Traditions that Matter. AKA "Becoming My Mom"

There are certain holiday traditions that I have never really thought much about until this year.  I'm a new wife, have a whole house to decorate and no other women to contend with, decor-wise, and for the first time in my life, I won't be in my parents' home on Christmas.

One thing I didn't expect to adopt from my mom's Christmas traditions is making orange balls.  My mom has kept a bowl of them in the kitchen every Christmas I can remember.  She makes one or two new ones each year and saves the ones that keep their cloves.  Some of the oranges she has are 20 years old!  They've gotten all shrunken, but they still smell amazing.  It's a unique scent that I totally associate both with my mother and Christmas. 

So this year I decided to make my own!  I had the day off work, there's 3 inches of snow on the ground, so I spent some time today in front of the fire, sticking whole cloves in oranges with my dog and cat salivating at my feet. 

I think I'll keep them on the stovetop so they get even more fragrant with the warmth! 

Happy Thanksgiving!

Thanksgiving time!

We are hosting 20 people for Thanksgiving this year.

Matt insists on hosting his family because he *loves* leftovers and the host gets the bulk of them.  (seriously).  :)

So as his wife this year, I get to be the hostess!

I love party planning.  I love the anticipation of everyone in our home and sharing such a wonderful, nostalgic holiday.  Thanksgiving is such a beautiful holiday- it makes so much sense to my soul- and I can't wait to welcome our west coast loved ones!

When I get excited about planning for anything, I tend to get stubborn about a few creative details- typically the first few that pop in my head during the planning process.  For this Thanksgiving, I'm most excited about centerpieces of mums in fall colors and of these turkeys with my nephews for place settings. 

adorable, right?  and a good activity for my super-energetic, culinary enthusiastic nephews!

what are your Thanksgiving plans or projects?

Puppy or Kitten?

Matt & I are talking about expanding our little family.  (No, I'm not pregnant.  We're not planning on "taking the goalie out of the net" for another couple years.)  No.  For months now, I have been bugging Matt to get a kitten.

Don't get me wrong, I love our Paris girl.  She is a perfect dog.  (Except for her love of our new leather couch...but who can blame her?  We love it too.)

Anyway.  I grew up with both cats and dogs.  Big dogs (labs like Paris).  (REAL dogs, people.)  And I love them.  But I also like cats.  They're easy to take care of.  They sit on your lap for hours while you read.  Before I met Matt, I had a cat named Lola.  She had six toes on each paw.  She was pretty great.  But she ran away the day I met Matt.  (THE DAY I MET HIM!)  Which I think is kinda weird, but I digress.  (Who am I kidding, I digress every other sentence.  If you're still reading this far, you probably don't care about the digressions.  It's kind of Kelly-speak.  Everything is relevant to every conversation, in my opinion.)

Here is Lola.  (She is sitting on my Bible.)  I used this picture on her lost kitty posters to no avail.

  My conversation with Matt on Lola's absence went like this (it was 3 days after our first date):
Matt:  What'd you do today?
Me: After work I put up posters for my lost cat.
Matt: I didn't know you had a cat...are you a crazy cat lady?
Me: Oh, totally...I knit blankets with her picture on them and tell people what she thinks of them all the time.
Matt:  (laughs..cuz I am funny and was joking and am NOT a crazy cat lady despite my unyielding desire to have a cat on my lap while I am reading...)
Matt: I like cats.
(my heart stops).
Matt: I mean, I love dogs.  But I grew up with cats and dogs and I like cats.  I never understood people who say they HATE cats.  I mean, how can you hate something that is cute and furry?
Me: You have no idea how much my heart just warmed to you right now.

I fell for him hard and fast.
Fast forward 15 months.  We have been married for over a month.  We're successfully keeping our dog alive and semi-successfully keeping our house clean.  I think we are ready to shake up our little world with a furry mess-maker.  And I have begun emailing Matt pictures like this:

these are real kittens that I could own right now and have no right to have images of on here. 

and NOW Matt is all anti-cat and is, in turn, now trying to talk me into getting a puppy!  And not just any puppy.  A lap dog that will somehow be the best of both worlds.  Which sounds ridiculous considering the way we both feel when those dogs are running around your feet at other people's houses...(they don't feel like dogs...not real dogs.)

But last night we found this:

also dogs I don't own and therefore shouldn't have pictures of on the internet...

the second picture, this one right here,   ^ ?  We squealed over that picture on and off for 2 hours last night.


I mean, my husband is a pretty big, muscle-y, manly man.   Here he is with his groomsmen, looking all B-A...

But he gushed over that puppy with me for a serious amount of time.  And now claims that "yippy dogs are only yippy when they are allowed to be".  (which doesn't really make any sense except to imply that he can train a dog to not yip.  right.  I mean, Paris was on the couch again today when I came downstairs from my shower.  She didn't even care that I WAS HOME while she was doing it!    Who are we kidding about this dog training business?)

So now we have a choice.  Free kitten.  Or $200 hybrid "designer" fluffball.  I have been given the decision.  (I think...or rather, I have been presented with the option of changing my mind and choosing the puppy.)  :)

Thoughts?  Which should we get?

Either way, I think it'll be a nice friend for Paris.  Although there may be some jealousy issues...

don't look so sad, Paris.  You're still #1.  See?  I made your picture biggest.

Columbus Day

Today is the day we celebrate the lie possible truth that Christopher Columbus "discovered" America.  Most of the country celebrates it by going to work but inconveniently being unable to receive mail or go to the bank.  At MY bank on Saturday, my friend Natalie and I quickly learned it wasn't funny to ironically tell customers to enjoy their "holiday weekend".  No one got the joke.  Or appreciated it, at least.  (Which didn't stop Nat & I from repeating it throughout the day, just to amuse each other.) 

Anyway.  Regardless of the validity of the holiday, I am appreciative of a whole day off.  And what am I using my precious spare time for?  Basically to be a super-housewife! 

Laundry, dusting & some organization this morning.   Taking the dogs with me to go grocery shopping this afternoon, and THEN, I am making:

(I loooove cooking in the iron skillet.)

Chili and cornbread!

 

 

and Pioneer Woman's apple cake in an iron skillet:

I am obsessed with her.  I'm also planning to use her recipes for cornbread and chili.  Yum!

Final Countdown!

I am getting married in 4 days.  FOUR!!  Which means that I'll probably start blogging more once the wedding planning is finally over. 

I have just found the process of wedding blogging incredibly overwhelming.  I mean, I am the kind of girl who already tells everyone she knows what my new shoes for the wedding look like, etc., so my spare time has been reserved for more important (no offense) things like spending time with Matt and trying to wrap my mind around becoming a wife.   (That last part hasn't really been mastered, btw...I'm planning on just leaning on God...it's been successful in the past.)  :)


but I'm super-excited to be marrying my Matt this weekend.  This picture from my East Coast shower about sums up my feelings on the matter:

(I am jumping on a trampoline with my aunt...in the play veil that was forced upon me.  we may have had a bit of champagne prior to getting on the trampoline...)

see you when I'm a "Mrs."!  (how crazy is that?!?!)

Our amazing photographer

We've signed the contract for our photographer!  Gabriel Van Wyhe does amazing work, both creatively and with the classic, beautiful wedding pictures you dream of for your wedding day.  Now we get to plan our engagement shoot!

I like shots of feet: (especially like that their dog is in this one...it'd be great to have Paris in a few shots:)

and I love the lying-in-the-grass shots:

(how cute is this old couple?)

this is super-cute:

and it'd be great to have a shot of my oh-so-beautiful ring...

and I love the dips...

and the forehead-kisses:

ooh, this is cute, too:

I also (although Matt doesn't "get it") think it'd be fun to have props like red balloons...

since we're getting married in a setting with so much green & flowers, it'd be good to go in another direction for the location of our shots, I'm thinking...like an alley in downtown Tacoma, maybe...

or on some stairs?

or railroad tracks...

definitely a lot of beautiful photos to inspire our shoot! 

Details...

In no particular order, these are the things that are on my (wedding-laden) mind of late:
-how to make 7 bridesmaids (and Matt's 7 corresponding groomsmen) NOT seem obnoxious both in photos & standing with us for the ceremony...can we stagger them somehow?  (it's on my "google this" list.)

-deciding what bling to put on my GORGEOUS, undadorned dress.  How much do I really want the black sash?  Will I regret it in 20 years when I see pictures? 

-how to shrink the guest list while still honoring our family & friends who want to see us get married.

and the exciting things:

Ok, I'm so blessed...after several unsuccessful dress-shopping trips, Matt's mom flew my mom in from Philly to surprise me on our 4th (I know...) appointment.  And I found my dress!  Best yet, we bought the sample so they cut us a deal..then we were told that  the designer takes 9 months to order & ship the dresses so I wouldn't have been able to get it in time for our Labor Day wedding.  (also, it's silk.  I die.)  :)

It was amazing to watch my mom & Betty bond while she was here.  It's been hard for my mom to reconcile the fact that I am really staying on the west coast, especially now that Anna is looking at colleges (some in WA!  yay!)  Betty's been an amazing friend & support to my mom, & recognized the importance of having us together to make big decisions before we even did.  God is good.  So is my future MIL. 

We have a date (September 5th) and a venue (Lakewold Gardens) and a dress...last night we met with a caterer and tonight with a photographer that I really like. 

So more than anything else, I have realized how much weddings are about details...most of which I had never thought of or really care about.  And they are all posed as questions that I feel like I SHOULD have a concrete answer for.  Things like, "are you wearing your hair up?" "Will you have a full cocktail hour or just 45-minutes?"  "What kind of necklaces will your bridesmaids wear?"  

(my answer to every one of these questions has been a blank look and an "ummm, I don't know...do I have to know right now?") 

I am the girl who has dreamt of her wedding day but had to put a lid on the dreaming a few years back.  I was trusting God that He has the best plan for me, but it no longer seemed imminent that that included a wedding.  So I kept some small details in my mind (blue shoes and a photo booth), but have not been a wedding-crazed single girl.  That probably scored me points with Matt, but is not so convenient for our vendors...or mothers.  So I am scoping it out, immersing myself in wedding porn (hehe) and obtaining opinions on details.  Ex: yes!  hair up!  45 minutes seems sufficient! 

Still don't care about their necklaces, though.  Maybe they can pick their own...