Christmas Time Is Here

Christmas time is here 

Families drawing near 

Oh, that we could always see 

Such spirit through the year

Hey y'all! I hope everyone has been enjoying this Christmas season. I know I sure have! We have been keeping super busy here lately. I've been doing all things Christmas. I got gifts for friends and family purchased and wrapped. Our Christmas cards have been mailed out, and I baked holiday goodies for some of our friends in Lexington. I just love this time of year! What I love most about this time of year is all of the time you get to spend with friends and family, and I have been doing a lot of that lately! We recently celebrated my maw maw Ellen's birthday and my mom's birthday. I enjoyed that so much! This post is a bit of a long one (mainly pictures) of all the things I have been up to these last few weeks preparing for Christmas - my most favorite time of the year!

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We attended our first Christmas Party of the season last weekend with the firm Tyler works for. It was a great evening. We had a delicious meal, and I enjoyed meeting everyone Tyler works with. The event was held at a local country club, so everything was decorated so pretty and festive. I only got one picture that evening, but it turned out to be a good one! We really enjoyed ourselves!

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My maw maw Ellen celebrated her birthday on the 12th. She and my pawpaw have been very sick and are still trying to recover. Fortunately, she felt up to coming over to my mom's for some pizza, cake, and quality time with the family. She got lots of gift cards to her favorite restaurants, and she now has several Alex and Ani bracelets! I think she had a good day!!

While I was home visiting, I also got to see my cousin Taylor. She will be having her sweet baby Bo any time now. We are so excited! Also, my baby cousin Erick got saved at church on this weekend. We are all so happy and proud! What a blessing!

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After a weekend in my hometown, I came back to Lex with my sister. We really got into the Christmas spirit during her visit! I filled out and mailed our Christmas cards and baked lots of goodies for our friends here in Lex. Kelly kept me company while I did all of this LOL After baking all day, we headed to the Kentucky Horse Park to see the Southern Lights. It was awesome! 

Remember when I said I was going to learn how to write in calligraphy? Well, that didn't work out LOL I looked on Pinterest and found some ideas that inspired our cards this year. It wasn't what I intended to do, but they still turned out very cute!

Scruffy helped me put the finishing touches on our gifts. She stayed by my side the entire time I was wrapping gifts. I love this little thing so much!

When I was finishing up all of the wrapping, I noticed Scruffy's present from Santa had arrived. She got a little kitty bed that has a heated pad in the bottom of it that adjusts to be just a little warmer than her body temperature. I couldn't bring myself to wrap it. I had to give it to her right then and there. I told her she had been such a good girl that Santa said I could give it to her early. LOL Needless to say, she loves it! Actually, as I am currently writing this post, she is in her bed right now!

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Here are a few pictures of the baking I did for our friends. I didn't get many pictures while I was baking because I had so much going on at one time. I did get a few pictures of the finished product! I found these adorable little decorative boxes at Hobby Lobby that were perfect for putting all the treats in. I hope our friends enjoyed their goodies!

Here are the finished treat boxes. I made chocolate covered pretzels, gingerbread cookies with cream cheese icing, pecan tassies, and reese mini cookies. 

Here are all the boxes lined up waiting to be delivered. I baked ALL DAY LONG! 

In the car headed to see the lights!

These next few pictures are of a local home here in Lexington. During the day, you can take a tour of the inside. It was spectacular! 

This light display was actually on a little pond in the horse park.

What do you do when you see a sign advertising camel rides? You ride a camel. At least that is what you do when you are with Kelly Grimmett LOL This made me sad because I love animals and cannot stand to see them mistreated; however, I do have to say these animals looked like they were being properly cared for. They were giving them frequent breaks and loving on them the entire time we were there. I hope they take good care of them! My dad didn't believe this was me when we sent him the pictures. The more we looked at it, the harder we laughed. I look like a small child behind Kelly on that camel. My legs look so short! LOL Kelly rode shotgun while I took the backseat behind the hump. I never know what I'm going to get myself into when Kelly visits! LOL

After an eventful trip to the horse park, we came home, made hot chocolate, and watched Christmas Vacation. A perfect ending to a wonderful day!

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Yesterday we had an early birthday celebration for my mom. We all met in Huntington for dinner, to paint at Wine and Design, and to watch a movie. We had a wonderful time! We ate spaghetti and banana cream pie at our favorite restaurant, Jim's Steak and Spaghetti. Then we headed to our painting class. We had never done this before, and we absolutely loved it! It was so fun! After painting, we went to see the new movie Sisters. It was really cute. We got tickled because the personalities of the girls in the movie are strikingly similar to how me and my sister are. It was a great night spent with my favorite girls!

Kelly and me at Jim's waiting on the birthday girl to arrive!

She has wanted this Lilly cardigan for forever! It kept selling out online and was never in her size. We finally found one for her! Now she is all set for this spring and summer!

Inside Wine and Design in Huntington. The next few pictures are of all the paintings that have been done there. They were all so cute! I especially loved the MU, UK, and flamingo paintings!

Here is my painting before...

during...

and after.

The finished products:

We had such a great time!

In the theater ready to watch the movie! I have to tell y'all we saw the 10:00 movie, and this granny was able to stay awake during the entire thing! I was pretty proud of myself! 

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As you can see, I have been thoroughly enjoying my time off from rotations and have been making the most of this Christmas season! Until next time.. take care!