Skype.

tay and i have never spent more than a few nights apart since being married.
and ...then we spent a week apart starting Christmas day.

worst.thing.ever.

I flew out of Ohio at 3 pm on Christmas day..
Arrived in orlando, solo mind you, found our car....and drove the two hours home that night.
lonely and depressing to recall.

I spent the week without a phone, really...because i only have an ER one. which. let's be real, isn't all that helpful most times.

WHICH, is why i love SKYPE.
Tay and I skyped every night and read scriptures and said prayers.
Really skype.. you were the greatest invention ever.
I want to have skype dates with everyone who lives far away now.

when are you available?

family pics

emily dalby mangum is basically this pro photog who took some amazing shots of the family.

Which was fab seeing as we don't have any recent pictures of tay's family--only ones from our wedding.
...which was 2 and a 1/2 people ago.

These were some of our fav's:

merryhappychristmas!
Thanks emo for some great memories!

christmas

i love christmas.


i love family.

i love food.

i love travelling.

And i love my boo.

---All of which encompassed my holiday season.

In a quick blurp:

We spent the holiday with the Dalby's in OHIO.
The first holiday I got to spend with Tay's family and it couldn't have been better. Michael.Georgia.Adam.Taylor
.Emily.Ryan.(baby bump Henry).
Kaylea.Josh.Gus-Gus.and Brynn.

Oh my, we baked, we ate, we read scriptures, we partied, we watched movies, we wrapped, we chatted, and we just had the greatest time ever. I haven't spent much time with his family before..because we've always been so far away.. or we would visit but they'd be real quick trips. I actually got to spend about a week there.. which I am so so grateful for!

They really are a talented and cheery bunch! i sure do love em' all.

I flew back mid-Christmas day-solo because I had to work.. (super depressing..let's not dwell) but ALL-in-All. a perfect holiday.  I even got to skype my family back in Washington. Seriously.

Inventor of skype. i love you. like, really love you.

ch-check it out:

The fam. (i have no idea what michael dalby is describing...but it's captivating)

 me and my wilton tips!

boo and his sperry's!



We had a blast, we got giftcards, sweet letters, red velvet cupcake mix, some super-cute pantry towels (thanks brynn!), sperrys, anat/phys books, mag subscriptions, bows and bands,  and tons of LOVE.



PS did i mention gussy got blessed on Christmas day?! how sweet was that. He just talked and cooed his lil' heart out the whole time. we loved it. and i loved that we got to be there for it. much more to come on baby gussy..just you wait!

 **courtesy of emilydalby.

DIVINE

These are my new-all-time-forever-and-always favorite holiday treat.

They are so simple it's not even funny.

I highly recommend you give em' a go. You will not be disappointed = )

Ps.
If Tay & I made Christmas cards,

this would be the picture for them,

 

  

Ha.

Just kidding, but I thought it was a good one.
Supposedly we're bad photogs.

It says, "Merry Christmas from Florida. A Breezy 85 and humid."

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas around here. not.

MerryHappyChristmas everyone!

Happy Holidays!

Some people are so outdoorsy they cut down their Christmas Tree.

We're so outdoorsy,

We make our Christmas Tree.

My husband's an artist.



He made the trunk tall to fit all of our presents underneath.
He.plans.ahead.

Can you find the "I <3 J"?

He even carved my name in the trunk ; )

Don't worry, I traced the ornaments with a tomato sauce can.

And cut out the star.
Hand-drawn. bigwhoop.
I.am.helpful.



MerryHappyChristmasTime.

TRADITIONS

My family has a tradition...of creating a new tradition every year...which in and of itself doesn't make sense. But what do you do?




I made one this year,

I think I'll keep it.


Enter "Gratitude" wall.

Everyday Tay and I posted something up that we were grateful for.  It was a life-changer.



I want to keep it up year-round.
It's our HOL-I-DAY wall!

Everything from trees, the Atonement, scriptures, time, indoor plumbing, and Texas are on our wall.
I LOVE Grat-i-TUDE

HAPPY THANKSgiving

We hosted this year.

Check out our practically, award-winning turkey!
It was delic.

Enter Thanksgiving memories via Picture mania:

 **Pre-bake, post-brine

 Yano, just get the "rub-down"

Boo's mad oven skills.

Perfect color, if we do say so ourselves = )

Note our joy!

And my Julia-Child wannabe pearls and apron in the kitch. big whoop.

Taylor can carrrrrrve a turkey.

Focus. Perfection.

I wish I got a picture of the finished product, but alas, I did not. It was finished with a beautiful arrangement of turkey legs, sage, and rosemary sprigs. We're chefs.

No big.
It was delic.

We LOVED Thanksgiving.

Thank you, Alton Brown recipe with 3468 reviews. They all knew.

Around 2 a few of our friends came over with the WORKS (spinach dip, mashed potatoes, green bean cass, etc.) and we had a FEAST.

Post feast rally of SCATTEGORIES and pumpkin brownie/cookie chow down.

Did I mention we love COO WHIP?