Oh Christmas Tree! {And Thanksgiving}

This post is a little late...but better late than never, right?!?  The first holiday we spent together as a married couple was Thanksgiving.  Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday.  I love that it is a time to reflect on things that you are thankful for and a time to spend time with  family.  Of course being a Southern girl I love the food too!  My Momma makes the best dressing in the world.  I was excited for Jon to try Southern dressing (he has always had stuffing).  He thought that  it was weird the dressing was a side dish and not inside of the turkey; and I thought stuffing sounded weird.  He loved my Momma's dressing though!  We had fun making turkey cookies together! 

We wanted to go to Rockford, IL for Thanksgiving but things didn't work out for that this year.  I knew he was disappointed, so I was determined to make sure he had a good, Southern style Thanksgiving.  His one request was pumpkin pie...the kind that his Grandma used to make...the kind that only Cheryl (his sister) could make.  I asked Cheryl for the recipe, and she sent it me.  I printed off the recipe...and y'all..ohmiword....the pie crust DID NOT have butter in it!  In the South we put butter in EVERYTHING, and I've never made a pie crust without butter.  I joked with Jon that he was going to get his Yankee pumpkin pie because there wasn't butter in the pie crust. (He thought that was funny).  I made it...and he said it tasted just like his Grandma's and Cheryl's pumpkin pie.  Thanks Cheryl!  His family always goes to a movie on Thanksgiving, so we kept that tradition going.  We went to see Frozen and it's the cutest movie ever!  I'm a big Disney fan!

The day after Thanksgiving is when I start my Christmas decorating.  I don't like to mix Holidays.  I was so excited to go and pick out our Christmas tree.  Picking out a real tree is a family tradition that I love so much!
We don't have a lot of room, so we got a small tree.  I thought it was so little, but it's actually as tall as me!

 

We've been collecting ornaments from the different places we have visited since we got engaged.  It was fun talking about the memories we had with each ornament.  

This one is from when I went home with Jon to meet his family & friends.



The Mickey and Minnie bride & groom is a favorite of mine from our Honeymoon!

We went to New Orleans for the day on our 3rd date.  Jon tried beignets (a French donut) for the first time at Café du Monde.

My sister Amanda made us a gorgeous burlap tree skirt, and I love it she did an awesome job!

We used dried Baby's Breath from our wedding and burlap and lace ribbon left from the wedding on the tree.   Louella Mae has been banned from the room because she wants to chew on the lights and tree branches {but it's precious}.  We're excited about celebrating Christmas together, and starting our own family traditions.  Come back tomorrow and see how I surprised Jon with "Twelve Days of Christmas Love for My Hubby."  I can't really talk about it yet, because he doesn't get to find out about it until tomorrow....it's a Secret!