Winter Break

'Tis the season for a great compilation post!

It wouldn't be a true winter break without a lack of posts and then a post months later that's as long as a child's Christmas wish list. Due to the stress of finals, it hardly felt like Christmas until...after Christmas? It will definitely be an adjustment for the next couple years. Trying to cram in Christmas festivities while also cramming for finals doesn't really work out too well. Ho-Ho-Homework, but I digress.

Still, I had a magical winter break. And I got to wear a coat more than once! Firs time for everything.

WINTER BREAK I LOVE YOU

HAPPY CHAUNNYAAA?

Blessed are You, Lord our God, King of the universe, who has granted us life, sustained us, and enabled us to reach this occasion.

Hannanuk is an 8 day holiday and It's safe to say that even 8 days of celebrating I still couldn't figure out how to actually spell it.

So why Hanukkah? A lot of my friends were pretty curious. As Christians, we already know the true meaning of Christmas so why celebrate and take part in a religious tradition that is the Jewish alternative for celebrating the messiah?

Honestly, I don't have a deep theological reason. I just kind of wanted too (and the fried potatoes part didn't hurt) and we decided to order a 12 dollar menorah off amazon and go for it. And even though the inexpensive menorah turned out to be kind of a dud and an extreme fire hazard, our house made it through the eight days without burning down via menorah malfunction and our hearts were actually INCREDIBLY blessed from the celebration process.

MERRY, MERRY MEMORIES.

It seems that every year I only get around to writing about Christmas things....a month after Christmas. What can I say, I guess I just love to extend the celebration a bit further! So you can't really be mad at me for that, can you?

HAVE A HOLLY JOLLY JANUARY?

Something like that.

Merry Coloring to all and to all a good night!

Did you know that like, coloring is cool again?

I for one was so excited to find out that coloring was trendy again. Mostly because I hadn't really ever stopped coloring, but now it's just socially acceptable. And of course, it's a more grown up thing than broken crayons and ripped up books. This is like, art.

Which basically means I feel really important while coloring....when actually it's just like preschool all over again.

(Which I am very much okay with, for the record.)

Let's learn to color! (...in case you were absent that day in preschool, I'm here to fill you in.)

1. ACQUIRE IMPRESSIVE COLORING BOOKS.

 Shoutout to my friend Kayla for setting me up with the perfect coloring supplies. She also included a bottle of nutella, which may be optional for you but I find it to be pretty essential. But anyway, books! I have this one and this one, and The Winter Magic book and this genre of books in general, are already in the amazon cart. (thanks mom!)

2. FIND THE PERFECT PENS.

Friends! It's 2016, so say sionara to crayon stubs and dull pencils because gel pens work 100000x better. And while I don't actually own these yet (keyword: yet) they are the BEST PENS EVER! Thank you to Angela for sharing them with me...or at least not complaining when I steal them. ;)

3. CUTE CHRISTMAS CANDLE (def not optional.)

Because when is a delicious smelling candle NOT appropriate or helpful for coloring inside the lines?

As you can see, coloring is a great sport as well as stress reliever. It's one the rare few sports that be played at home, on the couch in your pajamas! And isn't that the best kind of sport anyway?

His love is Evergreen

These pictures are some of my favorite, for no particular reason other than the fact that they remind me of God's goodness in my life.

I don't like to complain, it's not in my nature to dwell on negatives or spend any time moping about the past. I move on quickly, for better or for worse. But last month was hard. December was painfully  discouraging, disgusting and equally depressing.

And yet, it was still so good.

On this particular day, this day of happy tree hunting on the 19th of December, I loaded up Jenn and James in the truck and pronounced it to be Christmas Tree day (with a side of Starbucks of course!) And they happily went along with it. They faithfully followed me up and down each aisle as I meticulously inspected every Douglas fur

This past month has been hard, yes. But through it I've been reminded (or even, made aware of) how many amazing people God has placed in my life. The "I know its one in the morning and I know you have a boyfriend but I needed to call you and make sure you're okay" kind of phone calls are ones you'll never forget. The random texts from online friends that are so simple but so meaningful. The friends who let you come over on Christmas eve, Christmas day and still invite you over the day after that, man what a lucky girl I am.

And so, I love these pictures. Because they remind me that I'm very well taken care of and that Christmas has less to do with tree's and traditions and more to do with the people you pick out tree's with and the people whose family traditions you invade.

ON THE 11TH DAY OF CHRISTMAS....

A few days ago Mom and I were listening to the radio and the announcers said something about last minute shopping and We were just like "Heck, we have not even STARTED Christmas shopping!"

But really, doing anything Christmasy before December 10th would really be a sin in our house. Except of course, dreaming about what you'll get for Christmas, as that is acceptable ALLLLL year. As of yesterday, we have a tree! 11 days before Christmas, that's how its done.

▲▲ This is the point where I apologize for the ugliness of this photo, but I love it so! On my birthday Emily came over and we had a fondant Santa competition which quickly turned into a snowman and gingerbread house competition. Pictured is Emily's penguin snowman/hybrid (it's a new breed, still in the development stages. Will let you know when they're available in the freezer section.)  Not pictured, my snowman with a toothpick in his eye.

▲▲ Puppies like Christmas trees! Yay! I didn't even pose them for these, which I guess by now they just nap in photogenic places. Train them young, I say!

▲▲ Uber Cliche lights photos. But isn't that what Christmas is for? That and eating cookies.

For those of you interested (Hi Mom! Hi Grandma!) I was quite handy and created a Christmas  tag in which you can view more poorly edited Christmas photos. Enjoy friends!

 “Christmas doesn't come from a store, maybe Christmas perhaps means a little bit more....”

It would be a shame to miss New York at Christmas

I am by no means a New Yorker. I am yet to master the skill of staring at nothing for far too long. I get giggly crossing streets and the amount of eye contact I make is miserable. I keep my head up. Their heads are down. Of course it makes sense. You live in a city. Every day you see this skyscraper and that coffee shop with the artsy logo till they all become a blur. It gets old, fast.

But even If I was a New Yorker, if I wore a black coat and lived in a top floor apartment,
Even if I lived in the city for a thousand years, I honestly don't think I could ever get sick of seeing New York at Christmas.

Nope, Never.

The day the tree came down

I don't know why, but I got SUPER sentimental with our tree this year. Maybe because it was our first tree that was like "I'M NO WUSS" or something, or maybe because I got to pick out the ornaments. And they looked like gumdrops. Ooomph.

I'm just trying to say that I hugged our tree so many times that it's actually quite embarrassing.

Anyway, I took a bunch of photos while we took down the tree. I think it was to distract me from crying and getting all sentimental. Who knows - next I'll make a photo album with these pictures and print a bunch and put them in my wallet. "Here's my dog, and, my Christmas tree!!" Another distraction would be that I edited the living daylights out of these suckers. I was an emotional wreck - what else could I have done?

And after we finished we went and watched Toddlers and Tiaras and all was right with the world.

(That is, until Honey Boo-Boo came on.)

Be Cheery

Hey guys, I'm having a party over here, and you should come! WOOT WOOT! Don't worry, I've got enough juice boxes and cheese-it's to last a lifetime, so what are you waiting for!??!?

In other words,  thanks to all your help the other day, I am now able to upload photos. It's a pain, but whatever. The entire week I've been lamenting about this, so I guess it was about time to get my rear in gear and get it over with.

I'm good at doing that.
Uh, not.

Christmas Cheer has come to our home in the form of Christmas Tree's, lots of lights and the flu. How nice! For once, I'm not sick. (Ya hear that?!) but I'm sure I will be right on Christmas (when our bestest cousins come.) None of this has anything to do with the fact that I'm kind of a Grinch around Christmas...right?

Love,
Grinchity Grinch....
(dorkity dork)

The best day of the year is here!

hello all

Bokeh Madness

I finally figured out how to get a bokeh! I am so pleased with the result too.



I also figured out how to adjust the aperture - this is a day that will go down in history!

Maybe not. But still! I can always dream.

Random

I am so smitten on my big girl camera.
Pretty paper stars/flowers for the tree.

Punk went on a little adventure - to the front yard!

Xoxo, Kryn

Brown paper packages tied up with string

A little late to begin shopping and wrapping presents? Never! To be honest, I have not done ANY shopping this year. I get sort of scared when I go Christmas shopping. My family's lists are not so easy to cross off because....ahem...they have no lists. Dad says he likes " gadgets" Mom never says, and KJ says he doesn't want to ask for any of the stuff he wants because its all so expensive!

So what does that leave me with? Not a whole lot.

But! I (or mom) have something for KJ already! I decided to make the wrapping simple but sweet. Not of course, that he would care (or even notice!) But I wanted it to be a little homemade wrapping that made at least me happy.

So here is what I came up with....

Now, I don't know about you, but I think this is pretty stinkin' cute. Yarn is so versatile! I was shaving the pom pom all through grammar. Creighton says if I keep it up, the thing will be bald by Christmas! And he's probably right too.

And look, Christian left KJ a special message on the bottom! I'm guessing he won't even notice, so good thing I photographed it.
And there it is under our still undecorated tree. I actually like it undecorated. Maybe a few would be nice, but it makes the tree so much more of a focal point without all that junk on it.

How are you wrapping your presents this year? Are you trying anything new? Let me know, I would love to see!

Xoxo, have a wonderful and fabulous Thursday!

Red and Green

I thought we'd never get our tree. But we finally have it. And boy am I glad we didn't get a white one. There is something about a real tree. It smells like Christmas. It feels like Christmas. It just sort of is. Forget I said anything about not liking the smell of it because, it turns out that it's not true. I love the smell! I think we usually have gotten a Douglas fur which is much more pungent. But this is just a subtle, soft, whiffy, christmasy smell.



Since we have not decorated the tree yet, I was sort of messing around with some options. I made a few of these...But I can't decided if I like them and if they would work on the tree. Any thoughts or suggestions? I am *hoping* we can make our tree red and silver this year.

And, its tights time of year! This is a really weird angle on my legs, sorry. I am eying some plum tights now.

This was filled with red and green, aren't you proud?