Christmas Show

When Mom came to visit in November, it just happened to be the Southern Women's Christmas Show. We had a lot of fun. We got our tickets early & on sale (thank you Harris Teeter). We left my apartment and we were in line to park before 10am. We walked in a bit after 10am and it was CROWDED (and Friday). We worked our way backwards and had a great time. We sampled wine and wine-a-ritas, bought ornaments and I now have a subscription for the paper to be delivered Fri, Sat & Sun for less than the Sunday paper itself...SCORE!

Mother and I conquered the Christmas Show and rewarded ourselves with a delightful lunch at Chick fil A!

Code Orange Christmas

Readers-

It's no secret. I LOVE my church! I mean I think about moving and I realize "Megan, if you move, you won't have Elevation" and then I realize how much my life has changed and how truly blessed I am to be surrounded by such awesome people and I come back to my world. :)

Now, anyone that attends Elevation will most likely tell you they love it, they are proud of it and they are involved but it's not for everyone. And that is definitely ok!!!! However, I wanted to share the link below. I wish it was the entire Worship Experience from beginning to end so that you could fully grasp the energy and excitement and message, but it's a few snippets and Pastor Steven's sermon and it really is just powerful. Even sitting at the computer I am PUMPED!

Code Orange Christmas @ Elevation Church

www.elevationexperience.com

I can't watch without crying. I can't think of the service I attended without getting teary eyed. It was powerful. It was awesome. It was just amazing!

I mean the Global Choir! That was AWESOME!

Code Orange Christmas:

6 locations

30 services

2182 people stood to their feet to profess Jesus as their savior!

Merry Christmas!

God is. God was. God will be with you!

Merry Christmas!

Hope everyone had a VERY Merry Christmas!

There's No Place Like Home!

Hello 2011!

Before I begin my 2011 "New Year, New Goals" posts, I must recap Christmas!

I am SO FAR BEHIND when it comes to blogging!

I went home for a week for Christmas and it was glorious! I was so glad to be home and after a very hectic November and December, it was so nice to not wake up, shower, eat and work for 14 hours a day, 6 days a week, rise and repeat. I literally stayed in my pjs for 12+ hours one day watching a NCIS marathon, eating cheese balls and Christmas cookies with not a care in the world and I felt like a new person.

Anyway, it started snowing Christmas Day before dinner/after lunch and by Sunday, it was intense! I was getting a bit stir crazy being in the house for almost a full day so I went outside to join mother in the snow removal process! Doesn't she look thrilled?!?

We realized that I was not properly equipped for snow removal as I do not own any snowy weather head gear...aka a beanie. So, I threw on a fashionable baseball hat and my jacket hood wouldn't stay on...it was a mess, but made for a great laugh!

Mother and I took a break from the snow....I mean really, it just kept snowing! It was so pretty! I decided we needed to get out of the house and that a declared "State of Emergency" wasn't going to stop us.


Since I hadn't seen the kiddos in almost an entire day (which is unheard of when I'm home because I usually spend breakfast to afternoon nap time at their house or after nap to dinner) we loaded up the kids gifts from Mom, put them in trash bags so they wouldn't get snowy/wet and walked through our development, down a "main" road and through the next development to get to the kiddos house. It was quite the trek!

Here's mom holding the goods....

And my bag of goods.
But it was worth it!

The kiddos (including the 3 neighbor kids) LOVED Lite Brite...but really, can you blame them? I LOVED Lite Brite! We hung out for a bit and then decided to be rebels and the kiddos dad drove us home in his "manly I can drive through anything" truck.

More to come.....

Christmas Cheer is Here!

Yesterday I was in quite the holiday funk, but today....I snapped out of it!

We all know that God works in mysterious ways and when I came home from work yesterday, I went to check my mail and I got my first Christmas card of the year! It made me happy!

Now I just need to find somewhere to display Christmas cards!

Anyway, here's what I've done so far to get ready for Christmas.

It's kind of random, but for now, it'll work!

As soon as you walk in the front door, this is what you'll see.

I just love this mat! I found it in Hobby Lobby for 50% off and it reminded me of home.

I really liked the wording of this sign. So I hung it on the coat closet door.

It's the first thing you see when the front door opens.

I had this sign on the closet door until I found the one above. I thought this one was funny, and it was also another Hob Lob 50% off find! I just need to find somewhere to hang it.

The side table contains the ornaments that didn't make it on the tree and some snowmen that I didn't have anywhere else to put!

Here's an aerial view of the ornament tub/snowman. Please disregard all of the bags around the table...I sort of drop everything by the door when I get home!

My tree! Lit and decorated! I found an "M" made out of jingle bells to act as the Star/Angel topper. And yes, to the right of my tree is a bookcase which is really a picture case since it doesn't have any books on it and to the left of the tree is the boardum....it's a bulletin board that contains index cards with funny moments/sayings. It's kind of like a happy board of memories.

Just a close up of the ornaments I found...

Since I haven't bought/wrapped any presents, I decided to put some Carolina under my tree! I've collected a fair amount of sports related ornaments over the years and generally have a sports tree. However, this year I forgot to bring all of my Christmas ornaments from home to NC, so I had to buy new ornaments. Instead of mixing the basketballs with the green/pink/blue balls, I just kept them in the box and put them under the tree. I also don't have a tree skirt so I took some fabric that I've had for awhile and just bunched it under the tree. I was going to make a memory board but never did. Oh well!

This is the tiny tree I bought last Christmas and I added some glitter ornaments to it this year and put it on the counter. I also found a nativity scene in walmart that I really like.

Last year, Stephanie made everyone stockings and we hung them in the apartment. Well, this year I decided to tape mine to the counter.

I found this plate in Marshall's for $2.00 and just knew it would be cute for the kitchen! It's also a great reminder for when I start to bake Christmas Cookies! :)

I found these angels in Hobby Lobby (for 50% off) and thought they were cute. They are currently next to my tv stand.

And the random gifts I've acquired.

So that's that! Nothing too exciting but still some holiday cheer!

Bring on the snow!

overwhelmed

Sometimes I'm sitting in my car at a red light, and I look to the right and left and see the decorated houses and the nicely lit Christmas tree front and center in the window and I think "how do they do it?"

I'm a very organized person.

Those that I work with would probably say I'm a bit OCD

(in a moment of tiredness this week, I did convince a customer to purchase an extra something they had chosen so that when packaged, their box would look symmetrical...presentation people!)

about things because I often nicely lecture them on the importance of putting things back where they found them and completing tasks as they are assigned. I mean really though, it's a great system because during the rare occasion when I'm not at work, I can walk them through what they need to do/where they need to go to find something and everyone is happy! Or maybe it's just me. :)

However, this week I've been in a bah humbug mood.

It could be because for 4 straight days I came to work at 8:00am or 8:30am and didn't leave until 8:00pm. I even had the oh so glamorous moment of working in the office for a few hours one day this week and I tend to "Pebbles" my hair when I spend a lot of time looking at the computer/print outs (ya know how Pebbles from the Flintstones would have a pony tail on the top of her head) and I walked out of the office to assist a customer with their order and the gal that was working the counter was giving me these looks and I couldn't figure it out until after the fact that I had just spent 15 minutes assisting a customer with a large holiday order, answering all of her questions, planning everything out and the whole time, I had Pebbles hair. Don't let the black dress and heels fool you people!

Perhaps the bah humbug comes from the fact that I receive e-mails throughout the day about "Holiday Gift Giving" sales/deals/items/specials and I realize that I have not purchased a single gift. Christmas is exactly 3 weeks from today. THREE WEEKS! Granted, I have a few stocking stuffer type items that I've found and think "so and so would get a kick out of this" so I buy it but I have a small collection of nothing in the corner of my dining room aka storage room. But I have yet to step foot in a mall or store that would have what I'm looking for.

I have a green blob in the corner of my living room that should be a nicely decorated Christmas tree. Yep, took that thing out of the box 10 days ago, put it together and that's as far as I got. I was so excited when I purchased my 1st ever fake Christmas tree. It's pre-lit which adds to the excitement. I had all these ideas about the theme of the tree and I have yet to purchase a single ornament. Now I'm not complaining, though it may sound that way, but I'm mad at myself for not taking the time to do what makes me happy. I realized that I've spent the last few weeks helping everyone else make their holiday gathering awesome that I haven't taken the time to enjoy the Christmas Cheer as well.

I did enjoy a Peppermint Mocha so I guess that counts as holiday spirit!

However, when I finally left work BEFORE 8:00 yesterday...I left at 6:00 thankyouverymuch. I had all these plans to Griswold Family my apartment in a classy way and I fell asleep on the couch at 8:30.
Yep, 8:30 on a Friday night. I'm a party animal!

That's all going to change today! I'm going to leave work before dark and DECORATE!

Awhile ago I purchased clear glass ornaments, ribbon and feathers and somehow, I'm going to make it work. I have no idea how, but I'm going to add some flair to my tree. I'm going to purchase green, pink and silver ornaments and hang those along with the blue ones I picked up a few weeks ago.

And when I am all done, I will finally get back on the blog train and post more often and post my holiday decor. But for now, we should all take a lesson from Santa and head to the beach/relax!

Thank you Hob Lob for providing cute doormats for 50% off! WOO HOO!

Hope everyone else is in the Christmas Spirit!!!!

I'll be joining you soon!

Christmas in Delaware!

Merry Christmas Blog World!

I hope everyone has had a fantastic day! I ventured to Delaware on Tuesday...the drive took way too long thanks to remaining snow issues, construction and general traffic...not to mention the Pepsi truck that split in half and was on the side of the road...not really sure what happened and couldn't find a news article but I just hope everyone was ok! I had all intents and purposes to write an "I'm blogging from Delaware" post when I finally made it home but I couldn't remember my web address. Really, in my defense, I've got my blog saved in my favorites so I just always click on it! Well, my laptop was reformatted and I "lost" all of the wireless info for my mom's house and brother can't remember it so I've been using Mom's computer. So yes, today I googled my blog title, and some key words and wa-la! I'm back!

Anyway, we hosted our annual family/friends Christmas Eve fun appetizers/dinner gathering last night before church and attended a great Christmas Eve service. It's been a running addition to the Christmas Eve sermon each year that the pastor has wanted a 42" flat screen, plasma tv and it's always incorporated into the sermon somehow. Well, this year, S, the next generation pastor, and his wife, got the tv in September/October so naturally, everyone was wondering what the sermon would be about. It began with the background of the quest for the tv (this way those visiting knew what was going on) and a picture of the tv in his living room and transitioned into a Seinfeld clip from the label maker episode when Elaine gave Tim Watley a label maker and he re gifted it to Jerry. Essentially, the sermon was all about re gifting and about how God gifts us 3 main gifts and how we should re gift them to others and all of that fun stuff. It was neat. It is COLD in Delaware, but it was nice walking out of church with snow still on the ground...a good feel for Christmas!

Today we opened presents, had a great dinner with my grandparents and now the grandparents are gone and we are just hanging out watching tv.

Hope everyone else has had a great day with their family and friends!

A Charlie Brown Christmas Tree

I LOVE everything about Christmas! Really, I do! I cannot wait to go home to Delaware and see our tree (every year my mom strives to find the "fattest, fluffiest" tree, yes we get a live tree each year and I sneeze for the first week it's in the house but it's worth it!) Well, this year being in an apartment, away from home for the first time, I went to Target the other night and found a 2 foot tree for $7.99! It is perfect for on top of the desk that is in my room. Thanks to an amazing find at TJ Maxx, it is decorated with Lilly Pulitzer "Oh Shift" Dresses. I love them! I got the set for maybe $5 which is a mega steal since they can be purchased online for $50 I think. Here is my humble tree...and yes, I am using a golf glove as the angel/star because well, I can!



I am super excited because tomorrow, roomie and I are going to decorate our apartment....a tree and all the trimmings! If we don't ware ourselves out we may even venture over to roomies boyfriends apartment and decorate his too! Ahhh so fun!

Happy Decorating everyone!