merry christmas

Our Christmas morning's going to be pretty low-key this year, but I love that. We opened our presents on Thursday, because my dad's on-call and Jonathan (our newest family addition!) was here. So this morning we're free to just relax, eat my mama's delicious brunch and spend time with relatives.

These pictures are the product of my Christmas present - an incredible camera that my photography skills do not deserve, but hopefully will someday. And this cake is the handiwork of my mother ;) She's baked a cake every day for the past three days - Tiramisu, Peppermint Cheesecake and now Gingerbread cake. She's amazing!

___

Here's a verse I love and have had time to think about this Christmas in the absence of frantic present-wrapping...

"But to all who did receive Him, who believed in His name, He gave the right to become children of God, who were born not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God. And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as the only Son of the Father, full of grace and truth."

John 1:12-14

Merry Christmas!

have i made you wait long enough?

Okay, now that the best but busiest week of my life has settled down, I have time for the story...

A week ago, I called Jonathan upset for a number of reasons that all really stemmed from exam exhaustion. He was very consoling and said he wanted take me out to dinner in Madison to make me feel better.

He picked me up at 5:15 (he'd looked up the time of sunset), and we drove down Milledge Avenue towards Madison. We drove past fields where we used to park freshman year and talk til 4 a.m. every night, and he asked me if I wanted to stop for old time's sake. Completely oblivious, I said sure!, and we parked his Land Cruiser (below) in our old spot.

Then he started saying sweet things, and I reciprocated (still oblivious). When I still didn't pick up the hint, he said - why don't we get out of the car for a minute? As he started to open the door I realized what was happening. He walked to the front of the car (surrounded by fields and sunset), and I followed him (beaming). Then he got down on one knee, pulled out the most beautiful ring in the world that he designed and asked me to marry him.

I said yes! of course and asked if anyone else knew yet. He told me that everyone knew, and they were all meeting us at Normal Bar later that night. But first, he had another surprise. We weren't eating in Madison, we were eating at Five and Ten where champagne and appetizers (courtesy of Lauren Anne ;) were awaiting us.

It was the happiest night of my life. We got to spend a long time at dinner just the two of us, and then we celebrated with all our friends and my family til the wee hours of the morning. And when we finally got home my roommates had one more surprise...

A WHOLE Grit cake! It was delicious and fed us for days. My roommates are the best friends in the entire world. They kept the proposal a secret for weeks, and "napped" behind closed doors the day he asked me so their faces wouldn't give it away. They deserve a whole post devoted to how much I love them, but that will have to wait til tomorrow.

Merry Christmas break, and I hope your cheeks hurt from smiling so much just like mine do!

he liked it so he put a ring on it

Okay so things get a little busy when you get.... ENGAGED!!!

I don't even have time to put up more pictures or do justice to the story because so many happy things are happening right now, but here's a little teaser;) Maybe you can guess the ending....

t - 16 hours 'til freedom

Due to exams and papers this blog as grown a bit neglected, but tonight is the last night of studying! Jane Austen final tomorrow, and then I'm done. (And a little nerdy part of me feels like that final might be kind of enjoyable)

In between hours of studying there have been a few fun rewards. The Oak House Classy Christmas party, Lessons and Carols at Redeemer, watching Elf (twice) and our annual Hampton House Christmas breakfast. Usually we have it when everyone finishes their exams, but this year we did it on the last day of class instead.

To celebrate the almost end of the year we made every breakfast food we could think of - eggs, pigs 'n a blanket, cinnamon rolls, bacon, cheese grits, muffins and last but not least... Mama's Boy Strawberry Lemonade with Champagne. It was delicious as usual, but a little bitter sweet since it was our last one ever. But we tried to brush that off and stuff ourselves to our hearts' content ;)

oh christmas tree

I know I say pumpkin patch day is my favorite day of the year, but Christmas tree day is right up there too. My family (aka my sister and I) are really big on traditions and doing the same things, the same way every year. This year Kate and I gave in a little and agreed to go get the Christmas tree without our brothers. Believe it or not, they don't love whole-family-pile-in-the-car traditions quite as much as we do.

Every year we drive 5 minutes down the road to Sherry's Produce, a little family owned produce shop that sells trees. The same family helps us every year, realizes they don't have a chain saw, struggles with a handheld one and secures a tree on our car. I love it, and I'm not willing to cave on many more details ;)

Even though we were brotherless, we managed to find a HUGE Christmas tree. It was so fat that it took three friendly neighborhood Christmas tree salesmen to squeeze it into our stand.

Does your family have Christmas tree traditions?

winter flowers

Here are a few weekend images for your viewing pleasure...

The weekend included...

Bonfires

Grit cake

Ike and Jane's lunch

Community Group

Christmas Music

Peppermint Coffee

Not as much studying as there should have been

In short, it was wonderful.

Also, isn't that mason jar wild flower arrangement adorable? It was on our table at Ike and Jane's. I'm not sure how they found such pretty flowers since it's grey and winterish outside, but if I stumble upon some I'm making a cheery arrangement for my house.

Happy Monday morning! I hope yours is full of coffee and coziness and not stress.

let's rewind for just a moment

Okay, I know this post is a bit belated, but better late than never right?

Here's our Morris family Thanksgiving before...

... and after we dug in.

Thanksgiving has always been my favorite holiday, because there's no pressure. I mean there's some pressure to make delicious food and set festive tables, but I kind of like those tasks. Christmas, Valentine's Day and birthdays all come with built up expectations. On Thanksgiving all you have to do is stuff your self, spend time with family and watch football.

Every year my mom lays out brown paper on the tables so that people can write what their thankful for.. or draw it if they feel so inclined. This year I stumbled upon a role of brown paper decorated with silverware. (I found it at Sophie's, the adorable store Jonathan's mom works at in Chattanooga.) I think people were a little confused about whether or not they could write on it, but it added the perfect extra touch to our tables!

P.S. I also have to say for anyone who's never been to my house - my mom is seriously the best cook in the entire world. She made almost the entire meal, and she even whipped up a special creme de menthe chocolate pie for me! Not very conventional, but she knows mint-chocolate is my favorite ;)

remember life outside the library?

As exam craziness starts I haven't had much free blogging time. But lots of yummy Thanksgiving pictures are on their way! Right now I can't upload them, because I'm sitting at a rather slow out-dated library computer where I've been for the past 5 hours...



But on a happier note... yesterday 2 miraculous things happened

1. I deeply dented my bumper the other night backing into something, but the next morning the dent had popped out all by itself! Good as new! Which was wonderful since it's a 2011 car.

2. My 15-page term paper that was due tomorrow and I elected to start.. oh Monday around 10 p.m. was moved to next Wednesday.

Sometimes a few little things can remove a lot of stress, and thankfully these final crunch days have have been sprinkled with lots of cozy enjoyable moments.