Saturday, November 28, 2009

{It's time...}


Happy Saturday to you :) I hope you are having a relaxing day...

So much preparation for the holidays, along with my Gussy business, has pulled me from blogging more than I'd like it to. But that is life, right? We are just living life over here -- having a good time. I hope to bring you all some fun Gussy stories soon. Once I catch my breath. All this darn talking has got me tired. Soon I'll share some stories with ya'll.

Let me back up a bit, mmmmk?

THANKSGIVING: Thursday morning Zack and I drove to a city in Minnesota called New York Mills. It's a teeny-tiny town. Super-duper small. {His cousin told us there isn't a single stop light in town. Whoa.} We met up with his extended family and had a really great time getting to know them over a delicious meal! When we arrived, one of the first questions out of their mouths was: What do you do in the cities? Everyone wanted to know. So we shared our jobs, where we live, how we ended up in Minneapolis, all that. We appreciated the coziness of the day and sharing in hours of conversation.

Z even made me blush by telling his family, She's such a great cook, there's hardly ever any leftovers! :)

What a guy, what a guy! I'm super lucky.

On our way to their home, which was about 3 hours from ours, I spotted lots and lots of population signs: population 600-ish; population 200-ish; population 26. Yup, sure remember that last one!

I am a fact girl. See:

Minneapolis, MN: population 389,000-ish

Petoskey, MI (where Z is from): population 6,000-ish

Grand Rapids, MI (where I'm from): population 200,000-ish

Knowing the facts of a city helps me put it in perspective. It's one of my Gussy traits. It is so interesting to me how we can drive 20 minutes from the city and the area looks so different. This was especially true for our drive home, since it was very dark. Leaving New York Mills we had our car headlights to guide us home, but once we were close to Minneapolis, the city lights brought us home. It was amazing to see the downtown area as lit-up as it was. It was so pretty!

Gussy was in awe, is in awe, of the city.

Ahem. But now that Thanksgiving is behind us it's time to decorate for Christmas! I am so eager to decorate, and it's probably because Zack and I will be going back home in December for the first time since we moved here! We're going to be home soon... yes!

We miss our families dearly.

BLACK FRIDAY: Yesterday morning Zack and I hit the malls. We went to Target, then the Mall of America. We finally called it quits and came home after over 10 hours of shipping. We were so truly exhausted as we walked through our front door with bags of presents for 8 people. I'd say we have 97% of our shopping done. I CAN'T BELIEVE IT... Praise the LORD!

We came, we conquered, and now I am a tired Gussy and don't want to go to the mall for a long while. Unless it's Target, of course. Then I'll go in a heartbeat ;)

So back to this Christmas-decorating thing. Later today I'm going to turn up the Christmas music and we're going to pull out alllllll our decorations. Yippee-yeow-hooray. So very excited :) We'll lite some candles and prepare our home for the Christmas celebration. {And the countdown to our long visit in Michigan!}

When will you decorate for Christmas? {Or have you already?} Is there anything you're especially excited to set out? I have a Willow Tree Nativity Set that I can't wait to put on our fancy bookshelf.



I'm very excited to put away the orange/red/yellow + leaf theme has been hanging around our apartment. About two weeks after we moved in I decorated for fall, and that was almost 3 months ago. Yeow!



Gussy is ready for a change! Time for something new. Thank goodness decorations aren't too expensive! Or if they are, you buy them on sale and take good care of them. Forever and ever, Amen.

By the way... about a ago I found myself listening to Christmas music. Not too sure how that happened, but it was playing while I was sewing. Can I admit something? It was glorious. I even sent my mom a little email confessing all this :) I told her she wasn't allowed to disown me, despite Thanksgiving wasn't here yet.


I keep having these little flashbacks of our decorations... Soon enough I'll remember!

We were at Target last weekend and together we thought of a cool "garland" idea for decorating our bookshelf. Our fancy bookshelf. I'm excited to make it and show ya'll. It's super cute :)




Are you making anything as part of your Christmas decorations this year?

[photo credit]


PS. Did you see that pink Christmas tree? Would it be OK if we had one? Yes? No? Zack...?


10 comments:

Melissa G said...

I have a willow tree nativity set too! My mama gave it to me and i love it!

Lisa said...

I don't have a nativity set, but my boyfriend's sister has a Willow Tree one and it made me want one! Maybe I'll find one on sale after Christmas this year (not likely). I decorated for Christmas last weekend because I'm having a party at my house next week and didn't want to have to decorate over the Thanksgiving holiday.

Anonymous said...

I decorated yesterday! I bought this set of mini trees last year on the day after Christmas for half off, and I love them! They look like mini Charlie Brown trees. So cute! Didn't know where to put them, but I made a spot because they're my fave!

Melissa said...

We put our Christmas decorations up yesterday! Our house is full of Christmas goodness! This is our first one as a married couple, so I kind of went all out (and for my stepson) All of our decorations were given to us, so it reminded me how lucky we are to have such giving people in our lives. =) Hope you have a blast putting yours up! =)

Unknown said...

Our house is getting Ho Ho Ho'd up today. I'm curious to see how the pup does with the tree. I think the hubs & I are going to venture out to Target to find a new tree topper...I just love looking at ornaments & decorations (and I love Target, too).

As for the pink tree...why not? Target has them - prelit, I think. Michael's craft stores have them, too. I have four mini trees...three of which I need to put in pots or something b/c they are for outdoors but I want them inside. Hmmm...

Sarah, Ted and Eloise said...

We are buying our tree next weekend. We are so excited! We have lots of decorations, but our MOST favorite part is decorating the tree with all of our treasured ornaments. We have Christmas music, popcorn and Coca-Cola, and the best part is this year we have Eloise!!

Lindsay - Pen and Paint said...

I REALLY want a Willow Tree Nativity. One year I will.

Pink tree...if it's a Gussy tree it must be pink.

Decorations going up tonight.
I have thought about painting a small tiny canvas as Mr.C's first ornament...maybe with a hand print. That should be fun and messy.

Lindsay - Pen and Paint said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
jaquelyn {mama thoughts} said...

Oh, I want a Willow Tree nativity set. Really badly!! I think they're just beautiful. :)

Maggie, 10 hours of shopping!?! My goodness. I was out for 5 hours yesterday afternoon, and one hour was hanging out with my friend's mom over hot chocolate and cookies...and I was still exhausted when I got home! How great that most of your Christmas shopping is done, though!

We're going to a Christmas production this afternoon, and I am so excited! Wanna know a secret? I've been listening to/playing (on the piano) Christmas music since October! I know, it's bad. But I love it. ;)

Andrea said...

we're getting ready to put up our decorations this week - yay! I just remembered I had bookmarked this site for a wreath I found (a long time ago!) to make. I'm going to make one for Christmas this year with a few different colors in it. hopefully it turns out! http://thelongthread.com/?p=1310