Friday Favorites, extra long birthday edition

Disclaimer: I apologize for the length of this post.  It is not for the faint of heart.

Happy Friday, my friends!  This is always my favorite blog day.  I visit a lot of blogs, and my blog gets lots of visitors from around the world.  It's funny how one lady on one blog can generate all of that.  I'm linking up with Andrea from Momfessionals and some of her friends for this post.

First up on my list today is this gem of a picture from last Friday night.  One of our favorite families of all time invited us over for an ugly Christmas sweater party, and this guy on the left won the ugliest award, while my Drewby won the funniest sweater award.

He's worn this sweater almost everyday this week.

For the record, I wore a Christmas sweater, but it is by no means ugly!

Poor quality picture, but you get the drift.  I had to take this to show my friend Abbey.

It's my favorite thing right now, y'all, and I'm not even kidding.

I'm switching gears to a few of my favorite Christmas ornaments.  I'm already missing the tree when we take it down after Christmas.  Seriously.  I love this time of year and am already sad at how fast it's going by!

I follow a few Christian publishing companies on Instagram, and one of them posted this picture this week.  I keep going back and looking upon it.  I want to go and just stay there all day.  Bookstores are my absolute favorite kind of store.

When I was a teenager, I loved to visit an old used bookstore called The Book Depot in a neighboring town.  My dad would drop me off, and no joke, FOUR HOURS LATER would return to pick me up.  It looked similar to this, but it was all one floor.  The books reached the ceiling and were crammed in there like sardines.  I would take out every book, examine it, and put it back if I wasn't buying it.  I'd buy them for about $2 a piece.  What?!  I wish they were still that cheap!

The bookstore I write of still exists, by the way.  I like to go in there from time to time, though now that I read mostly Christian fiction, their selection isn't as great as it once was.  This store is so old that they still handwrite every transaction and use an index card filing system.  Something about that makes my heart so incredibly happy.

On ||yet|| another note, I had Toddley take this picture of some of my favorite teenage girls and myself in church on Sunday.  We were all matchy matchy and I needed a picture.  Why, yes, I am the oldest and shortest one in the group.

Aren't they beautiful?!

These are one of our very favorite Christmas treats.  They're called reindeer noses.  Jonah and Noah made them on their own.  You preheat your oven to 300 degrees, and lay out pretzels on a sheet pan.  ||The recipe calls for Rolos, but we like Hershey's kisses.||  Lay a kiss on top of each pretzel, then bake in the oven for three minutes.  As soon as they're out of the oven, press an M&M onto the center and push down a little.  We always have to refrigerate ours afterward, and we just keep them on these sheet pans, because the kisses tend to separate from the pretzels if you put them in a bowl or dish.

They're delicious.  Salty/sweet/soft/crunchy.  All the tastes and textures are perfect.

We will probably make more this weekend.  These are almost gone.

My favorite new coffee mug.  I received this as a birthday gift from my mom-in-love.

My favorite nail polish is red and sparkly at Christmas!  I had mine done this week and don't know the color, but my favorite Christmas colors from OPI are Dear Santa and Affair on Red Square.

I am nerd.  That is all.  One of my favorite things is putting together a party for teenagers.  Our junior and senior girls are coming over tonight for our magical Christmas party.  My boys are THRILLED that their loving mom is kicking them out for a bit.  ||I said FOR A BIT.  Drew told me he IS coming home at some point during to eat some of this food.||

Some of my favorite mornings from this week.  I love candles and usually have one lit during my morning quiet time.  The green one is from Walmart and is a balsam fir scented one that is heavenly.  This mug you see right above?  It reminds me of a Christmas sweater!  It's one of my favorite mugs of the season.

On my birthday, my mom and I ate lunch at my favorite restaurant in The Ville.  The Silver Caboose.  And how perfect and Hallmark-y is our town square?!  I love it!

My sister Trish bought me this ADORABLE to-go coffee mug, and it's my new favorite.  ||My old favorite to-go mug is from a friend, and it's a tall, slender Starbucks one.||

My best friend Christa sent me this beautiful book and a matching journal in the mail yesterday.  I immediately colored in it, because isn't that what forty year old women do?

Mail is one of my favorite things, and I love getting cards for Christmas and/or birthday.

I might have mentioned this a time or four, but y'all.  This Christmas album is breathtaking.  This has been on repeat on my Spotify account since Tuesday night.  I cannot stop listening to this!  I know it takes a lot for me to say this, but this is, truly, my most favorite Christmas album ever.

Listen to it!  It's beautiful and worshipful.

Well, you made it to the end!  It's not every week a gal turns forty.  I thought it was worth the extra writing.  Have a great weekend and go read some of those other blogs linked up with Andrea from Momfessionals.  Love to all!