it's beginning to look a lot like christmas!

the best thing about thanksgiving (other than eating really good food, relaxing, eating pie, relaxing, drinking wine, then eating more pie followed by more relaxing) is that right after thanksgiving it's CHRISTMASTIME!!

on sunday, we put away all of our fall decorations and pulled out the christmas decor. we put our tree up, drank hot chocolate with about fifty marshmallows each and listened to a little christmas music - yes, i am super cheesy and i love that nick plays along.

nick and i also did our fourth annual ornament exchange. i can't believe this is our fourth christmas together!

each year, nick and i buy an ornament (or two) for each other that is significant for the year, and exchange them when we decorate our tree. it's kind of hard to keep track of the past years, so i take a little permanent marker and write the year on the ornament in an inconspicuous spot.

this june, nick and i vacationed in barbados with some of our closest friends. we took a shot of tequila every morning, lounged in a hot tub when it poured outside, had a dance party on a catamaran and swam with sea "teurdles." we also said "i like teurdles" a lot!

so i got my love a shiny little sea turtle!

and nick gave me popcorn!! i don't think it's any surprise that i love popcorn. i have posted about popcorn like 24 times.

also, when nick and i first started dating in 2008, nick's mom gave me a whirley pop for homemade popcorn... but i was always lazy and microwave popcorn just seemed so much easier. well, our cute little new house has everything we need except a microwave! at first i was so bummed because i didn't think i'd be able to eat my popcorn, but i learned how to use my whirley pop and it is SO MUCH BETTER than microwaveable. and now i use that thing like once a week. oh, and i love going to movies and can eat my weight in popcorn. so, in other words, my husband knows me well!

it is so fun looking back at the ornaments from our past years and reminiscing as we decorate our tree! 

and, i love this year's new additions!

can you spot some of the ornaments from our past exchanges?
{here are the clues: christmas 2008, 2009 and 2010!}

stocking stuffer.

dear nicholas,

i just sent you an email with this link as a subtle little hint of what i'd like in my stocking. but, in case you check my blog before you check your email... i'd really like one of these --->

love,
your wife









ps. thanks kinsey for the reminder!

fall at the vineyard.

this saturday nicholas and i took advantage of the perfect weather and gorgeous grape leaves at byington winery to snap a few pictures for our christmas cards! we set up the tripod and used the remote to take pics without a photographer. awesome scenery and handsome husband... yeah, i think they turned out just fine!

thanksgiving.

this year for thanksgiving, nicholas and i drove about an hour and a half north to spend the night with my aunt and uncle, my cousin Joy and her two girls Allyn and Reagan. (we spent thanksgiving with them last year too!)

my aunt larre prepared a delicious thanksgiving dinner with all the fixin's... turkey, dressing, mashed potatoes, gravy, green bean casserole, sweet potatoes, cranberry relish... YUM. it was so good. she even sent us home with leftovers! i made my mom's leftover turkey sandwich (although for some reason it always tastes better when mom makes it!) we watched lots of football, played rummikub and jenga and ate lots of pie and sat by the fireplace! all in all, a wonderful thanksgiving!

and, because it wouldn't be thanksgiving without a little gratitude... in no particular order, this year i'm especially thankful for:

my husband for letting me put my freezing toes on his warm body every time i get into bed.

my family that i'll be seeing in 2 weeks!

my wonderful job and the friends i've met along the way.

mexican food - as different as it is in california, i still love it.

junior league for introducing me to some great ladies.

pinterest for all the ingenious ideas.

coffee. no explanation needed.

the health of my friends and family and husband.

my health.

our new home.

the pot roast i have cooking in the oven.

my california family for welcoming us in this thanksgiving and making us feel at home.

my friends from tcu - because even though i don't talk to them everyday, 

we have some great memories and we always pick up right where we left off.

blogging. for helping me keep track of my life, appreciate the little things and big things, and introducing me to so many wonderful women across the globe.

long walks around our neighborhood, holding hands with my amazing husband.

hoping everyone had a wonderful thanksgiving!

game night with the meads.

trust me, this game was intense!

never stop learning.

do you remember waaayyy back in 2010, before our wedding, when i was studying and studying for an advanced certification for nutrition? we'll, since i changed careers (almost a year ago!), i've decided to learn more about my current field. i work in operations now, so i decided to take the first of several tests for APICS certification. (don't worry, i had never heard of it before either!)

Source: lylaandblu.com via Lacey on Pinterest

so, after studying and studying (why do i do this to myself?) i finally took my test yesterday and found out immediately that i passed! it definitely wasn't as hard as my nutrition exam, but i am still very proud of myself especially because i didn't study this is college and am new to the business.

now that i have that crossed off my to-do list, i am so excited to finally ENJOY the holidays and relax!!!!

let's start with forever.

i am so ready to see breaking dawn again! it was great. and nicholas liked it too.... he thought that it was "an intense chick flick" - haha!

if you haven't read the books... spoiler alert!
i loved bella's wedding dress, designed by carolina herrera... it was simple and had long sleeves, and the back was a little scandalous... gorgeous!

here are some clips from youtube:

edward's wedding toast to bella: 

"so i'd like to propose a toast to my beautiful bride: no measure of time will be long enough, but let's start with forever." ... so sweet!

i also loved charlie's toast at the wedding and when the housekeepers walk into their honeymoon suite and see that the bed is trashed! my only complaint was when the wolves were talking to each other, their voices were sooo cheesy. oh, and when bella was pregnant - they did a great job of making her look sick and super malnourished... which helped to set the stage for how beautiful she looked when she was "changed."

after reading all the books, it was so great seeing everything come to life on the screen. between the first twilight, new moon, eclipse and breaking dawn part one, i'm not sure i can choose a favorite - but i'm thinking it's close tie between eclipse and breaking dawn!

do i seriously have to wait A YEAR for part two?!?!?

breaking dawn.

hey there! i'm standing in line for breaking dawn part one, so I thought I'd download the blogger app! technology is so cool. :)

we got here about an hour before the movie start time and we were only um, twentieth in line which is pretty cool.

in case you forgot, I am team edward all the way!! can't wait for it to start!

has any one else seen it yet? what did you think?

ps. I love that my husband is one of about six guys in the audience! Now that's dedication.

pandora heaven.

lately i've been working on 2 big presentations for work. i always listen to pandora while i work and i just came up with the BEST pandora station for motivating me through these powerpoints.

seriously, make a "mika" station. then add "crazy little thing called love by queen" as variety.

i just had to share.

what are your favorite stations?

the twentysomethings.

saturday night, i attended one of junior league's first fundraisers of the year - trivia challenge. this was the fourth annual trivia challenge, but my first. we had 3 rounds of trivia questions, where teams of four would compete to get the most answers right.

i had actually signed up to volunteer for the event (so i could attend by only paying $15 for a volunteer ticket, rather than $50 for a spectator ticket), but ended up winning a raffle prior to the event that let me play on a team. the cost of a team is $500 - so me and the three other girls who won a team in the raffle were so excited to play!

there were 44 teams competing; each team has a team name and theme... we decided to be the twentysomethings and we dressed up like flappers! it was seriously so much fun.

fellow provisionals: elli, merryl, april and me

i definitely had slumdog millionaire-type flashbacks with the questions...

"what is the capital of barbados?" ... hello, i was just there in june. and NOBODY else knew this answer!
and "the atomic symbol Kr stands for which element?" ... i absolutely loved chemistry in high school and was kind of a dork
and "what is the anatomic name of the lower jawbone in vertebrates" ...i had to study this type of stuff in college for my nutrition degree.

oh, by the way, answers were bridgetown, krypton and mandible.

my teammates knew some pretty random trivia too, but despite that we only got 9 out of 20 questions right in the first round, so we were out! :( i definitely want to try again next year... and i think we might set up a trivial pursuit game night once a month to practice - haha.

we wish our score would have been 19 out of 20... maybe next year!

hello, november.

where is 2011 going?! how is it possible that it is already november? we finally had our first big cool down here in northern california. we turned on the heater, pulled out our wool socks and sweaters, and tonight i'm making pot roast with potatoes and carrots, which seems like the perfect meal right about now! we've also had our first bit of rain... i'm really hoping our rainy season isn't as rainy as last year so we can spend more time outdoors.

just a few weeks now until thanksgiving! we'll be spending the holiday with my aunt, uncle and cousins that live in vacaville, ca which is less than 2 hours from us. we got to spend time with them in texas last thanksgiving, so i'm excited to see them again this year.

oh ps - don't forget to set your clocks back one hour on 11/6... it's going to be dark a lot earlier soon!

all images via wehearit