2009 in Review

2009 was a great year for me. Of course there were some ups and downs but overall it has been great!

Rang in the New Year in '09 with friends:

Had a fabulous time celebrating all my girls during my bachelorette weekend in Savannah:

GOT MARRIED!:

Spent our honeymoon in fabulous Key West, FL:

Celebrated a good friend's 50th birthday on Hilton Head Island, SC:

Baked and cooked a ton with fresh fruits and veggies this summer and nearly perfected my strawberry cake:

Chopped my hair off for Locks of Love:

Started my own garden:

Enjoyed football, camping, and fabulous weather in the fall:

Hosted Fakesgiving at our house for all of our friends:

Spent Thanksgiving with my family in Manchester and LaGrange, GA:

Spent Christmas in Florida with Matt's family (my new family). Here's Papa reading the Christmas story:

I hope everyone else had a great 2009 and is looking forward to more family, friends and fun in 2010. Happy New Year!

Happy Birthday to Me!

Sorry for the belated post. There is much to come on Christmas soon, too! In the meantime, please enjoy a few photos from my birthday in St. Augustine, Florida.

I love that place. I swear, I could move down there in a heartbeat.

Family Tradition

Last year, my little sis and I started a new Christmas tradition, since we aren't always together on Christmas now. (Because I'm married and have two families now, and all that good stuff!) We have an annual 'Mitchum Sister Movie Night' and watch our favorite Christmas movies and eat and make cookies.

There will be Home Alone (we can practically recite the entire movie!)

a large cheese pizza just for us!

Elf,

and plenty of Christmas cookies!

I can't wait for tonight!

New Ornaments

I just couldn't help but add a few more ornaments to our collection this year. Especially since it is our First Married Christmas. Here is the 'M' near the top of our tree:

I was more than happy to change my name when I got married earlier this year. I do have to admit that I was glad our last initials were the same, since I have a few things embroidered or monogrammed with 'M'. Here's one of my favorites, a jingle bell snowflake:

Sparkly Snowflakes are always fabulous!

Tis the Season!

Last night was our office Christmas party at the boss's house. We have a great office and everyone gets along for the most part, so it was pretty fun!

Here's me and two of my work girls:

I hope everyone else is having fun celebrating the Christmas season!

What I've Been Up To Lately...

In addition to all the wonderful Christmas shenanigans that are going on lately (Christmas parties, shopping and wrapping presents, decorating, eating candy canes and cookies and watching Christmas movies on tv) I've also been shooting quite a bit. Here's a look at my latest series of family portraits and Christmas card photos:

Jessica and her Daughters

Baby Jace

Miss Mattie

Mamie and her three Sisters

Fakesgiving 2009

So, I know I'm way behind and Fakesgiving actually happened weeks ago, but I'm sure y'all want to see how it turned out, right?12 of our friends came from all over (everyone was from out of town but 1, and we even had 2 international guests this year!) and it was a blast!

Kelly's Hubby, Eliot and their puppy dog Mims in her Christmas sweater (E is Scottish!)

Kelly and Mims in her doggy jacket

Thorben and Twyla (He's from Germany!)

Kelly's delicious cheese ball:

Turkey and Mashed Potatoes, my favorite!

Me and the BFF, Andy who is a fantastic cook!

Me and Miss Twy -totally related :-)

Mrs. Mikell and Mrs. Meikle (we're convince that we're Scottish cousins b/c of our husbands' roots!)

The dessert table halfway through the night

(nevermind the papa johns box in the corner-one of the boys who don't cook brought cinnastix!):

Andy brought delicious treats! Red Velvet Cake and Pralines!

The end of the evening was spent around the bonfire with glasses of wine and good conversation:

Favorite Ornaments

This week has been cold and busy, hence the lack of blog posts. If I'm not working, getting ready for Christmas vacation or wrapping Christmas presents, I'm trying to stay warm. I really don't remember it being this cold so early last year. I thought since I didn't have time for a huge post I'd share a few of my favorite Christmas ornaments. We used to have a 'Statesboro Blues' tree when we first started dating. It was completely blue and white, as a nod to Statesboro and our alma matter, Georgia Southern. Since we've been together, we have started collecting ornaments and receiving them as gifts. I've even started creating some of my own. Hopefully our collection will get even bigger and better. One of my favorite parts of Christmas is pulling out the ornaments and putting them on the tree, it's like they are new every year!

The engagement ornament Matt's mom got us last year.

I painted this one for our first 'married' Christmas. It has our last name on one side and wedding date on the other.

This one is a tiny piggy bank, which I got Matt for his first year in accounting. I thought it was cute, even though his job has nothing to do with 'counting' or change.

This one is from my best friend, TW and I love it because it looks lovely and old-school.

What are your favorite Christmas ornaments?