"I'm Dreaming of a White Christmas"

The Holiday Season is upon us! The residents of 417 Oaks Drive are ecstatic about the upcoming Christmas festivities! It's only the best holiday!! As soon as we got home from Thanksgiving traveling, we were at Lowes picking out our live Christmas tree... Since Matthew was new to this whole process, it was fun explaining to him how to spot a good tree, one that isn't too dry, too sparse, but one that is JUST right! Luckily the first one we picked up was perfect, so we wrapped it up on top of good Ole' Black Beauty and drove it home. That part was easy...getting it into the tree stand straight is a whole other story. Regardless... it is currently up looking beautiful and smelling awesome! I have had a lot of fun decorating the apartment. Of course, not as much as I would like, but I plan on hitting those after Christmas sales to stock up on decorating goodies.

(Due to our faulty tree stand...our tree is leaning!)

(the finished project!)

Since Matthew and I will be gone every weekend in December but this one, we are going to celebrating our own Christmas Wed. December 17th. We are going to be doing the whole ordeal...dinner and everything! I'm taking on my first Christmas turkey ever. I'm making sweet potato casserole, dressing, deviled eggs, strawberry pretzel salad, my mom's delicious homemade rolls, and assorted desserts of some kind. And of course Christmas cookies with our new Christmas cookie cutters. I'm so excited about it that I've had my nice china out for a week now in anticipation. We decided to go ahead and do Christmas food, since Matthew's family eats fajitas for Christmas dinner and my family does steak, twice baked potatoes, shrimp, etc... We'll see how it turns out!

(our table with the new Christmas table runner!)

We have been super busy the last couple of weeks. I have two friends getting married so Matthew and I have made plenty of trips up to Nashville recently, so I could attend several showers and parties. It's nice not being too far away, so that I am able to come back and support my good friends. That being said, it seems like it's been forever since we have spent a whole weekend in Birmingham. The last weekend we were here we went to a Hoover High School playoff football game. Hoover is a big school in the Birmingham area that is known for their excellent high school football programs. The game was so fun...and cold! Matthew being far more cold-natured than me suffered through the game, but we enjoyed every minute of it. I guess you would say we have become Hoover football fans, although I will always cheer for my David Lipscomb Mustangs!

(Hoover Football Game)

Thanksgiving seems like a blur now...We left Birmingham on Tuesday night and headed up to Nashville. Wednesday morning we left for Cincinnati and spent Wed. and Thurs. night at Uncle Grady and Aunt Jeannie's house. Aunt Jeannie is an incredible cook. She is a master in the kitchen, and she only seems to get better every year! I was so glad that we were able to spend a couple of days with my family, and that Matthew was able to make the trip with me this year! I realized at the dinner table that we were no longer all Smiths around the table...kind of weird!

(Our first married Thanksgiving!)

We left Cinci Friday morning to go to Lextown to visit with Matthew's family. We were so glad that J and K were able to come up for two days, so that everyone could be there for at least a little bit. We of course at some more yummy food, and were able to visit with family and friends, and got to meet Matthew's new baby cousin Trey. Matthew even held him, although he got a little nervous when Trey started to whine and tried to pas him off, but I convinced him that he could calm him down and he did! Overall, Thanksgiving was such a nice break from things, especially for Matthew who has been incredibly busy at work lately! We were so thankful to be able to spend time with both of our families, who knows how long we will be blessed enough to do that.

Christmas countdown T minus 20 days! And 33 days until I start nursing school! Hooray!

P.S. For those of you who haven't seen our wedding pictures they are now online at dpiercephoto.com. Click on image showcase and the password is AMHardison!

Happy Holidays!