10 Things That Made Me Happy This Week-Christmas Edition

Merry Christmas Friends!!

Hope you are enjoying a wonderful holiday with all of your loved ones, I know we sure are!

10 Things That Made Me Happy This Week for Christmas:

getting to come home for THREE DAYS to PA to visit our friends and family

getting to celebrate my sister's 10th birthday

listening to Christmas songs for the last time this year ("I'll Be Home for Christmas" is my fav)

attending Christmas Eve mass at the little country church we will be getting married in

sparkly, glittery eyeshadows and nail polish

peppermint mocha

the smell of fresh Christmas trees

twinkle lights

the warmth of a fireplace (even though its in the 50's here!)

believing in the magic of Santa Claus

Ready to Go Home for the Holidays!!

Hi Friends!

I have been MIA on my blog for months, but thanks for keeping in touch with me via other areas of social networking! Work is wonderful, crazy busy, but I love my job. Two days ago, we joined up with another district in our area and went to sing Christmas songs to terminally ill children at a local hospital. The best part was, we brought an insane amount of gifts for these kids! I could not have been more proud and this was certainly a highlight of my career.

Nick and I are so ready to home for Christmas and visit our families. Christmas is our favorite time of the year and we had our tree up and home decorated just days before Thanksgiving! we are heading to Disney with two of our best friends at the end of February so we have a lot of fun to look forward to:o)

So from our family to yours, have a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

12 Days of Christmas-Favorite Christmas Songs/Carols

 Favorite Christmas Songs/Carols 1) I'll Be Home for Christmas-Katherine McPhee*this song has a whole new meaning this year now that we'll be traveling home for Xmas 2) Home for the Holidays-Perry Como 3) All I Want for Christmas is You-Mariah Carey 4) Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas-Christina Aguilera 5) Mele Kalikimaka-Bing Crosby 6) Santa Can You Hear Me?-Britney Spears 7) It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year-Amy Grant 8) Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree-Brenda Lee 9) Blue Christmas-Elvis Presley*his voice is sexy, just like Elvis was:o) 10) Candle in the Window-Alabama*actually I could put all of the songs from Alabama's Christmas album on my list, I grew up listening to them, dancing in my grandparents living room by the tree and I still insist on having the album play during the holidays<3

11) Christmas Canon-Trans-Siberian Orchestra

*this is my wedding song accompanied by a beautiful Christmas song, when I hear it, it brings tears to my eyes. It's such a pretty song<3

12) Believe-Josh Groban

*because I still believe in Santa Claus-don't you? :o)

Merry Christmas*)

Wishing you all a very merry Christmas!!! I hope your holiday is wonderful and filled with lots of love! I will be blogging again soon, for now I'm spending time with my family and all of my loved ones, xo

Pay It Forward

For those of you who aren't familiar with the movie, "Pay It Forward", I will fill you in on what you are missing.

Its the story of a young boy, Trevor, who gets a class assignment from his high school history teacher. The assignment is to "change the world and put it into action".

Pretty amazing. Especially for high school students to actually go about and do this. If you haven't seen the movie yet, please do so. It's an incredible story and everytime I watch it, I cry. I wish more people had a small spot in their hearts to do better for the world instead of just themselves. So many need materialistic and monetary items to make them happy.

When I was in Philadelphia a few weekends ago, my heart sank. Walking through Suburban Station and crossing over to get to the Broad Street subway line, I noticed the people who were laying on top of cardboard boxes using newspapers to keep them warm. At the time I was complaining about how my Uggs were soaked because we had been walking through a wet mix of rain and snow all day and my feet were no longer warm. When I came upon these unfortunate people, I shut my mouth...very quickly. This happens every single time I go into the city and I keep thinking of ways that I can help these people, within reasonable means.

I watched the movie a few days after, trying to get inspired with someway that I could make a difference. I came up with the following idea:

Next week, I will be giving out 10 Snuggies with a bag of freshly baked Christmas cookies to 10 of those less fortunate people in Suburban Station.

I'm hoping this warms their hearts up, even if it's just a little bit. No one deserves to be that cold, especially around the holidays when you could have a nice colorful Snuggie to keep you warm. So, if you happen to be down in Philadelphia within the next few weeks, and you see a homeless man or woman walking around with a bright red Snuggie on, wish them a Merry Christmas:o)

Pay it Forward...bring them something to eat and trust me, your heart will be just as warm, xoxo

'Tis the Season to Be...

I'm sure most of you are anxiously awaiting Christmas, just as I am, and frantically trying to get all of your lists accomplished. I am so very impressed by all of your blogs, emails and Facebook statuses updating me on the many, many happenings in your life. I can't believe everyone is almost done all their holiday shopping, for that I am very jealous!

To me, 'tis the season to be...

1) O.R.G.A.N.I.Z.E.D: I am a compulsive list maker. I make them for EVERYTHING, however, I have definitely fell behind on everything that I should be doing, mostly because of finals week being next week. I have so many things that I still need to get done by Monday before my final exams even start that the thought of all this is starting to make my hands shake as I write this (yikes!). The lists will start next week and surely, I will get around to STARTING my Christmas shopping. I have about 20-25 people to shop for so it is absolutely important that I stay organized!!

2) "Domestic": and there is absolutely a reason for that word being in quotes, lol. Wednesday night I paid a visit to my friends Jenna and Vince at their beautiful house to make Christmas cookies for the holidays. Jenna and I were fully convinced we knew what we were doing while making these delicious creations, until we made our sugar cookie dough and started wondering why we were using almost an entire bag of flour and the dough STILL wasn't working out.



Thank heavens for my wonderful Mom-Mom being the cooking queen! After one simple phone call to her, explaining that we needed to chill the dough for 30 minutes before using it, we were on our way to making those dozens and dozens of cookies!

At the end of it, after many laughs and icing all over our...(ok, JENNA'S) clothes lol, we decorated like busy bees and ended up having a blast. Here are pics of our masterpieces:

(My cookies)

(Jenna's cookies)

3) Thankful: starting with Thanksgiving and ending with the new year, its really important to show the special people in your lives how truly thankful you really are. Tomorrow I will be accomplishing a huge task...Christmas cards. This is my little way of showing all those I couldn't live without that I am grateful for having them in my life.

4) JoLLy:o) lets be honest. You really can't be in a bad mood when you're watching Christmas Vacation or listening to Mariah Carey sing "All I Want for Christmas is You". It's next to impossible. I can't drive by Longwood Gardens everytime I go to Mom-Mom's house without my eyes being fixated on those beautiful twinkle lights making all the trees look like Candy Land. If Christmas doesn't make you happy then Bah Humbug! You probably just aren't allowing the Christmas spirit to warm your heart up a little bit. I can't get enough of it, even when I'm at work I'm humming Christmas songs.

Christmas is in two weeks, so enjoy it while it lasts!

That Extra Half an Inch

I remember being a little girl and getting so excited to dress up for the holidays. It was always such a big deal for me. My parents always dressed me "to the nines", completing my outfits with every accessory known to mankind. It was wonderful. My Easter outfit always consisted of a white dress with a big bow on the back, white tights, white patent leather shoes and a white hat, and of course a purse to go with it all! Christmas was the best. I always got to pick out a beautiful silk taffeta or velvet dress (that's what was in then) and Mom would put my hair in rollers to create soft curls.

My favorite thing to wear as a little girl was sparkly high heels. I always felt like I'd really made it in the world when I wore them. I felt as if I was the most important person in the room and I could be queen for a day:o) Ladies, did you ever have these experiences? Tell me this isn't the best feeling in the world! Standing next to the adults in the room, I was always a "half inch too short". I wasn't eye level with them. I wanted to be bigger, as tall as a supermodel.

Now that I'm grown (even though for some strange reason I'm still growing...I grew another inch this past year...) and that extra half an inch isn't important anymore, I still love getting all dolled up for the holidays:o) There's something about those fun sparkly accessories that add a pop to any outfit you have on. Maybe its a jeweled ribbon belt, some chandelier earrings or even (my fav) a pair of fabulous high heels. In my opinion, 'tis the season to be...stylish!

Right now my favorite staples for fall/winter are:

leggings-to wear with those chunky knit sweaters

tights-a fun way to add color to a dress, I LOVE the ones with funky textures

my UGG boots-I'm sorry, even if I end up on Fashion Police one day (which would be an absolute nightmare) I will never stop wearing them, they are my favorite pair of shoes, EVER.

knit beret hats-if you can find one that is flattering for your face shape you will love them as much as I do

pashmina scarfs-they go without saying, they are always around my neck when the weather gets chilly!

funky jewerly-I only wear jewerly that has a story to go along with it, the significance of these pieces act as conversation pieces

and of course my North Face Denali Fleece-one of the best investments I've ever made and keeps me nice and cozy when I'm outside:o)

I am looking for some neat ideas for Christmas to give to my "fashionista" friends, any ideas would be great:o) I look forward to hearing them!