Iki Express: 2011

Sorry that poorly timed post prior to this one. It wasn’t the internet that I was having trouble with, it was Windows Live…have yall ever seen an ‘Error 502 Bad Gateway’ pop up in WLW? I Googled it and computer talk is basically like Chinese to me, so that was not helpful.

So like any computer-illiterate person would do, I just waited a couple of days and tried again and it worked! So we’re back in blogging business.

How was your Christmas? Ours was lovely, and like most holidays it was a reminder of of the copious amounts of blessings in my life.

One of our Withers traditions is going to Christmas Eve communion at the Presbyterian Church, then come back over to my in-laws to take a family picture.

This year we were doing our New Years Eve card picture and decided to do a champagne-toast theme, but that didn’t exactly go as planned. SOMEBODY was a little cranky pants throughout our photo shoot. I mean seriously, look at this face: IMG_4842 - Copy

Princess Lilly was not havin’ it. She didn’t cry, but she certainly didn’t smile either. I think she was just mad because she couldn’t have any champagne. Can’t say I blame her.

We finally ended up with a couple of good ones: And I thought this one was cute, with Lilly and her grandmama giving each other love. Sweet, right: So I’ll let my mother-in-law decide since she is one sending them out. After picture time, we all headed over to our cousin’s home, who have a big family Christmas Eve cocktail party that is always fun to see the extended family.

Christmas morning this year was special since Christmas fell on a Sunday. The WHOLE fam joined Tom and I at our church, and enjoyed a WONDERFUL Christmas service. I cried of course….sometimes I cry in church usually because I just love the music so much and feel overwhelmed with thankfullness! The Spirit just moves me, I tell you what! :)

After church we headed over to my in-law for Present City, USA. Per tradition, we all sit around in a circle and open presents one by one. I love making it last, and seeing what everyone else gets everyone. Tom got some snow camo, which I’m sure he’ll get to use for approximately 4 hours per hunting season.

In preparation for the arrival of Baby Atwood in April, Lilly got lots of baby doll accessories so she can get in some good practice as a big sister. It should also be said until these pictures were taken Lilly was dressed in her Christmas best, but demanded she put on her ‘twirl dress’ from her Grammy. Sara Whit says she wears this dress and head band every. single. day. This year us five kids (me, Tom, Sara Whit, Brian, and Myra) decided to draw names and I drew Myra’s name! She asked for new tennies!!! I love these crazy hot pink shoes! Myra and her daddy both got new shoes. New jammies and The Help for my mother-in-law….When we were done opening all the gifts there were a couple more big ones for Lilly…. A baby doll high-chair from Mamie and Boo: And a baby doll bed from LaLa and Tom Of course she loved it and high-fived Uncle Tom for her gift! She immediately proceeded to put her babies in their respective spots…high chair, stroller, bed…her babies have got it made! Although I did find out that none of them have names. She’s very particular about where they all ‘sleep,’ but not big on giving them names. After present-opening we ate and ate and ate….

and then laid around for a while in a food coma. After dinner was some fun family time and lots of silliness ensued… Myra and Lilly were the only ones with enough energy to do anything other than sit around and complain about how tight their pants were. So they wrestled and giggled on the floor for a good hour. All in all it was a lovely Christmas in the Delta!

As usual, I feel like I didn’t take enough pictures but I just get so caught up in having fun with family that usually the camera is the last thing on my mind.

I hope each of you had an amazing Christmas full of blessings and laughter with those close to you.

Here’s to a wonderful New Year! Catch ya in 2012….

Updated to say: I wrote this on Christmas Eve and couldn’t get it to post because the internet ‘round these parts was acting wonky. Shocking, I know.

We wish you a Merry Christmas!!!! All the way from the Mississippi Delta. Oh, Reba…always so enthusiastic in pictures.

Merry Christmas Eve everyone! I had planned to get a Christmas decoration post up much earlier than this but life got in the way, as always. So today I decided to throw this post up in an effort to share my Christmas-y house with you!

First up: the tree. I kind of hate it. I think it looks too sparse. And that Santa hat on top was a total afterthought, and I apologize for it. It’s not really ‘me,’ you know, but it will do for this year. Next year I’ll plan better and do it up a little more fancy, but simply didn’t have the time this year. But just get ready for Christmas Tree 2012. I know you’ll be waiting with bated breath.

What do NOT hate, however…is our little mantle! Aw, cute right? It looks a little junky and hodge-podge right now, but that is our life during the holidays let’s just be honest. But I like it like that…lived in, not museum-like.I made our stockings this year. It was surprisingly easy! Here’s what I used, my goal was to spend very little moo-lah. Everything came from Joann’s:

Dog fabric for Reba’s stocking: already had
Linen fabric & plaid fabric for people stockings: $5
Black felt for lining of stockings: had leftover from Halloween Pillows
Red ball fringe: $4
Red Ric Rack: $2
Sweater trim: already had
Letters to personalize: $8
Stain and red spray paint for letters: already had
Total: $19 for four stockings….under $5 per stocking!

And how precious is Reba’s stocking! I had this dog fabric and loved how it turned out. I decided to hang the letters instead of having our names monogrammed on them. I thought it was cute and a little different. The tops of mine and Tom’s stockings are made out of an old white sweater I had, that could not be worn anymore due to a stain in the front. So I cut up the back and used it on the stockings. And the top trim of my mom’s stocking (the H) I got for like $1.50 in the remnant pile at Joann’s. So I guess that’s why the tree is a little lacking this year…I spent all my time on the stockings and I think it was worth it!

Also in our Christmas room I moved the black frames from the TV room (to make room for the red ones…more on that later in the post). I love the shadow box on the middle shelf. Sorry this picture is blurry, but it says, “Our cheeks are nice and rosy and comfy cozy are we….”

I just printed them off in Microsoft word on lined the area with red and white wrapping paper. Another blurry picture…I told you this post was a fast one!…of my little Christmas village! The little ice cream parlor is my favorite. This is a shot of our dining room, if you’re standing in front of the Christmas tree. In the past, I’ve done a little more ‘glamorous’ table (if you can even call it that). But this year I decided to go a little more rustic.

And I only spent $2 on this table because all I had to buy was a bag of fresh cranberries from the grocery store. I already had the vases and candle sticks. I also already had the white table cloth and burlap runner. I just added some ornaments, pine cones, magnolia leaves, votives in mason jars and voila…Christmas table. I also love my little pottery animals hiding amongst the pine cones and ornaments! Hey little ducky…. And little froggy…. The centerpiece is my favorite part.It’s kind of inspired by this arrangement my mom sent me for my birthday! You just put a smallish vase is a larger vase and pour in the filler of your choice…in my case this time it was cranberries. Fill the inner vase with water and then put your foliage in. Pretty, right? And so easy. One more fun new thing in this room is this pencil sketch of the family home where Tom’s mom and dad currently live. Myra had these done for all of us for Christmas last year and I JUST got ours framed. Here’s a shot of it in the room…I just love it! And of course I had to throw in a picture of the shelves…they’re just like last year with the red frames I DIY’d. Bought at Goodwill and spray painted red. Remember the shelved looked like this for October…and basically the same for November, just switched out the jack-o-lanterns for gords and stuff that went unpictured.

Anyway, all the frames have pictures of Christmas pasts in them. Below, our family Christmas picture from 2008, and a pic of Tom and I at the 2010 Tacky Christmas party. I love this picture of Lilly and my father-in-law from last year’s Christmas morning. Lilly riding her first tricycle in her Christmas pj’s with a little help from ‘Boo!’ Also in this room, I have six large matted photographs. The frames and mats are white, with black and white pictures. I love the crisp, white look for the rest of the year but for Christmas it needed to be….whats the word….Christmasfied! I just lined the mats with red ric rack and green grosgrain ribbon and secured it on the back with scotch tape. This way, the mats are not compromised and when Christmas is over the embellishments can easily be removed and go back to plain white. I thought this project could be changed up if you had some frames in a nursery or something…you could get ribbon or fabric to match the bedding…that would be cute and personalized…right? And cheap-o too! Gotta love that. And lastly, I had to share our leg lamp over in the bar! Too funny….we always get lots of laughs and compliments on this lamp! I hope you enjoyed this very quick Christmas home tour! And Reba and I wish you a very VERY Merry Christmas Eve!