It's Beginning To Look A lot Like Christmas... :)

It officially smells like a Christmas tree throughout our little house on the ridge...and we are soaking it up! After Church today, we ventured out to find our Christmas tree. After a little bit of a search, we chose this cute little tree...:)

Our tree getting trimmed up...

...and bagged up...

...and tied to our car...

Whit secured our tree for a safe ride home :) 

When we arrived home we brought him inside...

...he was all ready to be decorated...

so we turned on the Christmas music and went to work :) 

Whit is a master at stringing the Christmas lights...

Maya Angelou always says...

"You can tell a lot about people 

by the way they handle three things:

a rainy day, lost luggage and tangled Christmas tree lights."

:)

Lollie was our little helper :)

She exerted a lot of energy being a little elf  so she decided to take a break 

under the tree...

After the lights were all set, I hung our first ornament on our little tree...

Whit gave me this ornament for our first Christmas last year...

we have decided to make it a tradition that this is the first ornament we will hang on our tree each year, 

so we can remember where it all began. :) 

I bought these last year and they have become some of my favorite ornaments...

I think they are so cute! :) 

During our San Francisco/Sonoma trip in October, we picked up this ornament as a memento of our trip...

Lollie found a perfect napping spot...

Time to put the star on the top of the tree :) 

Our little tree and our little Lollie... :) 

Decorating for Christmas is a lot of work...Lollie is exhausted! :) 

Ever since I was a little girl, decorating the Christmas tree has been a very special time for me. Whitney, Will and I were always so excited to go and pick out our tree and spend the night covering the tree in all of our ornaments. Now that Whit and I have our own little tree, it is so special to start our own traditions and memories that we will always hold close to our hearts. :) 

Christmas isn't a season. It's a feeling.

~Edna Ferber

We are Thankful...and Whitney is a Bride!!! :)

What a wonderful Thanksgiving! I am having trouble even knowing where to begin...it was filled with so many exciting events! So I guess, I'll just start from the beginning of our Thanksgiving morning...

Whit and I drug ourselves out of bed woke up bright and early, as promised, and ventured to Belle Meade Boulevard for the 

18th Annual Boulevard Bolt...

There were over 8,200 people there this year...

It was a packed Boulevard but so much fun and, in the end, we were really happy we participated! 

So once the race was over, we headed home to get ready for 

our first round of Thanksgiving at my Mom's House...

Me and Whit on our second "married" Thanksgiving together... :) 

Me and the beautiful hostess... :) 

Sweet Grandmother and me...

So we were all visiting and waiting anxiously for our yummy lunch to be served...when in walked

Whitney and Keith with some exciting news...

THEY ARE ENGAGED!!!!! :) 

Here are Whitney and Keith as soon as they walked in the door telling their cute story...

The newly engaged couple :) 

Mom was SUPER excited and screaming...you can imagine! :) 

(Her reaction was similar to last Christmas when we surprised her with U2 tickets...we are all still trying to recover from that episode)

Whitney and Will...

Will and Keith being silly... :) 

Cute! :) 

The three ninjas of us... :) 

Will and I are so excited for Whitney!!

Whitney and Grandmother :)

Will and the brothers he's always wanted... :) 

So after all the excitement we sat down for 

our Thanksgiving lunch...

we had a lot to be thankful for! :) 

We had a delicious turkey this year! :)

Our pretty table...

Yummy Thanksgiving lunch...

Whit enjoyed every bite! :) 

After lunch, Whitney ran some wedding ideas past the 

"tribunal" made up of our aunts and my mom...you'll notice we have 3 "yays" and 1 "nay"...

It was very entertaining! :) 

After our first celebration, we went to another wonderful Thanksgiving dinner with Whit's side of the family!

It was so much fun and full of delicious food, lots of cute children, and fun family stories!

Look at all of the Gorham and Shuff grandchildren! :) 

This was truly a Thanksgiving we will never forget!

Whit and I, as well as our entire family, are so excited for Whitney and Keith...we cannot wait to continue the celebration of this wonderful couple!

Hope you all had a truly Happy Thanksgiving! :) 

Our Thanksgiving Traditions... :)

"As we express our gratitude, we must never forget that the

highest appreciation is not to utter words, but to live by them."

John F. Kennedy

On the Eve of Thanksgiving, I can't help but get a little excited

about a few Thanksgiving Day traditions that are coming up...

Whit and I are getting up in the morning and running run/walking  The Boulevard Bolt!

We have always thought this was such a great way to start off our Thanksgiving morning and the race gives us energy to make it through all of the family festivities!

And the first thing I always do when I wake up on Thanksgiving morning is turn on the Macy's Day Parade!!

I love to have this on while I'm cooking all my goodies for our family Thanksgiving celebrations!

It is magical! 

Most of all, I think Thanksgiving is one of my favorite holidays because of the special Thanksgiving memories I share with one of my most favorite people in the whole world...

my Grandmother...

When we were little girls, Whitney and I would always spend Thanksgiving Eve night at my Grandmother's house and help her prepare "Mr. Tom Turkey" (as she would so lovingly name him)...we would wash him and Grandmother would always make Tom Turkey talk and dance on the counter...she makes everything magical and so much fun.

Grandmother has always loved Thanksgiving and helps to remind us each year of what the holiday is really about.

I hope you all have a wonderful Thanksgiving and enjoy your own delicious Tom Turkey! :) 

Leaf Day with Lollie... :)

One of the things we love most about our house is our backyard! Our deck and outdoor area has become an extra living space for us to entertain and spend time together. However, we quickly learned that our wonderful backyard "hangout" also comes with a lot of yard work and maintenance. Every Fall, we have a  "leaf day" to try and get a handle on the massive amount of leaves that cover our backyard. A few weekends ago, we chose to have  our official "leaf day"... and it was exhausting exciting! :) 

Whit in the middle of his HUGE pile of leaves...

That's a lot of leaves...

Just to show you how deep the leaf pile was...

So of course our little helper, Lollie, wanted to get involved...

She's trying to figure out how she can 

make the most out of her first official "leaf day"...

So she decides to throw her toy in the leaf pile and jump on in...

...and she hides in the leaves...

...just in case you need a visual demo of just how much fun Lollie had during leaf day...

...can you see Lollie?...

Oh there she is! 

(with her trusty sidekick...

the Stuffed Snowman that Whit bought her a few weeks ago)

My Cute Outdoorsman...:) 

Lollie couldn't get enough of the leaf pile!

We had such a great time playing in the leaves! 

It was a reminder that Fall is truly here...and we are trying to soak up every minute of it! 

Is everyone getting excited about Thanksgiving...?!!

Much more to come... :)