Decking the Halls

I admit, I love Christmas decorations but not as much as my husband. He can't wait to put the Christmas tree up even if that means mid-November. Since we were having Thanksgiving at our house, I felt we needed to honor Thanksgiving properly and still have some pumpkin and fall decor out.

I did cave and let him get the Christmas tree out a few days before Thanksgiving and start setting it up. Since moving to the new house, it wasn't as easy to decorate since everything was going to be in a new place and we needed more decorations. It's amazing how our 7 1/2 foot tree looked so large in our last house but it looks so small in our new house! We both decided we needed to invest in a new tree, but not this year. Unfortunately, I don't have a good picture of the tree! But you can somewhat tell from this picture (and notice the snow outside!)

Early Christmas Present!

Every year for Christmas, my dad makes my brother's and I a piece of furniture, anything we want. Over the years, we have realized how fortunate we are to have someone so close to us that not only enjoys making furniture but has the skill. Purchasing furniture is EXPENSIVE and most of it is pretty much crap. This year, Doug, Billy and I all moved into new houses, so you can imagine we all pretty much knew right away what we wanted.

Our living room pre-Christmas present.

Thanksgiving

This year for Thanksgiving, Mom, Dad and Doug all came to Terre Haute to celebrate! Billy and Megan were at her parents for the holiday. Having to share holidays and not always seeing everyone is one of the hardest parts about growing up and traditions changing, but we do the best we can to make it work.

This was my first time hosting Thanksgiving and I'm glad there was a only a small crowd! We baked a small ham and turkey breast. The bones and caucus is NOT for me! Mom also taught me how to make her mother's dressing which was surprisingly easy despite drying loaves of bread for the week and having the kitchen have a weird yeast smell.

I do have to brag on Doug and his fruit salad with a champagne sauce. It was delicious and absolutely beautiful. Although he gave me the recipe, I haven't had the chance to make it yet, but I fully indent to try it out sometime.

While Mom and I were in the kitchen cooking, Matt and Dad hung some Christmas wreaths on the front of the house marking the first of decorations to go up!

I loved having Mom and Dad down for a few days and Doug there for Thanksgiving. I hope everyone had a wonderful time with their families!

Beach Vaca...Again!

The weekend following the Larry Bird events, Matt and I headed to Florida for a much needed vacation! While they were deicing the airplane on the runway, I realized it was a much needed escape from the frigid weather marking winter. We are fortunate that his family has a condo in Ft. Myers that we can use, which really cuts down on the cost of a get away! However, we figured it had been since January of 2012 since we had last visited.

Larry Bird

I'm sure everyone has heard of the guy named Larry Bird. He's a basketball legend. Did you know he went to Indiana State University? This fall, a statue cast in bronze was erected in front of Hulman Center of Larry Bird. This statue, along with a huge scholarship dinner is what kept my jets burning in high gear this fall!

"Starting Line up" to kick off the evening!

Beach Vaca

Every fall is crazy around the office at work. The students are back on campus, events start back in full swing and Homecoming is right around the corner. This year for Homecoming, I was in charge of Tent City, which is a large tailgate area (only on Homecoming weekend) where all the colleges, some departments on campus and mostly greeks have tents for alumni gathering. This year we had 61 organizations put in tents and my job was to organize all the chaos. I was so happy to have a get-away planned, less than a week after Homecoming I headed to Florida for a girls trip!

Me - Abbe - Jaylan - Bernice at Cirque du Soleil La NouBa