{hello, december}

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December I am actually looking forward to you this year! Don't be as brutally cold as the end of November, though. 

Someone bring me a Christmas tree, hot chocolate, Christmas parties, slow days at work, gift wrapping, family time, twinkle lights, warm fires and good books. 

What do you love about December? 

~the single gal~

Thanksgiving Learning Curve

some random insights from an awesome day. 

My first year hosting. Lessons include not cleaning the floors the night before which is a complete waste of time because of the days destruction. Shopping for fall decor in September because when you go the weekend before you will only have Christmas decor to choose from. Obviously, #1's sensory bin filled with colored rice is too much of a temptation and involved rice distributed all over my sitting room. It is normal to find my 2nd cousin (2 yr old) in the twins room looking for #1 while they are napping and for Turtle to forget he put sweet Hadley in her high chair 20 minutes ago for a snack because the gentleman are watching football. (Same reason 2 year old in twins room.) Grateful we have so many healthy children to fill the house with! 

#1 almost took a nap. Almost. 

Thank goodness there is online shopping. I am so not getting out in the crazy Black Friday shopping madness. I worked retail for many years and enjoy spending time with family. 

Harper definitely does not like too many strange faces and lots of noise. She came down with the "don't put me down Mom there are hot coals on the floor and if you even make a move to try to put me down I will cry." 

3 Putt brought the biggest round of Brie I have ever seen in my life. 

Single Gal and I are off this morning for my mother-in-laws annual breakfast. We ran 4 miles yesterday in 22 degrees and it wasn't THAT bad. All things are more tolerable with good company. 

XOXO

The Housewife 

Focus

I'm having a hard time focusing on thankfulness this week.  There I said it. 

I'm trying.  But I am just getting all wound up and stressed out about our trip to Scotland/Spain in February to visit 3 Putt's family and my Grandfather is still very ill.  And it rained ALL. DAMN. DAY.  

See I can't even shop my sorrows away. That would just create additional financial sorrow.  I am thankful for all I have but this year has been a bit of a stretch already and with Christmas coming and then a vacation I don't even feel better about life with my bank account entering into 2014.  

Some days I am tempted to ask 3 Putt to move in.  Wouldn't life be easier with the seemingly dual income? I'm sure it would be. I have a lot of people ask me if we do live together already -- we don't.  I've lived with someone before and a long time ago I made the decision that I'm not doing the "roomie" thing with a significant other until I am engaged.   I mean, if I'm going to live the hard life I may as well just be used to it if things don't work out.   No one wants to get used to shopping at real JCrew and then have that taken away, amiright?

So far the Europe trip has been a good "seriously stop shopping" exercise.  And 3 Putt and I have been spending many a Saturday night at home with a pot of chili and cheaper glasses of wine.  But it would be nice to feel a little bit better about December spending.  And boarding the dogs in February (for 14 days).   This trip is a definite priority for me to spend more time with his family and I am excited about it, but I worry I will just be stressed about the money the whole time I am on my vacation.  And that's definitely no fun.  Someone pass a klonopin. 

~the single gal~

Annual Housewife Wanted Gift List

I know it's not even Thanksgiving yet, but, I thought I would go ahead and put my list out there. It's a bit random. I am also starting to rebuild my wardrobe which is lacking just through a few years of pregnancy and being in transitional sizes, etc. I'll probably exclude clothing from this list but it is on my mind. I don't think you can ever shop too early for Christmas and I wish I was together enough to start in October, or July for that matter, which brings me to my first item. 

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1. May Books Planner

I have tried and tried to utilize only my iPhone for calendar items, meal planning, etc. I am simply just a pen to paper person and I need a monthly or weekly layout view where I can see exactly what is going on. I also like Lily planners but I missed out on some months and would like to try a slimmer planner out. You can customize these in so many different ways and I think I would also like a plain paper book to jot things down on as well. These make great gifts for your organized friends. Well, maybe your disorganized ones too?

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2. Chew Beads

These are great for any moms out there. I don't personally have any yet but I think my cousin does and likes them. They are decently stylish, come in fun colors and you don't have to worry about your baby choking. What more could you want? Ask anyone and they will tell you I am always the most freaked out about the kids choking. For real. 

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3. Banana Republic Gray Faux Fur Vest

Banana Republic is having a 40% off sale and today is the last day. I saw this and it would look awesome with my new leather leggings. They also had some good chambray shirts and plaid shirt choices. 

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4. Classic Block Metal Monogram Necklace

I love a good block monogram. This necklace in gold with a 16" chain is right up my ally. 

I truly do not "need" anything listed here. I am so excited about spending time with my family, eating good food, drinking champagne and cheap red wine, watching Christmas movies and doing Christmas activities with my kids. I had an awesome day at the mall this morning with the kids, Big J and P. #1 saw Santa and we went to talk to him, grabbed the twins their first pair of shoes, returned something, ate lunch and helped with Turtle's Christmas gift. Last year was just going through the motions with newborn twins. We purchased tickets to go see the lights at the Atlanta Botanical Gardens this week. I want to soak everything in this year. This is our first year of Elf on The Shelf too. 

Be Thankful my friends! Life is good. 

xoxo

The Housewife

Friday Five {from the single gal}

1. I'm on the hunt for a decently priced camel coat. Someone fill me in on where to find one that isn't constantly sold out in my size on JCrew Factory or another site. This is a serious request. 

2. Today is 3 Putt's Birthday! We had an early birthday dinner at Little Alley Steak in Roswell last night. We had a great time - such great service and a great atmosphere on top of the great food they have. I especially recommend the crispy Brussles sprouts, lobster Mac n' cheese, and their meat/cheese plate. 

Date night outfit. Pretty much wear this leather pocket JCrew sweater all the time. 

The birthday guy! 

It's hard to see but they pretty much have the best light fixture I have ever seen. 

3. My sweet, sweet Grandfather went into the hospital this week and it's likely he and my grandmother cannot come to Thanksgiving. I'm planning to visit Saturday but it's not the same and I'm super bummed (understatement alert). If any of you talk to Little Baby Jesus on the reg please say a quick work for both my Grandmother and my Grandfather. 

4. Tonight we are having a bit of wine and chatting and hanging out at Emily's House.  There are lots of days I miss when we lived together. 

5. Happy Weekend to you all. If you have already started holiday travels be safe and enjoy your loved ones! 

-the single gal-

Tuesday Randoms {single gal edition)

A few things...

...the dogs have prescription dog food.  I know that sounds high maintenance.  It really actually isn't that expensive when you break it down by how much it costs to feed them per week.  The bitch of it is they eat a really popular brand/type of prescription dog food.  And I have a really hard time finding the 36 lb bag unless I have the forethought to call the vet and order some over a week in advance (pretty much never do this and just freak out every time I realize I only have one meal left for the dogs).  So today I went to the place that usually always has a big bag anytime.  They didn't.  So I had to buy some weenie bag of food for $36 (note the bigger bag is a bit cheaper).  Seriously though -- RAWR on the special food. 

...the dog food thing kind of set me off this afternoon.  So I came home and after a long dog walk did pretty much nothing. 

...3 Putt and I had a spur of the moment urge to go see a movie on Sunday.  We saw "About Time".  It was super, super wonderful.  That may be because I have a really soft spot in my heart for Ginger boys with an accent but I still think a majority of you would really like it.  I never go to the theatre -- I am SO glad we did this Sunday.  I just adored this film! 

...I was having some sinus pressure in my ear starting last week.  Totally freaked me out because of the dreadful Christmas sinus infection last year.  I've been dosing up on nasal spray, allegra, sudafed, whatever I can get.  Feeling a bit better but lord does all that medicine make my stomach feel super gross. 

I guess the moral of this post is you can't win 'em all...but hey there are good movies out so cheer up. 

Also I can't apologize for not making any sense because hey it's my blog and I can write a bunch of crap if I want to. 

~the single gal~

Monday Obsession: Leather Pants

I've been insanely obsessed with leather pants for two weeks and after pining some looks I bit the bullet and ordered some. Granted, I'll be whining to the Single Gal when I get them and my legs don't look like toothpicks in them and probably send them back. But, hey, I tried didn't I? OR they could look great! Regardless I refuse to leave this stone unturned in my life. I'm still trying to lose a few pounds and tone up and my body is just not fitting into any pair or jeans well right now. I hope leather pants are the solution. I use the term "pants" losely as I can only afford some decent looking leggings. Obv. 

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Truthfully, I can't find my favorite Pinterest image to add here. As a Housewife who needs to constantly bend over to hold children, pick up fallen pacifiers, pretend to be a My Little Pony and climb  40 flights of stairs a day, I'm hoping these are comfortable and fit well. I'm looking forward to dressing them up and being able to dress them down. Y'all know I can't do heels anymore. 

I was persuaded by Turtle to have a coffee at 5pm last night on the way to trying out an evening church service. Mistake. His mistake is two fold because that led to me drinking wine late, watching The Change Up and ordering leather pants from Nords. 

One is on back order and won't ship until late next week and I'm hoping the other one will ship this week. Are y'all trying out any new fashion trends? Think leather pants/leggings are ridiculous? Sometimes its fun to be ridiculous though. And what husband would make his wife send back leather pants?!? 

If you need me I'll be prepping a grain free dinner and heading to the gym.....because you know....LEATHER PANTS!

xoxo

The Housewife