Top 5 Gifts

Here were my top 5 favorite gifts from this Christmas! If you know me, you know I love gifts. Its my love language, therefore I feel really loved during Christmas!

Ugg boots! I live with super cold feet constantly!

food processor/blender combo! Now I can make all kinds of healthy food!

Clarisonic face cleansing kit. its like having a facial everyday and can already tell a difference in my skin.

 

Duh. My happy Light!

And a big surprise gift was a new orange chevron rug from West Elm! I love this, oh and I love orange!

Christmas #3

Next up was our 3rd stop. It took place in Little Rock (my hometown). On Christmas eve we got to go to the Christmas eve service at our church. This was the first time we have been able to go to one in several years. It was a candlelight service and just beautiful. It was a great reminder why we would be celebrating the very next day.

my fam. Love them!

(self-timer pic is the reason for the awkward angle and the reason the boys heads are cut off)

moms beautiful tree... and the ridiculousness underneath it.

Meg: the pride and joy of Christmas morn.

Mom opening her surprise gift from me and meg. We took a pic sitting on santas lap.

It was definitely her favorite gift...

See in this pic to the left. It was a framer.

 this was dad opening one of his 20 shirts he received for Christmas. It got humorous after the 3rd one.

moms for real favorite gift. She must have been good this year.

my boys. Doesn't Lou look so cute?

and the aftermath...

my sis and my Nana.

We had a fabulous Christmas. I wasn't near as sad as I thought I would be and I will forever be thankful for that. I had no emotional breakdowns or freak outs. I consider that a huge win. I'm continually thankful for Gods grace that has protected me throughout all of the Holidays.

Hope you all had wonderful Christmases as well.

Christmas #2

Christmas #2 was spent at Marc's dad and stepmoms house. We don't get to see them very much because they live 6(ish) hours away from us so we are always excited for when his whole side of the family can get together. We usually have to get together the day before Christmas Eve so we can all be together.  

all the Yount men! Marcs 2 brothers, Matt, Luke and his dad. (plus little Jack)

Marc's new nephew, Maddox! He was dressed in his santa suit :)

Moody and Maddox, our 2 new nephews

 

Sarah, David and Moody

Nick and Deanne

 me and Maddox

Marc's brothers family. Matt, Andrea, Avery, Karter, Jack and Maddox

Again it was such a great family time. Thankful to be able to have such a close, loving family to enjoy the holidays with!

christmas #1

I know this is extremely late, but I do love to look back each year on what we did. This year did lots of traveling and had 3 separate Christmases.

We first started with Marc's mom and step dad who we call "Bear." He cooked us delicious steaks and we had a great time! I also got my happy light in which I still love.

Then we headed to Piggott, the northeast part of Arkansas in case you were wondering where that was!

On Christmas eve morning we got to see Bears mom and Marc's brothers family along with their new baby boy, Maddox

We had such a wonderful time considering we don't get to see them very much.

Christmas Cards

I have thoroughly enjoyed receiving Christmas cards this year. They are just always so fun, cute and creative. Each year they get better and better. I however did not feel the need to send any out this year. A lot of it has to do with our situation and being overly sensitive. I felt like sending out another picture of just the 2 of us gets a little old after 7 years of receiving them. Even though I love sending them, I had no desire to have one this year. Maybe its the fact I would prefer not to remember this extremely difficult year and reflect back on how yucky I looked and felt. My face is about 3 times the size it should be and who would want to see that? I sure don't. So I just chose not to send any.
After I made that decision I received an email from someone who had the same exact feelings and has been in my shoes before. She said that cards were her most favorite part of Christmas and that she knew how I was feeling. She also said that she didn't want people to feel sorry for them or get tired of it.  She said her husband, her and dogs are the family that God had blessed them with and that she was thankful for that, but most of all that it does still count!
That email spoke volumes to me. Marc and I are a family, we do matter, even our dog matters. God blessed me with him and sometimes I do forget that.

I still didn't make a card this year, but next year I will regardless.
But here are some from the past...

2008

I hope you all have a very Merry Christmas!

JOYN

I think I have mentioned JOYN on here before, but this year we got some new stockings that I just absolutely love. If you live in Fayetteville and have been to the Mama Carmans coffee shop or to the Mustache store in the square you have seen some of these products! They truly are awesome. Marc used to work with the people that started this company in India. They have gotten to employ several people that may not have ever had jobs which I think is so cool and makes me want to buy lots and lots of their products!
Plus my new favorite pattern is chevron and lots of their items have that pattern on them... so whats not to love?

here are our new stockings!

 Cute clutch to take with me to all the Razorback games!

You can check out their website or just buy something from them!
http://joynindia.com/ or find them on facebook.

Best Gift Ever

We had to do Christmas a little early with Marc's mom since we travel quite a bit throughout the Holidays. We also have just about had something every single night for the past month.
They cooked us a delicious meal, including a big, fat, juicy steak paired with a sweet potato. Marc's step-dad may be the best cook I know and it is always a treat when he cooks for us.

So for Christmas, his mother (whom I'm a huge fan of and love her sense of humor) gave me this!

 

Yep you read that right. A Happy Light and a nice bottle of wine. 

Who needs therapy after that combo :) I mean it has to be cheaper...right?

I loved it. The happy light is supposed to help with your vitamin D level along with seasonal depression. Don't think I haven't been using it... I love it. It is a very natural way to help promote endorphins verses drugs.
I don't really know if it works, but I did see it in the Brookstone store his past weekend, so I  know other people must be buying it!

The other day I felt like I was about to have a panic attack. It was cold, dark and rainy outside and I was home alone and Marc was out of town and Louie was on vacation with his grandparents. I don't do so well by myself these days, so I went home and immediately turned the happy light on and turned he tv on to get my mind off things. When I turned the light on, I prayed God's light would fill me instead of satans darkness. Writing that out sounds way cheesy, but I didn't want the light to become my go to "fix." So maybe the Happy Light paired with prayer really works! I felt much better after that and was able to calm down.

Anyways, I thought it was too hilarious and interesting not to share. Hey you've got to do whatever it takes to stay sane, so whether it is all mental or not, I'm still a big fan!

Family getaway

For the past several years, my fam and I have gone to Branson for as long as I can remember.
This time we stayed at big cedar which was absolutely wonderful and such a treat! Marc was gone off hunting with his dad and brother so we just went and had fun without him.
We went to a delicious restaurant called "Level 2" steakhouse. I had the best filet and greatest dessert ever.
We were actually all done shopping so we thankfully didn't have a ton of that to do! All in all we had a great, relaxing weekend. So thankful for them!

cuties!

ooh I think he found a letter from Santa!

this was an amazing gingerbrad house that took over 250hrs to bake and make!

Hope you all had a wonderful weekend! I'm so grateful to be completely finished with shopping and wrapping gifts. Such a relief. I'm usually just starting.

My Special Tree

I did a post on this last year, but I still love it so much and since it's my only tree this year, I decided to post about it again!

This special tree is one of my most prized possessions that I have in my house. It is definitely my favorite Christmas decoration that I have. My grandfather hand made this many, many years ago. It is made from my grandmothers jewelry. Lots of her jewelry came from overseas. He was in the navy for years and when he would return home he would bring my grandmother lots of jewelry back. Each piece is so unique and vintage made from bracelets, broaches, and necklaces. This is one of the only things I have left from them. My grandfather passed away when I was 3 and my grandmother passed away when I was in 3rd grade. I was very close to them as was my father. The awesome thing is he made 2, so my parents have one as well. I'm so thankful to have this special heirloom so we can think about them during the Holiday season.

Christmas Decor...Kind of.

So I caved and decided to just put up a few decorations. Although, I still said NO to a tree. There were several reasons for that. The main one being that we were going to be gone so much before, during and after Christmas. Really not worth it for just me and Marc. The weird thing is that I really haven't missed it and I know I won't miss putting it away...Ha!

So here is what I put out. This doesn't even scratch the surface of my Christmas decor.


























Yes you are seeing this correctly... Marc wraps all of our presents. I am by far the worst gift wrapper ever created. He prefers me not to, its really that bad.Sorry Ladies, he's taken.

I have basically finished all of our Christmas shopping and by tonight all of our wrapping will be done. This may be a first for us. We usually don't start until the week of Christmas. I now feel broke as a joke with all the people we had to buy for. Since everyone's family expanded this year that means more gifts and spending way more $$! It has been super fun shopping for everyone though. I obviously had lots of time on my hands and needed a "project." Plus my love language is gifts. I love giving and receiving! ;)

Since I didn't put a tree up this year I will leave with my tree from last year.

 

and this is what my mantle usually looks like

Tis the Season.