Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas

I am taking the next few days off to spend time with my people and indulge in the magic of Christmas. As amazing as all of the Christmas lights, food, traditions, etc. are, the truly amazing thing is the gift of Jesus. If you have never read the story of Christ's birth, I have included it below. 

Merry Christmas from my family to yours! I will see you in 2018!

Luke 2: The Birth of Jesus

2 In those days Caesar Augustus issued a decree that a census should be taken of the entire Roman world. ² (This was the first census that took place while Quirinius was governor of Syria.) ³ And everyone went to their own town to register.

⁴ So Joseph also went up from the town of Nazareth in Galilee to Judea, to Bethlehem the town of David, because he belonged to the house and line of David. ⁵ He went there to register with Mary, who was pledged to be married to him and was expecting a child. ⁶ While they were there, the time came for the baby to be born,⁷ and she gave birth to her firstborn, a son. She wrapped him in cloths and placed him in a manger, because there was no guest room available for them.

⁸ And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night. ⁹ An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. ¹⁰ But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid. I bring you good news that will cause great joy for all the people. ¹¹ Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is the Messiah, the Lord. ¹² This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.”

¹³ Suddenly a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel, praising God and saying,

¹⁴ “Glory to God in the highest heaven, and on earth peace to those on whom his favor rests.”

¹⁵ When the angels had left them and gone into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, “Let’s go to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has told us about.”

¹⁶ So they hurried off and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby, who was lying in the manger. ¹⁷ When they had seen him, they spread the word concerning what had been told them about this child, ¹⁸ and all who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds said to them. ¹⁹ But Mary treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart. ²⁰ The shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things they had heard and seen, which were just as they had been told.

²¹ On the eighth day, when it was time to circumcise the child, he was named Jesus, the name the angel had given him before he was conceived.

Around The House At Christmas Time

Christmas is my favorite time of year (besides summer when I don't have to be cold all the time ;)). I love decorating, I love wrapping presents, and I love blasting Christmas music all through the house for a month straight. 

I am typically one of those people we all silently judge for decorating their house before Thanksgiving. I love Thanksgiving too, but I am ready by mid-November to start enjoying my Christmas decorations. With this being Preston's first Christmas, I was way excited to jump the gun and get my Christmas on! I thought I would take today to share a few little decorations that make me happy. :)

My mom always had nutcrackers in her house, so I always get excited to display these guys. Nutcrackers just scream Christmas to me!

I love this little nativity set we got from Parker's grandmother a few years back. It's simple and sweet, and those little sheep are adorable!

I bought our stockings when we got married from Lands End. I love the needlepoint look!

I ordered Preston's stocking last year when I was still pregnant, and I am not exaggerating at all when I say hanging it this year was a dream come true. I love seeing his stocking hung next to his sister pup's stocking.

A few gifts waiting to be opened! I love making bows and purposely do not save the bows each year so that I get to make them again. The joy I get wrapping presents and making bows is greater than the $7 I would save by saving the bows each year. ;)

Here is a little snippit of our Christmas tree! We bought a pre-lit tree back in 2011, and this was the year the lights decided to stop working. We had a good run, but instead of getting my rear in gear and trying to fix it, I've resorted to just not having lights this year. I'm a mom... we don't have time to go through every bulb to find the faulty one. Or at least that's the excuse I am using here. ;)

I think I blogged about this last year, but I love this Christmas memories book! Each year, I adhere our Christmas card and write about gifts, special memories, etc. It will be so nice to have to look back on!

A look inside this sweet little book. You can order one here if you are interested!

And lastly, Christmas cards. I blogged last week about my love for sending out Christmas cards. I love receiving cards and displaying them in our home. It makes my heart happy!

Anchors Aweigh Turns 5!

Since I have been such a good blogger this year (sarcasm, obviously), I completely missed my blogiversary! That's still a thing, yes? Earlier this month, Anchors Aweigh turned 5! It amazes me that this blog has been going for 5 years and counting. Even though I have been the biggest blogging slacker this year since becoming a mom and I am not sure anyone reads this little blog anymore, I still love doing it. It has been such a huge part of my identity over the last 5 years, and I am so thankful for the seasons and phases this little blog has gone through.

 

I started my blog on December 1, 2012 as a way to keep our families up to date with our lives in the Navy. We were stationed in Pensacola and had been married a little over a year. You can read my very first post here. It quickly became a full blown hobby and then segued into a way to connect with other military spouses and young women like me. It became a coping mechanism when I lost our daughter and was a way for me to share our story with the world. I went through a season where I made some money with this blog and really put my time and effort into that. And now, it's a place where I still love to jot down a few thoughts while my sweet baby naps. 

This year was easily the hardest year for me, blog wise. Our son was born at the beginning of the year, and I wanted to shout it from the rooftops and share every little update about this new little life that I had fallen in love with. But, Parker and I decided we wanted to be more private with him. i don't regret our decision, but it has made blogging so much more difficult for me. This is a lifestyle blog, yet I won't allow myself to fully share the biggest part of my life right now. I really wrestle with that and what I am still doing here, but I just love it too much to quit right now. There is a season for everything, and I am just not ready for this one to be over yet. 

So cheers to 5 years of blogging. Whether you have been here since the beginning (hi, mom!) or just popped in today, I appreciate you taking the time to read this little blog and be apart of it. I am very grateful for this little space!

7 Years of Christmas Cards

Christmas cards were a big deal in my family when I was growing up. My sisters and I coordinated in our best, cheesiest outfits, Mom printed the picture onto a card, and we sent it out to our closest friends and family. I loved sending it and I loved checking the mail each day to see if we received any new cards. 

When Parker and I got married, I started sending our own Christmas card. I have sent one for every year we have been married! I joke that I can't remember the last time I mopped my floors, but I always have our Christmas card in the mail the week of Thanksgiving so it will arrive before December 1st. Priorities. 

We always try to take our Christmas picture in a place that is special to us and represents the past year. I thought I would take today to share our cards through the years!

2011 was the year we got married and our first Christmas together! We took this picture in my Nana's front yard in Midlothian, TX. This was just a few weeks before we started our new lives in Florida, so I love that we were home and in Texas for this card. Jenny was just a year old!

2012 was the year we moved to Pensacola, FL for Parker to begin flight school! We moved that January and absolutely fell in love with the place. We had so many great friends and spent most weekends on the beautiful beach. It was only fitting that we take our picture on the beach!

2013 was the year we moved to Kingsville, TX and were finally back in the motherland! We took this picture on the naval base since that year was spent with Parker logging more study/flight/Navy time than I knew was possible. 

2014 was spent in Norfolk, VA. We took this picture in the middle of such a big, trying time in our lives. I was pregnant with Taylor Grace in this picture. By the time this card arrived in mailboxes, I was no longer pregnant with her. We also had Darla that year, the dog we took in for a year while her owner was on deployment. We took our picture in front of our house with a tripod. That house holds so many memories that I never want to forget, so I love that we chose to take it there. 

2015 was spent in Virginia Beach, VA, and we took this picture on the nature trail behind our house. This was our first house to buy, so that makes this picture extra special to us! Bonus: this is the first picture Jenny decided to crack a smile for! ;)

2016 was the year of the deployment and the year of the pregnancy! Go big or go home, right? Since Parker was deployed from June-December, we had a little fun with this card and made sure it was an adequate representation of 2016. I mailed Parker the sign he is holding. I am in Texas with my family, and Parker is in Bahrain!

2017 was our first Christmas card with baby Preston! It was so surreal for me to get to include our son in this card. It sounds silly, but it was a dream come true! We took this one again in the nature trail behind our house, knowing this is the last year we will get to do so before we move. We also learned this year that getting both a dog and a baby to look at the camera is impossible. (Oopsies- i just realized I cut off the "P" in Parker's name. It was included in the actual card. ;))

All cards are really special to me, and of course I love our card this year because it has sweet baby Preston in it, but if I had to pick a favorite card, it would be our card from 2014. That card was taken on a tripod in our front yard, so it's not winning any photography awards, but it is so special to me. It is the only card that has Taylor Grace and Darla in it. We will Godwilling have so many cards in the future, but that is the only card that will ever say Taylor's name, so it will always be really special to me. 

Life Lately

It's been a hot minute since I shared what life has looked like lately in our neck of the woods, so this Monday seems like as good a day as any to fix that! Life is always full speed ahead around the holidays, but we are loving every minute of it. Here's what we've been up to...

We had Parker's annual squadron Christmas party this past Friday! It was fun to get dressed up, and this was the first time we used a babysitter that wasn't our family or a close friend. And all we were thinking by the end of the night was "Why did we wait so long to get a babysitter??". We had a blast!

The Christmas party was at the Virginia Air & Space Museum, so of course my husband wasn't happy at all about being around so many planes. ;) They always do a big raffle for tons of prizes at these Christmas parties. A couple of years ago, we won an iPad! We were of course hoping we would win something this year too! We had two tickets and put my name on both of them since Parker isn't technically supposed to win. The first ticket was drawn early on for a gift card, and we were so excited! It was getting late and they still hadn't drawn for the grand prize, a 75 inch TV, but Parker and I decided to call it a night and head home. We gave the remaining ticket to a friend and left. We got a text from said friend as soon as we got home telling us that ticket had won. So basically, had I stayed 45 minutes longer, we would have gotten a free 75 inch TV. Lesson learned, yall! I am kind of glad we weren't there because a hard working sailor deserves that TV way more than I do, but I can't believe how close we were to winning a free TV!

The next morning, we woke up and decided to take baby Preston in for his very first haircut. They charged us for a "bang trim" and not so subtly let us know that our kid didn't really need a haircut. They trimmed around his ears and cut a small amount off the top and called it good. I in turn took my free bag of hair home and taped it to the baby book. That's what the mom's do these days, right? Save their kid's hair from the first haircut? I agree, it feels strange. He was a trooper though and did great!

On the way to our neighborhood Christmas party, Parker stopped to feed the neighborhood peacock popcorn. Just another day in sweet home Virginia...

Preston met Santa for the first time at the neighborhood Christmas party! Santa looked questionably like our friendly neighbor, Steve, but that must have been a coincidence. ;) Preston was very curious and just stared at Santa the whole time. We were definitely expecting tears, but he did great!

In other news, here's a picture of this sweet trooper. She is so tolerant of her little brother and so patient with him. Clearly, as she is laying on a couch with multiple pillows under her, you can see that her life isn't too bad. ;)

Other than that, life lately has looked a whole lot like this: sweet family time with my three favorites. Time slow down!

That's life lately!