Christmas 2012 Talk!

[audball]

Thanks for the invite, but I already posted on that one on page 1 . The timeline is April but like everyone else I am hoping I won't have to wait that long!!!

Boo! I'm sorry...I missed it!

 

[Chewbacca]

32 days!

I haven't done ANYTHING productive yet. I have a coupon which will take over 50% off the christmas tree I've picked, I guess I should buy it this week! I DID organise the Secret Santa's. I'm a bit nervous about them because I made them into scratchies, and when SO did his he mauled it almost beyond readability! Not much finesse apparently, I'm afraid others will do the same! I'll be buying for SO's newest SIL.

On the plus side, SO approved the present I picked out for him! Which I have to order online offshore. I also haven't any ideas for my own present. I'm really falling behind here!









Thought I'd pop some pictures in for fun. Yes, SO is getting two pairs of the same shoe!

 

[madelise]

Oh, I cannot wait to live in my own place again! I haven't had a Christmas tree since I was a child! I only got one during ONE year. The one holiday year when SO and I lived together, we were both boggled down with our last quarters in school, finals, and crazy work hours.. so we skimped.

How are you going to decorate yours? Will you be buying an artificial, white Christmas tree?
I think I'll buy artificial (not this year, obviously), just because real ones "shed" their darn pine needles and are a PITA to clean! Plus, everyone knows how CHEAP Madelise is! I would love to have a tradition of buying a Christmas ornament with the year, and with some sort of nudge to the past year's memories.





Like, the year we get married = homage to our wedding.
The year we have a kid = sonogram photo.
And the year written in puffy paint!

 

[audball]

Love the decorating!

We put up our little stuff today. A 32" fiberoptic tree. We have a pack of 1" bulbs in different colors (around 30), a kitty in a stocking (for Darwin), a schnauzer in a stocking (for Mimi), two mittens holding hands with our names and 1st Christmas 2011 ornament, a homemade one my sister made us that has two hearts and 2011 with a tiny silver angel on top. We also have a Mr. And Mrs. snowman a coworker gave me last year that stand under the tree together, stockings we made on a Christmas themed date night last year, and a new purchase! A Peanuts figurine from Hallmark, that has Charlie Brown putting the red ornament on the wimpy tree from "A Charlie Brown Christmas". It says "Love makes all the different" across the front. We LOVED It.

We've also got all the windows open, are wearing fuzzy socks, sharing a blanket, burning a Cinnamon Stick candle, and LOVING every second of it.

 

[Chewbacca]

Yes, I'm going with white! I like old ornaments - eg wooden nativity figures, flocked santas, cellophane bells, mercury glass baubles etc. I have some pom pom garlands. I'll have to buy new lights for it, since all my others have green cords.

I bought SO's sneakers and a couple of other things last night. I found a 10% off code, and my shipping was free (!!!). It doesn't look like I'll have to pay duty either, so I'm happy!

I love the idea of an ornament tradition!

audball, you two are the CUTEST! That Peanuts ornament! Aww.

 

[audball]

Aww, thanks! I'll try to take some pictures tomorrow!

 

[LoveLikeCrazy]

We put up our tree tonight! So excited. It's our second Christmas together. We started the "tradition" last year of buying a couples ornament every year. Last year was these cute reindeer...not really anything to do with us but...whatever it was our first so I love it. THIS YEARS... Is TOTALLY us. It's a white and black iPhone, they have little faces and the girl (white one) has a bow in her hair haha...it's perfect right down to the colors (mine is white and his is black). I know it sounds weird, but it is REALLY cute! Besides that our tree is nice and clean and traditional...shiny green and red, frosted red white and green ones, silver, and sparkly glitter silver ones lol. I also put up our stockings. Eeeep. I just LOVE Christmas! I can't wait to watch elf this weekend! Hope everyone had a nice turkey day!

 

[audball]

We put up our tree tonight! So excited. It's our second Christmas together. We started the "tradition" last year of buying a couples ornament every year. Last year was these cute reindeer...not really anything to do with us but...whatever it was our first so I love it. THIS YEARS... Is TOTALLY us. It's a white and black iPhone, they have little faces and the girl (white one) has a bow in her hair haha...it's perfect right down to the colors (mine is white and his is black). I know it sounds weird, but it is REALLY cute! Besides that our tree is nice and clean and traditional...shiny green and red, frosted red white and green ones, silver, and sparkly glitter silver ones lol. I also put up our stockings. Eeeep. I just LOVE Christmas! I can't wait to watch elf this weekend! Hope everyone had a nice turkey day!

LOVE IT! WE need to share pictures of our Christmas decor!

I promise I'll try and snap some pictures tonight. Andrew and I got new phones yesterday! We both went with the Motorola Razr HD, he got black and I got white!

 

[audball]

Yes, I'm going with white! I like old ornaments - eg wooden nativity figures, flocked santas, cellophane bells, mercury glass baubles etc. I have some pom pom garlands. I'll have to buy new lights for it, since all my others have green cords.

I bought SO's sneakers and a couple of other things last night. I found a 10% off code, and my shipping was free (!!!). It doesn't look like I'll have to pay duty either, so I'm happy!

I love the idea of an ornament tradition!

audball, you two are the CUTEST! That Peanuts ornament! Aww.

We were at the mall yesterday and stopped back in Hallmark. So glad I picked it up when I did, they were ALL OUT! I would have been SOOO sad to lose it 2 years in a row!

 

[LoveLikeCrazy]

here's my summary pic-stitch photo...

my stocking is the bigger one we also got the ornament personalized but i posted the "pre-personalization" pic...

 

[audball]

Love them LLC!

Here are some of our pictures!

We have a 32" fiberoptic tree on top of our Ikea Secretary desk in the entryway. We can see it from every room of the house pretty much.

We have some cute ornaments, but they're all too heavy for our little tree, so they go elsewhere. The mittens (our 1st Christmas ornament) hang on the knob of the secretary desk between our stockings. The 2011 with 2 hearts homemade ornament my sister did for us is hanging from the two knobs to the beneath storage of the desk. The only heavy ornaments on the tree are our Darwin and Mimi ornaments that have to be on the bottom tucked all the way onto the branch resting against the tree base!

We made our stockings from kits for a date night last year. They were cheap kits (less than 5 bucks each). We each sewed the felt pieces together and decorated them ourselves. We've been shopping for our "forever" stockings since last year and haven't found anything we really love yet. We REALLY want to have larger sized Santa and Mrs. Claus stockings but we are coming to find that Mrs. Claus stockings 1) are hard to find and 2) the ones we do find are NOT pretty. We may have to switch gears to like a Mr. and Mrs. Snowman or Penguins or something...ooh! Or Mr. and Mrs. Gingerbread people!

 

[audball]

Cuteness Warning!

I suggested to Andrew that we get a new ornament every year. So like we have the mittens that say 1st Christmas 2011, moving forward it would be 2nd Christmas 2012, 3rd Christmas 2013, etc...

He asked, "so what about when we have 53rd Christmas? That's a lot of ornaments!"
I just love when he talks about us so far in the future.

 

[LoveLikeCrazy]

aud! LOVE the peanuts ornament!

i also love the yearly ornament thing...which is what me and B do too

I love your stockings too...so creative! You have to keep those even if you "replace" them.

 

[MBKRH]

I love all of your trees and decorations! I love the idea of yearly ornaments. This is our first tree, but our second Christmas together. Maybe once we're married, I'll do the yearly ornament thing. It's kind of late to start now.


Well, I'll post my tree. It's a 4 foot, black, pre-lit tree. I bought a strand of white LED lights, and all our ornaments are White Sox. (Yes, that's why the tree is black). The only non-Sox ornaments are the "K" at the top (for both our last names, until I take his ) and my Christmas pickle (gotta embrace my German heritage). Our little stockings are more decorative than functional, obviously. Not quite sure yet where we're going to put them. We need a tree skirt, but it's hard to find either black, white, or silver in a smaller size. It doesn't bother me, but M insisted we get one. I told him "if you can find one, we'll have one."



ETA: Okay, we do have some silver snowflakes, silver glass balls, white stars, and stuff that are non-White Sox. There's also a couple of glass baseball ornaments. Otherwise, the White Sox theme is prominent with black, white, and silver.

 

[madelise]

Awwww
All of your trees and decorations are so cute and festive!!! I wish I had a tree

Aud - I love the idea of the yearly ornaments. I've always wanted to this. I think I wrote that somewhere? Ugh, stupid not-living together = stupid no-yearly-ornaments! IS THAT AN ORNAMENT OF DARWIN AND MIMI?!?!! OMG it looks just like them, esp the MIMI!! I hear ya on not finding nice stockings. I'm not even that picky, I just want a dark burgundy velvet one, with a very very fluffy white part. I remember seeing them so often as a kid, and always wanting one. Everytime I see one that's "worthy" looking, it's way too expensive. SO has his stocking from last year, a cheapy felt one I got from the dollar store. It's HUGE! I can fit my leg in it, and then some! I think I want to decorate it so that it becomes "his" stocking, for years to come.

LLC - your tree looks amazing! It's so furnished! I love those iPhones! Hehe. I love being "that couple" with the matching cellphones in black and white.. But stupid SO hates Apple. I think I'll have to convert to the Galaxy next year, so we can be "that couple" again. It's cute!!

MBKRH - OKAY girl, you gotta explain that Christmas pickle thing! LOL! What???! I'm partially German, but my dad's side is more culturally Italian, so I have no idea what the heck that means. What?



















As for Christmas gifts… I thought I got mine this week. I've been waiting for a few packages this week, and got one from Steve Madden. I couldn't understand I didn't order anything from Steve Madden? So I opened it, and I found a pair of crystal studded platform pumps.



If ya'll haven't gotten the idea yet from my gaudy tastes.. these are very "ME". Except, I like quality bling. I knew I spent a lot of time looking at studded pumps lately, and I couldn't figure out when I bought them. The shipping was to me, and the receipt was in my name. I know I've been super stressed lately, and have had lack of sleep followed with random sessions of too much sleep. I could not, for the life of me, figure out when the hell I bought these damned pumps! Either way, I didn't like the quality, and the cost was too much for a pair that wasn't made of leather/real crystal. I was annoyed with myself. How could I let myself UNCONSCIOUSLY BUY THINGS? Especially for heels that I'd probably never wear more than 10x?! So I took the receipt upstairs to my room, and left the shoes in the living room and forgot about it. Well, I didn't want to think about it, since it made me mad at myself. HOW COULD I BE BUSTING OUT THE CREDIT CARD SO LATE AT NIGHT THAT I CAN'T RECALL THE PURCHASES?!

I was sleep deprived, so I slept a bunch, and woke up to a text at 3AM. SO texted me, asking if I received a package today. I said no, I didn't get any packages for him. He asked me to double check the front door. While walking downstairs, I passed the shoes, and I said, OHMYGOD, NO WAY, YOU BOUGHT THESE?! He rarely surprises me. He NEVER surprises me if it's not on a special day. He never shops early for anniversaries/presents. He's notorious for postponing shopping until too late, and attempting to rectify by giving "cash gifts". Worse, he's notorious for buying crappy gifts that are not my taste at all. He bought me something that was so "me" this time, that I thought I bought it myself! It's been a few days, and I'm still laughing at myself. The pumps aren't working out, though, so I'll have to return them. SO and I agreed I'm more suited for flats, so I'll just buy myself some flats with that money.. and I'll let him help pick the pair out.

I thought this was my Christmas present, so I mentioned he was such a good boy for buying early this year, but he said this was "just thinking of me". He's. Never. Been. This. Mushy. Before! So my spidey senses are on high alert.

 

[Rosebloom]

I love all of your trees and decorations! I love the idea of yearly ornaments. This is our first tree, but our second Christmas together. Maybe once we're married, I'll do the yearly ornament thing. It's kind of late to start now.


Well, I'll post my tree. It's a 4 foot, black, pre-lit tree. I bought a strand of white LED lights, and all our ornaments are White Sox. (Yes, that's why the tree is black). The only non-Sox ornaments are the "K" at the top (for both our last names, until I take his ) and my Christmas pickle (gotta embrace my German heritage). Our little stockings are more decorative than functional, obviously. Not quite sure yet where we're going to put them. We need a tree skirt, but it's hard to find either black, white, or silver in a smaller size. It doesn't bother me, but M insisted we get one. I told him "if you can find one, we'll have one."



ETA: Okay, we do have some silver snowflakes, silver glass balls, white stars, and stuff that are non-White Sox. There's also a couple of glass baseball ornaments. Otherwise, the White Sox theme is prominent with black, white, and silver.

We love the White Sox in our house too!!

 

[MBKRH]

The pickle is hidden among Christmas tree decorations on Christmas Eve. The first child to find the pickle on Christmas morning receives an extra present for his or her good work and the first adult to find the pickle is granted good fortune for the year.

The reason why you may not of heard of it is because most Germans have never heard of the legend, and it doesn't fit with the German tradition of opening gifts on Christmas Eve rather than Christmas morning. I myself never really heard of it until a couple of years ago.

So, it's a bit strange as to where the legend came from/how it started, and who started it.

I know technically the pickle on my tree shouldn't be on there yet, but it's pretty and I like it, darn it! And if I take it off and hide it, it wouldn't work too well, as it's not a very full tree and will easily be spotted.

@Rosebloom. Rock on! My sister's a Cubs fan- I think she was dropped on her head one too many times as a child.

 

[star sparkle]

Christmas this year is going to be suuuuper low-key for us. FI is going to be out of the country and I'm going to be out of state for actual Christmas day, so we aren't even spending it together. We'll also be in the middle of moving him/us into our new place, so we don't want to pull out the decorations only to have to put them back away to move.

And since the wedding will be here so soon with lots of associated costs, we decided not to do gifts this year. We're going to go out to a nice dinner before he heads out of town at our favorite special occasion place, and we'll prob buy something together that we need for our new place (there are a couple of new furniture pieces we want/need, so may as well).

 

[pandabee]

I love all those Christmas traditions!!! I would love to implement some of these when SO and I live together eventually. They are so cute!! I like the annual ornament idea very much.

madelise that is too funny!!! Good for him for buying something completely your taste. Even if the pumps don't work out. You should get flats that are equally sparkly and strassed out!!!

MBKRH that pickle tradition is very neat. SO is very proud of his German heritage (great-grandparents I think? came over from Germany) and I love pickles so that may be something I have to start doing as well!


update: SO claims he has no money and doesn't want to buy Christmas presents this year I asked him how much we should spend on each other for Christmas presents and he said none. but just because it's fun, I want to buy him something still, and I want him to buy me something. hrmph. #firstworldproblems

 

[LoveLikeCrazy]

update: SO claims he has no money and doesn't want to buy Christmas presents this year I asked him how much we should spend on each other for Christmas presents and he said none. but just because it's fun, I want to buy him something still, and I want him to buy me something. hrmph. #firstworldproblems

aweee this happened to me on v-day...i was low on money so *I* imposed the "no gifting" --- but i was assuming he'd still get me something...well he is a guy and took it LITERALLY. VDay came and past with nothing except a card . i was mad and kinda held it against him, which was wrong of me...but come on it's a girls holiday anyways...i think he learned his lesson though...no present still means "at least flowers"

so i guess the moral is...dont get the hopes up bc u dont want to resent him and he was upfront about not having money so i doubt he was trying to mislead you in any way. maybe talk him into a creative or homemade gift? orrrr some cute date night etc?

 

[madelise]

MBKRH- wow, lol, yup never heard of that tradition! I love pickles. I can eat a whole jar of them in one sitting. I can even drink pickle juice. It's great for muscle cramps. So how does the "first one to find it" thing work if you're the one to put it there?

StarSparkle - Oh, I'm sure he's going to send you a bouquet of flowers Wow, the wedding is coming up very shortly!!!!

Pandabee - He did buy me another pair of stressed flats! I have to return them, the darn crystals fall out so easily. X_X FWP for sure. We did the no presents thing the year we moved in together, since we moved in at the beginning of December, and spent all our money on furniture and supplies. It's slightly disappointing on the day-of, esp if you're on Facebook, looking at all the pretty toys your friends post.. But it passes. If you want to spend $ on him anyway, why don't you two go get dressed up cute, and dine somewhere special to you? Or visit a restaurant that you've been dying to try? BTW, how was meeting his parents???

 

[audball]

aud! LOVE the peanuts ornament!

i also love the yearly ornament thing...which is what me and B do too

I love your stockings too...so creative! You have to keep those even if you "replace" them.

Aww, thanks! We adore it and were so sad to lose it last year for having waited too long. It turns out last year was the first year it was available (Dated 2011) so we love it even more knowing that it came out for our First Christmas!

And the stockings were fun to make! They are by no means high quality. After a year of storage, we had to re-glue some of the decor on, but they'll work until we find our forever ones someday!

 

[audball]

MBKRH - I love the black/silver tree! I'd never considered a fake that wasn't green/semi-traditional. Ours is fiber optic and I just LOVE how the fiber optic lights look all twinkly. We hoep to get a 7-9 foot fiberoptic tree one day!

And LOVE your Christmas pickle! Any chance you can post a shot for us?

 

[audball]

Aud - I love the idea of the yearly ornaments. I've always wanted to this. I think I wrote that somewhere? Ugh, stupid not-living together = stupid no-yearly-ornaments! IS THAT AN ORNAMENT OF DARWIN AND MIMI?!?!! OMG it looks just like them, esp the MIMI!! I hear ya on not finding nice stockings. I'm not even that picky, I just want a dark burgundy velvet one, with a very very fluffy white part. I remember seeing them so often as a kid, and always wanting one. Everytime I see one that's "worthy" looking, it's way too expensive. SO has his stocking from last year, a cheapy felt one I got from the dollar store. It's HUGE! I can fit my leg in it, and then some! I think I want to decorate it so that it becomes "his" stocking, for years to come.

Thanks hun! I love all our little decorations and can't wait until we have a house and can do more! And YES! Darwin/Mimi ornaments! I found them at a local pet store on clearance! Love them. And stockings are SOOO hard. I'm even willing to pay a decent amount if we can find something we really love and they're good quality. Finding matching Mr./Mrs. ones are hard though.

As for Christmas gifts… I thought I got mine this week. I've been waiting for a few packages this week, and got one from Steve Madden. I couldn't understand I didn't order anything from Steve Madden? So I opened it, and I found a pair of crystal studded platform pumps.

I thought this was my Christmas present, so I mentioned he was such a good boy for buying early this year, but he said this was "just thinking of me". He's. Never. Been. This. Mushy. Before! So my spidey senses are on high alert.

I loved your story! How funny and double AWWW at him "just thinking about you!" Love when they do that. I hope you find the perfect pair of replacement flats!

 

[audball]

Christmas this year is going to be suuuuper low-key for us. FI is going to be out of the country and I'm going to be out of state for actual Christmas day, so we aren't even spending it together. We'll also be in the middle of moving him/us into our new place, so we don't want to pull out the decorations only to have to put them back away to move.

And since the wedding will be here so soon with lots of associated costs, we decided not to do gifts this year. We're going to go out to a nice dinner before he heads out of town at our favorite special occasion place, and we'll prob buy something together that we need for our new place (there are a couple of new furniture pieces we want/need, so may as well).

I don't blame you at all! I love decorating but I'd refrain if I were in your situation too. You could always get something tiny if you really want! Andrew's Mom got a small 12" rosemary tree last year that smelled SOOO amazing! It would be no muss no fuss!

And great idea on getting something for your new place. That's amazing! Your new place is beautiful!

 

[audball]

update: SO claims he has no money and doesn't want to buy Christmas presents this year I asked him how much we should spend on each other for Christmas presents and he said none. but just because it's fun, I want to buy him something still, and I want him to buy me something. hrmph. #firstworldproblems

I agree with others, your best bet is to just be honest. Make it fun, set a small limit ($10? $20?) and then you each still get something to open. Andrew and I aren't big present people, but we did exchange small valued presents last year. This year we just splurged on new phones that weren't on sale as a combo birthday for both/Christmas for both on our new FAMILY PLAN! (love saying that!). So we decided not to exchange gifts this year. We will both exchange cards for both birthdays and Christmas. We'll also do our themed date nights leading up to Christmas and we'll do stocking stuffers for each other (with a low limit of $10-20 total).

 

[marcy]

We do a family get together before Christmas and have dinner followed by tons of Christmas cookie. On Christmas we spend a quiet day and have dinner with my parents.

DH and I usually exchange gifts that we pick for ourselves then do surprise stocking stuffers. This year we are not exchanging any gifts since we hope to be moving in to our new house a few days before Christmas. We will put a big red bow on the front door.

 

[pandabee]

Thanks guys. I did go ahead and buy us a set of these gel-memory pillows that I saw on groupon (which reminds me, my friend made a comment that groupon/living social have become some sort of glorified sky mall websites...oh well, I kinda like it!! hehe) because I hate the pillows on his bed, they're flat and so not comfortable. And I still had some groupon bucks left.

The other thing is I'm still not 100% sure what both of our Christmas plans will be, whether he'll be back home or not because he's mentioned going back to visit his family from Christmas to New Year's...but then he won't be in town anymore after that anyway because all of his rotations are back home! So I'm sure we'll make some time to have our own Christmas celebration before he leaves. I don't believe he was trying to mislead me or anything, I'm just a little disappointed that he didn't seem to have any interest in doing even a little gift exchange. Oh well, we will probably go out to eat or something instead, unless I find the time to make a fancy dinner!

madelise boo about the crystals! Was it the same brand as the pumps you got? Meeting the family was good, everyone was really nice! It was very laid back, we had lunch with his parents and sister and her bf, then relaxed for a bit before heading to dinner with most of the cousins on his mom's side. I played with some of his cousins after dinner hehe they were so adorable! And then the next day we stopped in to see his grandmother (dad's side) before we left town. So it was a pretty productive trip.

 

[MBKRH]

MBKRH - I love the black/silver tree! I'd never considered a fake that wasn't green/semi-traditional. Ours is fiber optic and I just LOVE how the fiber optic lights look all twinkly. We hoep to get a 7-9 foot fiberoptic tree one day!

And LOVE your Christmas pickle! Any chance you can post a shot for us?

Thank you!
Here's the pickle. My sister bought it for us last Christmas. It's glass, with a lot of glitter. She got it at the Christkindlmarket in downtown Chicago.

 

[MBKRH]

MBKRH- wow, lol, yup never heard of that tradition! I love pickles. I can eat a whole jar of them in one sitting. I can even drink pickle juice. It's great for muscle cramps. So how does the "first one to find it" thing work if you're the one to put it there?

I love pickles, too! When we go to Costco, I'm always buying those huge jars of the little snack sized ones. Never drank pickle juice, but I'm certainly not against it.

I'm not sure how it would work. I would have to have my sister come over on Christmas Eve, and hide it, I suppose. But, our tree is much too small, and so it wouldn't get hidden too well. So I guess I can't uphold the tradition.