Fabulous Holiday Blog Challenge (Day 1 and 2)

 I am back for another post today. I saw several people do this and had to get caught up! :)

Day 1: Best Gift You've Received 

I really can not think of the best gift I have ever received.  I have been very blessed and gotten pretty much what ever I asked for.  I don't think this technically counts as a Christmas present but I received this on December 19, 2008:

 My ring :)

Day 2: Christmas Traditions

Wes and I have a few traditions for just the two of us and we have several that we do with our families...

Wes and I:

• We take our 4-wheelers out to the farm and go on a search for the perfect cedar tree to cut down (we have done this 2 of the 3 years we have been married...last year we bought one).  This is usually done the Sunday after Thanksgiving
• I decorate the house (everything besides the tree) the Friday after Thanksgiving and then I decorate the tree Sunday afternoon
• We always watch Christmas Vacation the night we decorate the tree.  At some point in December we will watch Elf and a few other movies too.
• We wake up super early on Christmas Day and exchange our presents and stockings.  It is really nice to do this just us without everyone else.  I love it.

 My Family:

• We have Christmas Eve supper at my parents house.  It is just me, Wes, parents, Jodi and Mema.  We have oyster stew with brownie pie and ice cream for dessert.  Not sure how that tradition started..but it isn't Christmas until I have that! (I just eat the stew part and she puts sausage in it...I do not eat the oysters!)
• After supper, Jodi and I go to the living room and arrange the presents by where people sit and then it is time to open them.  Growing up Dad hated when everyone opens presents at one time because it is chaotic and always miss something.  So we start the youngest to the oldest opening one gift at a time.  I am always the youngest (until someone has babies) so it is nice!  It also last more than 5 minutes.
• We switch out with his family and my family for Christmas Day dinner.  We either go to Mema's for lunch or his mom's

  Wes’s Family:

• His family Christmas really varies every year.  It really depends on what everyone's schedule is like.  But the past three years we wake up really early and head over to his parents house to open presents.  It is great because we are there when Wyatt see's his gifts from Santa!
• After presents, we will have yummy breakfast...usually monkey bread!
•  Like I said earlier, we rotate Christmas Day lunch.  We either have lunch or supper at his parents, depending on when we all can be together.
• His family usually has another Christmas get together with the Harling's (his mom's side of the family) but that is a different date each year.
• We always spend the majority of Christmas Day at his parents. So fun seeing Wyatt on Christmas :)

Now I am all caught up with the Holiday Blog Challenge :)  I wasn't very good at taking pictures last year so I don't really have any to share..I will have to fix that this year!

I love this time of year!

One of my favorite things to do is to decorate my house for Christmas!  I absolutely love it!  I found a few things I wanted to make from Pinterest, so my sister, Tiffani, and I decided to have a craft day this past Sunday and make a few things.  Jodi and I both wanted to make this...

 But when we went shopping the other day for supplies..this was going to be so expensive! Who knew little red berries would cost so much.  I mean if you only need like 10 or so its cheap...but I didn't want to spend $50 on berries! So we had to go to plan B.  Jodi and I both got letters to make a door hanger and she made redneck wine glasses also.  Here are some pictures from craft day! :)

I loved making these so much...even Wes helped a bit.  He took charge of taking the labels off the wine glasses for me :)

OK..more Christmas stuff.  I had to share my decorations with you guys too.  Sunday (before craft day) Wes and I went to the farm, took our 4 wheelers and went on a hunt for the perfect Christmas tree.  It was actually a lot of fun and a neat tradition!  We got it narrowed down between 2 trees and I finally decided on the perfect one.  We got it home and I put the lights on (like 5 or 6 strands) and my bows and took a break.  Later that night, I spent a couple hours putting my ornaments on.  I was so please with it! I couldn't stop looking at it.  Around 10pm Wes and I decided to go to sleep.  Well, we heard a HUGE crash...we both thought it sounded like someone breaking a window to break in the house.  Wes jumped up, grabbed his shot gun (yes he keeps it under his side of the bed..so don't break in, ok? :) and went to investigate.  Well, it was our tree!! It fell on my coffee table which is what the awful sound was.  I was so sad.  Nothing broke but about 90% of the ornaments were thrown across the room.  All we did was pick the tree up and I left everything as is until I got off work last night.  Anyways..I just had to share that story.  The pictures below are of the tree after I decorated it the second time! (It will not fall again...Wes nailed the stand to the floor haha)

Ok...here are pictures of our decorations!

That is it!  Hope you liked the Christmas Tour of my house! :)  I better get back to work...hope everyone has a great day!

Family time in Florence!

I honestly can not remember what Wes and I did Friday...must have just stayed home, who knows!  But Saturday was eventful for both of us.  Wes headed to North Carolina for Wyatt's birthday, I hated missing my nephews birthday party but me, Jodi and Mom were off to Florence.  My cousin Sterling got married!  
We were so excited because Jodi's doctor gave her permission to go if she just stayed away from the crowd and had people come to her.  

The three of us headed to Florence and met my cousins Vickie and Lindsey at Olive Garden for lunch..yum!  Even though the reception had food, Jodi wouldn't have been able to eat because it was a buffet..but I don't think any of us complained about eating there! :)
Then we were off to the wedding.  It was an outside wedding at The Claussen House.  My Dad grew up in Claussen, which is about 5 or so miles from Francis Marion, but it seemed like forever away when we were young, because all it had when we were there was a "sto" (store) as my Uncle Tommy used to say, my grandmas house and two of my uncles houses and then a few miles down the street was their church.
Ever since my Nanny passed away, our family hasn't been the closest.  We are only close to my cousin Robin (her son was the groom) and my cousin Vickie and her family.  So it was a nice to see my Dad's other brothers family.  I haven't seen them since 2003, well besides facebook!
Anyways...here are some pictures from the wedding!

The Hewitts!

I cant believe he is married!!

My wonderful cousins! Robin and Sterling

The cake

Jodi, my cousin Lindsey and me

Love her :)

With the groom!

He was super happy to see Jodi!

Lindsey, Me, Robin, Jodi, Mom and Vickie  (fun group of cousins)

Now with my Aunt Jackie and the groom Sterling :)

 

 After the wedding, we decided to stop by my Nanny's church and the cemetery where she and my granddad (never met him so don't really know what to call him), my uncle Tommy (Robin's Dad and he was like my grand-dad), and Aunt Yvonne (Vickie's Mom/Lindsey's grandmother) are buried.  It brought back so many memories seeing this church!  I love small town churches!!

 

Then we started the 3 hour ride home listening to football games.  I really think my Tigers forgot there was a game Saturday...man was that game embarrassing!  Oh well, move on to the next one.  Big game against our rival this weekend!

Sunday was a lazy day!   Wes and I went to pick up Dad's Christmas present, which I cant share yet because he may see it.  I really don't think he knows how to come to this page but I heard he read one of my posts...but it is a really great gift that he will love!  That took all morning to get the gift.  That afternoon we watched Eclipse, Jodi visited for a few minutes and I believe that was it.  It was a great day!

It was a great weekend with my family! BTW...I can not believe it is the week of Thanksgiving..how crazy is that?!?! 

WILW

 I'm Loving...that my family is back to normal. Everyone is in Greenwood now! Yay :)  It has been nice this past week knowing that I can go across town to see Mom and Jodi whenever I want to.  


I'm Loving...pinterest! I have made a few recipes from here and can not wait to make some of these Christmas crafts/decorations...

 And I have this cooking in the crock pot as we speak for supper tonight and Jodi is coming over to enjoy them too!  Hope they turn out ok!

I'm Loving...that I ordered a Christmas CD today.  I try to buy a new one each year.  Last year was Harry Connick Jr.  This year I bought Julianne Hough's Christmas CD. Hope it is as good has Harry's last year :)

I'm Loving... Plenty to be Thankful for link up hosted by Caroline.  Today is about being thankful about your hometown, which I must like alright since I moved back here! I grew up in Greenwood, which is basically an hour to an hour and a half away from everywhere (Greenville, Anderson, Columbia, Augusta, and most importantly Clemson).  

Greenwood is known for having the World's Largest Main Street...how random! Don't believe me?  Read here.  Haha  Greenwood is starting to grow a bit, our mall is improving finally, we just got a Michael's, Hobby Lobby and a TJ Maxx.  Our Uptown Greenwood is also improving with some great boutiques!  We also have Lake Greenwood, which is where you will find us a lot during the summer!

I'm Loving...that Thanksgiving is so very close.  I absolutely love this time of year and I cant believe it is already here!! YAY :)

I'm Loving... MY TIGERS!! We beat Wake Forest on Saturday to guarantee our spot in the ACC championship! I am so excited!  (We were projected to be like 4th in the ACC this year..so it was a nice surprise)  I am anxious to see who we will play, more than likely it will be a rematch with Virgina Tech.  We ordered our tickets on Monday and I am patiently anxiously waiting until December 3rd at 8:00pm.  We have two important games before then...at NC State Saturday and then to the other college in SC...USC. 
GO TIGERS :)

They are home!

Mom and Jodi made it back home safe and sound!  I took off work yesterday afternoon so I would be sure to be at their house when they pulled in the driveway.  Before I get into much detail about their homecoming...look at what I made for them (Wes helped me form the cake and even iced a  little so I can not take all the credit)

 Wes thought it would be best if I made a home for the welcome home cake.  It was the most difficult cake Ive done but so much fun!


Ok...back to Jodi and Mom.  They got home around 3 or so and me, Dad and my Mema were patiently waiting in the house.  I was so excited to hear them blow the horn!  I of course started tearing up when my Mom hugged me (I think people forgot that not only Jodi was there but Mom was there the whole time too!).  Then Jodi saw me and mom tear up and yelled at us and said "No Crying!".  She can be so demanding haha!  


After all of our hellos, we helped unload then car.  Mom has an Avalon but I think she had enough stuff in there to load down my Tahoe!  We finally finished unloading everything and Dad was pacing ready to cut the cake...well, he just wanted to get some icing!


My friend Sam came to visit and since Jodi has been gone for so long and him being the jokester he is, he told Jodi the other day that he needed to take her on a tour of Greenwood (that would only last 12 minutes...not much to see in Greenwood).  So yesterday morning he went to the Chamber of Commerce and picked out lots of good brochures about things to do in Greenwood and surrounding areas and gave them to her last night so she can pick out where she wants to go on their tour...it was too funny!

Sam and Jodi

 Then Wesley and Mrs Thurston showed up!  Can I tell you how great it was to have my family all in the same room again...and in South Carolina!


Jodi and I have a lunch date to her favorite place to eat in Greenwood...Mig's!  I cant wait!  I was going to take more pictures to post but I forgot!  I had to steal the picture of Jodi and Sam from her!  oh well!

Welcome Home!

I was going to wait to post this until I actually had pictures to show but I couldn't wait.  I am so excited because my mom and sister will be home TOMORROW.  Jodi had great results from her bone marrow biopsy yesterday and her doctor told her that she didn't have to wait until Thursday.  So they packed up everything and started the long 16 hour drive back to SC!

For those who don't know, my sister (Jodi) was diagnosed with acute leukemia on April 20 and was told she had to be in Houston at MD Anderson by lunch the following day.  Can you imagine your whole life changing in one second and moving half way across the country not know how long you will be there? Her and my parents left for Texas the next morning.  

Jodi went through a few rounds of chemo...yuck! and had a stem cell transplant on August 8 (yay for us being a perfect match!) and she finally got the news yesterday that she could come home cancer free!  She will still have to go back to Houston once a month for a while so they can make sure everything is ok.   She will also be living with my parents for a while before moving back to her apartment in Clemson.  I think her goal is to move back in January and hopefully go back to work then :)

Her apartment is getting a little remodeling too, getting rid of all the carpet and a new paint job...which is pretty exciting!  Anyways...we are so excited that her and mom will be home tomorrow.  I know she will have LOTS of visitors over the next few weeks.  She still has limitations because she has zero immune system so everyone has to get a flu shot.

Anyways, of course I am baking a cake and decorating it today for her welcome home.  I will post some pictures on Thursday of everything.  I cant wait!!

Thanks for all the prayers, emails and comments since April about Jodi...it was so nice!!

Meet Me Monday

 I decided to try this link up this Morning..Looked fun! :)
Questions:

1.  Are you excited for the holidays or are you dreading them?
I am so very excited! I cant wait for Thanksgiving and Christmas!  It will be a special Thanksgiving this year because my sister is home from Texas and my cousins baby will hopefully be back from Charleston after having heart surgery.  We are thankful that all our family members will be healthy again!  
I absolutely can NOT wait until I can decorate my house for Christmas.  I love the whole month of December...so exciting!!  (pinterest is getting me even more excited to decorate!)

2.  Do you hit the snooze button or get right up?
I usually do not have to hit the snooze, but I never get out of bed when it goes off.  I have to lay there a few minutes to get woken up.  
 
3.  Do you still have your tonsils? 
yep!

 
4.  What was the last piece of candy that you ate?
I guess you can consider this candy.  Wes and I went to Olive Garden yesterday (what a treat...I never get to go there!!)  I love their after meal mint chocolate...so yummy!

 
5.  Do you shop at thrift stores?
Nope...I don't think I have the patience to do that.  I hate going in stores where you have to search for stuff.  It kinda stresses me out when it isn't organized so I give up.  I know...I miss out on good deals Oh well!

              Happy Monday :)

Dear November,

Are you really already here??  It seems like it should still be summer..time is flying by!

When I was growing up, my favorite season was summer (mainly because school was out).  I still love the summer but the last couple of years I have really grown to love the fall.   It isn't 100 degrees outside anymore, but I can do with out freezing weather on the way to work though!  The leaves are so pretty, mums are every where, and fall decorations are out.


November is always a busy month...last full month of football!  (of course I had to write that)  We only have one more home game and the last two regular season games are away.  I hate the "smack talk" for big rival games...but the Clemson vs USC game is always exciting!


Thanksgiving is in November!  I love any excuse to get a lot of family together.  I love it even more since Wes and I got married.  We have my family Thanksgiving at my Mema's house and then his family at his Mom's. We are so lucky that we live in the same town as both of our families!


We will start having bon fires at our house again.  I love those nights!!


November  also means it is time to really start getting ready for Christmas.  Of course I don't want to skip over Thanksgiving, but my budget makes me shop early!  I wouldn't be able to afford to buy gifts if I waited until December.


There are some important birthdays in November too.  My cute nephew Wyatt will be turning 4, which is unreal he is that old :).  My Mema's birthday is this month too!


My cousin is getting married this month in Florence and I cant wait to see everyone there!


Finally the most important thing about November this year.....MY SISTER AND MOM COME HOME FROM TEXAS!!  She met with her doctor yesterday and her tentative coming home day is November 9th....do you realize that is NEXT WEEK!?!  We are all very excited.  So please give her some happy thoughts next Monday when she has her 90 day bone marrow biopsy. We want 100% healthy cells so mom and Jodi can come home....NEXT WEEK!  (they have been there since April 21 by the way!)


Here's to a wonderful November!!!