Christmas Decorations!

I am so excited that we actually decorated for Christmas this year!! We didn't go all out (gotta build up to that, haha), but its definitely Christmas in my house!

I think the last time I decorated for Christmas was probably 2006, maybe 2007. I had an artificial tree for a few years, but Gizmo kinda broke it. (Its actually hilarious. He climbed into it and his weight caused the branches to bend, permanently! HA!). I was living alone at the time, so buying a new tree and all that just didn't make it to the top of my priority list.

This time last year was the beginning of all the craziness with the girls moving out. We were still living at the Potter St. house and it was for sale, so we were constantly cleaning and having people walk through it pretty much every day. So, once again we decided not to decorate.

Now, I have an awesome roommate and an incredible new house, so we decided to decorate!!

I got a new artificial tree (thanks Craigslist!), and had a blast decorating it yesterday! Gizmo wasn't exactly helpful...

Somehow I lost all my old Christmas decorations (I tend to throw away/give away things pretty often if I don't use them), so we started from scratch. Thankfully, there are some great deals out there right now! We went with just some generic ornaments for the most part, but we did get a few "sentimental" ones (hopefully I will add to those over the years... assuming I don't give these away, haha).

An "A" (Ashley), "T" (Trish), "L" (Lindsay), and "G" (Gizmo). We are a family, haha!

Gotta represent the Eagles!!!

And the Phillies!

We really love to eat cupcakes (seriously!). Plus, I called Lindsay "Cupcake" in my blog before she turned 18. :)

Cause I love America, haha:

And of course, an ornament for Giz:

We still need a few more that represent us; namely a VT ornament, a Wisconsin one (that's where Ashley went to college) and I want one with a house on it to represent moving into a new home this year. I think I have caught the Christmas bug. :) Gizmo seems pretty happy with the decorations as well. :)

(I apologize for his laser eyes, haha. The flash doesn't mix well with his eyes)

We didn't do a whole lot other than the tree. We did get a wreath, but didn't want to risk putting it on the front door (until we can get a screen door at least), so we put it on a door in the house. :)

And we put up some stockings (One for me, Ashley and Lindsay. Lindsay doesn't live with us full time, but we still consider her a member of our house!) I am still looking for one with a cat on it for Gizmo!).

The final touches were a few things for the "outside".



We drank apple cider and watched the movie "The Holiday" (my favorite Christmas chick flick!) while we decorated. I finally feel like I am in the holiday spirit!!

Decorating the tree definitely had me thinking back through this past year. It has been a roller coaster to say the least, and I can't say that its all been great. Still, the blessings I have been given; especially the incredible blessing of being able to live in Philly and serve the Lord here, make me SO thankful. Merry Christmas!

Vacation Cruise!!!

On Saturday I returned from an AMAZING vacation!! Ashley, Lindsay and I went on a 7 day cruise from New York to the Bahamas and back. It was SO relaxing and fun!! I am going to post a little bit about each day following this, so check out our vacation!

Cruise- Day 8

This was the last day of vacation, so sad!!

We got up, ate breakfast and then headed off the ship. It actually took a while to get off the ship and through customs, but it wasn't too bad. Ashley's friend got stuck in traffic on her way to pick us up, so we ended up spending some time hanging out in the cruise terminal. We actually didn't mind, we were so relaxed from the cruise, not much was getting to us!

Once we were picked up we decided to spend some time in NYC before driving home. We made a stop at the NBC Studios store so I could pick up some Christmas presents, and then walked around a really fun outdoor market where we found the biggest (and yummiest!) cupcakes I have ever seen.

The hilarious part about the cupcakes is that we didn't want to eat them right away, but they didn't have any boxes for us to put them in. So, we carried with around New York with us for several hours, haha. In fact, we had to carry them all the way home! They were definitely worth all the effort. :)

We left New York around 1:30 and expected to be home no later than 3:30 or 4. Unfortunately, traffic was out of control in New Jersey and we were stuck there for 3 hours! No accidents, no road work, just way too many cars. That part was pretty miserable, but we survived and made it home just in time to go to Chick Fil A for dinner (with some of our free meal coupons!).

One of the best decisions I have ever made was to clean the house completely before we left. So, we came home to a really clean house!! All we had to do was throw our clothes in the washer and relax at home with Gizmo (he missed us)!!

Overall, I can't think of how this vacation could have been any better. It was so relaxing and we had so much fun!! God is tooooooo good to me!!

Cruise- Day 7

Day 7 was our last full day on the cruise. It was another full day at sea, so again not so many pictures.

We did try and spend some time out by the pool, but it got a bit chilly, so we went back to the spa. :)Sorry for the lack of pictures, but it was our last chance to just relax! I finished my second book of the cruise, Ashley finished her book and Lindsay continued to fill up her sketch book. Oh, and of course we ate really yummy food.

A great final day on the ship.

Cruise- Day 6

Day 6 was Thanksgiving!! Unfortunately (at least for the purposes of this blog post), we didn't do much that warranted pictures. We spent the day doing pretty much the same thing I always do on Thanksgiving... watching football and eating. :)

We did get a little dressed up for our official Thanksgiving meal, and we even had some tiaras, haha.

I promise we did leave the room, haha, but we really did enjoy relaxing. Besides, why leave the room when this is your view during the day:


And this is the one at night:

Thank you Jesus. :)

Cruise- Day 5

Day 5 was our last day on land before heading back north and we got to spend it in the capital of the Bahamas, Nassau. It was another beautiful, sunny and warm day, and we loved it!

We decided to get off the boat again and booked a tour on a glass bottom boat. The name of the boat is a bit deceiving as the entire bottom is not glass. However, they do have glass squares on the bottom of the boat, so you can see all the amazing sea life underneath. Plus, we got a really nice water tour of Nassau. :)



After the boat tour, Ashley decided to do some shopping. Lindsay and I aren't so into shopping, so we decided to go back on the boat and hang out by the pool.

We decided to make this night our "dress up" night, so we spent some time getting ready and then going to a fancy dinner. But it wasn't just any dinner; we signed up for a Mystery Dinner. It turned out to be so much fun!!

First, we were put at a table with 3 other people. All 6 of us were given a character and a story line and it was our job during the meal to figure out which one of us was the murderer.

The 3 ladies we sat with were SO fun! They were on vacation with their families, but wanted a girls' night, so they came to the dinner. We laughed with them a lot and had a great time! And it turns out, I was the murderer! Whoops!

Anyway, after the dinner I made everyone take a few pictures, before we changed clothes and got ready for...

That's right, there was a chocolate buffet that night!! SO MUCH CHOCOLATE!!! It was awesome!!

Thankfully, we were able to pile our plates full of chocolate and take them back to our room, to relax for the rest of the evening. It was yet another awesome day. :)

I'll leave you with some of our photos from the night. :)






(This last one is my favorite!)