Tuesday, December 31, 2013

Christmas 2013

This year I had Christmas week off.
We started the week off with dinner at the Cheesecake Factory to celebrate MC's birthday.

Jason and Baby C, MC opening gifts, delicious cheesecake
On Christmas Eve I baked cookies and wrapped gifts while Jason worked on his truck. That evening we went to Jason's aunt's house for Christmas Eve dinner with family. 

Christmas morning Jason and I opened our gifts to each other before eating breakfast at my parent's house. After breakfast we got ready and went to Jason's parent's house for Christmas dinner.  We had a delicious dinner, played bingo, opened gifts, and exchanged white elephant gifts.

the tree
It's a tradition to take photos in front of the fireplace every year.

Jason's mom and dad, Sparky, and Bella
Us with our pups!
We had Christmas dinner with my family the day after Christmas. 

the tree
Stockings on the mantle
Baby C's first Christmas; He slept through opening the gifts
Hanging out with baby C
A little smile
Family photo- only missing Scarlett!
We had a chill weekend and I got a lot done around the house. Now we have a clean house and all of the Christmas decorations are put away until next year.  

Hope everyone had a Merry Christmas!

Monday, December 30, 2013

Christmas Decor

It's hard to believe Christmas has already come and gone. 
I put all of the Christmas decorations away this weekend, but I took a few pictures while it was still up.

This was Scarlett's first Christmas, so we weren't sure how she would do with the tree or the gifts. Instead of getting a real tree, my parents gave us their old tree and an old tree that was my grandparents. Some of the lights didn't work, but if Scarlett decided to use the tree as a chew toy it wouldn't matter! She ended up leaving both the trees and the gifts alone which was great!

This was the first year we had two trees. We put one downstairs in our den and one upstairs in the man cave. I loved having a tree in both of the places we hang out.

Tree in the den, ornaments in a vase, tree in the man cave, tree and mantle
Gifts under the tree

Thursday, December 19, 2013

Family Photo

Jason and I had not had professional pictures made since our wedding, so we decided to have some made for our Christmas card picture this year. 

In October we met our photographer at a beautiful park to make some pictures. She didn't even mind that we wanted our dogs in the picture too. Trying to pose with the dogs was no easy task, especially with lots of people and other dogs around! There are definitely pictures where the dogs are not looking at the camera! But we had some really great ones also.

Here's the one we used for our Christmas card:


Merry Christmas from the Ellis family:
Jason, Kristen, Daisy Duke, and Scarlett

Monday, December 16, 2013

Atlanta Botanical Gardens and Brasstown Bald

It's the start of another work week. Last week was a great week off though. It was definitely a busy one, but there was a lot of fun involved too!

Monday night our small group wrapped up for the semester. We really enjoyed hosting and making some new friends!

Tuesday, I spent the day with my mom. We finished up some Christmas shopping, had lunch, and went through some of Nana and Papa's Christmas ornaments. 

Wednesday was a beautiful day, so the pups and I enjoyed the sunshine with a nice, long walk through our neighborhood. Wednesday night Jason and I had date night in Atlanta. We had a delicious dinner at Mary Mac's Tea Room. Then we went the Atlanta Botanical Gardens to see the Christmas lights. We had never been before, and it was really cool!

Outside Mary Mac's, shrubbery sculpture of a woman with lights for hair, poinsettia tree, butterfly lights.
Thursday was a chill day. I did take the pups on another walk since the sun was out again. Jason had Christmas dinner with some friends. Our local Chili's was doing free dessert for father-daughter date night, so I had dinner with my parents and got a free chocolate molten cake. Yum!

Jason was able to take Friday off, so we went for a hike at Brasstown Bald where we got engaged four years ago. We saw some beautiful views of God's amazing creation.

Beautiful views, a picture in the same spot Jason asked me to marry him, and the Brasstown Bald sign.
Saturday night we went to a Christmas party at a friend's house. It's hard to believe Christmas is less than two weeks away!

Sunday, we went to church and had lunch with friends. We relaxed at the house this afternoon before taking the pups to Petsmart for new treats and a trip to get groceries for the week. 

That sums up our week. Here's to the start of a new week!

Thursday, December 12, 2013

Thanksgiving 2013

Jason and I had a very busy Thanksgiving week!
Our friends from North Carolina were supposed to come down on Wednesday but bad weather in the forecast forced them to come down a little early. Ramsey arrived on Tuesday afternoon and was able to have dinner with us that night. Brandon and Jenny and the kids didn't arrive until late Tuesday night. On Wednesday we split up- the boys went to do their own thing and the girls did some shopping. We came back together for a lasagna dinner. 

This was our first Thanksgiving in our house, so we hosted Jason's family on Thanksgiving this year. Everyone came over around lunch time. We had all kinds of delicious food! We were all stuffed. Jason set up a hayride in our backyard for the kids which was a lot of fun. After a full day of family and friends, we got comfy and watched a movie. 

Snuggling pups!
On Friday we all did some shopping. We didn't get up really early or anything though. We got to Bass Pro Shops around 8 or 8:30. Then the boys and the girls split up again! The boys went to Harbor Freight and Northern Tool while the girls were at Target and Petsmart. We met back up for a pizza lunch. After lunch the girls headed back home to do cooking for the Kinamon Thanksgiving. Around four we all headed over to my parent's house to have Thanksgiving number two! We had more delicious food and ended up stuffed again. After dinner we all headed back to our house to make this year's family portrait. It took a few tries. We added two dogs and a baby since last year!

Family photo 2013
Saturday morning Brandon and Jenny and the kids headed home. That afternoon Jason, Ramsey, David, and I went to Atlanta for the the Georgia vs. Georgia Tech game. We tailgated with some friends before the game started and some of the band stopped by to play a song.

Ga Tech band
It was interesting to be back at my old stomping grounds and see how much the campus has changed in the last few years! The game was at 3:30, so we were able to see the sunset over Atlanta from our seats.

Sunset sky at half time
It ended up being a close game and going into overtime, but Georgia finally took the win!

Sunday morning we took Ramsey to Passion City Church in Atlanta. Jason's mom went with us too! Then after lunch we celebrated our niece's 14th birthday with cookie cake.

Batman cookie cake
And that was our Thanksgiving week. It was busy but fun. We are thankful to have spent so much time with our family and friends.