"Married" Christmas.

If there were an Olympics for traditions, I think my family would be in the running for gold. We love them and almost every holiday holds several continued staples that make it feel complete for me. This Christmas was the first that I've ever spent out of the house and although I missed certain aspects of waking up at home with my family I was so happy to start fresh and make some new traditions with Weston in our new house.

Over the span of Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, we had seven places to be. So before that chaos began, we kicked off our holiday the morning of the 24th at home, just the two of us. 

The night before, I threw together an overnight crockpot breakfast of blueberry french toast so when we woke up the next morning, the kitchen smelled like delicious cinnamon - and shortly after, coffee. 

After breakfast, we sat next to our tree and exchanged gifts. We both gave each other things for the house that we both need, but one of us wanted more than the other. For Weston's gift to me, it was bed accessories - pillows, a duvet cover, a heated blanket, etc. We have come a long way from initially having no bed at all, to having a mattress with sheets on the floor, to now a box spring supported - fully cozy - sleepy time cloud! (It's the little things.)

After I opened my gift, we were both excited to make up our bed with all the fun new additions so we threw everything together and spent a while enjoying the new and improved coziness.

Sometimes I feel impatient about getting our house "done" - fully decorated and full of furniture and cute accessories… But I kind of love these pictures because I know one day I'm going to look back and miss these times when there was no clutter or extra stuff anywhere and we were living with just what we needed. Finished or not, I love this little house so much and making it our own is a fun project. :)

Then we had a little while before we needed to leave for church so we watched A Christmas Story (which apparently Weston had never seen?! 7 Christmases together and I've never made him watch it?!) and took in our last few hours of calm and quiet at home before running around like mad for the next two days.

And even through the hustle of driving place to place on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day and even coming down with a fun case of strep throat Christmas night… I really loved every minute. I loved the traditions we were able to keep with our families and I loved the new traditions we started on our own and I really am just so happy to know that this is the start of really wonderful new types of holidays together.

I hope you had a lovely Christmas too!

Christmas Morning.

Just a little peek at our yesterday-morning.

(I was the last member of our family to join the mocc-slipper club. Thanks, Santa! So comfy!)

This year was filled with a lot of really big surprises.

My friend Jenna went into labor on Christmas morning (a week and a half early!) and gave birth to her beautiful baby girl later on Christmas day. I was so shocked and excited to be getting her text updates throughout the day's festivities. Happy Birthday, Ella!

We also got to watch our beautiful next-door neighbor be surprised with a brand new car! We had been hiding it in our garage since her husband had bought it a few days ago and had been anxiously awaiting the big reveal. She was stunned and speechless when she came out to see it parked in her driveway and we were so happy to have been a part of that surprise with one of our favorite families.

Also on Christmas, Weston's best friend and his wife announced that they're pregnant with their first child, and my cousin and his wife announced their pregnancy as well! Babies all around! Haha

So like I said, lots of exciting announcements and fun surprises.

I hope your Christmas was wonderful. :)

What were your biggest surprises this year?

Tunes : For The Holidays

You knew it was just a matter of time until this playlist showed up.

Just some of the songs that have been on repeat around here lately.
What are your Christmas favorites this year?

Tunes from Christmas past here.

happy christmas.

christmas was a little different this year.
as luck would have it, i woke up on christmas eve not feeling so well.
so my holiday was spent in a bit of a fog and i was disappointed to miss out on a few of my favorite traditions.

where there are valleys, though.. there are peaks.

and although i didn't take many pictures, here are a few things i will always remember about this christmas:

- weston's face on christmas eve when we sat by my tree and he opened up the 'red wing' boots i surprised him with. he always says he doesn't need anything but i wanted to give him something nice and i've never seen him so excited about a gift. plus, he really did need new shoes. so i technically wasn't breaking any rules. ;)

- mom's coffee cake & breakfast casserole on christmas morning. delicious as usual.

- toby getting his head stuck in almost every bag we opened.

- spending a few hours on christmas eve with weston's family. it was the first time i've ever spent that evening anywhere other than my grandpa's house and i couldn't have possibly picked a better group of people to break tradition for.

- my dad, gifting me a handmade, wooden recipe box that smells like pine wood and primer. just like he does!

- my aunt handing out tons of hostess (!!!) goodies to everyone "from santa clause." complete christmas magic.

- playing christmas trivia with my aunts and uncles and 'spoons' with my cousins.

- the 'opening ceremonies' to the amaro clue hunt.

-     -     -     -

i also gave weston's parents a gift i was pretty proud of.

for weeks, weston and i had been sneaking old home movies from their house so that i could secretly convert them all to dvd, label them, and put them in chronological order.

on christmas eve, i gave them the gift. and we sat on the couch and watched a christmas video from 1994. and they were laughing so hard and enjoying it so much. and i felt so glad to have spent the time doing it. :)

we've still got one last 'christmas' to celebrate with my dad's family on saturday, so i'm going to go ahead and extend my holiday movie/music enjoyment to this weekend.

what were the peaks of your christmas?

hope your holiday was lovely. 

holiday dinner party.

weston's brother, trenton, lives in a really awesome loft above a gallery in the arts colony.

it really is the coolest space with all the exposed brick, high ceilings, and open space downstairs..
so when trenton mentioned that he wanted to host a dinner party, it was really exciting.

taryn and i helped with the decorating and party planning (we've planned a couple events before - always so fun!) and trenton really did an amazing job bringing everything to fruition. his place cleaned up suuuuper nicely and it was great to get everyone together to celebrate with a meal before christmas.

before we ate, trenton stood up and gave a really sweet toast (i'll admit, i almost teared up a little!) reflecting on the year that we've all had and the various struggles that we've had to go through. one of the reasons that i think this is such a great time of year is being able to sit back for a second and see how far we've come. so it was great to recognize that with friends and acquaintances and kind of quietly celebrate the fact that a new year is almost upon us.

after dinner, we sipped coffee and ate dessert, then moved up into the warm loft to play a few rounds of charades. so much laughter that my stomach hurt.

when we left i told trenton i can't wait for his next event... (hint hint, wink wink, trenton!)   :)

thanks for a lovely evening.

tunes : dear friend christmas.

{good morning, friends!

today we have our second and final guest post of the holiday season.

madison and i have been 'blog friends' for a while. her pictures and posts are some of my favorites to follow! 
she also has great taste in music, which is why i'm so excited for her to share a few of her photos and favorite holiday tunes here with you! 

it's the perfect playlist for last minute gift wrapping... which i am sheepishly taking part in this weekend. enjoy!}

-     -     -

Hello, there! I'm Madison from "Dear Friend," and I'm so glad have been asked to make this post for Kelle and the rest of you here on her blog. 

The Christmas season is upon us and I just love this time of year. During the holidays we have a few traditions. One of them is our Christmas tree. For as long as I can remember we've put up this Christmas tree every year (it's come all the way from the Philippines when my dad first moved to the States!). My dad pulls it out of it's box, places it in it's corner and since all the ornaments have been kept on from the beginning of it's time, this 4-foot tree is an easy set-up!

When I hear certain holiday songs I can't help but think of different memories I have with my friends and family or even movies that a song was in so those were obligatory songs that I had add to my holiday playlist. That's where Mariah Carey comes in (high school, say whaat? - even though it came out way earlier), O Tannenbaum (A Charlie Brown Christmas), Baby, it's Cold Outside (Elf), and Ave Maria (below is Beyonce's version but my uncle likes to sing the original for us when we're all together).

I've been listening to these songs for the past few weeks and they've helped put me in the holiday spirit as I wait for Christmas Day to come.

Hope you enjoy this playlist.

Happy Holidays!

{more holiday tunes here & here.}

a blanket fort.

while stringing an excessive amount of christmas lights around my room the other night, i got hit with a wave of christmas spirit.

i ended up cutting out several paper snowflakes and somewhere in the midst of this creative process, i had a sudden urge to collect every blanket in my home, the christmas lights, and my newly cut snowflakes... and create the most glorious blanket fort i could muster.

when i first informed weston of this plan, he laughed at me.
and it took a few days to find the time to do it.

but rest assured, friends. we (both) completed the task, this afternoon.

tunes : vieille ame christmas.

{happy tuesday, friends! 

i'm so excited to share the first ever yellowpaperdress guest post with you, today.

i've mentioned my adorable friend chriscelle before (she is the one responsible for my cute blog layout!) 
in between being a (badass) architecture student who pretty much lives at the studio, she blogs at the lovely vieille ame.
she's got greattttt taste in music so i'm thrilled that she's here to share a few of her favorite christmas tunes
just try not to fall in love with her sweet illustrations, witty humor, and awesome playlist... 

i'm pretty sure it's impossible.}

hi there! i'm chriscelle and i occasionally blog under the name vieille ame. i'm so excited that kelle has asked me to make a guest post on her lovely blog!

there are so many things to like about december : colorful lights, peacoat weather, holiday drinks at starbucks, drunk uncles at christmas parties - but i have to say that my favorite thing about december is being able to listen to christmas music without being judged.

for some reason, the effective date of when christmas music can start being played has become such a sensitive topic. like, can i started playing this N*SYNC christmas album after halloween or do i have to wait until after thanksgiving? ... there is no definite answer, girl! bump that album whenever you feel like it because that album is pure pop gold!

regardless of how you feel about when christmas music can start being played, there is no denying that it's perfectly okay to be listening to it now. actually, i don't think it's okay to not be listening to it now. so when kelle asked if i could put together a christmas playlist for a guest post, i felt very honored and excited... but also very conflicted. like, should i go for jazzy christmas? indie christmas? or a drive-thru records christmas? (so i went for all three)

here are some of my favorite christmas songs, new and old :

may your days be merry and bright!

{previous holiday tunes post here}

oh, christmas tree.

tonight, we decorated our tree

with all the beautiful ornaments my grandma has made us over the years.

toby watched from around the tree (and under the tree a little bit, too)

nolan sipped on homemade horchata,

and pop donned his nerdy magnifying glasses 

like he does every year to fix the ornament strings that have broken.

it just wouldn't be christmastime without these things.

we had planned on having nice family pictures taken this afternoon for the first time in years, but we got rained out.
this resulted in an impromptu photo shoot tonight, that somehow ended up revolving around toby...
i mean how could it not, though. he's definitely the cutest out of all of us.
obviously he was thrilled.

afterwards, we gathered in the living room, lit a fire and watched "the santa clause" which is one of our family favorites. can i tell you how happy i am that it's christmastime? enjoying every possible second.

tunes : for the holiday season.

i choose not to recognize seasons by scientific standards.
i have my own rules:

when school starts, summer is over.

then we stay in some kind of seasonal limbo until it gets cold enough for scarves and hot chocolate.

which obviously means it is fall.

the day after thanksgiving, it becomes christmastime which means that autumn is over and winter is here.

winter stays until i go back to school for the spring semester. 

and when the spring semester ends, summer starts again.

i mean, it just makes so much sense.

regardless though...
whether it's still fall in your book or if we've made the shift to winter already,
the holiday season is definitely upon us.

here are a few of the christmas tunes that i've been enjoying since thanksgiving.
(okay okay.. maybe a few days before that, too.)



and yes, hanson did make it onto my playlist again this year.
THEY ARE AWESOME, OKAY GUYS?!

there's also this silly little number that my puppy toby and i put together last december.
if you can stand the obnoxiousness.

and...
if you liked branches rendition of "o come o come emmanuel"
i highly recommend their christmas album which you can download for free here!

i loved listening to all of your song suggestions from the last playlist!
so let's have 'em, people..

favorite christmas/winter songs on three.

one... two... three!