happy golden days of yore

 

 

 

ONE WEEK UNTIL CHRISTMAS!!! I've actually reached the point in Christmas-gift-spending that makes me want to start giving everyone gifts "from the earth", accompanied by a lecture in consumerism. It's only because Jared & I both enjoy giving gifts way too much. & because I haven't made the time or used the brain power to make crafty presents. Where has December gone? & WHY ISN'T THERE SNOW YET.

So, I teased these ornaments on ye ol' Instagram, & am finally getting around to sharing them with you. (Pardon the finger smudges, btw.) These giant glass ornaments were on sale at Michael's during our first married December, & I may have bought like, mmm... 16. During the annual Bethune holiday beach trip, Jared's sisters & I collected some beach goodies over the course of  our several walks down the shoreline.

I would be lying if I said that I put the dried vine in the First Year Ornament as some romantic "Our First Christmas" gesture. But last year I pulled it out & was really happy that I had done that, so I saved some of the magnolia leaves that I had used on our wreath to commemorate our second Christmas. (Perhaps a little too eagerly, I noted earlier this month, as I scrunched my nose up at the silver spray paint smears on the inside of the glass.) This year, I'd cut some greenery from around my parents backyard for the little friendsgiving party we had at the end of November, & dried some of it for Christmas decorating this year. & THUS... The Third Year Ornament was born.

Now that this little tradition of bottling up annual Christmas keepsakes has (accidentally) begun, I'm pretty excited about it. Granted - We will someday need a tree just for these nostalgic baubles. But there are worse things in life than multiple Christmas trees under one roof & glass ornaments filled with Christmas memories. Plus, I figure we have until about 2030 before we need to worry about all that.

Happy one week till Christmas!

frosted window panes

 

 

 

 

  

Some bits & pieces of what Christmas looks like around our little apartment. Also, the first glimpses I've given of our new place. We really are quite settled in around here, but for someone like me who sweats the smell of candy canes & evergreen for the month of December (ew?), making Christmas in a new home is like the final touch. The deal sealer. The star on the tree. Maybe it's taking the same decorations out of their boxes that makes each room seem familiar. Maybe it's sweeping needles from our wreaths & garlands & tree out from corners that I didn't know we had, being greeted with a cheery "HULLO!" by foreign dust bunnies. But by gum, with a Christmas tree as our flag, we hereby declare this land HOME.

be merry!

A happy Christmas card from us to you! Now, let's all join in a glorious chorus of begging Jared to let me add a puppy to next year's card! Hark, the herald Jared see - Kelsey needs a puppy, pleeease...

october married march

 

Sometimes... & when I say sometimes, I mean frequently... There are moments around this Bethune household that would merit having hidden cameras around to capture. I imagine a sitcom titled something kinda cheesy like, "October Married March" that would capture the (what I consider to be) amazing ways in which Jared & I so often balance each other out. Not Lucy & Ricky style, because my dear, sweet husband is just as cray as I am, so don't you go believing that I'm the only silly one in this relationship. No, more like proof that being born 7 months apart was just the right chemistry. Just enough sanity to make sense of absurdity. We take turns. It's great.

Like tonight. When I was making stuffing for the holiday party at work tomorrow, after laying on the couch with a headache all afternoon. The kind of headache that makes you close the blinds & laugh at the idea of opening your eyes wide enough to put contacts in. Only you don't laugh, because that would hurt. Our new place has little, teeny counter tops, which means a doubled recipe's worth of vegetables & fruits & bread were getting tossed all over the kitchen as I tried to mix it all into what I thought was a large enough bowl on a much-too-small counter. Turns out, the largest bowl we own was not quite big enough, so the bowl's contents were just going... everywhere. Our oven is gas, & cranks the room's temperature up by about, mmm, 25 degrees, so I was getting cranky & sweaty as I attempted to "cook this daggone stuffing that I probably won't even like because there's celery in it & I'm not mature enough to like celery." Then I got even more annoyed by our upstairs neighbor's bad 90's techno blaring through the ceiling. It wasn't a pleasant evening in the Bethune kitchen. In summary: Sausage & apples flying through the air as a sweaty Kelsey ferociously chops onions to the smooth beat of Eiffel 65's "Blue (Da Ba Dee)."

Enter Jared, that guy I live that I hadn't really seen for the last two days, who is catching me up on his past 48 hours. As he talks, the onions begin to seriously affect my unprotected eyes, as I'm wearing my glasses, not my contacts. Jared, seeing my eyes beginning to water, offers to take over. We try to keep our normal conversation going, but the onions (there were 6) were apparently especially potent, & are hitting us so horribly that we both have tears streaming down our faces. (Remember: sweaty/sausage flying/techno bumpin'). Eventually, Jared just starts saying everything as if he were having an emotional breakdown, & I began responding as if it was all the most distressing news in the world.

"Then I got out of *sniff sniff* class early & got extra creee-heee-diiiit."
"Reaaa-llyyyy? That's so saaaad!!!"
"I KNOOO-HO-HOOOOO."

& so our conversation continued for the next 5 minutes, as we tried to out-dramatize each other with the most mundane facts presented in the most sorrowful manner. The onions finally faded once we got them on the stove (YAY, MORE HEAT) & we drowned out the totally radical! beat from upstairs with some NSYNC Christmas (SO THERE). The floor got cleaned & I realized that hey! Maybe taking my boots off would cool me down! & it did.

Maybe other couples stand in their kitchen purposefully sobbing over onions. Maybe we're not as ridiculous as I sometimes feel as I rinse mascara off my face/neck/forearms. & maybe you think I'm ridiculous for thinking this was worth sharing... But just you wait till we have kids. I'm gonna think they're HILARIOUS.

introducing BANGS

As my hair gradually lightens back to it's natural blonde state, I've once again given in to the bangs bug that seems to bite every other year.  I committed to growing them out for an entire year & LO! Got so sick of my forehead. But I love them. & the shape that they take overnight that gives me a little laugh every morning when I look in the mirror.

Other than bangs, December in Virginia is in full swing. & I mean that in a 72-degrees-&-sunny sort of way. Which means that I've had a mother of a headache since 7 a.m., since my brain hates pressure changes. I feel awfully silly about these pictures, even though my baby sistah did a wonderful job taking them. But I'm going to skip the HOLY THIGHS rant & bid you goodnight. Tonight, it's me, Netflix, our bed & a box of Excedrin to cuddle with. Ohhhh, baby.