Insta Christmas

It's the most wonderful time of the year!  I did so many fun and festive things this year to get in the Christmas spirit.  Since I am so obsessed with Instagram, I captured most of those memories through faux vintage photos.  I have compiled a bunch of photos of those fun events and other random fun things that happened around this time of year that I wanted to document.  So enjoy this random Christmas compilation of Instagram photos!

Above is a photo of how I decorated my new little home for the holidays.  It was a pretty big year in the fact that I got my very first Christmas tree!  Bethy and I set out on black Friday to get an AMAZING deal on a 9 foot tree.  It fit my space perfectly!  I am in love with it! I hand made a lot of the decorations for my cream and gold theme this year and it was so much fun. 

Dina officially came to live with me during the Christmas season!  She is too cute to handle most times, but sometimes she is too mischievous to handle.  She loved the Christmas tree a little too much, and by the end of the season, she had undecorated most of it by climbing up the trunk all the way up to the very top, pushing ornaments off the tree as she went.  This behavior made Louis extrememly nervous.  He would watch her from the bottom of the tree meowing anxiously and looking at me as if to say, "mom! do you see this! mom! stop her! mom! whats going on!!!"  He is such an obedient little kitty.

One Sunday at family dinner, Nora gave me the cutest little gift she had wrapped herself!  Inside were a couple of ornaments she had made for my tree!!!  How cute and thoughtful is she.  I went right home and hung them front and center on the tree, and they looked great!

Me enjoying the first heavy snowfall of the year!!

This year before our annual family outing to the Vivaldi by Candle Light concert, we got dinner at the Tin Angel downtown.  The Madison's and I had been there before, but it was everyone else's first time!  They LOVED it, but seriously how could you not, their food is to die for!

The Vivaldi concert is one of my most favorite Christmas family traditions.  It's so unique and beautiful and a wonderful thing to experience as a family.

We found this little gem behind one of the hymn books in our pew ... "Evil army of zombie my little ponies in Zombie Land"

My friend Angie told me and Bethy about this amazing Christmas house, not only was it decorated to the MAX, it also was a light show and "danced" to 4 different songs.  It was absolutely mesmerizing! 

Bethy and I carried on our new favorite holiday tradition, getting dinner and hot drinks at Barnes and Nobel and reading all the festive Children's book, we began this tradition at halloween!  My favorite book this season, Cajun Night Before Christmas it had me laughing out loud, with tears running down my cheeks.

My mom gave me some beautiful red roses and it made me realize how wonderful they are to have around at Christmas time!  They looked stunning with all the Christmas greenery I had around my house.  I just might make having fresh red roses around at Christmas time a new tradition!

I decided to try something fun and different with my hair so I decided to try out this new Ombre style.  It's really subtle, but I really like it as a way to switch things up a little bit

Bethy and I went to watch Evie in her Christmas dance recital, she did such a great job!  Her class did a little dance number about dancing little mice, so they all looked adorable dressed up as little Christmas mice!

Beth and I also went to City Creek to get pictures with Santa, see the candy windows and mail letters to the North Pole!

We enjoyed the most delicious Christmas cupcakes when I had the whole family over to my place for dinner!

It didn't take Dina long to feel at home, she would tuck herself in under the covers when it was time for bed. It was adorable, but I got her her own little plush bed she could tuck herself into at night time.  She LOVES her new bed, as does Louis.... Louis has actually pretty much stolen the bed from Dina.  He LIVES in the bed and Dina will sometimes snuggle in with him if there is enough room.  Silly kitties. 

Lex came up for a visit and we were all so excited!  One night we headed to temple square to enjoy all the pretty lights and to share plently of laughs like we always do when we get together!  I love my girls!

I love giving little gifts at Christmas time, so I created fun little goodie bags for a couple of my coworkers, I used some cute tags I got in my December Umba box.

Nora would leave cute little Christmas messages for us each week at Sunday dinner.  I was always excited to see what she had created, they made me so happy!

I must say I am proud of my body for only getting sick ONCE this entire season! I am used to getting back to back illnesses, but this year my immune system was fighting off sickness like a champ.  My one sickness was pretty nasty though, I had to take a couple of days off work to try and recover.  I made myself some eggnog chai and put some gingerbread marshmallows in there to try and cheer myself up ha 

My sweet sweet landlord/neighbor/family member darlene was SOOOO nice to me while I was sick and took the best care of me.  She juiced some carrots and apples to create the most delicious and healthy drink for me to drink every morning to help me get some vitamins and minerals into my poor flu inflicted body.  Once my throat was healed enough that it wasn't torture trying to eat solid foods, she brought me up this amazing pancake dinner!  I wanted to cry it made me so happy to have someone so thoughtful and sweet taking care of me while I was sooo miserable!

I wasn't sleeping so well while I was sick, so I got to see a lot of beautiful sun rises from my living room windows.  I have such an amazing view, and I love it!