Christmas in your mailbox. Once a month.

Hello lovers… anyone out there feeling the after-Christmas blues?  January can sometimes be a bleak month.  This year, though, I was only briefly visited by that post-holiday depression—like, only during the time it took me to pack away all the Christmas decorations and get my filthy house back in order.  Now I’m just super excited about the year stretched before us!  So much possibility! :)

Anyway, I know lots of bloggers are probably already privy to this information, but I wanted to do my part to spread the word, too.  (plus, I get free stuff if you sign up… holla…)  I want to tell you about Birchbox, the most ingenious thing invented since dry shampoo which, consequently, came in my December Birchbox.

What IS Birchbox, you ask?  Why, it’s like Christmas in your mailbox, once per month.  A reason for living, if you will.  For the price of $10 measly dollars per month, you get a delightful little box of high-end beauty samples tailored to your tastes, so that you can try them out before you spend the big bucks on them.

I’ve received a Birchbox for both December and November so far, and have been thrilled will the samples in each.  I ended up ordering the dry shampoo pictured in the last photo!

My January Birchbox…

 

And a few of my favorite items from December’s Birchbox…

Seriously, why didn’t I think of this concept?! (*bangs head against the wall*)      Brilliance.

So go sign up for your Birchbox.  It’s $10 a month, and there’s no commitment.  Only awesomeness.  And a Birchbox subscription would also make an amazing gift.  Doooo it.

Christmas 2011

Well, it’s that time of year again, folks.  The time where we all dump a zillion pictures from Christmas onto our blogs and/or Facebook.  I thought about breaking this into a couple posts, but I think you guys can handle it! ;)

We had a very nice holiday, filled with good food and the people we love.  Edd was home and is able to walk around a little bit now… it was a wonderful gift to have him here this Christmas. Hope you’re all enjoying your new toys and looking forward to the fabulous new year to come! I have this funny feeling about 2012… it’s gonna be a good one. :) 

For now, here’s a few pictures from our Christmas!

* * * * *

Morning with mom and Edd… (just before all of Edd’s family got there… we missed most of the excitement! [but got first dibs on the amazing breakfast!])

 most delicious monkey bread in the world

 yummy breakfast casserole my mom makes every Christmas

 opening presents

 peeps!!! yessssss.

two special men in my life

   pretty mama

 

Afternoon with Matthew’s side of the family…

sweetest MIL :)

sweetest SIL :)

  good lookin’ family eh?

 fall finally arrived in TX

   Pierre le cat

  amazing.

love her!!

How was your Christmas?  Did you get any extra-meaningful gifts?

Instagram Christmas preview

1. To Grandmother’s house we go!
2. New shoes + Christmas sweater + beautiful fall leaves in Texas… only a couple months late.
3. Mom’s homemade toffee/AKA CRACK
4. Gracie & Cooper, patiently awaiting Santa Claus
5. Marveling at the beautiful leaves
6. Sweetest and prettiest sister-in-law in the world!
7. Candid shot of the handsome huz
8. Matthew’s Grandma surprised me with a portrait she painted… what a treasure.

Hope you all had a lovely Christmas and Santa was good to you!  We’re still basking in the glow of a wonderful day… while cleaning up the house (looks like a tornado blew through) and finishing up the wainscoting in our bedroom.  No rest for the weary!

Enjoy your day, friends!

A Christmas tradition

When I was a little girl I used to wake up in the wee hours of every Christmas morning and sneak out to the living room to open up my stocking.  My parents knew I did it, and they were fine with it as long as it was after 2 or 3 AM.

Oddly, to date this is one of my very favorite Christmas memories.  I would wake up automatically in the night and feel that jolt of excitement in my stomach when I realized it was Christmas morning—I’d check the time, and if it was an acceptable hour, I’d pad out of my bedroom to find the Christmas tree still lit and heaps of presents piled beneath it. Santa had come! And there my stocking would be—stuffed to overflowing right next to my sister’s.  Sometimes my sister and I would even end up out of bed at the same time (she would usually wake up in the night too), or other times I would see the contents of her stocking spilled out on the floor and I’d know she’d already been there.

Most of the time I’d be alone, though, there in the dark stillness of the morning and the glow of the tree, and that was how I preferred it.  I would slowly empty my stocking, delighting in the wonderfulness of each little treat it held.  Then I’d spread out the contents around me, maybe eating a Christmas Peep or munching on some chocolate.  I’d count the presents to make sure my sister and I had an acceptably similar amount (you know you did it too…), and then I would just sit there for a while, trying to soak in the magic of that quiet morning before anyone else was awake.  I knew the house would later smell of cinnamon rolls and thick cut, frying bacon, and those beautifully wrapped gifts would soon reveal their mysterious contents, but my favorite part of Christmas was always those quiet moments when I sat all alone beneath that fragrant tree, anticipating the morning to come.

And now, whenever I sit in the glow of my Christmas tree, I think of those moments, and how they were the best of every Christmas, and how I’d love to pass along that tradition to my children one day. 

So that is what I wish for every one of you, this year: an appreciation for the quiet moments; the ability to be alone sometimes, and to be happy in your own company; the patience to wait for the good that will come; and that feeling of magic you experience as a child but never really have to lose.

Wishing you a beautiful weekend… I’ll be back at it next week!

PS – If you didn’t catch it the other day, I’m now on Instagram!  I’ll be posting plenty of pictures over the weekend, so look me up if you’re interested! Username jennistoryoml. :)

How to have a Robust Christmas (Part III)

Two years ago, the 76-Second Travel Show noted how the use of 'robust' had risen steeply on both sides of the Atlantic, while creating a new Christmas carol for the ages, 'Robust Christmas (Let's Make It Robust).' Here's the video:

And the trend continued last year too in the US, with a steep rise from 900 usages to over 1400 in the New York Times (slightly above this year's mark of 1371, as of Dec 22).

But to celebrate Robust Christmas III, we thought -- here at 76-Second Travel Show headquarters -- to take an alternate take at gauging the rise of robust. By use in headlines.

This graph shows that the New York Times show rises of use of 'robust' in a headline has doubled in the past two years:


Yes, you find robust everywhere: most robust balance sheet in history, robust menu, robust specimens, robust African-American woman, the robustness of the findings, a robust start (to baseball angst), and so on.

And travel is not exempt. Paulie Theroux dropped the R-bomb on Dutch lit of all things.

If robust is here to stay, and grow, what better way to celebrate than having a robust Christmas?

So please do.

Wrapapalooza 2011

 ignore the hair.

Hello again, and welcome to what I’m calling “Wrapapalooza 2011.”  As mentioned before, wrapping presents is pretty much my favorite thing to do, and I may or may not have something of a wrapping paper fetish.  I just can’t help myself. 

So you can pretty much count on a Wrapapalooza post every Christmas for the rest of my life (yes, I plan to be blogging while elderly)—I love to document the fun in pictures so I can go back and enjoy them for many years to come! 

Ok, enough talk.  Here are some shots from the past couple days!

         

:)

Christmas Home

(this song is beautiful, albeit somewhat depressing)

Happy Monday morning!  The countdown to Christmas is on, and I thought I’d kick off this week with some pictures of our decorations!  I never exactly finished this year… there are certain things (like the mantle) that I was never quite happy with and intended to change, but I’ve decided to accept things as they are and remember that there’s always next year. :)

Hope you enjoy!

 

          

And at night…

      

Thanks for stopping by our home!  Hope you’re all able to finish up Christmas preparations early this week and have the opportunity to slow down.  I’m off to finish up a bit of shopping and then wrap presents—which just so happens to be my FAVORITE THING TO DO.  Bring it on! :)

Have a wonderful Monday!