It was an Alabama Christmas...

We had dinner with some of our friends on Christmas Day. I got out the fine china for the fun of it and (of course) took some pics!

We had so much fun visiting our families this past weekend! We headed down there the day after Christmas, and we were able to see both immediate families and some friends. Many games were played, puzzles done, and targets shot! Yes, we shot boxes, bottles, and skeet...it was an Alabama Christmas =) Enjoy the pictures below!

Mom after winning in "Blockus" for the first time.

Is that a rook I see?

The hardest puzzle ever!

Preparations...

Just look at that grouping! (Mine was equally as good.)

The prized kill!

Redneck American Gothic

Kevin's Dad, Kevin, and their little helper...."Pull"

HAPPY

NEW YEAR

TO ALL !!!

Expect Pictures!

Hey Everybody!

A few weeks ago I made my yearly "This is exactly what I want" list for Kevin, and he informed me that he wasn't going to get any of it. I wasn't too sure what was coming, but I wasn't worried. He always does an excellent job with presents. I was very pleasantly surprised to open a new camera on Christmas morning!! I have been wanting a new camera for a very long time. However, our old camera wasn't THAT bad - other than being a little old (5 megapixel when they have up to 10 now...) and pretty big & bulky. So, I didnt' feel like I could put that on my list... Kevin just read my mind and got me the exact camera I wanted!!!

The coolest thing about this camera is that it is pretty indestructable. It is shock proof (i.e. you can drop it up to 5 ft. without hurting it), waterproof (i.e. it can withstand being underwater up to 10 ft.), and freezeproof (down to 14 degrees)! Not only will we get awesome pictures next time we are skiing & at the beach, but this camera will be great with kids (one day). It's also small enough to drop in my purse/Kevin's pocket and go!

We're headed down "home" this weekend to celebrate Christmas with my family! YAY!

Get ready for lots of pictures =)

(I took this picture, and edited it with the new toy!)

MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYBODY!!!

1. Egg nog or Hot Chocolate? Hot Chocolate!

2. Does Santa wrap presents or just sit them under the tree? Wraps them and sets them under the tree.

3. Colored lights or white? Colored...Kevin and I both grew up with them.

4. Do you hang mistletoe? We have before...but I haven't had the time to find some and shoot it down this year!

5. When do you put your decorations up? We normally do it all the 1st weekend of December (so we can enjoy all the decorations before going home the weekend before/after Christmas).

6. Favorite holiday dish? Cranberry Sauce.....YUMMY!!!

7. Favorite childhood memory? All the siblings piling in one room on Christmas Eve to sleep. Then, in the morning, waiting in our room until Mom and Dad told us it was "time." Then we were allowed to go look in our stockings. (At the time we had no clue that other kids had finished opening their presents long before we ever woke up. That's the way it went in our house!) Then we all ate breakfast before opening presents. Christmas lasted all morning...and we loved it!

8. When/how did you learn the truth about Santa? We didn't ever do Santa...so I guess I always knew!

9. Do you open a gift on Christmas Eve? No, we opened one present before Christmas, and that was the day we set up our tree. St. Nick would always bring one very large gift after the tree was all decorated!

10. How do you decorate the tree? Kevin stands it up. We hangs the lights together and put all the ornaments on while listening to Christmas music!

11. Snow. Love it or dread it? What's snow?

12. Can you ice skate? Yep...I'm ok...

13. Do you remember your favorite gift? From Mom & Dad - a doll that I named Natalie-Gene. From Kevin - a Pearl Ring that he gave me while we were dating

14. What is the most important thing about the holidays to you? The spirit of giving & helping those in need, and the friends and family you visit & communicate with. Some that you don't get to see/hear from the rest of the year!

15. Favorite holiday dessert? mom's Banana Pudding & my mother-in-law's Chocolate Cake

16. Favorite Christmas Tradition? That Kevin and I have our own Christmas morning time together. Also, that we get a Christmas ornament at every new place we visit on trips, so when we decorate our tree we get to remember all our fun trips that we've taken together.

17. What tops your tree? An Angel. We both grew up with angels on our trees, so that's what we wanted. We found a cheap one at Target our first Christmas. Eventually we would like to get one that holds lights so that it isn't so dark up there!

18. Do you prefer giving or receiving? Both are favorites:-)

19. Favorite Christmas song? I love them all! I love all the Christmas Hymns, I also love "This Baby" & "Home for Christmas" by Steven Curtis Chapman

20. Candy canes. Yum or yuck? Stick them in an orange....yum:-)

21. What do you want for Christmas? Whatever the big surprise is that Kevin's planning!

22. Do you attend an annual Christmas party? yes...Kevin's company cook-out, and my company formal (different worlds - both are fun!)

23. Do you dress up for Christmas Eve or wear P.J.'s? Dress up to go to our church Christmas service, then get in PJ's to watch Elf.

24. Do you own a Santa hat? Nope :-(

25. Who do you normally spend Christmas with? Just the two of us....we visit families on the weekend before and the weekend after!

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!

Christmastime in Alabama

In Huntsville...

We attended my company Christmas party. We had a lot of fun getting all dressed up for the occasion.

The key to getting good pictures at events like this is waiting until the professional photographer is finished....then borrow their set :-)

In Wedowee...

We took our annual Watts Family Christmas Picture.

As you can see, little Layla was tired of having her picture taken by the time they got to my camera.

This may be a new christmas tradition...the Christmas Sweater Picture!!! These were given to us by Mawmaw (Kevin's grandmother), and we all thought that mine was the best! You can't see from this picture that the flower on my shirt is 3D...awsome!

When one smiles...the other sticks out their tongue! Maybe I should just photoshop the two smiling faces together!

Too cute in her little LLBean sweater!

Christmas & CVS

I have to say that I was very skeptical of the people out there who were getting into the "CVS Game." I thought that there was no way that shopping at CVS for groceries could ever been worth it...much less a deal! I get my prescriptions filled at CVS, and I noticed that all the groceries in there were around $2 more expensive than WM or Kroger. After reading a bunch of blogs explaining the sales at CVS and the Extra Care Bucks (ECB's) which you receive with specific purchases, I decided to give it a try - and I'm convinced! With very little researching (simply looking through the Sunday CVS add for things we could use) I went to CVS today and saved big time! I have to say that the CVS employees were not nearly as excited about my savings as I was (since they had to check me out 3 times), but I don't care...not when I'm saving this kind of money!!! Here is the break down of my loot:

Transaction #1:

2 boxes Fiber One

1 box Multigrain Cheerios

1 box Honeynut Cheerios

2 boxes Natures Valley Honey & Oat Bars

ORIGINAL PRICE = $28.34

SALE PRICE = $21.62

PAID OOP (Out of Pocket) = $21.62

ECB's RECEIVED = $10.00

Transaction #2:

4 12-packs Diet Mt. Dew

ORIGINAL PRICE = $19.56

SALE PRICE = $13.00

PAID w/ ECB's = $13.00 ($10 from Trans. #1 & $3 from previous CVS visit)

PAID OOP (Out of Pocket) = $0.00

ECB's RECEIVED = $3.00

Transaction #3:

1 bag Crunch Bites

1 bag Butterfinger Bites

ORIGINAL PRICE = $5.98

SALE PRICE = $5.08
PAID w/ ECB's = $4.00 ($3 from Trans #2 & $1 from previous CVS visit)

PAID w/ COUPONS = $1.00

PAID OOP (Out of Pocket) = $0.08

TOTAL PAID OOP = $21.70

**That's an average of $1.80 per item!!!

NOTE: I realized when I left CVS that I had a $1 off coupon for Fiber One, so I could have gotten all of this for $20.70 =(

So, to sum it all up....

TOTAL SALES SAVINGS = $14.26

TOTAL ECB SAVINGS = $17.00

TOTAL COUPON SAVINGS = $1.00

TOTAL SAVINGS = $32.26!!!!!!!!!!!

Now I realize that CVS has horrific "original prices," so the "sales savings" do nothing but bring their prices down to a normal level, but you cannot beat $18 free money at any store! I am sold on the CVS game, and I would suggest it to anyone who is interested. Just keep an eye out for sales on things that you use, and go for it! I could have gotten a ton of other stuff free w/ ECB's, but I decided that I will only buy things that I actually need (or can stockpile until needed)!

December Superpost

So, I have not been blogging recently due to a complete lack of time. Most of the time, for me at least, lack of blogging = lack of interesting material. Not the case this past week. We’ve had so much going on lately!!! I’ve been so good about taking pictures, too!!! So here it is – and it’s not short. All of my great ideas for blog posts wrapped up into a Top 10 list. I tried to summarize…but it didn’t really work. Take your time and enjoy!

10.

We spent the Thanksgiving Holidays in Salisbury, NC with my dad’s side of the family. I got to visit with Nonnie, my grandmother, who has not been doing so well lately. It was good to see her! Also, I also got to hang out with my Mom, Dad, Brother, Sisters, Aunts, Uncles, Cousins, and all of their children (who, apparently, are my first cousins once removed). Three of my cousins all had babies within 3 months of each other - one of them had twins!! So, we had 4 very energetic 1-year-olds at Thanksgiving this year! It made me realize that I think I’m going to have to find some energy before having children! Here we all are...

9.

I got up at 2:45am (Central Time) on Black Friday, and headed out to get a few things on my list! After a not-so-exciting door buster moment, I bought those few things, and I headed straight back to bed to catch a few more hours of sleep! That afternoon, we did some serious shopping at Concord Mills – a fabulous outlet mall in North Carolina! Can I just say that I love 50% off sales at the Banana Republic Factory Store???

8.

We headed home to Huntsville from North Carolina on Sunday – yes, the WORST possible day to travel – EVER!!! Our 7 ½ hour trip not-so-quickly developed into an 11 hour trip. About 3-4 hours of this 11 hour trip was spent traveling at the lightning fast speed of 25 mph!!!! UGGGGHHHHHHH!!!!!

7.

On a more positive note – I got to listen to Christmas music for 11 straight hours! I refuse to listen to Christmas music until the day after Thanksgiving, but it’s all I listen to from that time until New Years! I LOVE CHRISTMAS MUSIC – I seriously cannot get enough of it!!! My favorite albums are Point of Grace’s – A Christmas Story and Steven Curtis Chapman’s – The Music of Christmas. Also, I would like to thank 96.9 for feeding my addition to and from work.

6.

Brrrrr…….it got COLD in Huntsville this past week! We experienced the first snow flurry of the season which went something like this, “I think I see a flake of snow….yep, I think I just saw another one – IT’S SNOWING!” Kevin and I also got brave and used our fireplace for the first time! We were a little afraid that our chimney would not work properly and the house would fill with smoke, but everything went great! There is no better feeling than snuggling by a fire drinking hot chocolate! I expect there will be many more fires before the end of winter!

5.

I have been too busy for necessity shopping recently, and we needed a lot of stuff in a lot of areas, so I got all organized for a big shopping trip to CVS, Kroger, and Wal-Mart. I spent a lot of money (which was expected and had been budgeted for), but I saved over $40 using coupons! WOW, I love coupons!!! I had never gotten brave enough to try the “CVS game” that I had heard so much about on other posts, but I finally did and it works! I got:

2 large bottles of contact solution
2 tubes of Crest toothpaste
1 Softsoap refill
1 Dove Body Wash
2 Ragu Spaghetti Sauces

All for around $20!!! This would have cost over $35 had I not use coupons and ECB’s! I am not that good at the game yet, but I will get better with practice… Kevin, on the other hand, has always been good at saving money! His “skills” were on display this week on our bathroom counter….

Yes, that is a dissected tube of toothpaste (which we could squeeze no more) and a bottle of lotion (which the straw had gotten too short to reach the remaining lotion)! When I told him to throw them away, Kevin reminded me that Dave says we have to “Live like no one else, so later, we can live like no one else.” Sometimes Dave quotes are annoying, but…

4.

Our vacation budgeting efforts have brought us to the place where we are ready to travel like no one else – YEAH!!! We are finishing up plans to go skiing in Breckenridge, Colorado in January, and take the long-awaited trip to Europe. We are going to Rome, Paris, and London in May! Some of our favorite things are traveling and doing things that we’ve never done before! These two trips are the pinnacle of those two favorites!

3.

We’ve been breaking/losing things lately. We pulled out the vacuum cleaner the other day, and it started smoking. I must admit that I was not that sad that our $19.99 vacuum has finally died after almost 3 years of marriage. I’ve been waiting expectantly for that thing to die! So, I got to do some vacuum shopping. I had no idea that they were so expensive! I knew that I didn’t want the $19 special again, but I don’t really want to spend $700 either! After much internet research and physically shopping for/touching more vacuums than I care to remember, I found a great deal on the Bissell Healthy Home vacuum at Linens n Things online – less than half the price of the other stores!!! Gotta love going out of business sales (even if it is a sign of the economy)! So, I’ve ordered it, and I am excitedly awaiting its arrival in 6-10 business days! I hope that I’ll like it! The reviews didn’t have much negative to say other than the fact that it’s pretty heavy, but so are a lot of the more expensive/12 amp vacuums that I was looking at! I’ll just think to myself that weight = quality!

On a sadder note, somewhere in the midst of all this holiday/necessity shopping, I lost the pearl out of my beautiful pearl ring that Kevin gave me when we were dating. I loved this ring, and I could not believe it when I looked down to see that the pearl was missing =( So, if you see a lonely pearl rolling around Huntsville, please let me know!!!

2.

Let the Christmas season officially begin! We went to Valley Christmas Tree Plantation on Saturday and cut down the most beautiful tree we could find!

Just kidding…this is the tree we actually got. I love Christmas trees! Can you tell?

After soaking the trunk in a bucket of water over night, attending our church choir’s Christmas performance on Sunday morning, a baby shower in the afternoon for me, and skeet shooting for Kevin, we came home Sunday night to set up our tree! Kevin decided to hammer our stand onto our tree…but he hit the stand a little too hard...

So, after a trip to Wally World to get a tree stand that would actually hold water, we tried again! It worked, and we dragged the tree inside to set it up (forgetting that we do not have a vacuum at this time…oops!!!). We finally got the tree set up, and called some neighbors to borrow their vacuum…thank goodness for neighbors!

1.

We finished decorated the tree and the house for Christmas! I love decorating for Christmas!!! In my opinion, it’s the best holiday of the year! At this point, we have quite a variety of ornaments. Most are from a Christmas shower which we had before we got married, and some are from my former students. The ones we love the most though are all the ornaments we have collected as we have traveled to new places. Starting on our honeymoon, we have gotten an ornament from every place we’ve traveled to as a married couple! I love taking out all of those ornaments and remembering all our fun trips.

Thanks for reading, and have a very Merry Christmas!