This year I planned a surprise trip for Jeffrey, and our anniversary. Originally the idea was for him to know absolutely nothing… I was going to do all the packing and then we were going to go ‘out to eat with my dad’ and end up at the airport with our luggage. I’d even talked to his bosses (who knew you needed 3 ppls permission to be out of work?!) and they were all on board. But after much deliberation, and some fatherly advice, I told J that we were going somewhere and that was it. I still planned everything out and did the packing.

J’s face when he figured out where we were going… So sweet And worth all the planning! We left at 7:30 AM Saturday morning

By 10:30 AM we were here…

Stop 1: Animal Kingdom

A Bug’s Life 4D:

Sunday: EPCOT

The ride at Epcot that goes through the ball and then makes a movie about your future. This was ours:

In the UK with our pals

and now we’ll hop over to Paris:

China, anyone?

Monday we took the day off to relax (b/c it was supposed to rain… which it never did) and then Tuesday we headed to…

Magic Kingdom

Roughin’ it on Tom Sawyer’s Island:

i spy a CASTLE

The happy couple at the castle!

If you want to see the rest of the photos you can click here.

We had a GREAT trip staying less than a mile from the Disney grounds. The whole thing was just fabulous. Part of it for me was there insane ability to market and all the details. We both loved it! And all of the technologies and Disney magic were enough to make me feel like a 5 year old. SO FUN!

We’re thinking of making this a tradition (surprise trips) and taking turns on planning. Jeff has quite the trip to top now… I’m sure he’ll come through. Can’t wait until I’m surprised…

New Years was spent at Taco Mac (where else IS there?) with Mom, Dad, Sean, Ness, & Bug 2 (arriving in Feb)! Alright… this is the last holiday post for quite awhile.

I’ve got a few projects to share. And no excuse as to why they haven’t been shared as of yet. J has been taking down old doors and installing new 6 panel doors which has resulted in us buying both a planer and a router. We’ve installed all new hardware on the doors – hinges and knobs. We painted our master bedroom (finished tonight!). Found a new more artsy way to display my jewelry. Taped the office — just need to nail down a color. The floors are scheduled to get done next monday thru wednesday. We’re in the works for a new roof (hopefully!). The basement is in desperate need of an organization overhaul — all the bins are labeled, I just need a rhyme or reason to how they’re ordered. And there are p.l.e.n.t.y. of things on the list for 2010! we’re gonna average 1-2 projects a month! Twenty-ten is gonna be a good one… so enough chit-chat, i gotta get some sleep so we can get all this work done!

This year J and I were lucky enough to celebrate ANOTHER first Christmas This year it was our first Christmas in our first home! All together now “Awww…” Ok, ok. Anyway our lives have been slightly hectic since we’re doing a lot of reno on the house AND working AND family time AND moving out of the back half of our house. More on all of that later.

Here is a snapshot of what Christmas 2009 held for us:

Jeffrey and I headed up to my Dad’s house for the traditional Christmas Eve service at Perimeter. We were also able to meet up with Matt Abs and his parents for the service which was really fun! Actually I think this marks 2 years in a row with Matt on Christmas Eve… hmm, new tradition?! I’m ALL about the traditions. Nothing quite so moving as candlelight being reflected through HUGE 2 story windows and everyone singing Silent Night. Love it. Love it. One of my favorite things about Christmas.

We kinda wanted to stay in our house for our first Christmas here, but with the looming possibility that my little bro might wake up at 7am calling us to hike it up to Alpharetta, we decided just to crash at Dads.

Me Jeff C Dad Adrienne and Toby & Sally (of course!)

Funny story. We were SO concerned about Carter waking up early that he (and I) ended up sleeping in and having to be woken up at 9AM. Jeff woke up about 7:30 and I so kindly told him that we don’t wake up until the little brother comes and gets us up! I LOVE my sleep, even on Christmas!

Stockings are full and Santa paper has appeared... Santa MUST have been here

a fun exciting blur of Christmas morning... they go by so quick!

We spent the afternoon at Jeffrey’s parents. We just had a relaxing afternoon seeing our nephews and enjoying the gifts that Santa brought the family.  Then Christmas night we had a great time with just Mom and Dad playing wits-n-wagers. It was great because its so rare to hang out with just them! Before we even realized it we were rolling into our driveway about 11:40… Just enough time to rip open our presents when it was still REALLY Christmas.

Our tree with all our loot

See the big package on the right side? Yea… thats what hubs got me. Give ya one guess. Its off my list.

Toby got to open presents first. He got bones, a new ball, and a rope toy!

Jeffrey got an iphone accessories themed stocking

I got Tommy Boy and golf clubs... just in case Jeff gets outta line haha, I couldn't resist.

We didn’t celebrate Christmas with the Henry side until Sunday. We missed Carrie and Skip. Its fun to watch the kiddos and their new toys:

We gave Mickey G a shopping cart...

We gave Wyatt a new desk full of alphabet letters he can play with

a GRAND shot

Thanks for always being there for me. Always. And for not only being my father, but becoming one of my best friends. Thanks for helping to instill strong values into my life. I love you so so so much. Hope you have a great day!

HUGS!

Ky (& Jeff)

1. Johnathan Adler Dachshund Bookends – HOW CUTE is this little guy? I just fell in love while I was doing some Christmas shopping for other ppl and I can’t stop thinking about him! Hopefully its not too late for Santa to get the memo

2. I am a Nintendo junkie! The Wii is great and this game is awesome and brings back so many memories from childhood sitting around playing nintendo with my cousins! I also want a RED wiimote (shocking, right?) to aid the awesomeness of the game.

3. I LOVE these Ralph Lauren earrings. I’ve had them for about 3 years and they’ve kinda seen better days so I’d love a shiny new pair…

4. How I Met — This show is great! Hubs and I get many a chuckle out of the random antics of this gang… not quite as amazing as Friends, but its close

5. Left-handed Ladies Clubs. Hubs recently was given some quality clubs from my Gramps, so we (and by we I mean I) figure it’ll be more fun if its something we can do together. Plus, I’ve always kinda wanted to learn. So I want clubs… and lessons… and shoes… and cute things to make me not too tom-boyish (but I don’t want pink… or at least too much pink)

6. This is the long shot. Like the somuchofalongshot I dont even think Santa will pull it off… but I would LOVE tickets to go to the Holiday bowl to watch my Huskers and SUH one more time! And its in SanDiego which would mean an ah-mazing ZOO trip, too… I have a feeling this is the one that I’ll just have to dream about. That’s ok. I’ll dream (and maybe possibly beg a little…)

PS Santa, if you happen to read this I’ve been terribly good this year so I REALLY REALLY REALLY would love to go to the bowl game ;) and the sd zoo… and while we’re at it, if you get us tix, can we just take your sleigh there? mkthxlove, Ky

Jeff’s at Bible Study and I’m bored with tons to do. I planned on going to Home Depot – but its raining and disgusting outside. I need to clean – but I’m tired, and can do it tomorrow. So I rearranged some things to add a little more Christmas to our life.

This shoe rack was in the hallway. I thought at first it was a good idea… then I realized nobody wants to stare at our shoes on their way to the bathroom. Although I do have some really, really cute shoes. Anyway, I decided to move the shoe rack to our closet since our closet floor had been collecting most of our shoes lately. Which meant the dresser had to go. Originally I moved it to the “guest room” (which is completely void of anything but my gifting supplies and wall hangings that haven’t found a wall yet in our new house). But then *lightbulb* I decided that while I am still on the hunt for a console table for the entry way this ol’ dresser would do the trick.

I moved it to the entry hall. I needed to cover up the top with something (because this dresser looks worse than Cloris Leachman in her dancing with the stars getup – and is probably older, too!) so I went to the kitchen and repurposed some red placemats. I topped the placemats with a wedding photo, a precious figurine (from my bff Jess), and an old giant snowball candle on a bronze charger.

Still wasn’t doin’ it for me. It was looking better, but not festive enough. I added some small Christmas balls that were left from this project. Still not doin’ it.  Hmmm… It needed to SAY something about the Christmas season. So I made a sign.

Here are the materials — all things I had on hand:

• An unused picture frame (mine is panoramic size)
• Snowflake shape cutter (which I scored after Christmas last year)
• Square shape cutter
• Scrapbook Mat Stack (or leftover scraps)
• Double stick tape
• Silver Sharpie

I cut out my squares and snowflakes. I kept the color scheme to the existing red and added a bright cheery green. I removed the glass from the frame and flipped the picture that comes in the frame for a solid white background, which was perfectly sized. Then I taped the little squares and snowflakes where I wanted and jotted a little note (“Be Merry”). Slid the glass back in and called it a day!

After I placed my sign I was pretty happy but wanted a tad bit more height so I went and grabbed a vase that had been displaced by the waterglobe display and popped in some festive greenery I had on hand and voila – Something for nothing!

What have YOU repurposed or reused lately???

Today my little brother is turning 11! ?! There is no possible way that can be.

You’ll have to excuse my appearance in this photo — I’m 2 days post surgery — but its the oldest photo I have on the comp of my little bro. I believe he is about 4 in this one.

Here is the handome kid he is today:

We love you!

Ky & Jeff

The more I looked at the pictures of my puny little twiggy tree, the more I didn’t like it as a centerpiece. I liked the idea, but it just wasn’t working for our space. I hate HATE tall centerpieces. Nobody wants to have to dodge a centerpiece to talk to the person sitting across the table – and while this twiggy tree was skinny, it was still in the way. So I banished it from the table, but had to find it a better home.

How ‘bout the mantle? The twiggy tree fit RIGHT in with the theme I was attempting. Light as possible to downplay the paneling and brighten the room. Anything to downplay the paneling.

As far as everything else that has found a home on the mantle — I scored the ‘snowed-on’ greenery from my Dad (FREE!). The GREY mirror hails straight from the clearance shelf at homegoods. The white, glittery reindeer is from Homegoods the Northpole and the jingle bells are from last year Santa’s flight crew.  The 3 stockings are last year Target – gotta love good cable knit. The random stuffed animals are from my childhood – cheesy, yes, but they’re here to stay. And TJ the duck was the mascot when my bff Jess and I were roommates.

What are YOU doing with your mantle this year?  Any suggestions for mine?

After all of the awesome Thankful Trees I saw around the DIY Party (here and here) a few weeks ago, I decided I’d try my hand at making a Christmas/Wintery version. Afterall the white branches just screamed winter to me. Then, I saw someone else  create a branch tree for the DIY Tablescape party. This was exactly what I had in mind! You can go visit her blog for a more detailed break down of the how-to (although it’s pretty simple!)

Here is my finished produt:

After looking at the picture I wish I would have found a bigger twiggy branch, but this’ll do for this year. AND this picture makes me excited that my new RED camera should be here by weeks end! WOO-HOO

While I was raking leaves (over 20 bags, I might add), I found a twiggy branch that seemed like it would work just fine. I spray painted it white. Then I took a piece of floral foam, scored a hole for the branch, hot glued the branch to the foam, and finally tucked it inside a sparkly silver pot. For a pop of color (and to hide the foam) I used some greenery I had left over from another project.

Earlier last week, I picked up some small silver, white, and red balls from target. I love red (if you read this blog that statement is pretty redundant) so it was the natural choice. I was tempted to go with a cool blue instead, but just couldn’t bring myself to ditch my natural color of choice (or kitchen scheme). After the branch had time to set in the foam, I used floral wire to attach the balls to various places on the branch. It was looking pretty, but it needed just a little something extra. I found some great shimmery white beads and hot glued them on random places of the branch. Husband asked what they were supposed to be – my response: pretty.

Any suggestions on how to make the ‘tree’ better?

What about the table? I know I need to add more, but haven’t been able to commit to anything yet. I’m thinking a bunch of little tealights in white or silver? Thoughts? Suggestions? Ideas?

*Update* I was at homegoods last night and scored a super cute red runner with embellished snowflakes which completely matches our tree skirt! The table is on its way to being complete

Dear December,

I look forward to you ALL.YEAR.LONG. I do, ask my hubby! You hold so many great memories from the past and fun times for the future. So, to celebrate your arrival I have pulled out those green and red bins full of Christmas awesomeness and started decking the Henry halls.

So far this is what I’ve got:

Not loving the lower shelf, but definitely Christmasy

My waterglobe collection

Ok, so the snowman looked better last year when he was on a white fridge... but I love my fridge, so our snowman will be forever gray. Oh, and I wish so badly it would SNOW!

The lights and ornaments are waiting... Just need Big John's to get more Douglas Firs back in

Thats definitely not all the decorating that will be done, but its what is completed at the moment. Except for my table and the wreaths that hubby hung for me — I just forgot to take pictures before it got dark.

Thank you for FINALLY arriving, and please stay for as long as possible. mmmkthx.

Love,

Kylie

PS Here’s a sneek peek of tomorrows post about my first craft of the season: