a merry little christmas

It was a fun little Christmas Eve & Christmas morning, spent with my family & grandparents. Between teaching my mom the ways of the iPad, my mimosa bar that may be a Christmas requirement from now on & my niece experiencing opening presents for the first time, there's was a lot of laughing & good times. It's really quite pleasant to see kids added back in to our holiday celebrations with our families now that both of our youngest sisters aren't really babies anymore (as much as we like to pretend they are... & as much as my parents' golden doodle likes to believe that she's the forever-baby). We're definitely niece & nephew fans.

We've spent that past couple of days squeezing in time with our Coulomb besties & celebrating family birthdays (there's four post-Christmas birthdays between both of our families). Today's agenda includes popping down to NC with some of Jared's family for the New Year's celebration, which I should actually be packing for right now. I can't even believe that it's New Year's Eve! (& that once again, I've somehow managed to not finish my year in review post before the year ended but oh wellz.) Can I just say that I am thrilled to say goodbye to 2013 with salute & a kick out the door? I'm so very ready for a new year. Have a wonderful & safe New Year's Eve! See ya in 2014!

christmas eve, with some friendsgiving on the side!

Happy Christmas Eve to everyone! We're spending the next couple of days at my parents, with a house full of babies & dogs & grandparents & really good food... The most wonderful time of the year! I'm in charge of Christmas morning breakfast, so I'm off to prep some frittata ingredients & make labels for the mimosa bar (oh yes). Not to mention the oodles of presents that have to be wrapped to day, as per Essmann family tradition, but I leave you with the holiday video I finaaaaally managed to put together from our Friendsgiving gathering last month. Pretend that the leaves are snow, because that's what I'm doing. (& once again, sorry for the spot on our lens that might make you twitch.)

Have a wonderful holiday, everyone!

'tis the weekend before Christmas

& we're going on a mini weekend getaway! I was informed last night that Jared had made some magic happen & we are taking a little overnight trip to Raleigh. I have never been, but I hear great things about the place & people, & the best part is that we get to see his brother perform in The Nutcracker... Something we have wanted to do since, ohhhh, we started dating? but have never been able to make it happen.

I am blissfully ignoring the presents that need to be wrapped & the rest of the house that needs to be cleaned (which, let's be honest, would probably look a lot more like me looking up holiday nail art & attempting to paint snow flakes on my fingernails while waiting for the muddy buddies that I really shouldn't eat to set properly before I inhale them) to soak up some time away with my favorite man. Today marks four years since the night Jared proposed, which was on a different  weekend getaway up to DC, so this all seems very fitting. Although, I do think that engagement trip made us swear off trips the weekend before Christmas because traffic was so horrible but HEY! It's important to keep refreshing life lessons, right?

May this weekend not find you in any malls & bring you aaaaaaall the Christmas cookies.

the hustle & bustle

This picture was a front-facing-camera commemoration of my successful 4 mile shopping trip through the city yesterday, in which I managed to not smear red lipstick all over my face... It, of course, was terrible quality, & so I moved on to bigger & better selfie taking techniques, but this one still cracked me up. My mitten totally photobombed my selfie. TOUCHÈ, MITTEN.

I'm really not a shopper, so much as I am a buyer. I like to wait until I can't stop thinking about one item (last week, for instance, it was new leggings) & then just buzz in & out of the store that I have researched online, checked their in-store inventory (online) & then make my purchase hopefully within 15 minutes flat. I'll look, sure. But browsing usually just makes me grumpy & guys... These holiday crowds. They almost ruined Christmas for me last year. In a horrible lapse in judgement, I found myself in the mall on December 22nd, searching for a last minute add-on gift, & by the end of the trip, I was like... sweaty & stomping & I would almost bet you money that I growled at least once. It was terrible. & I need to stop because I sound like such a bratty first-worlder, complaining about the crowds while I spend money on presents. *gulp*

In other news, still no snow. This is a joke, because of course there's no snow. I saw a graph the other day showing that only 5% of of the Christmas Days in Hampton Roads have had snow since 1890. EIGHTEEN NINETY. Obviously, we live in the wrong state. That's all there is to it. Snowwww for daaaaays, please.

Just a reminder that you made it to Wednesday! Christmas week is almost here! (HOW??)

the things we do for Christmas

These cards were too much work to not share more pictures of them. Sorry/not sorry? Since I failed in my quest to add a puppy to this year's card, we figured we'd add a little extra love to this year's Christmas greeting. Unfortunately, I'm about to spill all the behind-the-scenes guts that may take away some of the magic. Or add to it... I suppose that depends on the type of person you are.

Things About Our Christmas Cards That Are Going To Make You Think I'm A Crazy Person:

- 28 websites visited before settling on an envelope/liner combination
- 500 pieces of confetti cut while Holiday Inn played in the background

- 1 closed bridge causing traffic, setting us back nearly an hour on the trip to my parents house to use their patio for a photo backdrop
- 15 minutes of sunlight left to take our pictures before the sun completely set

- 2 sisters + 1 sister's boyfriend needed for picture taking & backdrop holding

- 30 minutes of confetti clean-up

- 2 trips to Michael's for necessary crafting supplies

- 56 tries at writing "Wishing you a very" on my wacom tablet before I could bring myself to hit print

- 5 pieces of a cut eraser used for gold confetti embossing

- 3 different greens used to create the perfect hunter green watercolor for the envelopes

- 6 envelopes wadded up on the floor due to various mistakes

- 42 collective minutes of held-breath as I proofread the names & addresses

- 9 practiced J's before Jared was finally satisfied with his signature & ready to start signing

- 4 holiday stamp options that I just couldn't bring myself to buy before settling on floral stamps

- 7 people who have actually confirmed that their cards made it to them, so that's good!

Honestly? YES. So much work. But really, truly worth it. Really! It was!