Weekend for Charity

Every year on the first weekend of December since I was about 5 years old, I have been helping with and attending a big charity event with my family.

My mom has been a part of the guild that puts it on since before I was born and her first mother-in-law was a part of it before that.

In case you couldn't tell, it is a big family tradition!

On Saturday, we head to the hotel that the even is being held at and decorate a themed Christmas tree that my mom and her friends have designed. Then Sunday morning, we get all dressed up and go to the big charity event called The Christmas Tree Brunch.

Lots of other themed Christmas trees, along with my mom's, are on display and people who attend the brunch can purchase raffle tickets that they can put into boxes at each tree. During the ceremony, one ticket is pulled out and that person wins the tree and it gets delivered to their house. There are also silent auction items and occasionally a wreath or holiday china set but its mostly all about the trees!

All the money goes to the Children's Hospital of Orange County which I just love!

Last year, Greg and I had to skip the brunch and I hated missing it! I wasn't about to let that happen again because I just love this family tradition and it is such a wonderful time of family togetherness.

Plus it is just an amazing feeling to be a part of something that helps little kids to have the best medical treatment they can get and help them to live long and happy lives full of love !

Anyway, the reason for telling you all of this is because this past weekend was brunch weekend!!

And Saturday is also lovingly called "My One Donut Day of the Year!" yes! love it!

Okay okay... onto the real stuff :)

First up, decorating the tree!


{wearing the tree skirt}
because my sister and I are silly...

...still silly....
Saturday also happened to be my mom's birthday so we had a fun little dinner at Buca Di Beppo with some friends.

Very large candles for her to blow out...
And now we are at the brunch!
They decided we needed a silly picture...




And there you have it... the wonderful charity event that we are apart of every year!

2 years ago I posted about the same event {remember we missed last years so there was no post on that}.

xoxo

Back Tomorrow!

Sorry I have been a little MIA this weekend... we had a fun weekend visiting my parents and attending the annual charity event!

I have a few pictures to share from the weekend and I will be doing that tomorrow hopefully.

For now, I am going to try to get some rest... I came down with a bit of a cold or sinus infection on Saturday and flying home tonight pretty much killed my ear.... (okay that may be a bit dramatic).

Between the cold and the intense ear pain... I am not feeling great and I have a long day ahead at work tomorrow.

Hope you all had a great weekend!

Happiness is...

1. Christmas... I just love the holidays and everything about them. Our little tree makes me happy every night.

2. The adorable something I finally completed last night. It is just so ridiculous how much I love it. I can't share too much yet since it is a gift but luckily I will be giving it tonight or tomorrow so I will share very soon! Can't wait to make more for my house now!

3. The craftiness that is oozing out of me lately... I just love every minute of it. Now if I just had more hours in the day to spend on crafts, that would be fabulous!

4. Going to see my family tonight!! So excited to see them and spend the weekend with them!

5. My boss/teammate. Yesterday was a bit rough for me and I was feeling very frustrated and overwhelmed by some stuff that is going on and she totally just calmed me down and gave me a pep talk and reminded me that she will always stand behind me and be there for me. It is wonderful to have a teammate/boss like that... makes those frustrations just a little bit easier to handle.

Happy Friday Friends!!!

xoxo

Christmas in the Park & a Concert

As you know if you've been reading this blog for even just a week, Greg and I went to a concert last weekend.

Beforehand, we went to one of our favorite restaurants in Downtown San Jose and walked around the area a little.

As we were walking, there were suddenly smells of carnival food and little baby rides in the middle of the shopping areas and hotels and then as we kept walking, we found this adorable little "Christmas in the Park" set up.

Kids and people from different groups, schools, care programs, hospitals, charities, etc. had decorated trees and they were all over the big open fountain area in Downtown San Jose.

It was so fun!

In between the trees, were different Christmas/holiday displays like this:
And these that we took pictures in front of:



And a huge tree in the center of it all:
Man, I just love the holidays!!!

Anyway, after walking around that for awhile, we headed over to my alma mater where the concert was being held.

You already know about the really freaking awesome deal we got on tickets so I won't bore you with that story again :)
Because I just thought you might all like to see how adorable my new pink Converse are....
And Kelly herself:
The end.

Happy Thursday! {yay! for almost Friday!!!}

xoxo

P.S. I just finally got our pictures for our Christmas cards so I can finally start to make them {yes, I am hand-making all 55 of our Christmas cards...eeeek!} so it may be another week or two before I get them out but I guarantee they will get out to all of you who exchanged addresses with me!! {and all my family/friends in real life of course, too :)}

Decorating the Christmas Tree

We decided Saturday night was a good time to put up our Christmas tree and put it up we did!

We also took entirely too many pictures because I have a small obsession with pictures of anything and everything but alas, just more to share with you...

We have a small, fake Christmas tree but we have already been talking about how exciting it will be to get a real one once we have a house we can actually fit a tree that is more than 4 feet tall in.

I'm in charge of lights every year {mostly cause Greg just doesn't know how to do it right :)}......but then I let him have the glory of plugging them in after all my hard work :). I'm such a nice wife.
Hanging the ornaments...


A picture of Greg {sort of pretending to} hang one last ornament.
We had an extra strand of white lights so he decided to hang them on the wall, because, well I guess why not really? We aren't allowed to hang any lights outside our apartment so why not enjoy them inside I guess. Not very classy but whatever...
My favorite winking snowman :)
Dork Alert! haha

And the completed look. {P.S. I kinda hate the way our pictures are hung on the wall but I refuse to change it now and put more holes in the wall that I am just going to have to fix later so I leave it. Ignore how bad it looks, please.}
And that is about all we have in the way of decorations. We haven't gotten a lot of stuff since we have always been in a small apartment with little in the way of storage so the plethora of decorations I would like to have will have to wait a little longer until we live somewhere bigger than 750 sq. ft.

Happy Hump Day! Can't wait to see all your decorations!!

xoxo

Thanksgiving Day

Just wanted to share a few pictures from our Thanksgiving Day with you. It was fairly low key but fun...

Greg carved the turkey:
Kristin made sugar cookies:
Greg's aunt Phoebe:
Greg's dad:
His mom:
Kristin (sister-in-law) and I:

{He was not being a good picture-taker that day... every picture of us looks goofy}
That's all... I really don't have too much else exciting to say right now. My to-do list this week is absolutely insane! And last night? I did nothing but play on the computer! Dumb!

Target tonight and then more crafting! I just love how inspired and crafty I feel lately!

Anyway, be back tomorrow with pictures of putting up our {little} Christmas tree!

Oh, and yes, I still have a couple more wedding recap posts that I need to finish... I promise to do those very soon!! Still haven't posted the details... my favorite part!!!

Anyway, have a fabulous Tuesday!

xoxo

{Not Me! Monday}

Ugh so not happy that it is Monday already. Oh well....

Last night we did {not} go see a Kelly Clarkson concert for dirt cheap. We did {not} find the tickets off a girl on Craiglist who said there were going to $30. When we met her last night to get the tickets and pay her, my husband did {not} try to hand her $60 assuming they were $30 each only to have her say "oh, no they are $30 total." He did {not} try to give her the $60 anyway but she wouldn't accept any more than $30. These tickets were {not} super good seats that would have normally cost at least $70 a piece!

The concert was {not} great but I am {not} now dealing with a stupid headache.... ugh.

Alright, thats all I got today.... I know there was more but this headache is making it hard to concentrate and think of what else there was.

Hope you all have an awesome Monday!

xoxo

Etsy

I finally did it.

I forced my self to stop agonizing over it.

I told myself yesterday that I had to list something by December 1st.

I needed to stop over thinking it and second guessing myself.

I had to just take a chance and see what happened.

So I finally listed items in my etsy shop.

There are only 8 items so far but I have a ton more to list {just no pictures of them yet}.

I have no idea if anyone would even buy what I listed so far but I'll never know if I don't just try right?

I also have a bunch of projects I am working on but they aren't complete yet... one day soon {hopefully} those will be listed too.

So feel free to check it out, but please, I beg of you, do not feel obligated to buy something just because you are a blog friend. I absolutely, do not want that.

Promise?

Ok, good then I will give you the link now. :) {click the bottom link that says xoxohandmadedesigns}

Etsy Buy Handmade xoxohandmadedesigns

Hope you are all having an awesome Sunday!

xoxo

Happiness is...

1. A four day weekend... Remember when I said that all weeks should be four-day work weeks? Well I was wrong... all weekENDS should be four days and work weeks should only be 3. Yep!

2. Thankfulness... it is nice to be grateful and remember all the wonderful things in our lives.

3. A smooth week while my supervisor was out of town... she definitely over-prepared me for broken arms or licensing showing up and luckily it all went smoothly and there were no broken bones!

4. Excited to get to see my family next weekend... I really missed them yesterday and I am super excited to see them next weekend.

5. Having family that loves you... nothing like it!

Happy {Black} Friday, everyone!!

xoxo

Thankful

Today I feel thankful.

I am thankful for:

my home...
my job...
a boss who is respectful, fun, and easy to work with...
money in the bank...
a car to get me to all the places I like/need to go...
a warm place to lay my head...
books on my bookshelf, movies in the cabinet, games ready to be played, music that I can blast and sing at the top of my lungs, and a DVR to catch all my shows when I miss them...
Target...

I am also very thankful for:

the friends I have in my real life...
and the friends I have in blog/twitter/facebook-land. the friends I have made through this blog are amazing, wonderful, and incomparable. I am thankful for you, sweet friends.

Also, I am thankful for these things too...
{thankful things are on the pictures - click to make bigger if you can't read it :)}









Thankful for family, near and far, because really, family is where it all is. Jobs will come and go, things will come and go, but family and friends... those things will always be a part of your heart and soul.

Thankful for my life.
Thankful for my God who is always there, always listening, and always loving.
Today I am thankful.

What are you thankful for?

Happy Happy Happy Thanksgiving to you all! I hope you are able to enjoy a wonderful time with your family and friends and you remember all that you are thankful for today.

Love you all!
xoxo