Merry Christmas...And Lick Yo Candy Canes

Long (but terribly funny) story short, we have my little sister (Hayden) telling the camera on our home videos, "Merry Christmas Everybody...and Lick Yo Candy Canes!" No clue where she got this. Not even sure where she came up with most of the stuff she said when she was little but gosh wasn't she just the spunkiest thing ever! We noticed that she said this now ever famous Christmas saying among the Hayes family about 5-6 years ago and we've been saying it ever since. It's kind of a family joke.

The Christmas season has been in full force around our household. With all the decor and evergreen scented candles around the house, you'd think Santa Claus himself was living here. I must admit. I got into decorating for Christmas way more than I thought I would. Hence the budget debates when Kyle started noticing new Christmas decor around the house every other day. He admits now that it looks nice. How about a virtual tour?

I'm most proud of my hutch. I decorated it all by myself. My interior decorator was impressed.

Pay no attention to the reflection of the chandelier in the mirror. There are some things you can't change in a rental.

View of the den and my precious snow man pillow made by Megan.

On a side note, I went into a boutique here in Bham the other day and look what I found...a couch full of Megan's pillows. I freaked! The owners of the store loved that their pillows were made by someone who has lived in Alabama.

Dinning room table

Our nativity

My interior decorator got this for me last year for Christmas. It says "May all your Christmases be Crimson and White." Pretty cute. This is in our "Bama Baby Den."

 This little box of "O FFFFUDGE!!!" chocolate walnut fudge sits in our kitchen. My sister gave it to me last year as a surprise and I just had to keep the box. In my opinion, Ralphie bears a striking resemblance to my hubby when he was little and Ethan may or may not look a little like Randy.

 You be the judge. Weren't they just the cutest things though. They're going to kill me.

The other weekend my sister (a.k.a Martha) came to spend Saturday and Sunday with us. Saturday she helped me get ready for some friends we had over for the SEC Championship game. I put her in charge of the desserts..duh! Kyle made chili and our guests brought some appetizers. It was a nice chance to show off the Christmas decor.

Dessert station

Two baby mamas (Caroline and Sarah) and Sarah's baby daddy, John

 Miller and Katie

Hayden in a man sandwich between Kyle and Grant

On Sunday, we (Kyle, Hayden and I) went to an event called Kampfire for the King that raises money for The King's Home. I did my internship for The King's Home (formerly The King's Ranch) and ever since we have participated in their Youth Board. Kampfire for the King is kind of like a Christmas Festival. Last year my sister helped us out and we got to meet the main speaker, Kurt Cameron. Basically our childhood crush. He's still really cute and had an awesome testimony. Judging by the picture, we're pretty sure he has a crush on Hayden.

Don't pay attention to the other man. That's Kurt's body guard. Not sure why he thought we'd want him in the picture. Creeper.

Last year we helped with the Santa booth. This year, we got off easy and helped with the face painting booth. Kyle helped with the fishing rodeo too...he loved it. It was so much fun having my sister in town. Wish we lived in the same town!!!

Forgot to mention that the Guiness Book of World Records was there and we got to witness a man breaking the record for running the longest distance while on fire. Honestly it freaked me and Hayden out.

This past week, I went to a Christmas party at my friend Jenny's house. It was a fun time hanging out with some of my high school friends and catching up. We also did an ornament swap.

On Wednesday, my mom came in town and we did a little Christmas shopping. We had a good time shopping and spending some QT (quality time) together. This weekend, Kyle and I did some Christmas shopping at the Summit. We had our own Christmas party Saturday night. We grilled out steaks and made dirty martinis. Ha, making dirty martinis is something we've NEVER done. It made us feel like yuppies but provided some good laughs. I think the Michael Buble, Mad Men themed Christmas Cd caused the wild hair.

Shakin' it up!

Holiday Martini? Don't mind if I do!

Sunday we went back a holiday and had a mini Thanksgiving. Because we didn't get to get a Thanksgiving meal with my mom's family, Mama Hall made us some of her dressing; which I just love. Isn't she the sweetest? Kyle smoked a turkey and we had ourselves a mini Thanksgiving complete with Christmas dishes and decor. 

YUM!!!

Christmas Firsts: A Tree

Last week, we went and got our first Christmas tree. I laugh because I think we both had this picture perfect vision of what getting our first Christmas tree would be like. It obliviously did not include saying the ever famous line from the movie The Christmas story about 20 times, “Oooo fudge.” I’m convinced putting up a Christmas tree is a test of your marriage. For me, it was a lesson on how to stay calm and keep the peace despite Kyle’s urge to chunk the tree out the back door (due to the fact the tree wouldn’t stay put in the tree stand) and for Kyle it was a lesson on how to still love me despite my tendency to want everything to be just perfect (especially the Christmas tree). He’s also working on still loving me despite my urge to buy anything and everything Christmassy to decorate our home with… but that’s a whole other post. This all occurred to me while my arm was falling asleep as I was holding the tree up as Kyle tried to get the stand on. I’ll share this text message exchange between my friend, Caroline and I on Saturday. We both love our hubbies to pieces but I seriously couldn’t stop laughing when she texted me this. She’s actually a little bit more OCD when it comes to things like a straight Christmas tree than me. God bless Kyle and Grant. 

The good news is…we survived. Once we got the tree to cooperate it turned out to be a fun night. We both think our tree looks pretty good for our first Christmas tree. We agree that we could have probably put another strand of lights on there and could definitely use more ornaments but overall we like it. I’m sure the Christmas tree is one of many firsts that we will be learning valuable lessons from. Now that I think about it, my parents have been married for 30 years and are still having horror stories with Christmas trees so maybe I have a lot to look forward to…not. We’ve both made a mental note that we’ll probably not get our tree from Home Depot again (despite how cheap it was) due to the fact that we couldn’t really tell what it looked liked all tied up. Hey, the season isn’t even over yet so I’m sure there’s some more “lessons” we’ll be learning. I’ve got it pretty lucky now though…I haven’t had to water the tree yet. I’ve convinced Kyle that’s a man chore. 

So without further adieu here’s the Whittington’s first Christmas tree...

                         Trying to pick one out

                           Found it!!!

          Family Truckster All Loaded Up

                      In the stand...finally

                       Lights on

Ta-da!! Ornaments up! We had a star on top at first but then we switched to a bow.

               Much better

 Our "married" ornaments. The first one is from my parents. The second one is from Grant and Caroline.

The more I look at our tree it really does "grow" on me.

Do Yourself a Favor

And go get this CD...now!!

The Michael Buble Christmas Cd. It's amazing!!! To tell you the truth, I'm kind of indifferent about Christmas music. Don't get me wrong. I love Christmas music but it has to be played at the right time and place. I'm definitely not one of those people who listens to Christmas music right after Halloween. Kyle bought me this CD to play when we decorated our Christmas tree (post to come) and it really put me in the Christmas mood. I've been singing its praises for days now. It's all the classics. I tell people it made me want to sip on a dirty martini while decorating my tree. Very Mad Man Christmas. Go get the CD now!!!!

Turkey/ Birth Days

Hey guys, I'm back. We've been road warriors the past couple of days celebrating Thanksgiving and a couple of birthdays around here and there. This was our first official holiday spent together period. We always split up over the holidays when we were dating and decided that it might be nice to start celebrating together. I'll admit, it was nice having Kyle around. I think he makes a nice addition to my family. We started Turkey Week off with some time in the kitchen doing what I do best, "Micro-Baking." Basically, if you can dip it in (microwave melted) chocolate I've pretty much dunked it. I made some goodies to take on the road with us to our various stops.

Our holiday/birthday weekend started Wednesday when we traveled down to Dothan to visit my family. Wednesday night we hung out with my mother's side of the family and celebrated my grandmother, Mama Hall's birthday with some oysters and shrimp. I haven't seen many of my family members since we got married so it was so good to see them! It was really nice seeing my cousin Stacey who will be expecting a girl (Anna Beth) in February. This will be the 1st great grandchild on my mother's side so we are excited for a baby to join the bunch.

                       Cousin Clay and Kyle

                             Eating some oysters

                Aunt Kay, Daddy Hall and my Mom

I really think Mama Hall enjoyed her birthday cake. She admitted she doesn't think she's ever had one. She's probably one of the sweetest grandmothers ever. I just love her. She along with my other grandmother and Daddy Hall are very special people and hold a special place in my heart. Since we didn't celebrate Thanksgiving with my mom's side of the family, Mama Hall made us some dressing to take back to Birmingham. I was pretty pumped about that.

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Thursday morning we got up and celebrated The Dan Man and Kyle's birthdays. Yes, my dad and Kyle share a birthday. I about spit my drink out when I found out that Kyle's birthday was November 24th when we started dating. I was like, "are you for real?!" O well, there's nothing we can do about that. Guess they'll just have to share that date. My sweet and talented sister, Hayden made the birthday boys their cake. She did an amazing job! The pictures do not do it justice. She actually cut the A- shape of that cake herself and iced it. Amazing. She's better than me at cooking...she's Martha.

This picture cracks me up. It pretty much sums up life around the Hayes household. My mom is probably trying to teach me how to do something in the kitchen while my dad looks on sharing his opinion. I can hear him now, "if I were doing that..."

It was nice being home for about 17 hours. I especially love seeing all my mom's fall decor. Can't wait to be home a little bit longer over Christmas!!!

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After celebrating the birthdays, we headed to my Aunt Gail's house to celebrate Thanksgiving with my dad's side of the family. We had a great time catching up with everyone and playing with all of the great grand-kids. The way my dad's family is set up, it seems like there have always been little kids around so there is never a dull moment. We loaded up on some of our turkey day favorites and spent some time outside with the fam.

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Thursday after lunch we headed to Montgomery. This was a huge change of pace. We went from being around a whole bunch of family and little kids to just hanging with Kyle's parents and brother. It was nice just to be able to chill. Since we had already had a big meal that day, we decided to do a Thanksgiving meal on Friday. However, Kyle did make room for some more birthday cake. His mom made him a lemon meringue pie. One of his favs.

It was such a beautiful day and we enjoyed ourselves helping Kyle's parents cook. Kyle made the sweet potato casserole and helped his dad fry a turkey and I did a whole bunch of everything including fixing the green beans. 

After a delicious lunch and a nap Kyle and I headed over to his friend Wes' home to hang out with his wife Kristi, their 2 year old son, Brannon and Kyle's other friend, Shawn and his wife, Allie and their new baby Avery. We enjoyed catching up with everyone and playing with all of the babies. Brannon is fully of energy and was learning how to use the potty. He is going to have a new baby sister, Peyton next Tuesday. Poor child doesn't know he's about to loose all the attention.

While it was SO much fun playing with the babies, I'm not going to lie, it was nice being able to go home Friday night and know we could sleep through the whole night without being woken up and sleep until 9. We're going to enjoy life with just the 2 of us for a while.

Saturday Kyle's mom and I went to Southern Homes and Gardens to pick up some Christmas decor then went home to watch the Iron Bowl. Watching Bama win was a nice end to the weekend.