Our Christmas Tree

So, last year Tim and I didn't have enough room for a big Christmas tree (we lived in a tiny tiny studio apartment) , so we bought a little 15 incher from Urban Outfitters. Even though we have room for a bigger tree this year, we've decided to stick with our little one for one more year.

Wrapping gifts is favorite part of getting ready Christmas. I love planning and coordinating wrapping paper. Weird...maybe. This year I went with white, silver, gold, and accented with this super cool deer tissue paper.

You may have noticed, none of them have tags. That's because, for some reason, I don't really like putting sticker gift tags on the gifts I give. I put sticky notes on the backs of each gift until it's time to pack them up and then I write on the front with marker.

I'm really liking  the arrangement and the combination of wrapping papers and colors this year!

Need a Good Book?

Cold gloomy weather tends to make me want to curl up on the couch with a good book. I'm one of those people who can get lost in a book, it doesn't matter what's going on around me, I can tune it out. My husband can attest to this.

This week I read Little Bee. It's a pretty easy read, I read it in 2 days. But it is so so so so good. One of the best books I've read in awhile.

I don't want to tell you much about the book, because the way the story unfolds is breath taking. I will warn you that it's a little "heavy" and will make you sad, but mostly it's a story of hope. I'll leave ya with the blurb on the back.

"This is a story of two women. Their lives collide one fateful day, and one of them has to make a terrible choice, the kind of choice we hope you never have to face. Two years later, they meet again—the story starts there..."

December Love List

And so another month begins...I didn't do very much blogging last month, my November Love List is still on the homepage of my blog. **I must be better this month** So what am I loving this month?

I think it would be lovely if my Christmas tree looked like this

•  Oodles of family time - this year we're packing 5 Christmases into 3 days! 
• Decorating for Christmas, we don't have that many decorations to put up, but I'm really looking forward to it this year. 
• Snow, if it's going to be cold, you might as well have snow and lot's of it
• Mariah Carey's "All I Want for Christmas" (listen to it here)
• Wrapping gifts - I'm taking special care with each one this year. 
• Criminal Minds, I stinking love this show. I've been watching it like crazy lately.

We Finally Have a Chair!

 The Wednesday before Thanksgiving we got a special delivery—our new Parlour Tangerine Chair from CB2! It's been on my furniture wish list since the first time I set eyes on it in CB2 about a year ago. Tim wasn't sold on it, and at the time it was a little bit out of our budget, so we kept looking. And I kept coming back to it. Now it's in our living room and I sit in it and drink my coffee every morning.

Thanksgiving for Two

Hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving! Ours didn't go exactly like I was hoping it would (, but it all turned out fine in the end.

Thanksgiving morning, we went and watch the beginning of the McDonald's Thanksgiving Day Parade here in Chicago. It was really neat to go down and be a part of it, even though we got too cold and ended up not staying for the whole thing. Lesson learned for next year though - wear warmer socks and make a pit stop at Starbucks before hand! It was interesting to watch them get the turkey and other inflatables under the El tracks. Garfield had a little trouble...

After the we left the parade, we went home and Tim napped while I did all the cooking. My very first turkey turned out perfectly golden brown and delish! I used Bobby Flay's Apple-Sage Glazed Grilled Whole Turkey recipe. Except I roasted it in the oven rather than grilling it, and by suggestion of a few of the reviews I did not use 3 cups of apple cider vinegar (general consensus was that it was a type-o and should have been 3/4 cups). We also enjoyed sides of mashed potatoes, green bean casserole and stuffing and chocolate peanut butter pie for dessert. Needless to say with a 11.5 lb turkey and two people, there are tons of leftovers!

Table for two

After we lazed around for the remainder of the afternoon, we went and saw Harry Potter! That pretty much made my day.

NICE Assignment: Give Thanks

This week's NICE Assignment, is a pretty obvious one with it being Thanksgiving and all, but I think especially in today's culture it's so easy to take things/people for granted and never express our gratitude.

This Thanksgiving I'm thankful for many many things. 2010 has been an amazing year. But I want to give a special shot out to some special people in my life...

• Tim - Thanks for just being you, I cherish every day that we have together. I'm so blessed to have been able to marry my best friend, the one who makes me laugh, wipes my tears and tells me everything will be alright. Today and always, I'm thankful for the love we share.
• My parents - Two of the most understanding, wise and open hearted people I will ever know. I'm thankful for the childhood you gave me, the lessons you taught me and the continued love and support you show Tim and I.
• My sibs - All three of you, I'm so lucky to have been blessed with not only sisters and a brother but "3 best friends that anyone could have" I'm thankful for the time we spend together and I admire the strength and perseverance you all have in embracing the obstacles in your life. 
• My in-laws - I'm thankful for the man you raised, your welcoming me into your family as a daughter and your continued love and support you show us.
• MKL - I'm so thankful I went to lunch with you that one day in Taggart. Honestly not sure how I would have made through college without you. You're an amazing woman, friend, advisor and designer. Please move to Chicago so we can be together forever and always :) 
• Andi Jo, Raelin and baby -  I'm thankful for laughs, smiles and joys you bring everyone in our family. I love you all so much! Thanks for being there so Nanner doesn't beg me and Uncle Timmy to have a baby. I promise I'll give a little cousin to pick on someday.

Top 25

Welp, I can cross another thing off my 25 Before Twenty-Five list! I officially listened to every song in my iTunes that had a zero play count. I deleted from my "play count zero" list after I had listened to them, so I don't know the exact number, but it was over 600!!

Why so many? Well about 2 years ago + or - a few months, I had to complete reboot my laptop, like a save everything to an external hard drive and then load it all back on kind of reboot. And when I did that my iTunes reset all plays back to zero.

iTunes keeps track of your top 25 plays, so I thought it'd be neat to share what mine were these past two years. I don't really listen to a whole lot of music (I'm more of a TV girl) so my play counts are actually really low. Let me tell you, #1 and #2 have me boggled...I don't remember listening them except for maybe like once or twice.

Let the top 25 count down begin!

25. Womanizer (Britney Spears) 30

24. Can't Fight This Feeling (Finn, Glee Soundtrack) 30

23. How Lucky We Are (Meiko) 32

22. Body Language (Jesse McCartney) 32

21. Magic (Colbie Caillat) 33

20. When I Look At You (Miley Cyrus) 34

19. Blah Blah Blah (Ke$ha) 35

18. The Call (Regina Spektor) 36

17. Replay (Lyaz) 37

16. If I Were a Boy (Beyonce) 37

15. Obsessed (Mariah Carey) 38

14. Cosmic Love (Florence and the Machine) 38

13. Party in the U.S.A. (Miley Cyrus) 40

12. Ego (Beyonce) 40

11. Can I Have This Dance (Zac Efron & Vanessa Hudgens, HSM) 42

10. Circus (Britney Spears) 45

09. Young Forever (Jay-X feat. Mr. Hudson) 46

08. Johnny & June (Heidi Newfield) 49

07. Jump Then Fall (Taylor Swift) 50

06. Down (Jay Sean feat. Lil' Wayne) 51

05. Good Morning (Chamillionare) 52

04. I'd Rather Be With You (Joshua Radin) 53

03. Today (Joshua Radin) 56

02. Butterfly (Mariah Carey) 57

01. Honey (Mariah Carey) 58

Like I said, I'm so confused how #1 and #2 happened...the rest don't surprise me one bit! I remember being hooked on each one of these songs for various reasons during the past 2 years.