Merry Christmas!

It's the night before Christmas!

We've been waiting for this night all month

and year (if you're like me).

We've done some crazy shopping, eating, and drinking.

We've gone to parties and hosted parties.

We've stressed ourselves out and probably spent a lot of money.

In reality we wouldn't do anything differently.

We do this for our families and our children.

The twinkle in their eyes and their smiles make all the craziness worthwhile.

We should remember that this is the season for giving. 

We should also remember why we celebrate Christmas, if you celebrate Christmas,

we should remember our Savior. 

Thank you Jesus for this holiday, for my family, our memories, my children, my friends,

and everything in between, big and small! You are the reason we celebrate!

Don't forget tomorrow to just

Merry Christmas!

From my house to yours!

♥

A Christmas House Tour!

I saw Kelly's Korner doing this post last week and I truly wanted to do it as well but like always there was no time to do it then, so I'm going to do it now!  I have never been so behind on Christmas, EVER! This year I was so excited and then it got here and I felt rushed and disorganized and sad but it did get done.

Here's our Christmas decorations for our first home!

Outside lights! 

Logan's own little Christmas tree! Next year Mason will get one too!

Christmas Tree 2011! This one really did come all the way from NJ!

The little niche that house developers LOVE down here in the South!

Logan took this picture! It's the tree at the vantage point of a toddler!

Some of the spots that we have found Frank the Elf! He told us we need more shelving!

And our Christmas card this year! 

Merry Christmas

&

Happy New Year 

♥ ox ♥

Pretty Wrapping!

Just looking at these pics of pretty wrappings under the tree make me want to go out and buy ribbon, tags, bows, etc.  I wish I had more time on my hands and more $$ to spend. Maybe next year we'll do pretty wrappings. Right now there's dollars to be spent on school, weddings, and house! For now I'll just Pin away and post about pretty wrappings =)

From Etsy : Paperjacks!

Source:  sherricassaradesigns.blogspot.com

Source:  myblessedlife.net

Source:  chatelaine.com

Source:  tumblr.com

Oh so pretty! There's always next year! My tree is half decorated.

I need more ornaments. Hopefully tomorrow night it'll be complete! 

It needs to be I'm sick of the christmas storage tupperware bins taking up my

dining room!

O Christmas Tree

She's up and she traveled far to get here!

We got her when we back to NJ

(there was a picture of it on our car in NJ, I just can't find it)

and brought her on home to TN!!

She's so purdy!!

And my cutie pie standing in front of "his Christmas tree"

And no post can be complete without a picture of both my babies, in hats...Logan had a hat and he said Mason needed one too! We'll be decorating the tree later on today, it's been slow getting everything up, but it's because we didn't have any functioning lights and everyone knows the lights go up first!! I'll post some finished pics later! 

xo

A Real Simple Apple Pie

I wanted to make this pie for Thanksgiving but I didn't own a food processor until my birthday so I made it for Christmas Eve instead! It was oh-so-delicious and gone by the end of the weekend! I got the recipe out of my favorite magazine Real Simple. Here's the recipe:

Gingery Apple Crumb Pie

Ingredients

Homemade Piecrust or 1 store-bought piecrust, fitted into a 9-inch pie plate
1/2 cup cup cold unsalted butter (1 stick), cut into small pieces
3/4 cup plus 1 tablespoon all-purpose flour, spooned and leveled
3/4 cup granulated sugar
2 1/2 pounds apples (about 5; such as Granny Smith, Braeburn, or Empire), peeled and thinly sliced
1 tablespoon grated fresh ginger
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon kosher salt

Directions1.Set an oven rack in the lowest position and heat oven to 375º F. Place the pie plate on a foil-lined baking sheet.
2.In a food processor, pulse the butter, ¾ cup of the flour, and ¼ cup of the sugar until large clumps form. Transfer to a bowl and refrigerate until ready to use.
3.In a large bowl, toss the apples, ginger, cinnamon, salt, and the remaining ½ cup of sugar and tablespoon of flour.
4.Transfer the apple mixture to the crust, sprinkle with the crumb topping, and bake until the top is golden and the apples are tender, 55 to 60 minutes. Serve warm or at room temperature.

You can definitely taste the real ginger in the pie. I used a store bought pie crust and it was still good!! I promise!

Christmas Recap!

I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday with family and friends. We enjoyed our holiday with Logan and my parents and sister but I missed being able to see Chris' family too, even though we were able to see them with Skype or talk to them over the phone.

Christmas Eve:

I made an apple pie for Christmas Eve. I'll post the

recipe later.

The Legos were part of our Advent Lego Calendar!

Christmas Day:

I got my Cricut! Yay!!

We had so much fun entertaining our family! I just wish everyone lived closer together so we could've seen everyone. I missed that alot. I was so excited that we got a flurry for part of the day, even if it didn't stick! Logan was sorta interested in Christmas this year but not so much. Maybe next year he'll open all of his presents instead of just a few! Ha! Today is a relaxing day and I hope everyone gets to do the same today.

Have Yourself a Merry Christmas!

image via

I'm signing off for the rest of the week!

Parents are coming and I still have loads to do.

But I want to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas.

May Jesus give comfort to those who may need it this Holiday season.

 Lots of Love,

Krystle

Christmas Favorite

Aside from the movies, the music, the lights, and my absolute favorite, the tree, Christmas cards are my favorite thing to get in the mail! I love feeling remembered, ha! Last year we hung them on the front of laundry room door (which, I didn't take any pictures of). This year I hung them above the fireplace!

Our cards have grown since I took the first picture =)

I couldn't find a wreath for above the mantle so the cards were perfect for up there!

With that said, I'm going to throw on some Christmas music and start tidying up around here.

Christmas is only 3 days away and I have 2 days before to get our place together.

Weekend Recap!

We've had a busy week since Thursday!

It started with Starry Nights at Shelby Farms Park on Thursday!

Their light show is soo cute!

If you live in the area I definitely recommend seeing it

if you've never been.

Friday was my 26th Birthday! Woo!

We had dinner at Coletta's, wish was good.

Then came home to have cupcakes from Gigi's Cupcakes.

They aren't Magnolia Bakery's cupcakes but they

were delish!

(I love me some cupcakes!)

Logan enjoying his cupcake!

My Jonathan Adler Nook cover! Love♥

Is it weird that I asked for a food processor?

I can't wait to use it!!

Saturday Logan had his pictures taken

At 8:20 in the AM! Yes early in the morning!

And he did wonderfully

Here's my favorite and this year's Xmas card.

After that we did some Christmas shopping.

Sunday (12-5) was a milestone day for Chris and I!

We made our first offer to buy our first house!

This is the one we've picked to hopefully,

if all goes well, call home. We're keeping our fingers crossed.

Hope everyone had a great weekend.

I've got some blog reading to catch

 up on once we've done lunch and naps ♥

Christmas Layout

I just got around to scrapping Christmas from last year, which was Logan's 1st Christmas. We had about 3 first Christmases with Logan and tons of fun just watching him interact with his family.  I scrapped "Christmas with the Parks" a few months back so here is Christmas 2009.

"Merriest Day"

How cute are the tags?! They were a bit of work but they are cute.

Supplies Cardstock: Bazzill; Patterned paper: We R Memory Keepers:

White Christmas "Winter Mittens", "Ho Ho Ho", "Wrapping Paper",

& "Santa's Helpers"; Embellishments: Ribbon: CTMH in Cocoa;

 Glitter Brad: American Crafts; Accessory sheet: My Mind's Eye-

The Merry Days of Christmas; Layout credit: CTMH Magic

by Jeanette Lynton "Final Act" 

I still have Logan's meet with Santa and another Christmas with the family layout to do! Then, I can possibly go back and finish our hospital pics and months 3-11!

Oh, Christmas Tree

You really are so pretty! Oh, Christmas tree, Oh, Christmas tree it's been a real journey! And for our Fraser tree it's been a journey! We went to Cedar Hill Farm in Hernando, MS, to get our tree and they shipped these trees in from North Carolina. It's to hot down here for them to build this particular type of tree. Anyways, I absolutely fell in LOVE with that farm! I think watching Logan just run and be happy made my heart melt for this place. We got to see some goats and pigs and Logan was just to funny trying to mimic me making the animal sounds!

The first tree I saw didn't feel like my tree, but the second tree was it! It is so pretty.

The drive home was nerve-wracking, at least, for me. We've never had to drive such a long distance to get a tree home, so we took the long way home, went the speed limit, and made it home, tree and car intact! Yay! 

Sorry for the bright light!

Again, I apologize for my amateur photography, I just wanted a pic where you could see the lights

Here she is all decorated and lit! I was gonna do ribbons in place of my traditional red garland but I think with my twinkling lights and my ornaments it would've been overkill so we're going garland-less this year and it looks just as good!

Honestly, I just posted a whole post on a Christmas tree! Hope you didn't become bored but out of all the Christmas decorations the tree is my favorite! I'll have to post the rest of the decor once I'm done with it all!

Rainy day & Christmas

Today's a rainy day for us and I LOVE IT! I always feel real productive during rainy days. For example today I started my Christmas shopping! Yes you read that right! I'm not a fan of crowds and the holiday gift buying chaos that occurs and somehow I always end up buying stuff either last minute or right after Thanksgiving! So I'm trying to start a little early. Toys R' Us is starting the festivities early as well by playing Christmas music before Thanksgiving! But the excitement of Christmas didn't hit me until I went to Michael's and saw the decor, the ribbons, the wreaths, and the knick knacks! Oh I'm so excited! If I could I would start decking the halls with boughs of holly and lights and the tree! Ha! But I will patiently wait til Thanksgiving to do all that! And if you were all wondering Christmas is 56 days away!! Who's counting though, right? =)

image via

On a side note, something I'm not excited about, Logan learned yesterday how to say "no". So far it's been cute to hear but I know soon enough that "no" will bring forth tantrums and fits. I'm not looking forward to that at all! Ha!