Monthly Archives: December 2012

12.06.12

Dropping hints like whoa....

Posted by Christina // 8 Replies

Have you made your Christmas list?

Every year I still get asked by lots o’ folks to make a list for Santa.
For some reason, it is always a struggle.

Don’t get me wrong, there is a lot that I want.
It’s just hard to remember it and write it down.

This year….I am prepared.
To drop hints.
Hi Tim, hi mom, hi Santa.

1–2–3–4–5–6–7–8–9–10

I have no specifics, more of a general idea of what I want.

We need good pots and pans and I would kill for that camera strap (and by kill I mean a box of ding dongs or a whole pizza).  You should already know by now that I will never pass up nautical jewelry, and the address stamp is all kinds of adorable.  The lotion and cheek stain I fell in love with, and now I am out…and you know how it goes with beauty products.  They are totally addicting, and then they discontinue them and you are sad.  So I am stocking up now….speaking of stockings (hint).

The shocker is that vest.  My sister is laughing at me right now because I generally make fun of people who shell out bookoo bucks for North Face gear…but that vest is so ridiculously soft.  I have dreams about it.

Have you been nice this year?
What is on your Christmas list?

Written by Christina and Tim
12.05.12

The nicest thing a boy has ever done for me.....

Posted by Christina // 12 Replies

Recently my dad asked if I would like to have my train set from when I was knee-high to a grasshopper.  Is that even a question?

Of course I wanted it.  I have lots of memories of laying in front on the train watching it go round and round.  And derailments…I had a thing for crashes.

Call me nostalgic, but I wanted this train under our tree bad.  Which explains why even after he told me about the severe water damage and that it might not even run I just smiled and said, “Oh it is totally fine…I love water damage”.

Do you feel my senti-mental-ness yet?

When my pops finally dropped my piece’o childhood off I realized it wasn’t as shiny as I remembered.  It was in pretty bad shape.

Tim saw how my eyes twinkled when I reminisced about my little girl memories.
So he did something crazy.

He pulled every nail out to remove the old-as-me track, striped the board, sanded, sealed, recovered, glued down cork, cleaned the track, nailed a million little holes into a new track, built a bridge, bought a building, and generally got our train in tip-top shape.  What a guy.

He brought my childhood back to life…cue the tears.

We decided on a new little tradition too.  We are going to buy a building for our “train town” every year.  This year we bought a train station, because we can’t have our townspeople just jumping on moving trains you know.  We write the year and a little note on the building so when we are old and senile we can reminisce on the labors of our little town.

I can’t believe the train that I played with as a baby is now up and running and terrorizing our dogs.  Need proof…here it is.

 
 
Did you have a childhood train set?  Any nostalgia going on in your home?  Tell me your holiday stories, I am a sucker for holiday memories.
 

Written by Christina and Tim
12.04.12

A merry mantle and free printables....

Posted by Christina // 12 Replies

This weekend we took advantage of our free time and did some decorating.

Just a heads up…we can never get the lighting quite right on mantle shots.  That has nothing to do with the giant fish tank sitting right across from it, or the fact that it gets zilch in the form of natural light.  Did I say nothing?  I meant everything….it’s my “problem child” as far as photos go.

I have always been a big fan of the free printable, but rarely do you find exactly what you are looking for.  So this year, I got brave.

I made my own.

If you hate them and think they’re hideous, well it was my first try.
But if you actually like them….then you can have them.

I am offering up some free festivus for you all.

Just click the “download” button right above.
Then click on the “Christmas Printables” link on the next page.

Then you can chose the one you want and print or save.  If you get all crafty with these bad boys, make sure you send photos.  I will be like your gramma and gush over your craftiness.  Then I might pinch your cheeks.

If you need help, feel free to ho-ho-holler.

Written by Christina and Tim
12.03.12

A few of our favorite ornaments....

Posted by Christina // 5 Replies

Everyone has been putting up pictures of their beautiful trees.
They are so gorgeous…the ribbon and bows.

I just can’t do it.  I need my childhood popsicle ornaments all up in that tree.  Our tree is not classy by any means, it is full of love and memories.

You know from our Road Trip earlier this year that we buy ornaments when we visit a place we really love.  While in Chicago a few weekends ago we bought an amazing ornament from West Elm.  I wanted to make sure we never forgot where we got it and the awesome book tour that brought us there. So I busted out the gold bling pen…and bedazzled.

Now it is one of our favorite ornaments…thanks for the memories.

Speaking of memories.  Check it. My mom’s friend made this for her when I was the size of a peanut.  Not sure if I was going to be a Christina or a Christopher they played it safe.  Good call.

You may not know that Tim is half Jewish.  We celebrate both holidays…and I can’t resist his childhood macaroni skills.  He is so crafty.

Here is my very first ornament….Barbie of course.  I seriously still love this ornament so much.  Hot pink and bling, girl was way ahead of her time.
Eat your heart out Nikki Minaj.

Not technically an ornament.  This Nativity scene has been passed through our family and is one of my most precious belongings.  I remember being teeny and staring at Mary and baby Jesus.  MVP goes to the Nativity scene.

Look at all the nostalgia Tim is bringing to our tree.  I love, love, love all of his hand-made ornaments and anything with his name on it.  I got so lucky that his mama held onto all of it and trusts me not to eat the macaroni right off his ornament.  We all know tree-decorating makes you hungry.

My mother made this stained glass ornament.  I obviously love doves since I got one tattooed on my wrist when I turned 20.  Maybe this ornament sparked my love of that sweet little birdie.  And my rebellion.

Whoooweee that is some sweet paper mache.  Nuff said.

I bought this ornament for T on our first Christmas together.  He says it’s his favorite.  What can I say, I know what guys like.  Mushy ornaments.

Here is the ornament I bought this year.  We may not be able to be two peas in a pod for too many years.  Once we start adopting all the kiddies I see on the news needing homes.  I want to adopt them all.

Do I really need to explain this one?  We have lots of Cardinals ornaments.  The World Series champs one is my kind of bragging.

Here are from our travels this summer.  The octopus we bought at Shedd Aquarium and the other was from Maine.  We’d live in both of those places.

What is your favorite ornament?

Written by Christina and Tim