wearing - 46/50

sweater - Forever21 // coated denim leggings + blanket scarf - Madewell //  suede booties - TJ Maxx

Happy, rainy, Christmas Eve Eve! 

This holiday season has been so different & bizarre from what I've been used to my whole life that I'm sort of in denial that Christmas could possibly be coming to a close. In college, even if I found myself working my part time job on the days leading up to Christmas, I was still at least a short drive from my & Jared's parents homes, & just popping in to either was an instant surge of family & holiday spirit. When I was at the zoo, I worked so many hours during the event season that I was usually able to take a solid 1.5 weeks off work around Christmas/New Years. & last year, I managed to avoid picking up a part time job until January. Sooooo, working tomorrow night & the day after Christmas at my part time job in a family-less city will be a little bit jarring.

I probably sound like a spoiled brat. I have Jared here. We have our wee little Christmas tree & plans to go ice-skating in Georgetown on Christmas Day. We will make the most of it & it could, in fact, be the most fun Christmas yet. We've never done Christmas sans extended family, so it's all a mystery. But hey! This year has been crazy, anyway. Why not add a crazy Christmas to the mix?

As a final note, this sweater was a dream come true. In a season that short, wide sweaters have been THE thing (& in a body that short & wide are big fat no-nos), this form-fitting turtleneck was exactly what I was looking for. Bonus: I can't really tell if it's navy blue or black, so I just pick which one I want it to be, depending on the day. That's how colors work, right?

a date to THE tree

So, maybe these are the most touristy pictures ever. & maybe it's a bit of a selfie-overload. But it's our first Christmas in DC, so I'm pretending we're allowed. 

We bundled up on a 30 degree night, picked up some decadent chocolate inspired treats & trotted ourselves down to the National Christmas Tree. We've been here since August, but we hadn't made our way down to the White House yet, so we stopped by on our way to the tree & waved to the neighbors. *wiiiiiiiiiink* ... & then we came home to scarf down the soup we had waiting for us, ready to warm our bones.

This month has been a blur! But it's been fun to sneak in little dates around the city & make our way through our pile of Christmas movies whenever we get the chance. December, you always slide by way too fast, but still... This has been one for the books.

wearing - 45/50

ruffled button down - American Eagle // cardigan - H&M (men's department) // cropped jeans - Madewell // over-the-knee socks - Urban Outfitters // Hunter boots 

This week in "Clothes from Your Husband's Side of a Very Tiny Closet," we bring you the elusive grey cardigan that he may have been looking for all over so that he could wear it before he realized that you have it on. WHOOPS. It wasn't until I went to look back at my last post to see what outfit number this was that I realized I was repping one of Jared's sweaters for the second time... in a row. 

While this could mean that I've depleted my wardrobe options with this crazy outfit challenge, or that I am very much feeling as though I've put on my extra layer of warmth for the winter *WIIIINK* & thus, the bigger the sweater the better... It actually means that at 26, I am still waiting for the maid whose sole purpose in life is to clean up my clothes. I have been praying & waiting for this person to show up my entire life. You can ask my mother. Alas, no dice.

Thus concludes this week's episode of "You Should Really Just Do Your Laundry, Kelsey."

wearing - 44/50

button down - J. Crew // sweater - Banana Republic (but it's actually Jared's) // jeans - Madewell High Riser // wedge loafers - Old Navy

Goodness gracious. Every year, about this time, I realize that there won't be any time for breathing between now & mid-January. This year, this is especially true, but I'll talk about that more in another has-yet-to-be-written post.

For now, just know that:

• We are fully aware that this sweater could definitely double as a Star Trek Halloween costume
• It was really cold & about to rain when we took these pictures, but I spared you the ones Jared took of me trying to stay warm
• If you bring your hair straightener to Europe, the outlets there might kill said straightener & you'll be in bangs purgatory for the following month
• The alley where we take these pictures has an office building that overlooks it, & I can't decide if I'd love or hate to hear what goes on when we show up with the camera/my antics

TOO MUCH TO DO. CIAO, LOVES!

joy!

http://www.tinyprints.com/shop/picture-christmas-cards.htm

Joyous Heart design by TinyPrints

Every year that we've sent our Christmas cards since getting married, I've whispered a "Next year!" prayer that our holiday cards for the following Christmas would include a dog or a teeny new human or that one year that I was even ready to settle for a cat. Aaaand every year comes & goes just with me & Jared's faces gracing the front of our cards. It feels a little silly, I guess - Sending out a card that isn't a documentation for far away friends of how much older the kids look this year or an introduction of a new, furry family member. Hi, friends & family! Here's our faces!

But as I toss this dilemma around every year when it comes time to pick out a card and collect everyone's newest addresses, I think about the eventual Someday that I line up our Christmas cards from over the years. There will be the gaping hole from 2010 when I was so overwhelmed with wedding thank you notes that the thought of sending out a Christmas card made me nearly hyperventilate. There will be the year that I made my youngest sister & Jared climb over a barbed wire fence to take a wooded picture in a cow pasture. & the year that we laid in the Coulombs backyard, covered in beautiful golden leaves, just to end up using a B&W photo. There will be the year that I handcut confetti for us to toss over & over, just to spend 30 minutes picking it up off the floor of my parents’ back patio after racing the sunset to get the photos taken before it was dark.

& then... there will be Paris. The year when we stood on the Pont des Arts on an overcast day, locking our love onto a bridge in a city that felt like a home far away from home. The year that "home" became a very ambiguous term anyway, because going home from Paris meant going back to a new city that still feels far away from home. The year that we realized that "home" is people & family isn't just blood, but the people that bring happiness to your soul. Joy, you could say.

After spending 1/3 of the year away from one another, “joy” was certainly the overwhelming feeling as we finally found our way back under the same roof in August. It seemed like the perfect one-word summary to our very big year. Someday, I know (& hope) the cards of just Jared & I will be completely outnumbered. But in the meantime, I am grateful for another holiday season at this wonderful man’s side, with one more year of adventures to look back on, & another set of cards going out to the ones we love.