and makeup..and the lifesaver story book. I haven’t had a stocking since I graduated college, but I told Chris I want to start doing them this year!
Christmas Present
3. With Chris, every Christmas Eve we head over to his parents house to bake goodies, have finger foods and exchange gifts with his family.
4.Every Christmas morning we head over to my sister-in-laws house for breakfast.
5. Every Christmas dinner is spent with my mom, step dad, step sisters, sister, brother in law and nieces and nephews at my mom’s house. We all exchange gifts and have an amazing dinner! She makes pierogies and traditional ham and sides.
Christmas Treats: I have to have these every year:
Queen Anne Chocolate Covered Cherries, Pizzelles, Peppermint Hot Chocolate, Reese Christmas Trees, my Mom’s sugar cookies.
Christmas Funnies:
What is your favorite Christmas song? Do you have traditional themed Christmas decor or a mixture of all your favorite things like me?
