christmas happenings

Happy New Year!

Jon and I spent Christmas in Alexandria. After a busy six months full of changes and transitions, it was nice to spend some quiet time at home. Even though it was just the two of us, we managed to keep some family traditions and maybe start a few new ones.

We decorated frosted sugar cookies and shared those goodies at our church's Christmas Eve service. After church, we ran home (it's nice to live a few blocks from church!) and put Martha Stewart's macaroni and cheese in the oven. While that was baking, we drove around our neighborhood to look at Christmas lights - a McCormack family tradition. We opened gifts that night and caught the second half of It's a Wonderful Life.

On Christmas day, we opened presents and stockings from Santa. Per Jon's request, I made caramel rolls for breakfast. For Christmas dinner, we splurged on cost and calories since we were just cooking for two - steak & lobster, leftover mac n cheese, homemade crescent rolls, grilled asparagus, and a bottle of Chianti we brought back from Italy. Needless to say, we were stuffed. We also managed to squeeze in a few trips to the movies, a lunch with friends, and some post-Christmas sale shopping.

It's not Christmas without some homemade frosted sugar cookies! 

Shark Socks!

You know you've been nice when your stocking is too heavy to hang on its holder. :)

North Dakota caramel rolls. Yum. Recipe forthcoming.

Fred & Ethel, our Christmas dinner. 

A cooked lobster is a happy lobster. 

Table for two 

#foodporn

On Friday, we headed to Arkansas to visit Jon's family. We got to do Christmas all over again with them. Besides spending time with his parents and grandparents who live in Arkadelphia, we got to see extended family from Texas & Arkansas. We usually only see them once a year at best so it was great catching up with everyone!

We played cards (I actually won a game of hearts), ate more food (ugh), watched the Packers beat the Bears, went to see Saving Mr. Banks, met up with some college friends to meet their new baby girl, and Jon sang a duet with his Dad at their Sunday church service. We got back on New Years Eve around 10 p.m., but that didn't stop us from heading over to our friends house for a low-key NYE shindig. We finally got home around 1 a.m. but I requested we watch the game-winning drive from the Packers game before going to bed. What better way to start a new year, right?

Jon's grandma MeeMaw playing with Elliot - Gary (Jon's cousin) & Kat's son. He is such a cute kiddo! 

Jon's other cousin, Gina & her husband Zach are expecting a son in May that they will name Jordan so we had to stop for this photo while we were touring the new Grant Center for International Education at OBU, our alma mater (named in honor of Jon's grandparents). Are you keeping up with all the family name dropping?

My MIL Shirley made all the Hardin family stockings. When I joined the family, she made me this one.
I'm a little bias, but it's definitely the best of the family stockings. :)

The Hardins - Phil, Shirley, Monica, Tad, Zachary, Isaac

I sneaky captured this little video of Phil & Jon practicing before church.

You know you are an adult when needs trump wants for gifts. But I wouldn't have it any other way. I loved getting new things for the house!

New towels and rugs for the master bathroom courtesy of Santa and Pottery Barn.

Kitchen canisters from Phil & Shirley - how perfect are these!

Magimix toaster from Mom & Dad. You can watch your bread toast to the perfect level. It's kind of amazing. 

It's back to work today, but I'm honestly ok with getting back into a more normal routine that doesn't involve so much sleeping and eating. I was starting to feel a little too lazy & gluttonous.

2013 was an exciting, but challenging year. I'm looking forward to a more calm & relaxing 2014, but I'm probably just inviting trouble with that statement. :)

The Friday Happy List

I love these Friday posts because they keep me honest as a blogger. Even if I don't have time to post anything all week, I try not to ignore this post because it makes me happy (hence the name), and it gets us all caught up. The theme for this week is rain and shut downs. I can't think of a more miserable time to visit D.C. For the first time ever, I've actually felt sympathy for all the tourists. Everything is closed and it's literally rained 24/7. Sorry 'bout that.

Fireplace. We went from sunny and 90+ on Saturday to 50s & rain. I love fall, but I don't love rain. On the bright side, this has been a great excuse to put our fireplace to work. It was one of the few things on our must-have list when we were house hunting. Sometime I'll write a whole post on that must-have list. It's fun to look book and see how things turned out.

Fall Decor. The squirrels may have eaten my pumpkins, but they can't eat my indoor decorations.

Yellow vest. I love puffy vests, but I kind of look like a marshmallow in them. I found this vest while I was supposed to be browsing, not buying. I had to have it. I'm wearing it today, and I really don't care if I look like a marshmallow because it's so cozy on this, you guessed it, cold and rainy day.

Gravity. I was a little skeptical, but also pretty curious about this movie. It's not something I would typically like, but it was breathtaking. We saw it in IMAX 3D, and I definitely flinched/ducked when space debris was flying toward us. I felt like I needed a massage after the movie because it was so tense and stressful.

Vintage maps. We went to the Art on the Avenue festival in our 'hood on Saturday. I had no idea it was such a big deal. Hundreds of vendors, thousands of people. It was so hot, and we almost didn't make it to the end of the line, but I'm glad we did because one of the last booths we visited was a vintage map collector. We found 3 awesome maps from the 1800s - one of the district, one of Arkansas, and one of Dakota. Can't wait to find a place to hang them.




Packers. This could go on the list every week, but especially this week because we are headed to an actual game! The Packers play the Ravens in Baltimore this Sunday. We couldn't pass up the opportunity to go to the game since Charm City is just around the corner. Go Pack Go!

The Friday Happy List

The Way Way Back. This was the highlight of last weekend. We spent most of the weekend purging the house of everything we didn't want to pack and move. We aren't pack rats & our apartment is only 980 sq. ft., but it's amazing how much "junk" we managed to accumulate in 4 years. Our biggest find was $20 that my mom sent in a card several months ago. That's about all the encouragement we needed to quit organizing and go to a movie. The Way Way Back is a sweet coming-of-age story, heartwarming and funny. I particularly enjoyed Allison Janney's character, but I always love her so that's no surprise.



Starbucks Refreshers. Have you tried these yet? They are amazing. I don't like coffee - it's too hot for coffee right now anyway - so this is my go-to drink. It's refreshing (duh), low in calories, and has just enough caffeine to keep me awake in the afternoon. I recommend the cool lime flavor with added berries.





Sun Chips Sweet & Spicy BBQ Chips. I bought these at the store during a moment of weakness (I blame all impulse purchases on the stress of home buying), but I'm glad I did because they are pretty darn tasty. Do yourself a favor and buy them for your next cookout.






 Rifle Paper Co. Thank You Postcards. I love Rifle Paper Co. They have the best stationery. You never know when you'll need to send a thank you note so I always like to have some pretty ones on hand. These are my current favorites.

The Friday Happy List

A brief list of things I am currently enjoying. 

The Crash Reel. I thought my sister was crazy when she recommended I watch this documentary about a snowboarder. Snowboarding isn't really my thing. I went skiing once. "It's easy," they said. "Anyone can do it," they said. Those were lies. I ended up breaking a pole in half. But back to the Crash Reel. It's about a snowboarder, but it's not really about snowboarding. It's about life, family, loss and learning. I loved it.

What Alice Forgot. This book is solidly in the chick lit camp, but I couldn't put it down. Alice wakes up from a fall at the gym only to realize she has forgotten 10 years of her life. It's pure entertainment - a perfect summer vacation read.




Training Camp. Baseball season has been a disappointment thus far so I'm ready to get back to football. In 5 short weeks we will move into the new house and then football starts the next week. I'm not sure which of those things makes me more happy. Probably the house, but it's *this* close.





Hexagon tile. We ordered tile for the kitchen this week. It ended up being a much more difficult process than expected, but it's done...finally. More on this later.