friday favorites: the all things tex-mas edition

Deck the blogs with lots of Christmas related posts

Fa La La La La La La Laaaaaaav-ly

If I could just read and write all things Christmas related blogs year-round then you could definitely count me in for the 5x-week posting type of blog gal. But since my following would drop from fifteen to about six I'll stick to just posting Christmas related things for the next five two weeks.

Favorite Christmas Song //

Picking just one would be too hard (okay fine, Silent Night), but I will tell you my Favorite This Is Not A Christmas Song song: My Favorite Things. Yes, the song from The Sound Of Music. And also yes, you are correct, The Sound Of Music is definitely not a Christmas movie. 

Why in the world did this song get on all the holiday stations? Is it because it talks about packages tied up with string? How did the put-on-holiday-playlists people know that this is a Christmas package that the song is talking about? They don't. You don't. We don't. No one knows that. For all we know they are talking about a birthday package. Or a graduation package. Or a hey-it's-a-Tuesday-so-enjoy-this-package-tied-up-with-string package. 

Favorite Christmas Tree //

Forever and always the giant tree my family gets every year (pic above, duhz). God bless weird Brady Bunch looking houses with tall ceilings. Tall ceilings = taller Christmas trees. 

Favorite Santa //

Oooooh, another hard one. If you were to ask Freddie this question he would say the Billy Bob Thornton Santa from Bad Santa. That makes me want to cry and not associate myself with Freddie anymore so for the sake of my marriage we will A) not ask Freddie this question and B) go with either the Santa who gives Kevin Tic-Tacs in Home Alone OR Tim Allen from The Santa Clause. But only once he's fattened up and orders a sundae at his work lunch meeting. 

Favorite Ridiculously Wonderful Christmas Song //

Aye, Aye, Aye It's Christmas by Ricky Martin

I worked at Gap for a holiday season, and this ^^ song would play all. the. time. It's my Christmas jam for sure. Listen to it once and I promise (with the strength of at least fifty pinkies) that you'll never forget it. 

Favorite Christmas Vacation Moment //

This is the part of the post where I admit that I never watched Christmas Vacation growing up. Never. Freddie views this movie as kind of a rite of passage into the holiday season meaning it's not Christmas until you've watched Christmas Vacation at least three to four times. Needless to say I've seen it a lot. Probably just as much if not more than I would have seen it if I had actually grown up watching it. This all leads me to my point---my favorite part(s) of that movie are any and all parts in which Uncle Eddie gets to talk. 

The End. 

Happy Christmas-y Friday!

Linking up with Karli and Amanda

a very, merry christmas apartment

It's that time of year again. The time of year when we Texans go Christmas tree shopping...while wearing shorts and flip flops. So yes, it IS the most wonderful time of the year because the cold sucks, and Texas is not cold. Ten points for Team Texas.

^^did I really just call ourselves Texans?! Big gasp on that one. 

As all normal human beings do, we turned up the Christmas style in the apartment the day after Thanksgiving. Excuse me, we got turnt on Christmas decor <<<isn't that what the cool kids say these days? Should I Urban Dictionary turnt before adding it into a post? We're really big on the $30 live Christmas trees from the Kroger parking lot. Like really big into that. It's kind of our thing, and one day when we live in a real house and not an apartment I'm kind of hoping the sweet Kroger parking lot Christmas tree men let us get one of the 12-foot trees for $30, too.

A girl can dream.

spoiler alert: this year's $30 tree was definitely under 12 feet. 

If I've learned anything from being married to Freddie it's that fir Christmas trees are not acceptable. Every year we go through the same thing. Rick wants to get our tree from the Kroger parking lot. Rick doesn't want a fir tree. Rick forgets that almost no one has pine Christmas trees anymore. Rick can't make up his mind about what to do. Rick takes a long time deciding what to do. Rick gets lucky and finds a couple random pine trees in the mix. Rick wins. Fast forward 365 days and repeat all over again.

I digress. This post is supposed to be all about be opening our home to you so you can judge our Christmas decor, and not about my husband's weird affinity for pine Christmas trees. So without further words ado, welcome to our Christmas home!

Oh what's that? I need more Christmas stuff on this wall? I agree. 

I don't know why it's taken me so many years to throw ornaments in all the bowls around the house, but I'm an ornaments-in-bowl convert. 

There are few things in life more peaceful than twinkly Christmas lights.

Well, a present with a bow tie under the twinkly lit tree is also peaceful.

 Yes, Sparkle Santa and Google Home are very happy together. Thanks for asking. Ten days and going strong. #newrelationship

Aaaaaaaand that's about it other than little bitty odds and ends on all the shelves. Literally all of the shelves. We're leaving for Georgia in one week so we kept the Christmas decor vom down to a minimum this year, and I am a-okay with that because Christmas in Georgia with the fan dam is all I need. 

Also we're working on getting Lupe antlers like Max so don't even worry. 

This dream can soon become a reality. 

How do you decorate for the big day?!

Christmases past:

Charleston

Houston, Year One

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a very, merry, sticky christmas

Every Christmas I run into the same exact problems.

Do I make my own gift tags or buy the cute ones at Target?
Do I buy the cute tags or buy the almost-as-cute $1 ones at Target?
Do I pay extra and get our return address printed on our Christmas card envelopes?
Do I pay to buy an oh-so-trendy handmade stamp for our Christmas card envelopes?
Do I send Christmas cards this year?
^^^HA, big fat JK on that one. Of course we have to send Christmas cards this year and every year. Wink. 

A-n-y-w-a-y-s, I'm sure you all completely understand my first world Christmas problems, and I'm sure together we can overcome such trials and tribulations.

Enter StickerApp. They help people like us overcome holiday panic! There's more time to trim the tree when you're spending less time hyperventilating the holidays (no? too far with the alliteration?).

When StickerApp contacted me about customizing my own stickers I A) said YES (in bold, italics, and caps lock, obvi) and B) knew this was my answer to all problems gift tag and Christmas card envelope related. Basically StickerApp was my Come to Jesus moment, and I'm so glad I saw the light.

Now for those of you who are also like me in that you have online designed a lot of photo books that sit collecting dust on your shelves, then you're in luck because designing custom stickers was a lot like designing photo books. Read easy and fun. One photo upload here, one resizing there, add in a text box or two, move everything around twenty times before you're satisfied, and voi-freaking-la you have a masterpiece.

I made these ^^^ stickers to use as envelope seals for our Christmas cards because who doesn't love a chance to quote Home Alone?! Spoiler for anyone reading this who is going to get a Christmas card this year.

And then because I was having too much fun procrastinating work by designing stickers I decided to add in some small gift stickers to the mix. Let's just say this Christmas is going to be off the charts trendy.

And that's the story of how stickers changed my Christmas game for the better. Have you tried StickerApp yet?!

I received products for my honest review, but I mean, come on, these stickers make my presents and envelopes look like the cool kids in high school. 

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