What's your flavor?

I may, or may not have stayed up until 12:3o the other night re-arranging ornaments on my tree. Am I the only one who does that? You get something new, and then you have to find a new place for it, and then you need a thick branch so you move some more stuff around, and the tree starts to droop so now some things are hidden, so you move some stuff around again...it just never ends. But I love it!

I was told I should open a Christmas present early Friday night, and rightfully so, because in it were 2 new beautiful ornaments from my Aunt Lisa :)

That's what started the ornament shuffling ordeal when I got home. There was no way I was going to wait until the next to put them up, I might be too busy! But while re-arranging/admiring all the ornaments on my tree, it got me thinking about my Tree Trimming Style. You know, everyone has their own "flavor" of tree trimming... There's the Christmas shop display tree type, the "my kid made everything on my tree" type, the "theme" tree, and so on, and so forth....

MY style of course is unique to me, and the boy, and the things we enjoy. I think you can tell a lot about a person by their tree..... Personally, my tree tells the story of our lives together. I don't have any of the ornaments I had growing up (long story), so when we moved into our house 3 Christmases ago I had to start fresh. I bought some plain ol' colored balls (which we NEVER had on our tree when I was little), and a few cute ornaments and went from there. That Christmas my mom made me some Macrame candy canes like the ones we had on our tree when I was growing up.

My little brother made me some reindeer and penguin bell/pom pom ball ornaments

and my mom also crocheted me some BEAUTIFUL snowflakes

which I adore! I got a little creative as well and made some bead snowflakes.

Each year I've added a few ornaments here and there and so our "theme", so to say, developed. Every ornament on my tree has either been hand made by me or someone in my family, a snowman (I love snowmans!!!), career or hobbie related to us, or my favorite - beachy Christmasy.... It's even MORE awesome if I can find a snowman that represents any of those things. Those are usually my favorite! Like my sandy-men and my nurse and firefighter snowmen that I shared with you when I revealed my tree here.

And I can't forget about our Christmas tradition of adding a dated photo ornament with a picture of us in it. I can't wait until our tree is FULL of these!

My tree was pretty sparse the first year, and mostly full of the glass balls. As the years have gone by, my collection has grown, and my tree is borderline "cluttered." The pretty kind of cluttered, but it's certainly full! I like it though, it suits me. It's how I remember my tree looking when I was growing up, but with MY ornaments that are special to ME. The showroom tree is just NOT my style. At all.

So, I guess that's my "flavor"... homemade/beachy/fishy/career representing/snowmen.

What's yours?

Ho, Ho, Ho-lloween?????

Yeah, so.... I should have posted this a few months ago. And some might say it's been so long, I should just forget about it. But, who doesn't like a break from all the Christmas posts anyway. Not to mention, my mom is so super awesome and talented I just couldn't resist sharing with you the fantastic costume she made me for Halloween!!!! (and Blair may have requested about a month ago that I share it with you and I couldn't disappoint her!)

Of course, starting from the beginning - no Halloween is complete without a trip to the Punkin' Patch!!!!

And some intense carving!

The finished products! Mines the smiling one on the right... I accidentally put his mouth on upside down so he looks a little goofy instead of scared. Whoops!

And... the big reveal! My awesome cave-woman costume my Mommy made!

I even got the boy to semi-dress up. He was himself, in 20 years, retired.... (He said he would just always be in board shorts and a fishing shirt because he'll just fish every day.) LOL

And me, with some of my favorite girls in the whole wide world!

My Grinch, in disguise...

So, aside from my new background, and un-centered header (grrr)... Did you notice that I added a new pic of the boy with his big catch I told you about? You know, the one that he got during our Thanksgiving Weekend in the Keys? Over there on the side... teeny tiny... under that header that says "My Handsome Boyfriend." No? Well here it is in biggie-size.

How awesome is that?!?!?!?! He was such a good sport for my Godparents, allowing them to have a photo-op with the santa hat :-) You'd never know he's really the Grinch in disguise!

Thankful.

So what if Thanksgiving is over... We should be thankful all year long!

Right now, I'm thankful because...

We got some bad news last week that her pathology report showed that her cells had become invasive and she would have to have surgery again to make sure the cancer had not spread. She went in on Tuesday for round two of surgery, and she kicked ass!!! Three lymph nodes were removed, and all came back NEGATIVE! My mom is cancer free and will begin radiation in January!!!

Thank you everyone for your prayers and support.

I am thankful for you too!

The hall's are decked!

With my trusty companion by my side....

(though, she preferred not to be...)

I finished decorating the inside of the house over the weekend!

Not too much... just a few touches here and there....

and most importantly, the tree!!!

With it's new topper!!!

I haven't decided yet how I feel about the sprays of sea-life around it. Too much?

Some of my favorite ornaments this year...

See our new photo ornament? It's so cute!

The outside got some holiday cheer too... but it's not done yet. I haven't gotten out there to hook up my snowmen! Gotta have some snowman's!!!!