what we gave for christmas 2016

I know everyone will soon be sharing what they got for Christmas, but I prefer this version much more! Planning out and giving the perfect presents really is the best part of Christmas. And I'm just going to say it, we totally nailed Christmas this year. 

Sometimes picking the right gift can be stressful, but this year Tom and I really focused on parring down our gift list and simplifying things. Everything centered around giving meaningful gifts vs. simply buying things for the sake of the holidays. And when you have people telling you that you're a great gift giver, you know that you picked the right present. 

feeling festive

Merry Christmas Eve! 

it's that time of year again

We got our Christmas cards out a lot later than I had hoped, but they should arrive just in time for Christmas. We were beyond busy with finishing up our semesters in grad school, so these totally got thrown together at the last minute. 

a year of travel through ornaments

If you can believe it, I almost didn't do a Christmas tree this year. Things are a bit complicated by the fact that Tom and I are in a long distance marriage again. For one, I wasn't feeling like decorating just for myself. And it so happens that our Christmas ornaments are at his place…well not all them.

Somehow, I ended up with the ornaments that we've picked up during our travels this past year. I did decide to do a tree, knowing that it would be a bit sparse, but it turns out that we accumulated enough ornaments this year to cover a 6 foot tree! Who knew? Especially since we only picked up ornaments at about half our travel destinations. Here's a peak at some of the ones from my tree this year.

merry in mexico

I will forever be in love with our holiday tradition of gifting each other an adventure for Christmas. We started doing this years ago right after we got married. While I love giving and receiving all the things at Christmastime, nothing beats creating memories and once in a lifetime experiences that we will have forever. 

snow, rain, and hail at Mt. Rainier

We encountered every weather condition you can have during our time in Mt Rainier. Well everything except sunshine. As we went up and down the mountain, we alternated between torrential downpours, wind, fog, hail, and snow. Even still, I would never trade in this amazing day. Yes, I would have appreciated a little sun (and warmth), but nothing could stunt the beauty of Mount Rainer National Park. 

buying all the sweaters: november budget

Sharing this clothing budget a little late thanks to being in Mexico over Thanksgiving. Also, thanks to putting in 60 hour weeks with grad school. Thankfully, things are winding down and back to a somewhat normal schedule now, which gives me a little more free time to share about important things, like clothes. With the cooler weather surfacing, I realized that I had a huge gap in my closet...sweaters. Aside from a few obnoxious holidays ones, I had almost none. So November was a month of buying all the sweaters.